I am reminded of a passage from Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon where protagonist Randy Waterhouse wanders the streets of Tokyo:
He wanders all day. At first it is just bleak and depressing and he thinks he’s going to give up very soon, but then he gets into the spirit of it, and learns how to eat: you approach gentlemen on streetcorners selling little fried-octopus balls and make neolithic grunting noises and proffer yen until you discover food in your hands and then you eat it.
