Japanese Language Trivia of the Day: 酒

Or, the post that only Nirav could bring you.

As many of you may already be aware, I'm visiting Japan at the moment. One of my favorite things about Japan, and probably what I was looking forward to the most before coming, is the alcohol. At first glance, especially to American sensibilities, that seems like an odd, if not downright alcoholic, thing to say. It's true that, when I'm in Japan, I have a tendency to possibly, sometimes, depending on how you look at it have an eency-weency bit too much to drink. However, when I say that alcohol is one of my favorite things about Japan, I don't necessarily mean the availability of it, the amount of it, or even the types of it available (don't get me wrong, though - I highly appreciate all of those things, too). What I mean is that I enjoy the way that alcohol is entwined with the culture here, how drinking and all of the other social customs play off of each other in some way or another. As one might expect, alcohol is also highly linked to Japanese language, so today's trivia is a list of お酒 related terms and phrases that I enjoy. Of course, there are far too many of them for this to be an exhaustive list, so I'll have to continue it some other time.

酒に飲まれる
さけ　に　のまれる
sake ni nomareru
This neat turn of phrase literally means "to be drunk by your sake," or, in other words, to have far too much to drink and end up doing something stupid or meeting some otherwise unpleasant fate. It is often used by itself, but is also present in the commonly voiced admonition:

酒を飲んでも飲まれるな
さけ　を　のんでも　のまれるな
sake wo nondemo nomareruna
When you get drunk, make sure the sake doesn't drink you!


酒は百薬の長
さけは　ひゃくやく　の　ちょう
sake ha hyakuyaku no chou
Sake is the best medicine. (It sure makes me feel better!)

酒は百害の長
さけ　は　ひゃくがい　の　ちょう
Sake ha hyakugai no chou
Sake is the worst of all poisons.

自棄酒
やけざけ
yakezake
Most commonly, you only see the "sake" part of this one written in kanji. It literally means "the alcohol of throwing oneself away," and might be put into English as "drowning one's sorrows."

利き酒
ききざけ
Kikizake
Sake-(or wine-) tasting or pairing
Often times, restaurants will have someone who is a 利き酒師 (ききざけし kikizakeshi), or essentially a sommelier specifically for sake.

杓子定規

しゃくし　じょうぎ
shakushi jyougi

A guy I know once told that me that he felt that "culture shock" was a misnomer. "Cultural abrasion" was more of an apt phrase, he said, because culture shock doesn't come in sudden "Oh-my-god-look-at-how-weird-that-is!" bursts, but rather in small "I-can't-believe-this-office-meeting-is-STILL-going-on-and-all-we're-talking-about-is-bicycle-safety" doses. Little differences wear on you, until one day you're just tired of things and that's when you get "culture shock."

Since Japanese people are often interested in my opinion about the differences between American and Japanese culture, it's good to be able to express these sentiments and relay cultural shock experiences in Japanese. However, unless you're talking to your close friends, be careful with what you say. It's easy to offend someone when comparing countries and cultures. Japanese style toilets and raw meat are safe topics. Education and politics might not be.

That being said, today's yoji relates to one of the biggest differences between my existence in Japan and my existence in America, and one of the most frequent sources of culture shock for me. Allow me to relate a small anecdote:

I went to McDonald's in Saga City, to pick up some food for myself and a friend. We both wanted chicken nuggets. I tend to find that, with the the notable exception of mayonnaise, Japanese people use condiments in much smaller portions than I'm used to (I never get enough ketchup with my fries, anywhere!). So when I order chicken nuggets, I ask for two packs of barbecue sauce. On this occasion however, since I had ordered two packs of nuggets, I asked for barbecue sauce 四個. It was then that I was informed that there were strict rules, that had been set about the amount of barbecue sauce that could be legally distributed:

1 box of nuggets = up to 2 packs of barbecue sauce
2 boxes of nuggets = up to 3 packs of barbecue sauce
3 boxes of nuggets = up to 4 packs... and so on

Well, I suggested... maybe they could just give me an extra one?
No dice.
Well, then, I said, I'll buy one.
I'm sorry, they said, they can't SELL barbecue sauce.
They can't let me have one, and they won't let me buy one?
That's right.
Why?
That's just the rules.

So I told them I just wanted one box of nuggets with two packs of barbecue sauce, bought my meal, returned to the back of the line, waited, and bought another set: 1 box of nuggets, two packs of sauce. That was cool with them. Fricking. Ridiculous.

Definition:
すべてに一つの基準や感覚を当てはめて判断・処理しようとする応用や融通の利かないやり方、態度。
Translations:
1. An inflexible system of rules
2. Stickler for rules
3. Having one pre-decided method, for dealing with all situations/things
4. Hard-and-fast rules
5. Bureaucratic decision making

When you come across a situation in which someone tells you what you can or can't do, but can't explain why, 杓子定規 is a good yoji to know. When you're feeling stressed out about dealing with hierarchies at work when all you want to do is ask the boss directly if you can make a minor change, upset about being treated as though you were the universal prototype foreigner, or are frustrated enough to want to communicate the seeming senselessness of your situation, 杓子定規's your phrase.

Use it as though it were a な type adjective, and attach it to nouns like "態度," "考え," or "処遇."

例文：日本のマックは｢お客様は神様」と言うのは聞いたことがないみたい。なぜそんなに杓子定規なのか？
Japanese McDonald's seems to have never heard the expression "The customer is always right." Why are they so rigid in their arbitrary rules?