2014年4月16日水曜日

toriaezu

It is good fun living in Japan and dining out with Japanese people, isn’t it? First of all, Japanese food is good overall, and you can often learn various aspects of Japanese culture at the restaurant. Well then, have you heard or used “toriaezu nama beer” when you place the first order at a restaurant or izakaya? What does this toriazezu mean?

Let’s have a look at a Japanese-English dictionary. In the English translation, there is not only one word for toriazezu.
  1. toriaezu ima wa watashi no pen o tsukatte. (Just use my pen for now.)
  2. toriaezu mise no mae o soji shite oite. (Clean up in front of the shop first.)
  3. dekiruka doka wakaranai kedo, toriaezu yatte miru. (I don’t know whether I can do it, but I will try anyway.)
When you see toriaezu from the English translation, all the meanings seem different. However, the above examples appear to have something in common to Japanese people who know the meaning and usage of this word.

This commonality is
Do something you should or want to do now, and in the meantime put aside other things or something you can do later.

The following are definitions and examples in the Japanese dictionary.
1. To do something first while leaving other things for later. 
 
example) daigaku no shiken ni gokaku shita! toriaezu haha ni gokaku o shiraseyo. (I passed the entrance examination for college! I will let my mother know first.)

example) toriaezu okane ga hitsuyo da. (The first thing I need is money.)
2. To do something immediately
example) jiko da! toriaezu kega nin ni okyushochi o shiyo. (Let’s give first aid to the injured person as an emergency/temporary measure. )
3. Without considering the future, for the present
example) toriaezu kono mama ni shite oku. (We will leave it as it is for the time being.)

Even though the translations of these examples are different, can you see all the previous examples have a common meaning?

Let’s get back to the first phrase, “toriaezu beer”. The thing you have at the start of a meal is beer, and you are not thinking now about what you order later, or think about it later. If a waiter hears this phrase, he probably assumes that you will order additional items afterward. However, if I realized that I made the wrong choice after entering a restaurant, I would go ahead and say “toriaezu beer” and make the waiter believe me. And then, I would drink the beer quickly and leave there without ordering other things!

For your information, the “nama” in nama beer means “raw” or “uncooked”. In other words, nama beer is unpasteurized beer, so it is in the same condition as nama zake (unpasteurized sake) nama zakana (raw fish), nama yasai (uncooked vegetable), nama tamago (raw egg), and so on.

kanpai! (Cheers!)