dining quirks in japan

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onto today’s topic: dining quirks in japan 🍴 

as my travels in japan come to an end, one of the larger cultural differences i’ve recognized over the past 7 weeks has been the dining etiquette. i could actually come up with a long list of differences, but i’ll elaborate on 3 that i found particularly interesting.

1) mandatory hand towel / wipe 🧻 

with each meal, even just buying a cup noodle pack at a convenience store, a packaged wet wipe or hand towel always accompanies it. the amount of single-use plastic is pretty wild in all honesty, but it’s a huge part of the culture here. cleaning your hands before eating is a must.

2) one order per person … 😭 

alright, this is one thing i don’t really like about dining culture in japan. a lot of, if not all, cafés or restaurants require one order per person. this means you can’t get one dessert or dish and split it. yeah, it can be easy to get around this rule like getting a small drink as well, but those unwanted expenses rack up a hefty tab. today, the 3 of us wanted to split a large bowl of bingsu but not a single spot allowed it without requiring us to spend at least $5 more on a drink as well.

3) set menus 🍽️ 

japanese people really love their set menus. without fail, there will always be some sort of set option on the menu. cake + coffee set, main dish + sake set, and the list goes on with more complex combinations. it’s commonplace to order lunch sets and the menus everywhere reflect that.

i must say that on average overall, dining is a much more pleasant experience in japan compared to canada / usa. perhaps it’s the emphasis on customer service, or maybe the food uses higher quality ingredients?

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