You go to bars for many things. There are those who are looking for a drink. Who wants to have a good time with friends or try their luck in love. And there are those who pay to receive a slap, a loud, reverberant and spicy slap that allows them to sober up suddenly (pun intended). That last one is what until not long ago offered a chain of traditional Japanese bars where, for a modest price of just three euros, the customer could ask the waitresses for something peculiar: a slap to counteract the effect of all the sake they had drunk.

It hasn’t turned out as I expected.

à la carte bulkheads. On the menu of a bar one expects to find soft drinks, beers and cocktails. Something to snack on, perhaps. Much less common is to come across an on-demand slapping service, which is precisely what a Japanese chain of restaurants offered its customers until not long ago. izakayastypical restaurants of the country.

The news has been picked up by media such as Independent either South China Morning Post (SCMP), which explain that until two months ago the firm Yottebapopular especially for its beer and wings, allowed its customers to pay in exchange for the waitresses slapping them, what is known there as binta.

A slap, three euros. The business even had its own stipulated rates. If you wanted a random waiter to cross your face you had to pay 500 yenequivalent to about three euros. The place also allowed you the possibility of choosing the employee who would warm your face, although in exchange for an extra 100 yen, around 60 cents. For just under four euros you could leave the establishment with the palm of your favorite waiter or waitress’s hand printed on your cheek.

Why’s that? For its supposed benefits. The “slap service” was proposed as an option for customers who had drunk too much and wanted to clear their heads before returning home, according to SCMP citing the chain itself. The idea is that the customer could ask a waitress to slap him in the face before leaving the premises. And pay for it, of course. It sounds strange, but you can find them on the internet. videos that show exactly that: people sitting on restaurant stools, static, while waiting for another person to cross their face.

Dating back to the 19th century. The slap in question is known as bintaa term that according to precise Independent It has its origins in the Kagoshima region of southern Japan. At first it meant “head” and between the 19th and early 20th centuries, during the It was Meiji.was associated, among other issues, with the beatings inflicted by the police on criminals. Despite these origins, the formula has found a place in the Japanese hospitality sector. In the videos that circulate through X, in fact, slaps are usually given in relaxed environments or even amidst applause.

A business with weak points. If you want to get an a la carte slap on your next trip to Japan after drinking beers and wings at a izakaya you will have it complicated. Yotteba has decided to withdraw its “slapping service” citing demand and image issues. “We’ve been doing it for over two years doing it in our restaurants, but we didn’t find it very popular,” explains a spokesperson from the company to This Week in Asia. “Also, our chain is growing and we wanted to change our image.”

Slaps stopped being part of the company’s menu in fact two months ago, a decision – several media report, including TSCMP— that would have been adopted for more than just a marketing issue. The fall from grace of the binta would be related to an alleged injury complaint. “It was more of a joke and we thought the customers didn’t like it anymore,” they emphasize from the company that manages the supply chain izakayas.

Curious yes, strange no. The truth is that Yotteba, a chain with more than a dozen stores spread throughout Japan, is not the only firm in the sector that has decided to offer slaps on demand. It’s not even a pioneer.

Before the pandemic, the Shachihoko-ya chain gave the same option to its customers and even got a more than respectable impact in networks precisely because the images of people receiving slaps between laughter and applause. The company ended up aborting its bintabut that did not stop the recordings from going viral last year, even reaching US media either Europe. The company had no choice but to remember in X that on their menu there were only drinks and food. No slaps.

300 yen and home. In her case, a “Nagoya Lady’s Slap” service cost 300 yenabout 1.8 euros, which gave the customer the right to have a waitress dressed in a kimono leave a mark on his face. His logic was very similar to Yotteba’s. If the user had a favorite employee, they could directly ask him to beat them, paying something extra. All in order to ‘reduce’ the effect of the beer or sake and return home (somewhat) more serene.

Images | Linh Nguyen (Unsplash)

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