food/Japanese culture

Do you know Otoshi?

Posted on by dicethekamikaze

otoshi : an unspoken agreement in Japanese restaurant

otoshi

What’s Otoshi?

When you go to Japanese Izakaya (tavern) or restaurant, you might be surprised that you are immediately served a tiny portion dish which you have never ordered.

It is what we call Otoshi (お通し) or Tsukidashi (突き出し).
Otoshi is a cover charge (usually 200 – 500 yen) of an appetizer or a small dish served as soon as a customer sits down. It usually costs 300 – 500 yen. A dish varies in restaurants. From my experience, Otoshi tells how good the restaurant is.

Not many restaurants display the price and name of dish in Japan.
Otoshi is an unspoken agreement in Japanese restaurant industry.
However, what if the Otoshi contains ingredients which you are allergic to? Is it just a waste of money? Otoshi can be refused?

Refusing Otoshi

Is Otoshi mandatory to pay at restaurants in Japan? The answer is No. However if you accepted to eat Otoshi you are charged to pay for it.

According to Japanese law portal service https://www.bengo4.com/shohishahigai/n_360/),

If you refuse, you do not have an obligation to pay. The contract has not been concluded yet.

When the restaurants state the requirement of Otoshi, price and the food in the menu book, at the entrance, or explanation clearly, you are not allowed to refuse Otoshi.

What if the restaurant doesn’t state requirement of Otoshi?

In this case, you can still refuse Otoshi, the contract is not still concluded

Conclusion:

Refusing Otoshi is possible in Japan. However, to enjoy Japanese restaurant and culture, I recommend not to refuse Otoshi unless you are not allergic to it. Otoshi represents the restaurant and it is usually specialities of the restaurant. It is worth to pay. To tell you the truth, I have never refused Otoshi in my life, but sometime in major Izakaya chains, Otoshi is not good quality.

Japanese culture

Japanese Vogue words of 2015: 流行語大賞

Posted on by dicethekamikaze

A happy new year, 2016. How was your 2015? This is my first blog post of 2016. It’s been a while since I updated the last blog post. The first blog post is “Japanese vogue words of 2015” which is an award of new words and vogue words of the year by U-CAN(a Japanese education support company). This vogue words award represents the year.

To tell you the truth, last year 2015’s many of awarded Japanese vogue words were not very popular in Japan. I hadn’t heard many of them.

Top 10 Japanese vogue words of 2015

Grand prize

 This year, there are two grand prizes. 

 爆買い (bakugai)

bakugai japanese vogue word of 2015

source: www.iza.ne.jp

爆買い(bakugai) means “Lit., explosive buying”. In 2015, number of visitors from China massively increased in  2015 correlating to China’s economic growth as shown in the graph below. Almost doubled from 2014.

visitor from china

data: Japan National Tourism Organisation

 According to Japan Tourism Agency’s (Ministry Land, Infrastructure, Transportation, and Tourism) research on tourism-related consumption, average shopping consumption of Chinese travellers are the highest in 2015, average  152,991 yen. Comparing to the other countries, Chinese travellers spend money for shopping more than third the average 53,417 yen.

bakugai japanese vogue words

What Japanese products attract Chinese travellers?

  1. Camera, video camera, and watch.
  2. Electrics
  3. Clothes, bags, and shoes
  4. Cosmetics and perfumes
  5. Medicines, supplements, health products, and toiletries.

I felt this tide of Chinese travellers to Japan in 2015. In large Electronics stores such as Bic Camera and Yodobashi, Uniqlo, and fashion outlet malls were awash with Chinese travellers. A Chinese women in front of me at the casher in Bic Camera, she spent 2,000,000 yen (nearly $20000) buying 65inch TVs, bunch of skin care electronics, and so on.

トリプル３ (triple 3)

triple3

source: http://baseballking.jp/

This word is coming from Japan pro baseballs. Two players, namely

Yuki Yanagida（Fukuoka Softbank Hawks）

Tetsuto Yamada（Tokyo Yakult Swallows）

accomplished

1) batting average greater than .3

2) Hitting more than 30 homeruns

3) Stealing more than 30 bases.

This great achievement was for the first time in 13 years.

Others

アベ政治を許さない (Forbid Abe administration)

abe

A non-fiction writer Hisae Sawachi addressed crowd to put up the poster above at 1:00 p.m on July 18th, 2015. This demonstration is against Abe administration’s ” a national security bill“.

  安心してくだい、はいてますよ。(Don’t worry, I am wearing)

yasumura

This Japanese vogue word is the only award that is from a comedian (usually 2 or 3 words are from comedians every year). A Japanese comedian, Tonikaku akarui Yasumura (Lit., Yasumura cheerful anyhow). His joke was very popular in 2015.

一億総活躍社会 (Minister in Charge of Promoting Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens)

Announced under Abe administration.

エンブレム (An emblem)

vogue word

Japan’s Olympic committee decided to drop the logo by designer Kenjiro Sano for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The logo and Sano was accused of plagiarism. The logo on the right is a theater in the Belgian city of Liege. The emblem was invited public and there are 14,599 designs were collected.

五郎丸（ポーズ）(Goromaru (posing))

A Japanese national  team rugby player, “Ayumu Goromaru” who made the big impact in the rugby world cup (Japan v.s South Africa). Japan is ranked 13th and South Africa 3rd in world ranking and Japan beat South Africa in the world cup 2015.

These Japanese vogue words of 2015 were very controversial in the media and internet. I can’t agree 100%, but Bakugai was very interesting trend in Japan. I hope more travellers are coming to Japan and experience the beauty of Japan, high quality products, and culture. I am hoping my blog posts somehow help you when you travel to Japan.

明けましておめでとうございます。

Japanese culture

Girl’s powered boys 女子力男子 (Joshiryoku danshi)

Posted on by dicethekamikaze

zyoshiryoku_danshi

source: We Heart It

女子力 (Joshiryoku) = Girl’s power

Joshiryoku is literary translated as “girl power”, but the meaning of this word is different from the English term “Girl power” populated during third wave feminism in 1990s.

Joshiryoku can be defined as

Abilities of girls to be popular with the males and have fulfilling life, boost femininity such as having a high performance skill set at work, highly motivated in fashions and makeup, cooking, and behaving “kawaii” that things men think “girly”.

Now, in Japan, boys are acquiring these powers, called “Joshiryoku danshi”. (girls’ powered boys.)

女子力男子 Girl’s powered boys(boys who is highly motivated to fashion, cooking, and beauty)

Recently, the term “Joshiryoku dansi” (girl’s powered boys) can be heard often on the media. What are they? They are the males who are passionate about cooking, sweets, cosmetics, and fashion which are usually females’ interests, and have a high skills to perform and know a lot about them. Moreover, one important thing, they are interested in females, their relationship will is for females.

Characteristics of Joshi-ryoku danshi

1.  Passion for cooking and sweets.

  • Eat healthy foods, cooking bento for lunch, passionate for sweets and cafe.

2. Passion for beauty: make ups, skincare, and hair removal.

skincare

source: http://xn--ogr52s49jr7x.com/23/

  • in Japanese cosmetic market, mens’ skincare products are rapidly growing.
  • Growing male customers in nail salons and hair removal.

3. Passion for Kawaii items

  • collecting stuffed animals and toys

These 3 characteristics represent “Joshiryoku danshi” in Japan.

“Joshiryoku danshi” seems to be used when a guy acts unlikely to old fashioned Japanese men. This word could be the criticism to still remaining male chauvinism in Japan or vise versa.
More about male chauvinism: http://www.dicethekamikaze.com/blog/jp-culture/male-chauvinism-in-japan/

Once again, most of them are interested in women.