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CEOs and Drinking Parties

26 03 10 - 18:21 Well kids, we finally made it. Training is over and the great 2 week party begins until I join the Japanese workforce for an entire year. You may be asking yourself, how does one celebrate such freedom at the end of a three day training session? Answers I have and answers I shall give.
It started with a simple gathering of all us ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) in the lobby of our training center aka dorm with a curfew. It was here that we took several group photographs in the usual Japanese style (making the peace sign) and off we went. Our destination was an Izakaya, the rough equivalent of a Irish pub but much more involved and close. Did I mention these places are all you can drink?

All 40 of us assembled at our long tables, raised our glasses in celebration and off we went. It was at this time, after a few tall glasses of beer, that I absolutely had to ask the boss to have a drink with us. Now, when I say boss, I mean the CEO of the entire company. Yes, he was there. Before a few glasses of beer I could not have been more nervous being around the man who A) signs my paychecks and B) Is the boss of a company whose parent company pulls $10 Billion dollars a year. Needless to say this man was kind of a big deal. After some liquid courage I asked him in my best polite Japanese if he would drink with us to which he responded "Yes, one moment please" and he ran off into a different part of the restaurant. 5 minutes later he returned with an entire bottle of Shochu which is real potent Korean liquor that is very popular in Japan. He poured 4 giant classes full, handed them to us, raised his glass and off we went.

It was certainly a highlight of the evening getting to have an informal drinking and chatting session with my fellow ALTs and especially awesome because I got to have a drink with the big bad boss himself. After that the CEO noticed one of us drinking his beer straight from the pitcher so of course he pointed and said "Do you know what Iki is? (aka chugging)" to which our ALT friend responded somewhat sheepishly, "yes, yes I do." Before he could even finish the boss was screaming "iki iki iki!" and the poor man had to finish half the pitcher right there on the spot.

God I love this country.