Shoko has done her best to keep me a secret from her co-workers at the Shochu brewery company. I’ve returned the favor by keeping her a secret from my new friends up in Gifu.
However, recently she has begun to confide in some of her closer friends that she is dating a foreigner. The friends have expressed great interest in meeting me, and so Shoko arranged to bring me by to see the brewery one day when she knew only her close friends would be around.
“Now if I bring you in to see my work, it’s very important that you act normal, and not do any of those weird things that you sometimes do,” Shoko prepped me. “And remember, this is a Shochu making company, so don’t go off on your little speech about how bad alcohol is.”
“But it is bad for you,” I protested.
“People who work at a Shochu company don’t see it that way,” she said. “Just keep your opinions to yourself for one day.”
The debate about the benefits of alcohol is an ongoing discussion between Shoko and I. It started out over a year ago as a discussion about the American and Japanese attitudes to work.
Shoko informed me one day that she would not be able to meet with me as planned because she had to go into work. “I thought it was your holiday,” I said.
“It is my holiday.”
“But if you’re going into work, it’s not a holiday.”
“Well, technically it is, because I’m not getting paid for it.”
“What? Then why are you going into work?”
“Because there are things to be done. It’s the Japanese way.”
I refused to accept this. “That’s not your problem. It’s your employer’s problem. He needs to hire more help, or pay you overtime.”
“No, this isn’t America. We Japanese don’t complain when we’re asked to work extra.”
“Well, that’s a great deal for your employer then, isn’t it? He should just make everyday a holiday for you.”
“I’m part of a team. If I don’t go in, my co-workers will think it’s selfish,” Shoko replied.
I became a little patronizing at this point. “Okay, Shoko, why do you work? For what purpose do you go into work everyday?” She declined to play my game, so I answered for her. “It’s to get money, right? That’s the only reason you have a job. So if you go into work without receiving compensation, you’re screwing up the whole system.”
Shoko countered that I often went into work without being paid. I taught volunteer classes in the evenings and on the weekends, and I sometimes attended school sporting events on Saturdays. “That’s different,” I said. “I’m a teacher. I’m doing good work. You work at an alcohol company. Every day you go into work, you’re making the world worse.” And so began the debate.
Shoko maintained that alcohol in moderation was not bad at all, and was actually very good for creating social situations, and so she believed in the work she was doing at the Shochu company.
I countered that for every person who drinks alcohol moderately, someone else abuses it. When all is taken into account, drunk driving, alcoholism, drunken fights and abusive relationships, the world is much better off without alcohol than with it.
(Don’t misunderstand me; I’m not arguing a return to prohibition. But let’s not delude ourselves by thinking that working at a brewery is doing the world a service).
The debate has escalated since I started my “no-drinking rule”, and have begun criticizing Shoko’s occasional choice of wine with a meal. Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh, but Shoko is apparently under the impression that alcohol has no bad effects at all, and is very reluctant to believe my tales of dead brain cells and damaged livers.
Anyway, I promised not to criticize alcohol for the brief time I was in the brewery. Shoko brought me in and showed me around, and introduced me to two of her friends.
The friends, from what Shoko tells me, were quite impressed with me. I don’t put too much stock in this, because I assume they were just being polite and telling Shoko what she wanted to hear. I mean, how often do you hear a girlfriend say, “I was just talking to my friends about you, and they all agree how awful you are.” I do notice however that every time I get a favorable review from her friends, her affection for me, and patience with my antics, seem to increase accordingly.
Link of the Day
My friend Rob joins the blogosphere. That's one fine looking lime indeed.
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