liquor is quicker
She hid the Awamori from my host dad.
First, I realize that no one will find this funny except Justin. Let me begin by backtracking a little bit. While in Okinawa, we had the pleasure of discovering Awamori, the local fire-water. After all, how could one not discover it when every omiyage-ya (souvenir shop) is half-stocked with it and every other building is a liquor store specializing in-- you guessed it-- Awamori. The strength is somewhat similar to vodka, though it comes in various proofs (48, 60, 86) and many different "flavors."
The most well known (and expensive) Awamori is that distilled with and infused by the body of a dead, deadly Habu snake. We didn't have the pleasure of sampling that variety, as it was out of our price range, but our first night in Nara we did get more than a little sloshed on a flask of 10-year variety that tasted like your average, not-so-bad hard liquor. We drank it straight, we drank it on the rocks, we drank it wil beer and afterwards we drank it in samples at the shops and then resorted to Chu-hi when those shops closed. Like I said, we were more than a little inebriated.
When we left Okinawa, we picked up several bottles of Awamori as souvenirs for various (unfortunate?) loved ones. In particular, I picked up a 3000 yen 12-year limited run bottle for my host father. That man loves to drink. When he comes home from work (on the days that I see him), he usually downs a few 500ml Asahi Super Dry beers. Some days he elects for a bottle of wine and can usually finish 3/4 of one by himself easy, perhaps even coupled with an Asahi. He's explained to me several occasions that this is just what the salaryman does after a hard day's work: drink beer, eat dried squid and other izakaya snacks while watching TV. I guess that he's probably mostly right, as I can understand anyone who works 10-12 hour days doing grunt work as a suit for other suits in a Japanese government office might need a few strong drinks... but I also get the impression that Host Dad just loves his liquor. When we were giving out the gifts, I handed him the wrapped Awamori to open and he said, giving it a slight shake, "Now this, THIS I well understand!"
Don't get me wrong, he's not an alcoholic by any means. I don't think he NEEDS to drink; I think he just LOVES it. He can drink more than a LOT by my reckoning and the only signs of inebriation he shows is a slightly more jovial personality, a wavery, tracking gaze and the tendency to fall easily and completely asleep.
Of course, when we gave him the Awamori-- coupled with a blue glass sake set from Otaru in Hokkaido-- he had to crack into it right away. Admittedly, it was a pretty good brew with a sweet sort of aftertaste... but at 30% alcohol, I was surprised to see how much he drank. And drank. And this after his evening's beer and with no real dinner. I swear to god that half of that 720ml bottle was gone before my host mom removed it from the table.
We had quite the fun time, but when it came time to say goodnight and goodbye, Host Dad was crashed out on the couch dead asleep.
So tonight, when he ran out of beer and discovered that there was none in the upstairs fridge, he went to look downstairs, muttering that there was probably none there either. I told Host Mom I'd gladly go buy some for him, as he looked burnt out, but she said he'd probably go after the Awamori instead. There was a quick look that passed beween us, knowing that if he did that, it'd be gone, and she jumped from in front of the stove to where the box had sat for the past week on the TV table, said "ah, let's hide it!" and shoved it under the couch as he came up the stairs.
"Jya, beeru ga nai kara..." (Well, there's no beer) he said, "sorede, Awamori" (so... Awamori...) The two of us, of course, giggled but he didn't notice or understand until we heard, from across the room, "Ara! Doko!?!" (Huh! Where!?!) and then we started outright laughing. At that point, I'm sure he figured it out but Host Mom just gave him a look and said, "The last time you drank it, you know you drank too much. In fact, you drank it all!" Bewhildered, he simply sat down and said "really...?", but not before picking up the dog, who had taken his chair, and asking him,
"Saa, Lucky-kun, you haven't seen my Awamori, have you?"
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