飲み物、飲み物、パス (Drink, Drink, Pass)

[perfectchaosrei]

You've probably noticed by now that drinking large amounts of alcohol is a pretty normal thing down here in Okinawa (and I would think the rest of Japan as well). Someone got promoted? Let's drink. Someone's having a baby? Let's drink. Someone just got out of the AA program? Let's drink. I've probably done more binge drinking during my time here than I ever did in high school or college, but it's kind of necessary if you ever want to know what Japanese people really think. And I've grown to love the taste of a nice, cold Orion.

Okinawans on the main island tend to just drink their copious amounts of beer one at a time and pass out in the middle of the street like any normal person would. But I learned a long ass time ago that things run a bit differently on the outer islands, specifically Miyako where they practice a thing called otori. My old boss' wife's cousin was the first person to tell me about otori as she grew up in Miyako, and from what I could gather it seemed like a whole bunch of people would gather around in a circle, pass a big ass cup of booze around, and continuously sip from it like Catholics at communion or something until they got drunk. Little did I know...it's much, much worse than that.

MaryAnn was down at Issen Machiya last night with a few of her teachers, and she asked me to come along. Two of them were from Miyako, and the second I mentioned the word otori their eyes lit up like kids on acid and it was on like Donkey Kong. The whole otori process works like so:

• The party organizer pours the first round of sake.
• He or she pours a shot for themselves, then gives a speech.
• After the speech the down the shot and pour another one for the next person in line, then the next person, then the next person...and so on and so forth.
• Once it gets back around to them, they pour another shot and give another speech. During this time they choose who will be the next person to go.
• Rinse and repeat until out of sake or everyone's piss drunk/dead from alcohol poisoning.
• People who talk before drinking get "penalized" and have to drink more.
• The amount of alcohol you pour for a person equals how much you care about that person. Awwwwwwwwww.

It's a quick and easy way to get drunk, and to get a disease depending on who you're drinking with. Great way to bond, too. If you get reaaaaaaaaally drunk, it probably means a bunch of people poured you some full ass cups of sake, so a bunch of people really care about you! Really makes you wonder why this Miyako tradition hasn't made its way to mainland and become mainstream.