Japaneseness I like most

"What do you like most about Japanese culture or society?"

This could be a tough question for some, but an easy one for others. As for me (who has spent more than 30 years in this country & has been to the US 7 times), the answer to this question is our thoughtfulness. 

Don't take it so seriously. I'm not saying that people outside Japan lack thoughtfulness or have no attention to others or detail. What I'm saying here is something more casual, which is "fake food & food pictures for menu" at eating places.

I'm not sure if this custom started from our hospitality or just laziness of store managers who totally got sick of explaining their menus to the customers every single day, but you guys never know how this kindhearted custom could work adversely for Japanese tourists who eat at various restaurants in other countries.

Yes, especially in the US, typical menus at a restaurant could be like this...

Wow, no mercy...this is the common gut reaction among most Japanese tourists, who have been totally accustomed to a wide range of well-presented menus with colorful food pics. If you have worked as a waiter at a restaurant in your country & met a group of Japanese tourists who took soooooo long until they finally decided what to order, the two causes of trouble are firstly, they don't understand English well, and secondly, they are not creative enough to be able to instantly get an image for their order. (maybe including me...)

Certainly, now it's the digital era, where each of us is navigated by the Google map & brought to certain restaurants by some mouthwatering food pics on the Yelp, so the food pics on a menu or fake food display set at the storefront might not play such a huge role anymore.

However, I still like the fact that we can easily get a whole picture of what they're offering & their prices without going inside and asking the stuff there.

Thanks for reading.

Posted by 3e-Tokyo