Nomihodai, Nomi-what ? (Marièke POULAT)

All those who have been students or who have lived in a small appartement in their life are aware of this fact... This is complicated to invite some friends to party in an appartement of 10m². A dilemna that Japanese people, students but also older people, also know as the average size of flats in Tokyo is really narrow. So, what can you do ? Be associal, invite only one people at once... Or, find a larger place with a table, some chairs, some food and, even better, something to drink... as to drink is here an institution and beer and sake (rice alcohol) are on the favorite alcohols. As an example, one of the first sentence that you learn in Japanese classes is « Sake o nomimasu » that you can translate by « I drink Sake » or « I drink alcohol » (as sake, in Japanese, means both sake, as rice alcohol, and alcohol). 

Japanese restaurants have well understood their interest and a large offer of places where you can eat and drink with your friends have been created, with different concepts. There are three major formulas: the Tabehodai (All you can eat), the Nomikai (All you can drink) and the Nomihodai, which combines both formulas, as it is a Nomikai and a lot of different dishes to absorb the quantity of alcohol swallowed... In fonction of the chain of restaurants, of the price, of the day of the week, or even of the district (Ginza, the fancy district of Tokyo, is for instance not offering the same services as Takadanobaba, the student district...), the offers are different... There exist, for instance, the innocent Sweet Paradise, where you can eat as cookies and ice creams as you want during one hour and a half for about 1500 ¥, but also some trash nomihodai where beer is flowing and where you can eat all the food you want as it is a self-service (about 2000¥ for two hours). 

If students are fond of this kind of meeting and go there with their friends, their clubs or even sometimes with their families, older people are not left aside. Many Japanese people go there with their colleagues and even with their superiors. However, the reasons to go to a nomihodai are different: the students like to go to nomihodai to have fun and to drink (as having fun and drinking are surprisingly often linked), while the nomihodai can be a working meeting between colleagues... According to a French expatriate, many decisions in the entreprises are taken in that kind of meeting. Of course, older people are also going to nomihodai between friend to have fun and drink, particularly at the end of the year or to celebrate the important events. 

This is difficult to describe exactly what happens in that kind of meetings... If the conventions are easy between friends, where the only goal is to have fun and to drink, it can be more complicated in presence of older people, the « Senpais », which is the title automatically given to the more experienced people in Japan. This situation can occure in the nomihodais organised by the clubs which also invite former members... The conventions are numerous, as the fact that the yongest must take care of the Senpai during the party, the fact that the Senpai must pay more than the others, or the fact that it is not polite to say « no » when the Senpai proposes to refill your glass for the umpteenth time on a row... Conclusion, if you want to « survive » you should drink slowly, by sips, to not empty your glass too quickly. However, to be « gaijin », the Japanese word for « foreigner », can help you as, if you are gaijin, you don't have to follow all of these conventions... but only some of them, as you can't avoid to do a little presentation of yourself (with a special mention if you can do it in Japanese), or to sing a song... Here, the tip is to not drink too much to be able to stand up when your name comes out and to have a song that you can sing quite well. This time, to be a gaijin is not so helpfull as the questions are numerous... and as it is always difficult to explain in some words (and in Japanese) how France and Japan are different... but it is always funny to discover what people think of you country.

Nomihodai, tabehodai and nomikai are commonplace in Japan and belong to Japanese culture. Most of Japanese people go to nomhodai at least once in a month, men going there more often than women. If the omnipresence of alcohol, particularly during Nomihodai and Nomikai, can incommodate, it is interesting to go there at least once. With Japanese friends. Because you will discover an another facet of the personnality of your friends/colleagues (maybe because they have drunk four glasses of beer before which uninhibitate them... but this is an another subject) and because it is a friendly event and, in a certain manner, a really traditionnal one.

POULAT Marièke