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