in this video I'm gonna share with you guys my top 10 things to know when
eating in Japan Japanese food is pretty awesome as you guys already know from
watching some of my previous videos but in this video I wanted to share with you
guys some Japanese restaurant and Japanese eating tips if you guys think
any of these are weird disagree or agree let me know in the comments section oh
and if you want to help support my channel check out my sushi girl merch
I'll leave a link in the description of the video alright let's do this so let's
talk about sharing food in Japan so Japan has kind of a weird standard when
it comes to sharing food so it really depends on the situation in some
situations it's not okay to share while other situations it's okay to share and
in some other situations you're expected to share it yeah it's really confusing
right first of all it's not okay to share here are some examples so ramen
shops with limited counter space is it generally not okay to share the reason
why it's not okay is one they have limited space and two they usually have
a high turnover rate for customers and they want to get customers in and out
and that one seat is really important for them to be able to make money on so
if you take up one of those seats and you don't buy a ramen bowl that's one
seat wasted for them but this just doesn't only apply to ramen shops
generally if a restaurant has a set meal places that also have limited spaces or
whatever when there's actually a long line and people are trying to get get in
especially during lunchtime and you're probably gonna not want to share oh and
even nicer sushi restaurants expect you to order your own meal on the
other hand where it's okay to share your food is place is like fast food
restaurants family restaurants and cafes so coming from the u.s. it is generally
expected when you go to a restaurant with friends that you go there and you
order your own meal at the end of the meal you just pay for what you ordered
but in Japan it's quite the opposite when you go to a drinking restaurant
also known as an Izakaya, they expect you to share your food and at the
end everyone just splits the bill or person of the
most money sometimes pay if you're lucky now if you have children it gets a
little bit more tricky it's okay to eat in the places that I mentioned above but
again you have to really consider what the restaurant thinks my friends with
kids what they do is they actually call in advance to the restaurant to see if
it's okay to share maybe that's gonna be a little bit harder if you don't speak
Japanese but that's what Japanese people do so if you don't speak Japanese then
you're just gonna have to go into the shop and ask when you arrive basically
it's rude to go to a restaurant order food and not finish most of it not
finishing sides you get a pass but it's considered extremely rude to not finish
the main course there is some gray area here so for example if you eat a ramen
bowl take down a lot of it and you're super cool but there's still quite a bit
left might be considered rude because it's still the appearance of not eating
that much food on your plate but if you're concerned with not being able to
finish your meal you can ask them to reduce the portion size whether it be
reducing the noodles or the rice and they're happy to do it
it's completely fine oh and one nice thing though is if you can't finish all
your food this is one time it's okay to share the food just as long as the person
you're with also ordered their own meal what do you guys think Japan is too
strict all right so let's talk about a Western pastime customizing your meal at
a restaurant customizing a meal in Japan is not very common like requesting
no meat in your dish or to take out all of the onions in general Japanese people
tend to not request changes to their meal because they think they'll offend
the chef but if you have an allergy you should definitely tell them don't
say allergy they won't understand say ah-re-ru-gi and then what you're allergic to
The reality of it it's difficult to do it in Japanese as well so my
Japanese friend who doesn't eat any meat she always has trouble at restaurants
for example she asks a server whether or not the dish has any meat in it if it
does she tries to ask if they're willing to take it out the first problem is the
server doesn't really know what's in the menu when it comes to a lot of the
ingredients so they'll have to ask the person who's making the food people that
are making the food are often just regular workers so they're not able to
change the menu up is so easily they just follow one recipe for that
particular dish as you can see just going back and forth
between the server the cook and yourself and just trying to figure out what's in
the meal what they can actually change is a lot of work just in Japanese so if
you're gonna try to do this in English then you're gonna be fighting an uphill
battle and even though they agree to give my friend what she wants or what
she ordered when the dish comes it's actually not what she wanted and there's
meat inside so all in all you can try to customize your meal but more than likely
you're gonna have issues just like my Japanese friend one caveat if you go to
the really nice restaurants like for example a nice sushi restaurant and when
you place your order with a server they will ask you whether or not you have any
allergies or if there's anything you can't eat so maybe another option is just
paying a little bit more and going to a restaurant that will accommodate your
allergies or your diet all right now here's some tips for my vegan fans just
so you guys know many Japanese dishes use broth that include meat or fish even
some veggie dishes use broth that has a meat or fish there are restaurants
though that do advertise a vegan menu and those are the ones you should
definitely look for otherwise if it's not advertised then more likely they're
gonna have broth with meat or fish although kind of a funny thing I've gone
to restaurants with my vegan friend and he's told him that he's vegan and it
actually asked him if fish was okay the thing is Japanese just don't have a lot
of education when it comes to vegetarians many are unfamiliar or
simply don't understand Western diets my best suggestion for you is to do your
research before going to any restaurants the information is out there what do you
say before a meal in all of the streets videos people are always asking what is
Maiko saying Itadakimasu
Itdakimasu
she's saying it-ta-da-ki-masu which literally translates into receiving so
basically Japanese people say this when they're receiving the food for the first
time before they eat the thing is Japanese people are not saying it for
any spiritual reason or they're really thankful that they're receiving the food
they just say it because that's what they've always done that's what they
were taught when they were kids and it's just the thing to do so if you want to
be more like a local in Japan then say itadakimasu before you eat all
right let's talk about the unwritten drinking rule in Japan so when you go to
a restaurant especially at dinner they actually expect you to order a drink
whether it be alcohol soda or even tea so when you go to a restaurant and you
order water it might be a little bit surprised although it's not the worst
thing in the world it's just kind of weird
in fact when I go to restaurants sometimes I just order a water when I
don't feel like drinking the kids just got ice cream actually
this might be a good thing they're gonna be quiet for a second so we can
finish this alright let's continue and now when you guys go to restaurants and
you see small water cups and the fact that they don't serve you water very
often during your meal you might know the reason why so at the end of the day
if you want to be more local then do the local thing in order a drink alright now
let's talk about slurping this one is probably something you already know
but it's worth covering anyway slurping noodles or soba in Japan is completely
okay in other cultures that may seem rude but it's not a problem here in
Japan but unlike what a lot of people believe it doesn't mean that you're
showing the chef that you really like their food it's just what Japanese do
like Westerners using a steak knife to cut a steak let me know in the comments
section if that's what you were told because I'd really like to know now
let's talk about takeout boxes aside from fast food spots takeout boxes are
not very common in Japan at the end of your meal don't expect to be able to get
a doggie bag to take home your leftovers in Japan portions are served relatively
small so there's really never a case where you're gonna order way too much
food unless you just really go overboard but Japanese people usually don't do
that that's maybe why Japanese have created the word toriaiezu
toriaezu means good for now when ordering in a restaurant so when the server asks
you if you'd like to order anything else you can always say I'm good for now by
saying toriaezu. all right so let's talk about this one what you do at the
end of your meal at fast-food restaurants including ramen shops you're
expected to put away your plates and throw away trash when you're done for
trash sometimes you'll see a very involved process to throw away your
items liquids go here plastic goes here paper goes here please go here plates go
here mugs go here cups go here and spoons and
forks go here you can't just throw everything away and one bin and for
ramen shops it's always good practice to return your bowl at the top counter when
you're finished if the shop has a return area then it's always nice to return
your plate and your trays there all right now let's talk about money paying
at the register many restaurants ask you to pay at the register instead of paying
at your table when you finish your meal don't worry there's no tips to worry
about in this one well one thing you should know is that there's usually a
tray that's right next to the register where you're supposed to put your money
or your credit card some Japanese and don't like to transfer money by hand
because they don't like being touched so they prefer you using the tray instead
it's not necessarily rude to do so but some people just prefer it I personally
handed over cash to cashiers and they've had no problem with it while at other
times I've had cashiers directly point to the tray and asked me to put the
money on the tray at the end of the day it really depends on the person but if
you want to play it safe then always put your money or your credit card on the
tray plus in Japan the smallest bills are a thousand yen so you're dealing
with a lot of coins so it does help to put the coins on the tray to help keep
you from fumbling around with a change when you're handing it over to the
cashier all right so that concludes my top ten but something to keep in mind
these are generalizations there's always going to be exceptions to the rule not
all restaurants and not all Japanese people are like this
so you just got to use this kind of as a guide and play it by ear when you're in
Japan so after hearing my top ten what do you guys think is it weird is it
something that you guys do in your country or is it completely the opposite
but if this video did help you out let me know by hitting that like button if
you want to see more of my adventures in Tokyo or Japan hit that subscribe button
and that Bell button and I'll catch you guys in the next one