Plastic Food

So.....here is how we order food when we rarely, very rarely, eat out in Japan. One, we don't have time to and two it's expensive, and three it's hard to find something I will eat that I can afford. This food you see here isn't even real. It's plastic.

Prices are listed in front of each meal and these food are displayed outside the eatery. So you know exactly what to expect, even if you don't know what the hell you're looking at. Sometimes

it's great, and sometimes you end up with a "suprise" which usually isn't a good thing. Most of the time the numbers for prices are in English characters, but not always. I know some numbers, so it's usually not a problem, even though I'm slow as Christmas trying to decipher everything. Most things come in sets like you see here. Each tray is one price. Usually there are much cheaper lunch deals than dinner, just like back home. Oh and plastic food is really great because I'm illiterate basically and I can't read the menu, so I go outside and point to what I want to order and then hope for the best. No one seems to care if you do this. I don't think it's rude or anything. They'll point back to confirm that they understood what you pointed too and you just answer yes or no in Japanese, which is simple enough. Oh and you don't tip here. It's not a nice thing to tip at a restaurant. So, my dad would be very happy with that, although I think that's like the only thing that would make him happy here. So the price you see, is the price you pay, usually with tax and everything. The sales tax is way, way cheaper than what I'm used to in the US, and like I said, is usually already added onto the item.

Speaking of food, I'm very hungry, but sick and tired of packaged ramen and with only a hot water kettle in the hotel where I still am to cook with, I'm basically stuck with ramen noodles or cucumber rolls which I pick up from the grocery store. I'm thinking of going to the 100 Yen shop and buying a knife and a cutting board and then some cucumber, sesame oil, and soysauce, and sesame seeds so I can make cucumber sunomamo (I don't know if that's spelled write, but I'm too tired to look it up). Anyhow, it's a yummy, easy to make, no cook, cucumber salad. Sounds simple, and it is, but man it's really good.