Three Days Project

DUBLINER'S (DUB)

It is an Irish Pub in Tamaike-Sanno station. It is located on the B1 floor in the Tameike-sanno Park Tower which is a very tall office building and contains a lot of well known both Japanese and foreign companies. I have never closely observed this pub before. There were new interesting findings which I had never been aware of.

There are three reason for me to choose this place for my project.

1. I work here and to know my working place more from the customer point of view
2. I was curious why people choose to come to this bar/ What motivate them to come
3. I wanted to know what this place is like to people who often come here

In this building, there are also some other bars, cafes, and restaurants to go to. But they all are either Japnaese or Asian styled and the Dub is the only Western styled bar in the building.

OBSERVATION
Normally, this bar has about 1/4 of foreigners and 3/4 of Japanese. Customer's age group tend to be younger than other restaurants and bars in this building. Avarage seemed to be between 20s' to 50s'.
The first thing that I found was the different style of drinking between Japese
and Foreigners.
While drinking, Japanese people usually order a lot of food from apatizer to main dish and sometimes desert. They eat more than they drink. However, foreigners especially Westerners only order one or two finger food and they drink more.
Period of time they stay at the bar also differs between foreigners and Japanese. Japanese stay for the longer period of time compare to foreigners.
The second interesting that I found is about the tables.
There are three types of tables in this bar; high and low tables, and counter tables. Counter tables are connected to either bar or the narrow table which you can maybe put your drink and maximum two plates of food. And low tables are as tall as the ones you see at a regular restaurant. The interesting this along with these tables are; foreigners tend to sit on either tall table or the counter, and some don't even sit and just stand while they are drinking. On the other hand, most of Japanese prefer the low tables.

INTERVIEW
Through the observation and the interview, I found that a lot of people tend to be the "repieters" who come here quite often. All the people whom I interviewed first came here because their co-workers brought them here. Most of them have been here for quite long time since they first came here. The longest time was nealy four years and even the shortest one have been here for a year. Here is the interviews that I had with both customers and a worker.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT DUBLINER'S??

INTERVIEW ZUESTIONS
Why did you started to come here?

What motivate you to continue coming here since then?

What do you like about Dubliner's?

If you discribe Dubliner's in one word, what would you say?

INTERVIEWS*~Audio~*

• Customer

(Male worker, 24 years old) *Click to hear*

(Female worker, 29 years old) *Click to hear*

(Male worker, 43 years old) *Click to hear*

(Female worker, 25 years old) *Click to hear*

• Staff

(Female, 23 years old) *Click to hear*

SPACE

Living Space

Japanese people pay more money for less living space than people live in other countries. Especially if you are living in the city, you must pay huge amount of money for a tiny 1LDK apartment. For example, my friend was living by her self in an apartment in Philadelphia. The apartment was in a pretty nice area and she lived in a two LDKs apartment. She only paid $600 a month for the apartment while she was paying about $900 a month for much smaller apartment in Tokyo. Living in Japanese cities are very expensive and cramp.

Moreover, everything must be squeesed into a small space since the living spaces are very small. The word "rabbit hutch"seems to be the best definition to express the situation of Japanese houses in the city. It seems also true that a lot of Japanese people only go back to their house to sleep. Some peopole do work, hang out, relax, and much more things at home. However, people are more likely to go back to their house just to sleep.

Other Spaces

I strongly agree that the home for Japanese have much less meaning compare to Western people. In the U.S, almost all the collage students go back to see their family during the vacation even if the vacation is short. When I was staying with my host family for a year, my host brother who was softmore in college came back every single vacation even on the weekends even if he had to drive three hours for one way. My host mother and sisters were also very crazy about him comming back home. It was very supplizing and even too much for me at the time. But later I figured that it is not the strange scene to be seen in the U.S.

I don't fully agree with the author when he stated " the Japnese male enjoys a plurality of homes... the office, the favorite bar, the favorite coffee shop." I don't think those places will not be like home for them. Those places are certainly their favorites and the space where they can relax and be apart from their pressure of their life. Moreover, as it was mentioned in the reading "Frusato" is the term which expresses the meaning of home in Japanese.