It doesn’t matter how drunken people are here, they still maintain courtesy.

We were sitting in a ramen shop waiting for our dinner. A group of three or four boozy businessmen had arrived before us and were enjoying their Nth bottle of beer, telling jokes and laughing loudly.

Their big bowls of steaming ramen arrived. Instead of tucking in and slurping their dinner down immediately, they waited until everyone had been served, paused a beat, then chanted itadakimasu, “We gratefully partake,” before beginning.

If that’s not civilised, I don’t know what is. Posted by kuri at April 03, 2001 06:58 AM