The Other Side of Getting Plastered

Photo Above: some junior high students and Uchiyama Sensei (a.k.a. Pretty Uchi) at enkai (and amazingly, none of them drank a drop, as far as I know)

My view of the culture here and its drinking practices is most positively skewed. I cannot understand the things that are said around the enkai tables which can be dominated by men often leaving their wives to do all the work involved in throwing the party and cleaning up after it. The sexism here is embedded into the old-fashioned culture of the countryside. The men generally have the business-like jobs and even at the school the female teachers are the ones who cater to guests, bring drinks around, and clean up (well, the male teachers also do some cleaning and yardwork). While it is not obviously bad for either party, it is obviously unequal and probably undesirable for many people.

The more degraded, sinister sides of the human being are present even during all our moments of goodness. The selfish drive to feel good can produce in us the best and worst at times. The selfishness is both sinister and positively nice, though. Thus during the drinking parties and all the fun had there is something lurking underneath the surface. Perhaps the intoxication really does clear away some of the worst intentions and brings us to a more fragile, and thus less hostile, state. All we want to do is sit, relax, and eat the good food spread in front of us (and the bad things temporarily disappear).

In the last few years I have become increasingly perturbed by noticing the more sinister sides of human behavior. They do not crowd my vision but rather hide in the background like subtle speckles of blood on an otherwise perfectly white blouse. I truly think that they exist even during our sweetest, most heartfelt moments. I think that our culture tries to emphasize the sweetness and warmth in order to hide the ambivalent, undeniably disturbing truth lurking beneath the surface.

For those of you who find this blog post too heavy and worrisome, please don't fret. I am a happy, lucky labrador over here. I am just trying to be "real" and interesting. Of course, I wouldn't mind evoking some responses from any surprised readers. They can tell me how negative I am or how worried they may be about my reflections. My first response would be: look at the newspapers or watch Apocalypse Now (or read some Nietzsche, who I am sure already said all of this, or at least Zola or some other European mind) and then tell me if I am actually being abnormally negative (or just look at the photos that I took after a few small glasses of Asahi and Shochu).