I really enjoyed the video but I was irked at the beginning with “I hope they will understand some words like ‘chicken’ or ‘noodles.’” Why hope they will know those words? Look them up before you go. Easy!
Not a huge deal, but I sometimes get annoyed with people hoping English is spoken somewhere instead of doing a bit of prep. (Nevertheless, I am extremely grateful for how widespread English was in the European cities I have visited!)
Why the hell WOULDN’T you buy a ton of onigiri each morning? The shit’s dope yo!
Yeah his brothers and his wife idea of “Ordering food in Japan” was “Just do it like I do at home”. Kind of ignorant …
Love the video, pretty much sums up my experiences on the trips I’ve had there.
Machine translation: tried out the visual translate approach back in October in Shimabara. Restaurant had (i) no pictures, and (ii) no English menu. Banner outside seemed to suggest pork may be involved:
Menu was:
And Google translate came back with:
Even when English translations are available it can be… ‘interesting’:
Totally depends on the place. Handing money directly isn’t that uncommon at all.
To be technical, “eki-ben” is bento bought at a train station (eki meaning station). To be super technical, its a relic of the past as it really means bento bought from the bento sales guy who sold them directly to people in the train through the window.
Food models are everywhere even today. Theres a district just west of Asakusa (the big temple) where restaurant supplies are sold and up the street are the food model shops.
If its Japan you can bet that pork is involved. Often not visible but still used as a flavoring agent. If you dont want pork, you have to tell the server all the possible variations: pork, bacon, ham, etc. It seems people here really don’t know that the pig is not a vegetable and that there are in fact many parts of the pig.
I do not speak Korean, but getting food in Korea was this easy, too.
Many menus were bilingual, although some of the translations were odd. “Flaming Chicken Tits” was my favorite. I think it was supposed to be broiled chicken breasts.
Yes I was aware of the eki station meaning but not sure if they were just called bento lunches in the convenience stores.
Just bento
I would point to the food while smacking my lips, nodding my head up and down, and rubbing my tummy with the other hand.
An NPR radio show many years ago ran a story about early(ish)-LA Chinese restaurant menus and the odd mistakes. One menu dish (supposedly intended to mean something akin to rump roast) came out as “Pump Pork”.
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