This Is Japan
Explore everyday life in Japan
I’m sure many of you have this memory.
You’re young. You’re dad is drinking beer, and you want to try some. You beg your dad for a sip, or maybe it’s your mother, and he/she says, No.
Or, maybe he/she says, Yes, and offers you a little sip. Depending on your age at the time, the answer was probably, No, at first and eventually turned into a, Go ahead, try a little sip. At which point, many of you, I’m sure, took a little sip and now have a faint memory of thinking, Ugghh, this stuff is disgusting.
Let’s face it, children who grow up around parents who drink alcohol become curious about alcohol at some point, even if the only time their parents drink is on holidays and special occasions. Well, if you didn’t already know, Japan has quite a drinking culture. Some will tell you that it isn’t what it used to be, but even still, blowing off some steam by having a few drinks or ringing in a celebration with a cold, frothy pint of beer and an enthusiastic Kanpai! (Cheers!) is quite normal here.
And, so nobody feels left out, including the little ones, who are curious and often eager to be the special person to fetch a fresh beer for Daddy and the boys, or possibly, just because there is a market for this kind of thing, Japan has a beer for kids. Or, at least, Japan has something that is supposed to resemble one. While the can isn’t labeled BEER FOR KIDS, it sure is made to look an awful lot like a beer, and it is called Kanpai Nomimono, or Cheers Drink. What it is, really, is nothing but a fortified sparkling apple juice that is actually quite refreshing to drink.
Recently, my son celebrated his fifth birthday, and my wife bought a few of these Cheers Drinks for my son and his best friend. Boy, were they happy to be able to say Cheers! while clinking their plastic glasses together and pretending to be drinking beers like the big boys.
It’s possible that many other countries have beverages like this as well. I really have no idea. It’s not something that I ever paid attention to before having kids. If you have something similar in your country, or even if you have a great story about the first time your parents gave you a sip of beer, please let me know about it in the comments below. Thanks for sharing!
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When I was a child, I remembered I was an adult and drinking this.
You drank this when you were little too? So it’s not a new thing, it’s been around for a while? Interesting. I was surprised by how good it was.
Interesting!
Where did you buy it?
That’s a good question. My wife bought it. My guess is that she bought it at Yamada, but I don’t know for sure. I’ll try to ask in the morning.
Thank you, I want to try it.
I’ll let you know where she bought it when I find out.
Thanks 🙏
My wife said you can buy it anywhere: Yamada, Donki, Harashin, etc.
Wow beer for children, I don't find it funny. Yes I had also have such unpleasant experience with my kids when they are very little and their farther used to drink beer and other alcohol like wishky, rum, mackdowels like these many more. Actually I don't like all these drinks because the alcohol addict became my husband early death ,when he was only 45 years old. Yes friend I respect your tradition but drink it quite unpleasant for me. I am not against of any culture but alcohol is never my choice in life.
I understand. My family has had a lot of trouble with alcohol too. It often leads to many problems. The beer in this post is really just sparkling apple juice. Many people believe that allowing oneself to participate in an illicit activity helps alleviate the actual need and desire to do it in reality. Whether that’s true or not, I can’t say, but a little pretending never hurt anyone.
Some things we didn't understand while child and while grow stronger that time we get to understand. Now me and my Dad drink beer together.
I used to drink with my father as well, and enjoyed doing so very much. He doesn’t drink alcohol anymore, though.
With beer sold in vending machines on the streets, there was beer for my kids when we lived in Japan ;-)
Those vending machines are still around. It’s pretty unbelievable, isn’t it? There doesn’t seem to be many of them though.
There were plenty outside Misawa Air Base, just as there are plenty of bars outside bases in the US.
That seems like a pretty good place to put them:) I wonder if there were fewer convenience stores then, and a bigger need for them as a result.
The one's in Tokyo require ID now. Not sure about inaka...
Great concept! Should be introduced in more countries. Like you say, kids look at their examples (parents in this case) and tend to copy them.
So they don’t have a beverage like this in your country? I’ve been out of the States for a lot of years now, so I don’t know if there is a drink like this there or not, but I can imagine if there was one, it would get some mixed reactions.
I am from Belgium, so there are many kinds of beers to taste here., but nothing like this as far as I know. I believe a beer for kids would be kinda revolutionary with mixed reactions as well.
I can see a lot of people reacting negatively to the idea, thinking that it only encourages children to misbehave. I don’t have a problem with it myself.
In india If any child ask his parents for beer the answer is big Nooooo or may get a slap.
In my experience the answer has generally been a big No as well. But occasionally I’ve seen people give in and say, go ahead, have a small sip. Usually this is because everyone knows that one sip of beer is enough to discourage most kids from wanting more.
Yeah thats also the fact.
It reminds me of those old fake cigarettes I used to buy as a kid that were gum. Did you ever get those?
I do think these kinds of things help form much healthier habits than shunning and hiding.
Oh yeah. I loved that gum. You could blow through them and a cloud of powdered sugar would shoot out as if it were smoke. The gum was terrible, but it was so fun to pretend I was a tough guy smoking on the corner.
I think more than anything, modeling a proper relationship with substances is the best way to promote healthy relationships in your children. I can from a pretty backwards family when it comes to that, though, so I don’t know.
Yep - that's the one. And I'd say you're spot on about that. Kids at a young age especially want to do what we are doing. When my daughter and son are teenagers and rebelling, maybe that is when I'll be a drunk in front of them, haha.
That’s when we’ll be wanting to do what they’re doing;)
ahahaha l happened to found your page by somebody resteeming. your kids must be happy to have same lookinf drink their dad is drinking 😋chees🍻
I’m glad you found it. My son was very excited. I wanted to share a Kanpai picture of my son and his friend with big smiles, but I didn’t want to post a picture of my friend’s son without permission and couldn’t edit him out without ruining the picture.
As a teenager, I was proud to drink shandy at the public swimming pool. Some versions are half beer, half soft drink, but we got a mixture that had 0.5% alcohol.
Where was this?
Oh, that was in the Netherlands, in the 1980s. Haven't seen it since. We do have cola for kids now, with less caffeine. On vacation in Germany, I loved to get Spezi, which is half coke, half orange soda.
Cola for kids? That seems like a good idea. And I imagine that orange flavored cola would be pretty good. I’ve never tried mixing orange soda with cola before, but I might give it a try over the holidays. Thanks.