09-08-2008, 02:59 AM
It has been almost 40 years since the first fast food restaurant in Japan opened its doors, and introduced the culture to the Japanese people.
Until then, Japan was filled with "Kissaten" or coffee shops that served great cups of java that you just couldn't make at home. Basically, the reason you couldn't make it at home was because 1. Coffee was expensive (still is, really...) and 2. The equipment needed to make a great cup of coffee wasn't available to the public. Coffee shops would often offer different types of brewing for the coffee they served, and one cup of caffeine was not cheap. In order to keep customers coming back for this expensive "kick start" to the day, the inside of a coffee shop was usually relaxing - some played jazz over the PA system in the store, others used lighting techniques that would make patrons sprout roots from their behinds and sit in the same chair for hours on end with just one cup of coffee or tea or hot milk, etc... Coffee shops were an oasis from the hustle and bustle of the city, and a place to relax, concentrate on studies, or just enjoy the music, atmosphere, or a great cup of coffee.
Then came the fast food restaurants, and as more and more coffee shops disappear from the streets, I notice a trend that renders fast food to slow drink restaurants. As many of you are aware, many Japanese fast food restaurants have set up no-smoking sections inside the restaurant. Well, most people who use a fast food restaurant as a Kissaten will usually go there to have a smoke or twenty while enjoying that cup of coffee. However, the fast food... ehem... slow drink restaurants have sectioned off the smoking section to the smaller part of the seating. The McDonalds close to my office has 60 seats available, and of which 20 are for smokers. Take a quick guess as to which section is filled the quickest... There are TWO tables that seat 4, and stools around the windows making up the walls of the 2nd floor - six on one side, six on another. So, I go in with a tray full of food, and because the stools were crowded, I sat at one of the two tables. People along the counters there are not eating... they have a single cup of coffee or whatever, and are pounding in mails on their cellular phones. The other table is occupied by two high-school boys who are... wait a minute... high school boys shouldn't be smoking... what the feck are the sitting in the smoking section for??? If they are caught smoking they could be suspended, or worse, expelled from school... I keep a close watch on these kids who have a stack of books and notes spread out over the table for four, with ONE single cup (not ONE EACH, ONE!) miniature cup sitting between the notes - obviously studying for a test... But they're not smoking... Okay, that's good and bad... You see, smokers have no place to sit if they are taking up the table in the smoking section, and it's not like there are no table open in the non-smoking section either. And they say that SMOKERS are inconsiderate...
The KFC by my house did some refurbishing on the interior of the store, but by doing so, the DECREASED the number of smoking section seats... so I go in to find the six double-seaters all full except for one. Two on the end have been joined together for two ladies and their kids - NONE of them smoking, NONE of them eating - you guessed it... cups... no nuggets, no fries, no biscuits, just cups, and no ash trays... Meanwhile, the kids are running around and making a racket as if they were on the playground, disturbing the peace for all the lurkers who stay there for hours upon end with just a single small cup of coffee - but no one seems disturbed because they are either pounding on the cell phones, reading a novel, reading a newspaper, or studying something... Another two tables were joined at the other end of the store where a lady was teaching... yes, TEACHING a couple how to speak Korean...
I think the absolute worst situation I have ever seen in that store was when one older Japanese man was surrounded by about eight or nine foreigners, explaining some job that he was training them for... and only HE was sipping a cup of coffee... Call me crazy, but is that not what OFFICES are for?
Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers needs to be changed to Wendy's Old Fashioned LIBRARY... I have seen people sitting there with an empty cup - Lord knows how long ago they finished it. And they were STILL there reading a book or something when I finished my meal AND a couple of cigarettes. Well, it's a good thing the guy had finished his coffee, because by the time I had left, there would have been mold growing on the top. The Wendy's close to my office (actually a station away) once had a sign that read, "Please refrain from studies and extended reading inside the store." So I said, "I'm coming here more often!" and was able to sit and eat in peace, smoke a cig or two, and leave before the roots sprouted out of my butt into the chair. Two weeks later, the sign was gone, and people were taking up four-seaters with books and notes spread all over the table... Guess they were losing customers with the new regulation...
I was told by a Japanese man a little older than myself that "fast food" is okay for lunch, but NOBODY eats fast food for dinner... it's just not right...
After being told that, I started looking at people in the restaurants to see how many people actually ATE there... it seems that I am the black sheep in the crowd when I eat a meal at a fast food restaurant... And the poor guys on the evening shift behind the counter NEVER get my order right... probably because the ONLY thing they make during the dinner-time shift is fries, nuggets, and ice-cream sundaes...
Now when I eat a meal, being the FATguy I am, I eat a freakin' MEAL - even at fast food restaurants... but because no one EATS dinner at fast food places, the following conversation happens all the time....
Clerk © Welcome to McDonald's will you be dining in, or taking out?
Me (F): I'll be eating here.
©: Then I'll take your order
(F): I'll have the BigMac set, large fries and large drink
©: And what drink would you like?
(F): I'll have the iced oolong tea.
©: Okay, will that be all?
(F): No, I'll also have a shaker salad with Ceasar Dressing...
©: Okay that will come to...
(F): ...and a 5-piece order of nuggets with Mustard sauce.
©:... uh, will that be all?
(F): Yes.
©: and that is for take out, right?
(F): I said, "I'll be eating here..."
©: Oh, yes, I'm sorry...
I have actually had one chick at Wendy's ask, and I told her, "FOR HERE" and after making me wait, she brings my order to my table IN BAGS ready to go... I showed her the receipt SHE punched into the register, that SHE gave to me, that says, "Ten-nai" (Eat in). DUH...
So, I guess the "normal" routine is this... go to a fast food restaurant for lunch, after eating lunch, throw everything that would be evidence that you ate there away, grab a cup of coffee, and sit there until dinner time, order dinner to go, and try to pry the seat in which your roots have sprouted into off your posterior before leaving...
Am I the only one that thinks this is crazy?
Until then, Japan was filled with "Kissaten" or coffee shops that served great cups of java that you just couldn't make at home. Basically, the reason you couldn't make it at home was because 1. Coffee was expensive (still is, really...) and 2. The equipment needed to make a great cup of coffee wasn't available to the public. Coffee shops would often offer different types of brewing for the coffee they served, and one cup of caffeine was not cheap. In order to keep customers coming back for this expensive "kick start" to the day, the inside of a coffee shop was usually relaxing - some played jazz over the PA system in the store, others used lighting techniques that would make patrons sprout roots from their behinds and sit in the same chair for hours on end with just one cup of coffee or tea or hot milk, etc... Coffee shops were an oasis from the hustle and bustle of the city, and a place to relax, concentrate on studies, or just enjoy the music, atmosphere, or a great cup of coffee.
Then came the fast food restaurants, and as more and more coffee shops disappear from the streets, I notice a trend that renders fast food to slow drink restaurants. As many of you are aware, many Japanese fast food restaurants have set up no-smoking sections inside the restaurant. Well, most people who use a fast food restaurant as a Kissaten will usually go there to have a smoke or twenty while enjoying that cup of coffee. However, the fast food... ehem... slow drink restaurants have sectioned off the smoking section to the smaller part of the seating. The McDonalds close to my office has 60 seats available, and of which 20 are for smokers. Take a quick guess as to which section is filled the quickest... There are TWO tables that seat 4, and stools around the windows making up the walls of the 2nd floor - six on one side, six on another. So, I go in with a tray full of food, and because the stools were crowded, I sat at one of the two tables. People along the counters there are not eating... they have a single cup of coffee or whatever, and are pounding in mails on their cellular phones. The other table is occupied by two high-school boys who are... wait a minute... high school boys shouldn't be smoking... what the feck are the sitting in the smoking section for??? If they are caught smoking they could be suspended, or worse, expelled from school... I keep a close watch on these kids who have a stack of books and notes spread out over the table for four, with ONE single cup (not ONE EACH, ONE!) miniature cup sitting between the notes - obviously studying for a test... But they're not smoking... Okay, that's good and bad... You see, smokers have no place to sit if they are taking up the table in the smoking section, and it's not like there are no table open in the non-smoking section either. And they say that SMOKERS are inconsiderate...
The KFC by my house did some refurbishing on the interior of the store, but by doing so, the DECREASED the number of smoking section seats... so I go in to find the six double-seaters all full except for one. Two on the end have been joined together for two ladies and their kids - NONE of them smoking, NONE of them eating - you guessed it... cups... no nuggets, no fries, no biscuits, just cups, and no ash trays... Meanwhile, the kids are running around and making a racket as if they were on the playground, disturbing the peace for all the lurkers who stay there for hours upon end with just a single small cup of coffee - but no one seems disturbed because they are either pounding on the cell phones, reading a novel, reading a newspaper, or studying something... Another two tables were joined at the other end of the store where a lady was teaching... yes, TEACHING a couple how to speak Korean...
I think the absolute worst situation I have ever seen in that store was when one older Japanese man was surrounded by about eight or nine foreigners, explaining some job that he was training them for... and only HE was sipping a cup of coffee... Call me crazy, but is that not what OFFICES are for?
Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers needs to be changed to Wendy's Old Fashioned LIBRARY... I have seen people sitting there with an empty cup - Lord knows how long ago they finished it. And they were STILL there reading a book or something when I finished my meal AND a couple of cigarettes. Well, it's a good thing the guy had finished his coffee, because by the time I had left, there would have been mold growing on the top. The Wendy's close to my office (actually a station away) once had a sign that read, "Please refrain from studies and extended reading inside the store." So I said, "I'm coming here more often!" and was able to sit and eat in peace, smoke a cig or two, and leave before the roots sprouted out of my butt into the chair. Two weeks later, the sign was gone, and people were taking up four-seaters with books and notes spread all over the table... Guess they were losing customers with the new regulation...
I was told by a Japanese man a little older than myself that "fast food" is okay for lunch, but NOBODY eats fast food for dinner... it's just not right...
After being told that, I started looking at people in the restaurants to see how many people actually ATE there... it seems that I am the black sheep in the crowd when I eat a meal at a fast food restaurant... And the poor guys on the evening shift behind the counter NEVER get my order right... probably because the ONLY thing they make during the dinner-time shift is fries, nuggets, and ice-cream sundaes...
Now when I eat a meal, being the FATguy I am, I eat a freakin' MEAL - even at fast food restaurants... but because no one EATS dinner at fast food places, the following conversation happens all the time....
Clerk © Welcome to McDonald's will you be dining in, or taking out?
Me (F): I'll be eating here.
©: Then I'll take your order
(F): I'll have the BigMac set, large fries and large drink
©: And what drink would you like?
(F): I'll have the iced oolong tea.
©: Okay, will that be all?
(F): No, I'll also have a shaker salad with Ceasar Dressing...
©: Okay that will come to...
(F): ...and a 5-piece order of nuggets with Mustard sauce.
©:... uh, will that be all?
(F): Yes.
©: and that is for take out, right?
(F): I said, "I'll be eating here..."
©: Oh, yes, I'm sorry...
I have actually had one chick at Wendy's ask, and I told her, "FOR HERE" and after making me wait, she brings my order to my table IN BAGS ready to go... I showed her the receipt SHE punched into the register, that SHE gave to me, that says, "Ten-nai" (Eat in). DUH...
So, I guess the "normal" routine is this... go to a fast food restaurant for lunch, after eating lunch, throw everything that would be evidence that you ate there away, grab a cup of coffee, and sit there until dinner time, order dinner to go, and try to pry the seat in which your roots have sprouted into off your posterior before leaving...
Am I the only one that thinks this is crazy?
I'm just an ordinary average guy (Joe Walsh)