As I alluded to in the
Living in Japan - Why?? thread
Here I had an interesting time during my nights out in Japan. The first night out I ended up passing out on a bench along a major road in Hiroshima and didn't wake up until the alarm on my phone had been going off for an hour. That was more a case of forgetting how late it was and also being caught up in how friendly people actually were. There were also a couple nights that I ended up falling asleep at the bar.
While most of this excess could be attributed to stesses from work, it is said that during our companies foreign installs at least 1 person ends up overdoing it in the local hangouts, the last two months of my time in Japan it was mostly due to culture shock/isolation. I was the only American left onsite and didn't really have anyone to talk with unless I went out. During my last 2 months, there was a period of 2 weeks where I went out and got drunk on all but 1 night, staying out until at least 2 in the morning and ussually 4. I also increased the number of nights I was out on average per week to about 3.5. This was instead of the usual friday/saturday night outings during the first 4 months.
During my time out I met a lot of people. While the regulars on the weekends were both foreign and Japanese obviosly overwhelmingly Japanese, during the week the regulars were about evenly split between Longterm foreign english teachers and Japanese. There were about 20 english teachers ranging in age from the mid 30's to mid 50's. What suprised me most was that about 3/4 of them were married. Their behavior was also suprisingly immature. I don't go out much in the states, I might have 1 drink a month, but when I do there is a very different behavior between people in their 20's and older people. However, these english teachers were all behaving and drinking like college kids.
I think some of this has to do with a seemingly lower sense of responsibility because they are in a foreign country, even if this is subconscious. This is in direct contrast with the fact that most of them have a wife and kids in Japan, but they still don't really think of Japan as home. I have to admit that I was guilty of the same behavior and I don't undestand why. I was conscious that any real screwup could have serious repercussions on both me and my company. I am also the last one you would guess would be dancing half naked on the bar and chasing shots of spirytus with absinthe, yet I did just that and more.
So, I am wondering what are your experiences, opinions and observations about foreigners and drinking in Japan?