While the phrase “snack bar” might seem a little odd in English, cozy “sunakku” drinking establishments have long been an iconic part of the Japanese nightlife.

Although many snack bar customers are middle-aged or elderly, young people and even foreigners have recently become interested in snack bars as well.

Visitors from overseas, however, may face a few hurdles at these bars, as they might not know how to behave or how fees are calculated at these establishments.

But one snack bar enthusiast has started organizing tours of snack bars specifically for foreigners in hopes of allowing them to experience the unique charms of these saloon-like nightspots.

An Asahi Shimbun reporter recently accompanied a group of foreigners on their first snack bar experience to get a sneak peek of the tours.

On an evening in late September, a party of four American and British residents in Japan gathered at the SL (steam locomotive) Square outside Tokyo’s Shinbashi Station to start their tour.

They were met by Mayuko Igarashi, head of the tour operator Online Snack Yokocho Bunka KK, and a female guide.

The party entered a narrow lane lined with “izakaya” pubs and ascended a staircase in an old building to get to a snack bar named Kuriyakko.

“Good evening,” proprietress Kuri Awaji greeted the party with a smile as they opened the door.

The interior of her bar, barely more than 15 square meters, houses only a counter and two tables. On the counter were four pairs of chopsticks in envelopes, which carried the names of the tour guests, along with a variety of snacks.

As soon as the customers were seated, they looked curiously around the bar’s interior and took pictures with their smartphones. They perused the drink menu, ordered highballs and shochu, and shouted “kanpai” (cheers) as they clinked glasses with the proprietress and each other.

The female guide, who had studied abroad, briefed the customers in fluent English about snack bar culture and etiquette, including the way a proprietress should be called “Mama.”

It was soon time for karaoke.

The cheerful sounds of hand claps and maracas accompanied the customers as they belted out their favorite pop songs by Official Hige Dandism, Yo Hitoto and Miyuki Nakajima--artists they got to know while living in Japan.

‘REMOTE TERRITORY’

Ananya Donapati, one of the tour participants, is a 23-year-old employee at a tech company. She had just moved to Japan from California about four months earlier.

She said she had become a great fan of Japanese culture through English translations of anime and manga, and took an interest in Japanese snack bars after seeing a retro one in “Suzume,” the popular animated film.

“It’s like I’ve been able to have an in-depth experience of this part of Japanese culture,” Donapati said excitedly. “I thought that places like this one are remote territory for a non-Japanese person like me, but Mama has been so nice that I have had a lot of fun here. I also like the cozy interior.”

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Igarashi said that snack bars, which are not mentioned in travel guides, titillate the minds of non-Japanese people as places that could allow them to feel like explorers off the beaten track and learn in greater depth about the local communities.

Many of them take interest in the way that snack bars appear in anime and video games, where they are portrayed as venues for obtaining insider information, she added.

Igarashi started tours of snack bars for non-Japanese customers late last year.

While working for a previous company, she once visited a snack bar during a business trip, and a connection she made at the bar allowed the talks to proceed smoothly on the following day.

Fascinated by the way that similar connections are formed among customers and the way that visitors can learn about local charms from the proprietress and from fellow customers, Igarashi has made the rounds of about 600 snack bars around Japan and now presents herself as a “suna-jo” (snack woman).

Igarashi started “Online Snack Yokocho,” the last word being Japanese for alleyway, in 2020 to help snack bar proprietresses during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Since snack bar Mamas could not see customers in person, Igarashi’s online system allows them to wait on customers online instead.

She incorporated the enterprise in June 2021. Eighty-six snack bars across Japan are currently registered with the service.

Igarashi hit upon the idea of creating snack bar tours for non-Japanese customers as she saw tourism bounce back after pandemic-related regulations were eased.

VIRAL VIDEOS

Igarashi uploaded English-subtitled videos on YouTube featuring snack bar Mamas registered with her service, whereupon she saw a sharp rise in access from overseas.

The number of subscribers to her channel surged from only 56 to about 1,000. Her Instagram account also saw a nearly quadruple increase in the number of followers after she posted English videos on it.

An American YouTuber living in Japan contacted Igarashi, eager to share her online resources.

Seeing so much interest from foreign people, Igarashi began calling for tour participants.

She conducted about 50 tours between January and July, most with about four customers each, she said, adding that foreign residents of Japan have accounted for most of them so far.

“More and more nonresident visitors are participating in tours, too,” Igarashi said. “I hope to spread similar tour programs to other parts of Japan in the future as well.”

Igarashi is currently offering bar-hopping tours of two snack bars for a fee of 13,000 yen ($87) per person.

Visit Snack Yokocho’s English website at (https://snackyokocho.com/pages/snacktourforforeigner) to make inquiries on more details.