Eating Alone with Others: Modalities of Commensality and Managing Affect in Japanese Eateries

Tokyo is not only the largest but perhaps the loneliest city on earth, with increasing rates of singlehood, childlessness, solo living – and solitary eating. Dining independently (though not necessarily alone) is highly visible and accepted, whether at a convenience store, a noodle shop, or one of tens of thousands of tiny dining bars that characterize the urban nightscape (Farrer 2021). This research examines patterns of eating and drinking independently, not as symptoms of social pathology, but rather as ways of experiencing and negotiating the co-presence of others in space. These modalities of commensality range from the practiced conviviality of regulars in the “urban third place” of the local izakaya (pub)(Oldenburg 1989) to silent commonality among strangers with no verbal cues in a nearby neighborhood kissaten (cafe) (White 2012). It is important to note that the same person may make use of a variety of such spaces. The modalities of commensality (including the degree of social interaction) correspond to different ways of managing and directing affect, through the cultivation and expression of feelings towards, self, others, and the objects present within the narrow spaces of Tokyo urban dining. The research is based on a decade of ethnographic observation and interviews in independent eateries in a Tokyo neighborhood (Farrer 2024). This paper reports on the participant observation practice that accompanied this larger study, conversations with customers, owners, and media professionals producing content about food culture in Tokyo.

References

Farrer, James. 2021. "The space-time compression of Tokyo street drinking." Food, Culture & Society 24, no. 1: 49-65.

Farrer, James. 2015-2024. www.nishiogiology.org.

Oldenburg, Ray. 1989. The great good place: Cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons, and other hangouts at the heart of a community. Da Capo Press.

White, Merry. 2012. Coffee life in Japan. Vol. 36. Univ of California Press.