Japanese coffee - off topic

[Dennis R. Preston]

More off topic, but solidly in the category "tales of old-time ADSers."

In Poland coffee (and tea, I think, I don't really know cause I never touch
the stuff) are served in what appear to be plain old water glasses (i.e.,
of the unmarked variety). In elegant establishments, they are nested in a
metal holder with a little handle), but everywhere else you simply get a
"glass of coffee." Polish coffee is most often made in what they call
"Turkish style," which means pouring boiling water over coffee in  this
glass, and handing the thing to you.
Poles (and long-term visitors like me) learn how to handle this situation
(so I was not frightened by the hot coffee cans in Japan), but A. Hood
Roberts, who many on this list will remember as our ADS Executive Secretary
for a long time, when he visited Poland in connection with his duties at
the Center for Applied Linguistics, learned to say, with fairly authentic
pronunciation, "I'd like a coffee and an asbestos glove." This earned him
lots of strange looks, but it is a phrase which still rings in my Polish
repertoire.

dInIs (called "Prestonski" in Poznan)

>RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>>
>> The last time I was in Japan I bought a can of chilled coffee, but all it
>> says on the can is "Asahi J.O. COFFEE/MILD J.O./This coffee with the tasty
>> aroma solely for the refined adults in an epicure sense." I was so
>>charmed by
>> this that I kept the can.
>
>When I was in Japan a few years ago, I had to hurry to an early morning
>business
>meeting.  I didn't have time for breakfast or coffee, but I did have a long
>train ride.  So I figured I'd buy a coffee out of one of the vending machines
>(which are everywhere!).  I was with a Chinese colleague who read the vending
>machine labels and pointed out which ones were cold and which ones were
>hot.  I
>wanted hot coffee, as it was a cold morning.  Well, out came a hot can of
>coffee.  I picked it up and immediately began tossing it from hand to
>hand, till
>I finally put it in my jacket pocket!  Very silly.  I was laughing so
>hard, and
>wondering what the Japanese normally did when they got a hot can of coffee
>from
>a vending machine.
>
>Moral of this story:  Hot coffee in a can means a hot can.
>
>Andrea


Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736