New Book! SNACK SAKURA. April, 2025 release. Early supporters names listed in book until Jan 31!

Snack Sakura. A journey through Japan's unique "snack" culture.

Soft cover with dust jacket. Ota-bind. 272 pages. 11.3 x 8.8 inches/287x224mm.

Prices are in US dollars.

With a conversation between Kyoichi Tsuzuki (author/photographer of the seminal book, "Tokyo Style") and Greg Girard on snack culture.

If you've spent time in Japan you might know of a certain kind of drinking place called a "snack". Found all over the country, in large cities and small towns, snacks typically 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 in a bar where a first-time customer simply walks in and sits down, the etiquette for a newcomer in a snack is to first ask if it’s ok to come in. The entertainment, if one can call it that, is conversation -with the mama, with other customers- and karaoke. The drink menu is limited and basic, no fancy cocktails. At the time of writing they are considered one of the least fashionable places in the country to have a drink.

This project began some years ago while travelling in Japan and noticing that every town seemed to have a snack named “Sakura”. Sakura, or cherry blossom, is so common a name as to perhaps be a bit unimaginative (though, as noted by Tsuzuki-san in our conversation, it has the benefit of being easy to remember). Wondering if "Snack Sakura" was possibly the most common name for a snack, I consulted the All Japan Snack Owners Association, and they confirmed that, among their members, Snack Sakura was indeed the most popular. And so I decided to try and visit and photograph as many Snack Sakuras as I could, across the country from Okinawa to Hokkaido. How different were they? How similar? Who goes there? Who works there?

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 those that do, by the time you get there you discover they may have changed their names, or the building was torn down, or they closed and never re-opened. But little by little, across six years of train journeys, plane trips, ferry crossings and hotel rooms, I started to make headway. I’ve now photographed snacks named “Sakura” in more than half of Japan’s forty-seven prefectures: their exteriors, interiors, the owners, staff and customers. “Snack Sakura” introduces this not exactly “hidden” world but one that only comes into view when you look at it from a certain angle.

-Greg Girard