[Hatredcopter]

Alcohol consumption definitely increased for me after I began living in Japan (moreso when I was a student here rather than working here as I am now). Part of it may indeed be a feeling of less responsibility. But I think the major part of it is that this country's culture and society promotes drinking - big time. Let's list the ways...

- Nearly every combini there is has a wide selection of beer, chu-hai, hard liquor, and even wine - a lot of it is quite cheap.
- There are vending machines that dispense beer.
- Going out to drink with your coworkers after the work day is over is pretty much part of the job for many in Japan.
- Bars and izakaya are a dime-a-dozen.
- And the king of them all: nomihoudai. We used to go to karaoke once every week. Not including the cost of the room, nomihoudai was a mere 1500 Yen from 6PM to 5AM. That's eleven hours of unlimited drinks for $15 bucks. And they had every drink you could think of on the menu. But its not just karaoke, you can find nomihoudai at a lot of restaurants and so on.

Now, I hold my alcohol pretty well and even when I do drink a lot, I don't get into trouble - so it has never been a problem for me. But I can certainly see how alcoholism can sneak up on a person in Japan...

Quite a number of my fellow classmates remarked that they too drink a lot more in Japan then they ever did in their home countries.