Japan: The Second Day, Part 4 – The Dinner

An ITF Taekwon-Do instructor from Daegu (right) receives a bottle of expensive Japanese liqueur from a member of the Japanese ITF delegation (left); I received the same.

On Monday evening we went to the formal dinner where the Korean and Japanese delegation for ITF Taekwon-Do met. I sat at a table, mostly with the important people from Korea; however, some high ranking Japanese instructors were at my table as well.

One of them included Master Hwang Su Il. He is probably one of the most famous Taekwon-Doin in the world. The videogame character, Hwoarang, from the Tekken-series was based on motion-captures of him doing the various techniques one can see in the games. I was impressed for two reasons.

First, while sitting at the table, he sat way on the opposite end of the table from me; yet, he was quick to notice that I did not have any alcohol in my glass and swiftly deducted that I’m a teetotaller. He indicated to me to pour beer in a glass purely for show for the toasts, so that I do not offend anybody. Then he immediately ordered me something non-alcoholic to drink. I appreciated his perceptiveness and concern.

Second, the next day I worked with him at the Tokyo Championships, about which I’ll post in more detail. He was always humble; sometimes he even let other umpires who are lower than him in rank take prominent umpire positions, like centre refereeing. This ever humble attitude impressed me a lot.

The dinner seemed to be a strange occasion of mutual gift exchanging between the Korean and Japanese delegations. I’ve never seen such extravagance in mutual flattery. They gave speeches in each other’s honours, exchanged plaques and various other gifts and poured drinks for each other. I also received a “Welcome to Japan”-gift: a bottle of liqueur with gold flakes in it. (I am not too sure what I’m going to do with it; as I said, I’m a teetotaller – but I do very much appreciate the gesture.) I’ve heard that in Asia, especially in Japan, gifts are important for business transactions. Since I’m in the education field, not commerce, I’ve never experienced these situations before. It was very interesting. I think that in my ignorance I’ve missed a lot of the non-verbal communication that took place during the formalities.

The dinner was held in a Chinese restaurant, which was fascinating, I thought. Here I was in Japan, with Koreans, eating in a Chinese restaurant. The food was quite good.

We finished around 23:00, but that was not the end. Next I had to go with the many of the delegates to a gentlemen’s “noraebang”. Literally translated, “noraebang” means singing room; i.e. a Karaoke-bar. What an experience that was – but more about that in a later post.