Sempai-Kouhai. Also, Curry.
[Edit: "Sempai-Kouhai" refers to the relationship between people of different rank. People who have been in a club/company longer or who are in a higher grade in school/program are your sempai and you are their kouhai. It is your duty to take care of minutae for them, and their duty to take care of things you can't handle. Also, they will generally pay for meals if they are the ones to suggest eating.]
The title's a bit off, but I had my first experience with the whole older-people-paying thing today. After leaving work, I went to a curry place a teacher mentioned. This was my first time going there, and I accidentally ordered curry that was exactly as spicy as I was hoping for: challenging, but not inedible.
As I was leaving this place, I happened to have the fortuitous timing to run into another one of my teachers. As it turns out, he had just gotten paid, so was carrying a decent wad of cash. He demonstrated this a couple of different times and I saw at least a couple man notes (~$100).
Man rhymes with "gone", for those that care.
Anyway, we went to this Italian place and said he was paying and I should pick out some ice cream, some food, and, please, only one or two drinks. I ended up getting a milkshake and some kind of yogurt-based drink, but I recommended he try a panini, which he did. Once he finished his triple-scoop ice cream with whipped cream on top. And then had some kind of alcohol whose name I couldn't pronounce.
I discovered that he used to be a video game otaku, but couldn't find anybody else who was, and isn't now, but plays go at a high level, apparently. He's going to Tokyo tomorrow for a tournament of some kind, if I understand properly.
Anyway, that was my first experience with that, though I don't remember all of the formal stuff for it, so I can only hope I didn't offend him.
Oh, and the curry was... I want to say it was delicious, but it was curry. It's kind of like a hamburger: it's pretty hard to make bad curry, but it's difficult to make it amazing, too.
The title's a bit off, but I had my first experience with the whole older-people-paying thing today. After leaving work, I went to a curry place a teacher mentioned. This was my first time going there, and I accidentally ordered curry that was exactly as spicy as I was hoping for: challenging, but not inedible.
As I was leaving this place, I happened to have the fortuitous timing to run into another one of my teachers. As it turns out, he had just gotten paid, so was carrying a decent wad of cash. He demonstrated this a couple of different times and I saw at least a couple man notes (~$100).
Man rhymes with "gone", for those that care.
Anyway, we went to this Italian place and said he was paying and I should pick out some ice cream, some food, and, please, only one or two drinks. I ended up getting a milkshake and some kind of yogurt-based drink, but I recommended he try a panini, which he did. Once he finished his triple-scoop ice cream with whipped cream on top. And then had some kind of alcohol whose name I couldn't pronounce.
I discovered that he used to be a video game otaku, but couldn't find anybody else who was, and isn't now, but plays go at a high level, apparently. He's going to Tokyo tomorrow for a tournament of some kind, if I understand properly.
Anyway, that was my first experience with that, though I don't remember all of the formal stuff for it, so I can only hope I didn't offend him.
Oh, and the curry was... I want to say it was delicious, but it was curry. It's kind of like a hamburger: it's pretty hard to make bad curry, but it's difficult to make it amazing, too.
posted by William at
5/23/2008 09:27:00 PM
5 Comments:
Sounds like a cool experience...I hope you had a nice time in spite of possible anxieties with keeping track of Japanese social rules for such situations. So...do they teach you that kind of stuff or are you just supposed to know before you go to the country...or...?
That's it.... climb the ladder.
wow, I wish my teachers took me out for some food
Anxieties sounds so spastic. I simply don't know whether or not I said the the right things, which are pretty much scripted. I'm not worried by it one way or the other, as I get away with almost any kind of social mishap by way of being a gaijin. The Japanese largely recognize that I haven't been doing this nearly as long as they have and react accordingly. Usually.
Well, I didn't know what word to use, actually...I was trying to come up with the right one for what I was trying to say and that fit the closest, though I changed it about three times. LOL...I guess I was the one with anxieties...but not really. I didn't really expect you were "anxious" but I figured you would know what I mean.
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