Snack Sakura - Special Edition

If you know Japan you’ll know a certain kind of drinking place called a snack. They are found all over the country, in large cities and small towns.  Typically they consist of a counter and a few stools, perhaps a booth or two, usually presided over by a middle-aged woman, the mama, or less often, by a man, the master. The customers tend to be regulars. Unlike a regular bar where a first time customer simply walks in and sits down, the etiquette in a snack for a newcomer is to first ask the mama if it’s ok to come in. The entertainment, if one can call it that, apart from a simple drink menu, is conversation with the mama, conversation with other customers, and karaoke. At the time of writing they are considered the least fashionable places in the country to have a drink.

Some years ago while travelling in Japan I noticed that every town seemed to have a snack named “Sakura”. Sakura, or cherry blossom, is so common a name for a business as to be a bit unimaginative perhaps. Though in a way that seemed in keeping with how unfashionable these places were. It really did seem like every town had one and, upon checking with the All Japan Snack Owners Association, they confirmed that indeed, among their members, Snack Sakura was the most common name. And so I decided to try and visit and photograph as many as I could, across the country from Okinawa to Hokkaido.

In the beginning I had simply stumbled across Snack Sakuras, without looking for them. Once I decided to actually try to find them, things got rather more difficult. Many of them have no phone numbers or web presence. For others that do, by the time you get there you discover they have changed their names, or the building was torn down, or they closed and never re-opened. But little by little I started to make headway. Until after six years of travelling the country I’ve now photographed snacks named “Sakura” in more than half of Japan’s forty-seven prefectures. “Snack Sakura” introduces this not exactly “hidden” world of snacks but one that only comes into view when you look at it from a certain angle.