[journal] People don't eat in the streets like they do in North America. They hardly even drink. But they have a good reason for it. Toronto's population density is low. I used to think New York got pretty crowded. Tokyo's density is actually 10 times more than New York. I can understand why people don't eat or drink in the crowded public. Would you want someone eating Chicken Yakitori 5 centimeters from you face? Personal space and other people's emotions are respected.
Side Track Story: One time in the subway I was yapping away on my cell phone and everyone was looking at me, I had assumed it was because I spoke in english but now I know I was being very rude. No one uses their cell phone to talk on the trains, 50% of people are sleeping and 40% have their heads bowed into their cellphones emailing, watching satellite TV, SMSing or playing video games. The head bowed into their cell phones is not limited to trains as people walking down the street have mastered the art of walk and text.So this eating business. You may not actually realize how often you eat in the streets until you're not allowed to.
I buy a bag of chips from 7/11 and I'm about to open it when suddenly, "Oh fuck" I can't eat it out here. I'm so thirsty and buy a bottle of coke, but then I have to put it in my bag until I get to school. The worst part is if I was white then I probably could eat something small, like a crossiant, or drink something sealable like a bottled coke, but no, I'm Japanese to everyone. Apparently I look more Japanese than some Japanese.
It's the worse when I buy something off a street vendor. I almost think it defeats the whole purpose of street vending if you can't gobble it down right away. Although I think the benefit of street vending is that you save on sitting fees some restaurants charge you.
One time when I ate at a restaurant and ordered three things, I looked ot the receipt and saw four things. I assumed they ripped me off and I just accepted it as a
foreigner's tax, but it turns out it's for the sitting fee. Since there is no tipping in Japan the sitting fee is more than reasonable and not all places have it.
Another time I was so hungry after work because I hadn't adapted yet to the workload and worked through most of my lunch and therefore had a small lunch. By the time work was done I felt like fainting from hunger and at the train station waiting for my train (another 10 minutes) I peaked into my bag which contained a delicious preprepared meal I had bought earlier. I discreetly slid my fingers inside my bag and starting to blindly unwrap the dinner when from the other side of the station a light shined in my general direction. I looked towards the source of the light to see a station employee with a flashlight sweeping it back and forth throughout the station as though the station was a prison yard. Well I took out my shaky hands and had to wait until I got home to devour my food (oh and of course that day I got lost trying to get home. I'll write about me getting lost in my next post).
I guess street eating is one barbaric North American cultural phenomenon I miss, although I can understand the need to ban subway eating.
