Oysters.
Tanaka Kotaro
From 田中貢太郎「牡蠣船」
秀夫はその牡蠣船では牡蠣料理以外に西洋料理も出来ると聞いていたので、西洋料理の一皿か二皿かを執ってビールを飲んでも好いと思った。西洋料理を喫ってビールを飲むことなら朋友と数回やっているので彼にも自信があった。それでポチを五十銭も置けば良いだろうと思った。
牡蠣 かき oyster
Not to be confused with 柿 (かき persimmon). Written in kana they look the same, but the intonation/pitch is different. 牡蠣 has a downward pitch; 柿 has an upward pitch.
執る とる to have
There are so many kanji for とる that all have slightly different nuances and usages. Here are the most common ones. (Check out this book for further reference.)
取る → to take (the ヌ on the right side represents a right hand)
撮る → to take (a picture; as in 撮影 さつえい)
捕る → to capture, to catch (as in 捕鯨 ほげい)
採る → to adopt (as in 採択 さいたく); to hire (採用 さいよう)
執る → to handle, to attend to, to conduct (as in 執行 しっこう)
録る → to record, to make a record (as in 記録 きろく)
摂る → to ingest (as in 摂取 せっしゅ)
盗る → to steal (as in 盗難 とうなん)
好い いい、よい good
Usually written as 良い. Sometimes you see 好い or 佳い, as well.
ポチ tip, gratuity
Archaic; especially used in the Kansai region.
銭 せん sen (monitary unit); 1 yen is 100 sen
It’s difficult to assess how much this would be today, but the Japanese National Diet Library (NDL) often has useful information about how to calculate these things. According to this page, at the time this short story by Tanaka was published (1923), 1 yen equals anywhere between 530 and 2700 yen in today’s money. There are also reference works that track how the price of specific products and services changed over the course of history. This book entitled『値段史年表』is one example.
Translation:
Because Hideo had heard they didn’t just serve oysters but also Western food on the oyster boat, he decided to order one or two Western dishes and a beer. He’d had Western food and beer with a friend a few times so he felt confident. Leaving a 50 sen tip would probably be enough, he thought.
Always looking forward to these!