Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
I think that your passed out and my passed out may mean different things. To me, being passed out is to the point of being close to or impossible to wake. It isn`t hard to find someone in Japan who drank to much and then went to sleep in a booth or on a station bench, but the guys who are really passed out DO get the police or at least someone called on them here. There is little stigma to just falling asleep in public (I mean, look at how many people who don`t drink at all who fall into a deep slumber during their commutes) so it is looked at differently.
If you want to see some serious people passed out in the streets... Well, I grew up fairly close to the campus of a major US university and go back to that area on US visits.
There would be ropes blocking the drunks from stumbling into traffic, and there would be people passed out (as in needing to be carried) all over the place.
You do not see that in Japan. You don`t see parties where the goal is to get someone so trashed that they pass out. You don`t see people sitting out on their porches with kegs watching friends vomit on the lawn. 
The culture is just completely different in regards to drinking. |
I have never heard of an area that had ropes to keep drunks from stumbling in the streets. I think different college towns have different cultures...and some are more extreme than others.
In general American society (what I have seen) even nodding off at a barstool is enough to get you 86ed. Slight slurring of words is enough or not walking straight is enough. You simply don't see people "passed out" or "sleeping" in public places in at least the parts of the US I have been in. Loud parties of college students or coworkers at izakayas is pretty common, at least in Osaka and other parts of Kansai. Calls of "iki iki" ("bottoms up") would be seen at Japanese bars and bar/restaurants where that would get a group kicked out in the US.
I understand those who can't wake up get the police called on them in Japan. I have seen it dozens (maybe more) times. Doesn't have to be a weekend, either. It could be 8:00 on a Wednesday night.
I think you are comparing college town USA culture with all of Japan, and I don't think that is a fair comparison. Even my college town of Eugene, Oregon has a higher drinking "culture" than most non-college towns. However I don't think it is fair to say America has a more alcohol-orientated social cultural than Japan.
One can certainly live a alcohol free life and be 100% satisfied in either culture.