皆さん・みなさん・Mina-san, we’d like to know about customs for eating out in a group where you live. Please let us know!

JP-san, thanks for the post! Be sure to let us know what you think of today’s JCC after you listen.

Still listening to it…

Just want to share what happened on the previous meeting I attended, I came late, and when I arrived, the table was full of empty beer bottles. Since I don’t know the greater majority of the attendees, I ate a little. When the bill arrived, guess what—WARIKAN was it!!! I ended up paying 10 times the value I consumed. WwwaaaAAAAA(I wish we could add a crying emote icon)

Any experience to share? I’d love to hear more!

じゃね
ジヤンポール

JP-san, thanks for the story! Yes, I know the feeling to showing up late and seeing a table full of empy bottles! In those cases, got to go for the big ticket items!
BTW, we’re one ahead in Tokyo.

Pearl-san, credit card roulette!! That should be the new world standard! I love it!

Hmmm, I don’t think I have any unique customs to share. The things I do are a result of insanity rather than customs

JP-san,

You used the crying emoticon

Vicky-san,

생일 축하합니다 (오늘)
아침에 미역국을 먹었다요? (Does that make sense? )

Rhonda-Chan !
As for your Question about Japanese Pop yesterday, I hope the following helps!
On the Artists’ website, there are short previews.

For Shimatani Hitomi, please follow this link ^^:
http://www.avexnet.or.jp/shimatani/disc/index.html
There are small Realplayer and Windows Media Player icons of some tracks. If you click them, you should her a preview of the song ^^.

For Hitomi, please go here:
http://hitomilovelife.net/disc/single.htm
Click the single you like, you will be redirected to Avex Page, and there you can also see the icons ^^.

And, for Hamasaki Ayumi, please click this !
http://www.avexnet.or.jp/ayu/discography_sg.html
It’s the same thing as the Hitomi website ^^.

I buy my CD’s from YesAsia website. They have cheap CD’s and FREE SHIPPING !! YAAAAY !!! You even get free stupid toys included if you order more then two products. What a service, huh ! Here’s their website:
http://www.yesasia.com

I hope I was able to help a little ^^.

See you !!
Gevorg≈

みなさん、こんばんは。

We shared the bill in proportion to the position in the copany when eating out with fellow worker.
The highest peyment;Branch manager, 2nd;Divsion manager,3rd;Section chief,…
Next;full-time worker,The lowest;part-time worker.
And usually female less than male for pay or man trat woman.

Why… Is my post deleted T_T ?

Hi! Fabulous lesson!

Not to contradict, but in the West, it is in fact bad form to calculate the amount for each person dependant on what they consumed. Wariken is in fact, a Western concept as well (or least that’s considered good “etiquette”). Having a group of people dining and having a great time only to haggle over the bill is not a great way to end the night. However, if one or more persons consumed considerably more, it would be good manners for them to contribute more to the bill though it wouldn’t be a necessity.

I had a situation recently where a group of around ten had dinner but one person was late and only had a beer and dessert. We wouldn’t allow him to pay as it only added $1-2 to each individual bill.

Hopefully in each case of going out, commonsense prevails.

Hope this helps our Japanese counterparts as well who may be interested in knowing what’s good form in the West.

Cheers and thank you for a great great website! I love it!

Mei-Ling

Not to contradict, but in the West, it is in fact bad form to calculate the amount for each person dependant on what they consumed.

Not necessarily, it depends on a lot of factors. When I go out to eat with friends or work buddies, for example, we generally ask for individual bills. Not that we never treat each other, especially on occasions like birthdays, but generally speaking that’s been my experience.

When we go out drinking that tends to loosen up a bit — people will buy their own drinks, but it’s courtesy to buy a “round” for everyone at least once. Or least ask who needs a drink if you’re headed to the bar, and pay for them. Or someone may run a tab and yes, then the bill will be split more or less evenly.

Families generally don’t run into this of course… but when there are many generations at the table, there can sometimes be a friendly rivalry for the honor of paying for the dinner.

In N. Ireland it usually is very dependant on the group of people, how much they earn, their attitude to money, their reason for being there, the cost of the meal…etc etc etc

I think though, the high price of eating out in the UK (relatively speaking) means people (paticularly low earners like students & part time workers) are more reluctant to take on board the cost of others because they simply can’t afford to and likewise are reluctant for their expense to be a burden to another.

Having said that richer groups may be more lax. Generally you can fiywe out the group by how they decide where to eat!

Either way can be good ettiquette as _real_ ettiquette is about making those you are with as comfortable as you are conceivably able…

Hi Nathan San,

I just thought the frowning emote icon just frowns, hehe It was even crying. Got to have my eyes checked!!!

Different countries somehow share the same, though not exact, etiquettes in paying the bill. Oh well…

Next time, I’ll be the Warikan-Gachi!

またね！
ジヤンポール

Gevorg-san: all post containing more 3 or more links will be automatically tagged for moderation. This is to prevent spam, but is mostly a preemptive meassure, as we haven’t had any problems as of yet. Hopefully it stays this way

Jonas

:P

In new zealand, when going out with mates, usually most places will have a receipt with all the things seperated on it if you ask, then people just go up when they are ready and pay their part.

In fancier places someone will just pay the lot usually (if it’s for some sort of occasion) and people can sort them out later, buy them a drink or something!

I am a special case as I usually don’t eat anythign at restaurants. Sounds stupid, but I don’t go out to dinner for the food. haha. I go out for the good company and conversation! It’s quite annoying so i usually get a bowl of plain rice or something jsut so I don’t look too out of place. So warikan would be most detrimental to me haha.

PS, in new zealand there is no tipping but you can if you really want, but I’m not sure of the etiquette. it was interesting going to the states and having to remember to keep some cash for the tip .

I enjoyed this discussion of ways to split the bill. General accepted practice with the people I know is to pass the bill around the table with each person contributing according to what they ordered with a little extra for the tip. This generally works out pretty well. Sometimes an invite to a meal is paid for by the person inviting. I was raised this way, and when I do out of the blue invite someone, it is my general practice to at least offer to pay for the meal. If they insist on splitting the bill, I won’t argue with them.

Hatsumi-san - great to hear from you. I hope you are well.

Great lesson! Lots of good information.

Another etiquette tip I learned in Japan was to not pour your own beer. Sometimes when you order beer, it will come in the bottle with a glass. At a bar, the bartender will usually pour it for you. At a restaurant , it’s best to let someone at the table pour your beer for you. And in turn you pour beer for other people. At least until everyone is a little drunk then the rule is less strict.

The same can be said for food as well. It’s best to serve others before serving yourself.

Another peice of etiquette. Keep your hands above the table. In the US we frequently keep our hands under the table so it is natural for us. My Japanese ex-girlfriend’s father actually asked me to keep my hands above the table when eating at their home. It was kind of unconfortable for me.

Rie told me it had something to do with emperors and knifes and assassinations or something. I swear, I wasn’t going to kill him.

Actually I think normally when my friends and I go to Izakaya in Japan, we automatically know it’s Warikan even without specifying it’s Warikan beforehand.

Because at Izakaya, everyone share the food. Whereas for restaurants or eateries, people pay what they order since the food amount is for an individual.

Maybe I’m Asian that’s why this kind of food culture is already in me. Sometimes when 3 of us ordered dishes that could be shared among the 3 of us, but another friend is eating her ordered food but wished to eat a bit of ours (just try), we won’t ask her to pay even though she did ate.