Snack bars: a first-timer's guide

A snack bar sells very few snacks. The word is sunakku (スナック), and it describes a small room with a counter, a row of whisky and shochu bottles with names written on them, a karaoke machine, and a woman who runs all of it. She is the Mama. Everyone calls her that, including men twenty years her senior.

A snack bar is where a neighborhood goes to be known. That is its charm, and it is also why the door feels heavy to a stranger.

What happens inside

You sit at the counter. The Mama pours, talks, remembers, and occasionally sings the harmony. She stays on her side of the counter. Nobody sits beside you and nobody is paid by the drink to keep you company. That is a different kind of place with a different kind of bill.

The drinks are simple: whisky or shochu, mixed with water or soda, with a small plate of something salty. The entertainment is the room. Regulars argue about baseball, somebody's boss, a song from 1985. Within the hour you will have been asked where you are from, whether you can eat natto, and what you are going to sing.

What you pay

Set charge (セット料金, setto ryōkin)

The basic fee for sitting down. It usually covers your seat, a small dish, and either a first drink or a stretch of drinking from the house bottle. A few thousand yen is typical.

Bottle keep (ボトルキープ, botoru kīpu)

Buy a whole bottle and it waits on the shelf with your name on it until next time. Regulars drink this way. As a visitor you can skip it.

Karaoke

Sometimes included, sometimes charged by the song. Ask.

A drink for the Mama

Offering her one is good manners, and it goes on your bill.

The total for an evening is usually modest, and it is rarely written anywhere you can see. Ask before you sit.

Getting through the door

Many snack bars would rather not take first-timers, foreign or Japanese. Five seats belong to regulars, and the Mama cannot explain the system in English while running the room. A few signs help you choose.

• 会員制 (kaiinsei) on the door means members only. Believe it.
• Prices posted outside are a good sign. The place expects strangers.
• Look in if you can. A half-empty counter early in the evening is your best chance.
• Go with someone who has been before, if you possibly can. An introduction turns you from a risk into a guest.

Then open the door a little, catch the Mama's eye, and ask.

If she says no, smile, bow, and try the next door. There are a lot of doors.

Your first ten minutes

1. Ask the price before you sit. セット料金はいくらですか？ Setto ryōkin wa ikura desu ka?
2. Take the seat she points to. The seating is hers to arrange.
3. Order what the room is drinking. Whisky and soda, or shochu and water, is always right.
4. Greet your neighbors. A nod and “Konbanwa” is enough.
5. Accept the songbook when it comes. It will come.

Karaoke manners

Here you sing in front of the whole room, which is terrifying for one song and then stops being terrifying. Sing one, then pass the microphone. Clap for everyone, especially the man who sings the same ballad every night. Pick something the room might know. Nobody minds if you are bad. People mind if you are long.

Phrases for the counter