VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: How bringing Japanese culture to Central New York looks different to everyone
Margaret McCann: Luna Cafe may look like any other coffee shop from the outside. However, upon stepping inside, customers are transported to a cafe you might see in Japan. Luna owner Josh Davis says that he started the cafe after living in Tokyo and falling in love with the culture.
Josh Davis: I really wanted that vibe that you’re in a local Japanese restaurant when you walk in here.
McCann: Davis says that he hopes to give Japanese communities in Syracuse a safe space to relax and be reminded of their cultural norms and traditions from home.
Davis: I want you to feel like not only are you home and that you can relax, but that it’s your home cooking from if you lived in Japan and also the fact that you are number one. I’ve had people who are from Japan who have had our food and was like, this Oyakadon is like what my grandmother used to make. And I’m like, thank you.
McCann: The cafe puts Davis’ love of Japanese culture on full display. He says that respect, though, is Luna’s number one priority.
Davis: There is a very fine line between appreciation and appropriation. You have to make sure that you do everything possible to honor where you get inspired from.
McCann: Luna Cafe is the perfect place to celebrate and uphold traditional Japanese culture. But what do places like this mean for the larger Japanese Community here in Central New York?
For Syracuse University junior Mize Hirose, it’s not about decorations or menu items. She says that real Japanese culture comes from community.
Mize Hirose: Japanese culture is very, very niche. It’s really different from American culture — I think our mannerisms, everything that comes with it. Obviously, using chopsticks and stuff like that, or just how we show respect is completely different. The way that we talk to each other is completely different.
McCann: Mize is on the executive board of SU’s Japanese Student Association, which she says offers Japanese students a slice of home through monthly community dinners.
Hirose: The executive board told me last year to maintain this community and family feel. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. It’s just something where Japanese students can feel at home and have family away from home and food away from home in Syracuse. There’s not a lot of people that speak Japanese obviously, and so it’s nice to have a little getaway spot where I can feel like I’m really at home.
McCann: Reporting in Syracuse for NCC News, I’m Margaret McCann.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Syracuse boasts a large number of Japanese restaurants that are particularly popular with the Syracuse University population. One Japanese cat cafe, though, is attempting to bring more authenticity to the Japanese food scene here in Central New York.
Luna Cafe, located on East Fayette Street in Syracuse, is a Japanese restaurant that serves traditional Japanese food and drinks accompanied by some furry friends. The cafe offers a space decorated in traditional Japanese colors and artwork, complete with a “cat room” in the back where customers can play with and adopt cats.
Josh Davis, owner and founder of the cafe, said that he got the idea for the space after living in Tokyo for a few years and falling in love with the traditional and less-Americanized aspects of Japanese culture.
“I really wanted to bring back culture from Japan a little bit differently than what’s already been done,” Davis said, referring to the authentic business principles he brings to his cafe.
While Davis is set on attempting to show CNY the physical aspects of real Japanese culture, Syracuse University’s Japanese Student Association showcases the more emotional and intangible parts of what Japanese culture and experience means to them.
The Syracuse JSA is an on-campus club that meets one to two times a month to gather for an authentic Japanese meal and conversation. With most of their members being from Japan, the table is full of lively and home-centering conversations and exchanges.
“If you’re from New Jersey or New York City, you carpool to get back home. For us, we can coordinate our plane rides home. It’s good to have a buddy on those flights,” Mize Hirose, SU junior and JSA executive board member, said.
While Hirose and other JSA members do frequent the Japanese-inspired and owned restaurants in Syracuse, they haven’t yet found the perfect fit to feel right at home.
With their monthly meetings and collaborations with the larger SU community, JSA values upholding traditional cultural norms and practices. Respect, though, is the most important value of them all for JSA members.
“I never want to lose that part of me, how I speak to and treat other people with the upmost respect,” Hirose said.
You can become a member of the Japanese Student Association through the link in the bio of their Instagram.