DASHIBANK

Japan's smaller-scale restaurants and ryokans can be hard to book if you do not speak Japanese. Dashibank is an educational platform and facilitator for travelers to Japan finding and supporting family-run businesses and the historic local producers that support them with raw materials from around the Country. Thousands of these places take reservations primarily by telephone. No website, confusing booking forms if at all, no English. It can be hard on the staff to manage all of these non-Japanese requests and confusing for visitors to engage. DASHIBANK is a platform for learning about these places and making calls on your behalf. Tell us where you want to eat, when, and for how many. A bilingual agent telephones the restaurant in Japanese, in polite business register (keigo), inside Japan's normal calling hours. It asks for your table, handles the questions a restaurant actually asks (party size, children, dietary limits, whether you accept a set course), and reports back what was agreed. You pay 500 yen when a booking is confirmed. If the restaurant says no, or does not pick up, you pay nothing. OUR PLATFORM IS NOT A REVIEW SITE We are a curated directory of restaurants and ryokan (traditional inns) across Japan, including the ones that exist nowhere else in English. Maps that show what is near you, what is open, and what is worth the trip. There is the option to make multiday plans: shortlist several places, rank them, and we call in your order of preference until one says yes. HOW THE CALL WORKS The agent speaks Japanese to the restaurant and writes in your native language. It books under your name, states your party size, and relays any conditions the restaurant sets. If the restaurant offers a different time, you decide. If it wants a set course or a card to hold the table, you are asked first for permission and budgets in the app. PRICING 500 yen (under $3) per confirmed booking. Nothing for a call that does not get you a table. No subscription, no membership. Changes and cancellations are handled by the same agent, in the app you will see the small fees we charge for these types of calls. WHERE IT WORKS Anywhere in Japan that answers a telephone :)