A couple of days ago I posted about bonenkai season, and how it will shortly be here.
Enkai (parties), which are usually big nomikai (drinking parties), are mainly hosted at izakaya (bars) or restaurants that specialize in catering to large groups. Many places even advertise special set prices for all-you-can-drink with a set course and have rooms called the enkai-jo.
The parties are great fun, but they are also often fraught with formality. Even in casual parties, no-one must ever have a sip of beer (or beverage of choice) before the kampai (the toast, which marks the beginning of the party). But especially when the enkai is with business associates, the status or rank of each guest present is a huge consideration for how the evening will play out. The organizer of the party anxiously looks around and consults with colleagues to try to figure out who ranks where on the business scale. Once this has been determined, the most senior (highest ranking) person is requested to do the hajime no aisatsu - a speech that opens the party. Then, the second most senior person does the toast, everyone says kampai (cheers) and takes a sip of their drink. The party has begun - but there is still the official closing to be done.
The official closing - shime-no-aisatsu - is performed by the third most senior person present. This person closes the party by doing a shime - a series of hand-claps. There are several varieties of the shime: the ippon-jime (one hand-clap style), the sanbone-jime (three hand-clap style), and the bonzai shime, where everyone throws their hands in the air. The person who conducts the shime decides which style to use.
Once the shime has been done, the party is officially over and everyone goes their separate ways - or, they head off to a ni-ji-kai, a less formal second-party, to continue drinking.
4 comments:
Sounds like the (formal) military parties we used to attend. The order of the procession in to dinner was strictly followed based on rank and date of rank. The order of the after dinner toasts including a precribed list of toasts.
Yowser. What happens if someone gets drunk? Or with that much formality do people not get drunk? Though it probably isn't a good idea to drink with your boss anyway...
One difference in Nijon-style versus military is: the military wear their rank on their sleeve (literally) so the discussions were probably less fraught with potential pitfalls?
I suppose formality is not exclusive to Japan -but everyone always gets quite drunk, as it is the done thing!
Post a Comment