The sharing izakaya economy

■The sharing izakaya economy      

　White wine with a flounder carpaccio. The main dish is duck, with red wine. Cheese, dessert, coffee, cognac. Thank you for the meal. It was delicious. I’m satisfied.

　But Western meals are hard for me. The fixed schedule and the systematic order are tough.

　A kaiseki course meal. A hors d’oeuvre, boiled food, flame-broiled food, rice, miso soup, sweets. Delicious.

　But Japan’s orderly traditional restaurants are hard for me too. To have small dishes just for me lined up in order in front of me and to have to follow that order gives me a cramped feeling.

　When things are like this, there’s always the izakaya (Japanese pub). Edamame (green soybeans), gyoza (Japanese dumplings), rolled Japanese-style omelets, potato salad, grilled chicken, cold tofu, and grilled fish. A mix of Japanese and Western food. You order the appetizers and the main dishes at the same time. You can order your food bit by bit at the timing you like. You are freed from a schedule.

　Each person can be considerate and order things that other people might want to eat. The initiative isn’t with the shop, but with the customer. The hierarchy crumbles, and there’s a state of disorder.

　Basically, it’s about sharing. It’s communication by a community.

　It’s based on the Asian style where everyone pecks at the pot. The izakaya gives maneuverability to various small items like this.

　Sharing is rare in the world. If you ask an Italian, they’ll say that whether it’s pizza or pasta, although there is distribution, there’s a clear demarcation of responsibility that your portion is your own.

　The izakaya is social media. Many different pieces of content are put in front of you without you choosing them, but each person can choose by themselves which items to peck at and pile the food up the way they like it. A Western meal is like packet transfer communication, and like a broadcast. Each item is presented one by one according to the rules and delivered to people.

　The setting of a Western meal has everyone drinking the same wine. The host chooses it, and everyone tastes it. In an izakaya, there’s beer, sake, gin and tonic, shochu with soda, and oolong tea - it’s up to you to choose.

　The idea of an all-you-can-drink business is shocking to the world. Foreigners say that this won’t work as a business, and that although all-you-can-eat exists, all-you-can-drink doesn’t.

　But it’s known that the Japanese have drunk heavily since the olden days. It’s been said that they’ve been drinking about the same amount they do now since the Edo period, and even since the morning. It seems that a business model was constructed around that.

　By the way, I only drink shochu, which is a spirit, together with food, but in Western meals, there aren’t spirits that you drink during the meal. For whiskey, cognac, calvados, or grappa, you have to wait until the meal is over. What suffers during Western meals are the drinks during the meal.

　Recently, there have been people who walk around with their own personal chopsticks. They share the platters, but the chopsticks are their own. Because at home, it’s settled which chopsticks are yours. In my home, our names were written on the bags that the chopsticks go into during New Year. The chopsticks are labelled with names.

　But forks and knives have no names written on them. Cutlery used for Western meals is shared. Then people subdivide the food and label it with their names. It’s symmetrical.

　I’ve heard that izakayas are flourishing in the U.S, and shared eating is spreading too. After the 2008 financial crisis, the sharing economy became widespread. After rooms, cars, and bags, it seems that sharing is coming to food too.

　Izakaya culture, please spread to the world.