How to Read “There’s a separate stomach for alcohol”
Sake ni betsu chō ari
Meaning of “There’s a separate stomach for alcohol”
“There’s a separate stomach for alcohol” means that alcohol goes into a different stomach, so you can drink even when you’re full.
This proverb describes the experience of somehow being able to drink alcohol even after eating until completely full. Unlike regular food, alcohol feels like it has a special “place to go” inside you. This is how the saying came to be.
People mainly use this proverb at drinking parties. It explains situations where someone says “I can’t eat anymore” but keeps drinking. People also use it as a light joke, saying “alcohol goes in a separate stomach” as an excuse.
It has served as a justification when someone is offered more drinks while full, or when they want to keep drinking themselves.
Many people still understand this feeling today. Just like how people say dessert goes into a “separate stomach” after a meal, the sense that alcohol has special “room” to fit has been shared across generations.
Origin and Etymology
The exact first written appearance of this proverb is unclear. However, we can make interesting observations from how the phrase is constructed.
Let’s look at the expression “separate stomach.” It literally means “a different stomach or intestine.” In ancient Japan, people seemed to believe that food and drinks traveled through different pathways inside the body.
Alcohol especially received different treatment from regular food because of its special properties.
Documents from the Edo period mention that people could drink alcohol separately even when full. This wasn’t just an excuse. It expressed what people actually experienced at the time.
Even after feeling satisfied from a meal, people mysteriously could keep drinking at social gatherings. To explain this strange phenomenon, people came up with the idea of having “a separate stomach just for alcohol.”
In an era without advanced medical knowledge, people created unique views of the body based on their experiences. This proverb is an expression born from such simple yet sharp observation.
Interesting Facts
The expression “separate stomach” actually has some scientific basis. When you see sweets or favorite foods, your brain releases pleasure chemicals. This activates stomach movement and actually creates space for more food.
For alcohol, relaxation effects and anticipation likely trigger similar reactions.
An Edo period senryu poem says “The separate stomach is folded up in the sake room.” This shows how the concept of “separate stomach” was connected to the special atmosphere of drinking parties.
Usage Examples
- I’m already full, but there’s a separate stomach for alcohol, so I’ll have one more drink with you
- He said he was too full to eat, but he keeps drinking as if there’s a separate stomach for alcohol
Universal Wisdom
The proverb “There’s a separate stomach for alcohol” beautifully expresses the mechanism of human desire and self-justification.
We humans are creatures who find reasons with surprising flexibility when we truly want something. We say we’re full, yet feel there’s a separate “place” for things we like.
This isn’t just an excuse. It’s an essential human trait where desire cleverly persuades reason.
This proverb has been passed down for so long because it reflects an honest picture of humanity. We aren’t completely rational beings.
Rather, we’re lovable contradictions who create plausible reasons after the fact to get what we want.
The idea of a “separate stomach” is, in a way, an expression of human creativity. When we face restrictions or limits, we think of ways to overcome them.
We believe even physical limits can be expanded through psychological ingenuity. This can be seen as a positive aspect of humanity.
Our ancestors laughed at and accepted this small self-deception. They accepted their imperfect selves and were sometimes tolerant of illogical desires.
This proverb contains an affirmation of such humanness.
When AI Hears This
The phenomenon of being able to drink alcohol while full is actually evidence that the brain arbitrarily creates “budget categories.” In behavioral economics, people mentally divide the same 10,000 yen into separate wallets like “food budget,” “entertainment budget,” and “savings.”
This is called mental accounting. Remarkably, this cognitive mechanism applies even to the physical organ of the stomach.
According to Thaler’s research, people don’t rationally consider overall optimization. Instead, they make independent judgments for each category. For example, someone thinks “I’ve used up this month’s food budget, but I still have entertainment budget left” and goes to see a movie.
It’s the same money, yet strange. The stomach works the same way. The brain calculates “capacity for solid food” and “capacity for liquids” as separate budgets.
So even when the “meal budget category” is full, it judges that the “drinking budget category” still has room, and you can actually drink.
What’s even more interesting is that alcohol has appetite-stimulating effects and can numb the satiety center. In other words, it rewrites the brain’s budget management system itself.
This is like having the illusion that the money in your wallet suddenly increased. It shows how flexible and simultaneously how irrational human decision-making is.
Lessons for Today
What this proverb teaches modern people might be how to deal well with human desires.
We live daily within various restrictions. Time, money, physical strength, and stomach capacity. However, the idea that “there’s a separate stomach for alcohol” suggests there’s room to think flexibly rather than giving up on restrictions as absolute.
What’s important here, though, is a sense of balance. If you keep using this proverb as just an excuse, you could harm your health.
What we should really learn is to acknowledge that humans have desires beyond logic, and to dialogue well with them.
Modern society tends to emphasize efficiency and rationality. However, sometimes following illogical desires is also an element that enriches life.
What matters is not denying your desires, not blindly following them, but accepting them with humor.
By laughingly admitting “there’s a separate stomach,” we can forgive our imperfect selves and perhaps enjoy life more.
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