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Comment by lmm | Hacker News Reader

Meh. Dagashi are... not great. (And frankly the same is true of jazz). You can get nicer stuff from any 7-eleven, consistently, and whether the staff member cares is (thankfully) not really relevant. Stores that sell something people actually want can and do thrive (by charging a premium if necessary), and that includes a lot of traditions that people value because they're traditional, but when it comes to something like eating bad snacks because those were what your parents ate... meh. Let it die.

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Tastes are obviously subjective, but for what it's worth it's not like 7-11 does not sell a subset of the same dagashi mentioned in the article.

I did like the low-carb versions of things like chocolate cake they rolled out and in general they have a wonderful line of sweets: https://www-sej-co-jp.translate.goog/products/a/7premium/cat...

Lawson and FamilyMart have great sweets too.

Japanese convenience stores, to me, are fascinating. I could write a whole long form piece just on convenience stores if that sounds interesting to anyone.

I would love to read a long form piece about Japanese convenience stores.

Write it

> it's not like 7-11 does not sell a subset of the same dagashi mentioned in the article.

I got confused by your multiple negatives here, but this doesn't invalidate the point that 7-11 generally sells better substitutes for old-style dagashi. If they also sell some (probably on the better end of) dagashi, all the more reason to not lament the decline of the dagashi shops.

Yes, I'd love to read it. Email me when I can read it, please. me@hammyhavoc.com

If you have an RSS feed, I would love to subscribe.

Dagashi is aimed at kids, so the tastes can be a bit ..."primitive".

To me main appeal is to have a lot of choice of cheap stuff that can be bought with allowances (convenience store have better quality goods, but in smaller quantities and smaller choice). It feels a lot different to buy a small bag of stuff for 500y instead of 2 candy bars.

I don't think it will die of irrelevance, more sadly, it will come from how skewed the population is getting, and anything targeted to kids is bound to slowly atrophy and become a smaller and smaleer niche.

Is there any live music you like at a social establishment? With musicians. Or is it all … not great, to you?

I like plenty of live music yeah (folk, idol pop, metal, ...). That kind of "jazz cafe" doesn't usually do live music though, so I'm a bit confused by the question.

I may have misunderstood this:

> a jazz bar owner in Sasebo

Where I’m from, that implies nightly live jazz performances from relatively to extremely talented musicians. I have never been to Japan, so I was unaware that I probably am missing context.

I would also assume that if something is called a "jazz bar", then there would be live jazz music there.

The previous poster was most likely referring to an establishment in the tradition of:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_kissa

Thanks for this.

It’s interesting how many people wrongly assumed that a Japanese jazz bar (jazz kissa) with recorded music was the same as a Western smoky jazz bar with live music.

Assumption is such a weirdly human anti-pattern.

1. It’s surprising we as humans don’t walk right into a Lemmings like disaster and massacre ourselves.

2. I highly doubt that HN is more or less enlightened but I do wonder if HN is more or less likely to have dissenting, informative, fact checking voices compared to let’s say a boar hunting forum

While you're right that it's usually jazz kissas, the Sasebo bar[1] I mentioned had instruments for live playing - sort of like a mini-studio. Apparently some patrons might play rock there sometimes. But yes, I assume it was mostly about listening to recorded music.

The owner said that young people were leaving Sasebo for bigger cities with more work, so that was draining the vitality of the area. A common story all over Japan, as you probably know.

I've also been to jazz clubs in Japan and those are cool, but clearly a dying breed given the ages of the audience and most of the musicians. At a matinee at the historic Shinjuku Pit Inn, I think I was among the youngest members of the audience. Similar story at smaller, more intimate spots. It's just a declining trend with long-time regulars and not much new blood.

[1] JAZZ SPOT EASEL: https://goo.gl/maps/4YCZSdbLbxEFce4S9

The joy of dagashi is its playfulness, whether that be the toys or prizes they come with, the chance to win a second free snack, the colourful designs, their interactiveness and the imitation of other foods. Commenting on the taste is kind of missing the point. And 7/11 happens to sell a ton of dagashi too...

You get jazz from a 7-eleven ?

Yeah, most of these things are extremely processed low quality stuff, very high in salt/sugar and additives. Even for the interesting snacks like dried calamari or candied kelp for instance, you'd have far better options buying from a normal supermarket.

Yeah Japan is so terrible giving children sugar and additives. (slurps Coca-Cola while munching on a Snickers bar)

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