Young people who come to Mummy’s are mostly from KG University. Either somebody invites them, gives them a flayer which Mummy sometimes hands out to customers or they hear of the place from their friends. I asked them, why to they like the place.
KG student: “I like the atmosphere. If I want to relax I come here, if I want to have fun, I go to Daddy’s Shoes (another bar popular among students)”
KG student: “It is not like a typical izakaya. It has this international feeling, because so many foreigners come here.”




A group of regulars. If there are too many people, the backroom with a low table and tatami mats gets opened.




A group of friends stopping by.



Mummy's is a place where foreign students can interact with people not connected to the university, people who live and work around Hirakata. In a sense, it's a place where two very different groups run into each, people who would probably not talk to each other in other situations - the foreign (and Japanese as well, though less) students and not-so-young-anymore residents and workers of Hirakata.

Without help from Pub Mummy's owner and customers, this project would had been impossible. ありがとうございます。


Blogs by other people in the class:
Build Japan!
Hirakata: the back side of Kansai Gaidai
William's project
Martial Arts in JapanJapanese Labels
Colorful Japan
Japanese Idle
Japan explored

The pub is more like a one-(wo)man-show, the owner Mummy being the accountant, the cook, the entertainer and the cleaner. In her job, social skills are most important – the ability to make friends with the customers, talk to them, make them want to return. Since the room is so small, every customer can take part of the conversation. Having a drink with the customers is also part of the job. Costumers do not give tips, but they will offer to have a drink with them and refusing a customer’s kindness is considered rude (Smith 1988:82). To attract the students living in the area, she started the so-called English Pub. Generally, that means getting a couple of exchange students to help behind the counter two nights a week; she calls it the place “where everyone can practice English or Japanese”.



“I started it a year ago, because I could speak some English, I decided to ask some students to help me one night a week. I didn’t think many exchange students would come, since the bar was too far from the dormitories, but the word spread and more people started coming.”
Why did you start your izkaya in Hirakata?
Mummy: My son studies in KG University, so I decided to rent here. Hirakata is not so expensive as Kyoto or Osaka.
What people mostly come to the bar?
Mummy: “Mostly older people. Older people live in this neighborhood. Money is also an issue - my bar is not expensive, but big chain-izakayas can be even cheaper, so younger people usually go there.”
Why do people come here?
Mummy:“Many people feel lonely or sad, depressed and they want to go out and talk to someone. So it is fair to say that feeling lonely or sad is good for my bar. If people stopped feeling lonely, nobody would come here. Yes, you can say, that I profit from people’s loneliness. But I think it is so everywhere in the world.”

Lonely or not, this picture shows two regular customers who I’ve seen coming to the bar many times a week. Why do they come here? The answers are similar: good food and good talk.


“The English Pub” has proven to be a good business idea. The man sitting behind the counter on this picture came to the pub for the first time out of curiosity after reading a flyer about it. He is a salaryman in Osaka city and usually goes to izakayas in Osaka.


A very typical picture – someone explaining where they family comes from. In reality, of course, English is of little use in such situation, and students have to manage with their knowledge on Japanese. A positive fact from KG University’s point of view, which urges the foreign students to practice Japanese as often as possible.
The woman sitting in the background is a regular visitor, comes many times a week.


A short 15-second video I shot in the izakaya as an example of active interaction with the customers (very low quality, shot with a cellphone, 3gp format)

Food plays an important role in a Japanese pub. To quote the owner Mummy: “what distinguishes my bar from the one next door is that I cook myself, while the neighbors often buy ready-made foods. That makes their prices cheaper.”
The menu offers all regular Japanese foods like udon and yakisoba, takoyaki, onigiri. Day’s special foods are set in front of the counter.





Although it is a drinking establishment, the choice of alcoholic beverages is somewhat limited: beer, sake, shochu, whiskey, chu-hi, for the younger crowd popular sweet liquor Kahlua. Drinks are usually served with some accompanying food like green soy beans ( edamame) or snacks. In Japan, drinking without eating is considered bad for your health, and is identified as either a cause, or a symptom, of alcoholism (Smith 1988:95), though the portion is more symbolic than substantial.



A collage of Mummy’s hashioki - chopstick rests - collection.

“The Indojin” – image of an “Indian” (identity was decided after an extensive discussion with between Mummy and the customers) given as a present by a foreign student from this semester (spring07).



A wooden plate with the writing “daikon wa ibiki kaite sodachi hakusai wa agura kaite sodatsu” – the white radish grows snoring and the Chinese cabbage grows sitting cross-legged. Nobody could explain the meaning of this and perhaps there is none, so one is left to marvel at the beautiful calligraphy.


The world map, reflecting the aspiration to be international. Foreign students are sometimes asked to show where they come from.




Decoration adjusted according to the season.
Japanese decorations often reflect the current season. In this case – spring and summer.

A few looks around tell that it is the small things and details that make up the décor.



The everpresent Maneki Neko can be found in almost all Japanese businesses. Raised right paw supposedly attracts money.



According to Japanese folk beliefs, images of cats (but not cats themselves) bring luck. The picture on the most left has many cats suggesting the reader to value personal self-image over what others might think. Considering the widely accepted idea of Japan as a very collectivistic culture, this sounds suspiciously un-Japanese and individualistic.
Picture on the most right shows one of the Seven Lucky Gods – Daikokuten, the god of wealth and household, particularly the kitchen.


The sake bottle with a hole in its bottom - yet another symbol of good luck for an izakaya.

Mummy's is a small pub - the room is about 20 square metres. Customers sit behind one wooden counter and food is prepared directly in front of them. The room is small, creating an intimate atmosphere, and lit quite brightly, so nobody can, figuratively speaking, hide in the corner. The owner – known among visitors as just Mummy – rented the house and started the pub two years ago. The room was completely empty; everything that makes it an izakaya now was installed by the owner herself.

What is an izakaya? Wikipedia states it is a type of Japanese drinking establishment. Stephen Smith writes in his dissertation on drinking and sobriety in Japan, that the Japanese ideal of a drink shop is good food, intimate atmosphere, attentive and entertaining personnel (Smith 1988:67). The owner of bar Mummy’s says it is “nice food, nice drink, nice talk, and light” (meaning that the room is brightly lit). There are indeed many types of izakayas – big loud chain izakayas, where people gather in big groups, medium and small ones like Mummy’s. There are no strictly defined standards.

Located relatively close to the student dormitories and 5-minute walk away from university's east gate, the pub named Mummy had become quite famous among the exchange students. Most have been to Mummy's at least once and some people visit it regulary. The name is being used as a constant reason for joking because of another popular pub named Daddy's Shoes. A mummy and a daddy for the forlorn kids in a distant country far away from home.


The entrance to the izakaya. At the time of the photo (late evening, almost closing time), the sliding doors have no traditional noren - a removable cloth hanging from above the door, but still the doors are covered with curtains to prevent people from looking in. This excessive division between inside and outside highlights the division between interior acitivities and the exterior ones.



The signboard outside the door. When he sign is out and lit, the izakaya is opened and accepting customers. Some time before closing the signboard is brought inside.

This blog is the final project for Visual Anthropology class taught by Dr. Steven Fedorowicz at Kansai Gaidai University. The project tries to focus on one particular izakaya in the city of Hirakata, Osaka prefecture. The aim is to depict an establishment, with its material culture and its living objects – the visitors – as is it is spring 2007.
"Characteristics of the Japanese found in the earliest Chinese accounts and which still seem true today include honesty, politeness, gentleness in peace and bravery in way, and a love of liquor" (Tsunoda et al 1958, quoted from S.Smith "Drinking and Sobriety in Japan" 1988, Columbia University). Consuming alcoholic beverages holds and important place in Japanese social relations (Smith 1988). It is seen as way to strengthen friendships as well as reinforce more formal relations with customers or between employers and employees, helping to build careers. Thus, drinking out with colleges on several nights a week is a common practice. Drinking in Japan is first and foremost, a social activity, where the usually rather rigid set of rules is suspended and less formal alternative rules take effect (MacAndrew and Edgerton 1969 and Smith 1988).

Hirakata has a population of approximately 400 000. What sets it apart from many others suburbs between Kyoto and Osaka is it's large number of foreign students. Approximately 300 of them is staying in dormitories, apartments and home-stay families during most of the school year. While local community is not too fond of foreigners disturbing the quiet of the neighbourhood, owners of restaurants and bars in the vicinity are cashing in on students' night out. This project can also act as an account of interaction between people living in Hirakata and the ever-changing community of foreign students, an interaction that involves more than grocery shopping or disturbing the neighbours.