English Around The World:

[trof]

10. My Japanese drinking toast:

We were a group of American pilots flying for Nippon Cargo Airlines and were in Tokyo for the first time to do some training.

On our first night we went to a restaurant near the hotel.
We all ordered beer.
When the waitress, who spoke very little English, brought it one guy said "What's a toast in Japanese"?
I spoke a little Japanese, but I was drawing a blank.
So were the other guys.
I lifted my mug and said to the waitress "What's a toast in Japanese. I pointed at the beer.
"What do you say?"
She looked puzzled and then brightened.
"Three-fifty" she said.
We looked at each other with a what-the-hell expression and lifted our mugs.
"THREE-FIFTY!" and that's been our Japanese toast ever since.


P.S. It's actually Kanpai!