Gaijin Tonic

This drinking game is not strictly Japanese, but it’s based on a Japanese movie, “Battle Royale”. I happened upon the rules to the game on LazyDork.com which is marvelous site full of drinking games based on films as diverse as “Saw” and “Sleepless in Seattle”. You have to drink each time certain recurring incidents take place on screen, which always results in much drunken abandon (be careful while playing the “Brokeback Mountain” game!) The site is lots of fun, but one can only imagine what the hell playing the drinking game based on “Hotel Rwanda” must be like.

“Battle Royale” is a movie in which a class of delinquent high schoolers are drugged, dumped on a desert island and forced to kill each other until one one person remains, as part of some warped governmental experiment. A very excellent movie. If knocking back shots while watching a flick about Japanese teens dispatching each other with knives and machine guns is your idea of a good time, read on.
Here’s how you play:

Drink Every Time . . .

1. A new weapon is shown

2. Someone breaks down emotionally

3. Anyone dies
(MAKE IT A DOUBLE IF . . . it’s a suicide)

4. A flashback occurs

5. Anyone shoots a basket

6. Anyone talks about a crush or someone being “cute”

7. A new danger zone is declared

AND IF YOU REALLY, REALLY, REALLY WANT TO GET WASTED . . .
Anytime a student’s name and number is read or shown (i.e. “Shuya Nanahara - Boys #15″)

Why not give this charming and wholesome little game a try. Although, once the booze kicks in, the subtitles may begin to blur.

The “Osama Game” is popular among uninhibited university students, and involves much hilarity and humiliation… and chopsticks.
Before you ask, the word “Osama” is not a reference to Osama Bin laden (that game would be “Hide and Seek”,) it actually means “King” in Japanese. In the game, one player is elected King, and then he or she thinks of funny dares which the others must perform. Players are required to embarrass themselves, so I wouldn’t recommend the Osama game for sober or timid folks.

Here’s how you play: Take a chopstick for each player, write “Osama” on one of them, and number the others from 1 upwards. Then someone holds the chopsticks in their fist, so the numbers are concealed, and everybody draws a stick, without telling anyone their number. The lucky guy or gal with the “Osama” chopstick gets to be the King. The Osama decides on a task and then states the numbers of the players who must perform it, (without knowing who they are). For example: “number two must kiss number five!” or “number three has to do the Macarena!” or “numbers seven and eight must down their drinks!”
This inevitably leads to a succession of pant-pissingly funny antics (as long as you’re not the person performing the embarrassing acts.)

After each deed is done, the chopsticks are gathered again, and the process is repeated. Usually everybody gets a chance to be the King, and players relish the chance to exact revenge on those who tormented them in previous rounds of the game.
As the night progresses, and the booze flows, the players elected as Osama become more sadistic and creative as they fiendishly cackle their orders. “Number three must lick number one’s armpit! Mwah-ha-ha!”
I was once ordered, by a particularly inventive bastard, to take off my left sock, put it on my right hand, then walk around the bar shaking hands with as many strangers as possible. I also had to pretend to have an orgasm as I shook each confused person’s hand. There were a lot of bewildered people in that place, I can tell you. Luckily I was drunk at the time.
As you can imagine, the morning after playing the Osama game, people tend to wake up and groan with shame and regret.

Like any decent country, Japan has an array of weird drinking games. Most of them have absurdly complicated rules and rely on the drunkest/stupidest person making a mistake, and then having to down their drink as a forfeit. When someone in Japan has to neck a glass of booze, their tormentors chant “iki iki iki!” (Be careful not to say “iku iku iku!” which is what people gasp during sex, fact fans.)

One such game is “Ping Pong Pang,” (or “Ping Pang Pong,” depending on who you ask. Which of the two names is the “real” one has led to many a heated debate in bars across Japan.) It’s a fast-paced and confusing game, and the rules are thus: When someone begins the game by saying “Ping,” the person to their left must quickly say “Pong,” and the next person in line must then say “Pang” whilst simultaneously pointing at someone else at the table who has to immediately say “Ping,” which starts the whole process again.
As you can imagine, there are plenty of opportunities to screw up. If you hesitate, it’s “iki iki iki” time. If you say the wrong word: “iki iki iki”. If you point at the wrong time, or you forget to point: “iki iki iki”. Hey Presto: lots of drunk people!

There are occasional references to the game in popular culture. In fact, I’ve just discovered a cool electronic-rock group called “Ping Pong Pang”, who you can hear at this site, or read about on their official website. A fine soundtrack to any drinking game. Enjoy!