In Japan, restaurants often have front-window displays with foods from their menu, rendered in marvelous detail….in plastic.
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at those displays and admiring the artistry and realistic textures and colors, but I’m mostly grateful to have a visual cue to the menu since my knowledge of kanji characters is pretty limited.
Tokyo has a street near the Asakusa section called Kappabashi Dori, and it features every kind of kitchen and restaurant gear you could ever want. The best news, though, is that you can also go there to buy all sorts of plastic food: rice in bowls, tempura, gyoza (potstickers) and noodle dishes are only some of the foods available.
It’s a unique and easily transportable souvenir or gift, although not particularly inexpensive. Since it’s made of plastic, it also has a pretty pungent chemical smell.
Do you like the samples in the photo? I bought them from Akiko Sato’s shop, and if your kanji‘s up to speed but you can’t make it to Tokyo, there’s a Sato Food Sample company Web site with photos and ordering info.
Looks like an interesting place to visit. I’ve just started a map of cool places to visit in Tokyo:
http://www.mapme.com/map/tokyoneighbourhoods
Maybe you’d like to add some of your own spots and photos to the map?
agradeceria si por favor podes ayudarme a encontrar un contacto para poder comprar la comida plastica desde argentina, muchas garcias! saludos! lorena
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Nice article. Thanks for sharing it.
My best friend gave me a really cool map of Tokyo which came with a special code to access an online database at http://www.alacartemaps.com so I can devise my own itinerary and send e-postcards