Eating in public

[jgarner53]

I admit that I am about as inconspicuous here in Tokyo as Godzilla (6 foot-one gaijin woman ), and that I probably break about 100 etiquette rules a day without knowing it.

Like eating my rice balls sitting outside the other day. I'd picked up a couple for lunch in a department store basement, and there's no place there to sit that isn't a separate restaurant. Eventually, I find a planter and sit down outside to eat my lunch. Later, I read that Japanese just don't do that.

So if I pick up a bento or snack in a store, where in heck am I supposed to eat it?

[prasantrin]

Like eating my rice balls sitting outside the other day. I'd picked up a couple for lunch in a department store basement, and there's no place there to sit that isn't a separate restaurant. Eventually, I find a planter and sit down outside to eat my lunch. Later, I read that Japanese just don't do that.

So if I pick up a bento or snack in a store, where in heck am I supposed to eat it? 

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What I've learned is that you can eat it while sitting, but you shouldn't eat it while standing (unless you're at a street fair) and you definitely shouldn't eat while walking. I've done all of them, though.

I think it may have been your choice of location that would be more problematic--had you sat on a bench or chair, it would have been a little more acceptable. But I, for one, enjoy playing the "gaijin" card and I even eat on trains!

[torakris]

Like Rona said there isn't really much wrong with sitting down and eating in public, it is really the walking while eating. The main exception I see mostly is ice cream cones. Many times you can't help but stand and eat, many outdoor food carts don't have any place to sit. A lot of the foods that the Japanese would eat outdoors aren't really easy to eat while walking or good just be downright dangerous. Ther Japanese eat a lot of skewered foods (dangerous) and few things are eaten with fingers so you need to use chopsticks (difficult).

[SuzySushi]

I, for one, enjoy playing the "gaijin" card and I even eat on trains!

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Doesn't everyone eat on trains in Japan? What about those eki-bentos? Or are you referring to subways and commuter trains?

[sanrensho]

Doesn't everyone eat on trains in Japan? What about those eki-bentos? Or are you referring to subways and commuter trains?

As far as subways and commuter trains, I think people are too busy text messaging and Web surfing on their cellular phones to be eating food.

I'm not kidding, either.

[SuzySushi]

As far as subways and commuter trains, I think people are too busy text messaging and Web surfing on their cellular phones to be eating food.

I'm not kidding, either.

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Hahaha!!! Reminds me of my first trip to Hong Kong, in 1990. Everyone was busy using their cellular phones when riding in elevators (where there's hardly any reception) or waiting for a table at a restaurant, just to show that they had one. (Local phone calls are -- or were at the time -- free in Hong Kong, so it was a status symbol to pay big bucks for a cell phone.)

[jgarner53]

Aaaah, the difference between walking, standing,and sitting. I get it. (Wish guide books would be more clear, though) In my defense, I was not the only one sitting on the planter. There were two other (Japanese) people sitting (though not eating) on the other side.

And of course, today, in a crosswalk outside the Tokyo National Museum, I saw a "do not walk and smoke" sign. On the pavement. Presumably to minimize butt trash, but it was worth a laugh.

[Hiroyuki]

Walking and eating is a habit that McDonald's spread throughout Japan since it opened its first shop at Ginza, Tokyo in 1971, yet there are still many people who think the habit rude except in limited occasions like festivals.

And of course, today, in a crosswalk outside the Tokyo National Museum, I saw a "do not walk and smoke" sign. On the pavement. Presumably to minimize butt trash, but it was worth a laugh. 

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It's no laughing matter. Chiyoda ward, Tokyo was the first municipality that established an ordinance banning walking and smoking to keep the streets clean and to protect small children from burns due to smokers' cigarettes, which are often at the same height as small children's faces.

[prasantrin]

Walking and eating is a habit that McDonald's spread throughout Japan since it opened its first shop at Ginza, Tokyo in 1971, yet there are still many people who think the habit rude except in limited occasions like festivals.

I would go so far as to say most people still think it's rude to eat while walking. It's even a rule at the school at which I work.

Related story...

One of the temples near my school has a big festival every year, with many many vendors lining the road. The day the festival started, it was announced during chapel (which also acts as our morning assembly) that we should not eat while walking. Well, my co-worker and I disregarded this rule--"Who the hell goes to a festival and doesn't eat while walking?" we said. The next day, one of the Japanese teachers told me that some of her homeroom students said they tried really hard not to eat while walking, but then they saw me eating while walking!!! And wasn't it unfair? Those little snots ratted me out!

[NickLam]

[SuzySushi]

One of the temples near my school has a big festival every year, with many many vendors lining the road.  The day the festival started, it was announced during chapel (which also acts as our morning assembly) that we should not eat while walking.  Well, my co-worker and I disregarded this rule--we said.  The next day, one of the Japanese teachers told me that some of her homeroom students said they tried really hard not to eat while walking, but then they saw me eating while walking!!!  And wasn't it unfair?  Those little snots ratted me out!   

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The students (and teachers, by extension) "should not eat while walking," why? Because it's gauche and presumably would reflect badly on the school? Why would this be so if, as you say, "Who the hell goes to a festival and doesn't eat while walking?"

[Hiroyuki]

One of the temples near my school has a big festival every year, with many many vendors lining the road.  The day the festival started, it was announced during chapel (which also acts as our morning assembly) that we should not eat while walking.  Well, my co-worker and I disregarded this rule--we said.  The next day, one of the Japanese teachers told me that some of her homeroom students said they tried really hard not to eat while walking, but then they saw me eating while walking!!!  And wasn't it unfair?  Those little snots ratted me out!   

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The students (and teachers, by extension) "should not eat while walking," why? Because it's gauche and presumably would reflect badly on the school? Why would this be so if, as you say, "Who the hell goes to a festival and doesn't eat while walking?"

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As torakris has already pointed out, eating while walking can be dangerous. It can even be fatal. In 1999, a four-year-old boy eating cotton candy while walking fell over and was taken to a hospital, but the doctor didn't realize that a waribashi pierced his throat and reached his brain and let him leave without proper treatment. The boy died the next morning.

[Culinista]

I REALLY wish this no walking-and-smoking were the rule everywhere. I got a cigarette burn on a white raincoat from some careless person who brushed past me on the street. They didn't even notice what they had done.

I hate walking and eating anywhere, even outside Japan. My husband finds it annoying that I insist on eating only where I can sit down, since this takes more time while we are traveling.

[prasantrin]

The students (and teachers, by extension) "should not eat while walking," why? Because it's gauche and presumably would reflect badly on the school?

I had to wait to reply until I could talk to a higher-up in the school. She (the Head of Discipline) pretty much said what you said. A lot of people, especially younger people, will eat and walk but older people still find it rude. Should anyone deem a particular action rude, then our students (or teachers) shouldn't do it, at least not while they are still under the care of the school.

Note: In Japan, students are considered to be under the care of the school from the time they leave their houses until the moment they step in their homes. Even if they go shopping after school (which they aren't supposed to do), or go to juku immediately after school, they are still under the school's care.

Why would this be so if, as you say, "Who the hell goes to a festival and doesn't eat while walking?"

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She said that most people understand that there are different rules for special occasions (festivals) and everyday life. Eating while walking is one of those things that's acceptable during festivals but not in everyday life. But in the minds of the higher ups of our school, if the students are allowed to break the rules in one area (even if it's OK), they are more likely to break that rule elsewhere, and break other rules, as well. Also, there are still those people who think eating while walking is rude anywhere, anytime, and the school is being considerate of them, as well.

I brought up the idea that it might be dangerous, and she also mentioned the story of the boy who died. But also said the possibility of injury had no bearing on them telling the students not to eat while walking during the festival, since the death of that boy was an isolated incident.

FWIW, I think the reasoning that it's dangerous to eat while walking is somewhat lame. I've seen the way kids behave while eating at home or in restaurants, and they are just as likely to hurt themselves while sitting in a chair (rocking it back and forth, holding their chopsticks in their mouths) than while walking.

[sanrensho]

I've seen the way kids behave while eating at home or in restaurants, and they are just as likely to hurt themselves while sitting in a chair (rocking it back and forth, holding their chopsticks in their mouths) than while walking.

I had to laugh at this. You have no idea how many times I've considered bolting down the chairs in our dining room, for just this reason.

[SuzySushi]

The students (and teachers, by extension) "should not eat while walking," why? Because it's gauche and presumably would reflect badly on the school?

I had to wait to reply until I could talk to a higher-up in the school. She (the Head of Discipline) pretty much said what you said. A lot of people, especially younger people, will eat and walk but older people still find it rude. Should anyone deem a particular action rude, then our students (or teachers) shouldn't do it, at least not while they are still under the care of the school.

Note: In Japan, students are considered to be under the care of the school from the time they leave their houses until the moment they step in their homes. Even if they go shopping after school (which they aren't supposed to do), or go to juku immediately after school, they are still under the school's care.

Why would this be so if, as you say, "Who the hell goes to a festival and doesn't eat while walking?"

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[robyn]

It's times like this that make me glad I don't live in Japan. Life is so proscribed. 

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Or another way of looking at it is that life in Japan is so polite.

And there are other things. After spending almost 3 weeks in Japan - where fat people are few and far between - it was a real eye opener coming home to the land where people are eating all the time - on the street - in the mall - in their cars. Now I am not a thin person - but the number of double-wides and triple-wides I see here has always made me ill - and - after Japan - it is even more disgusting. Do you reckon that eating everything everywhere all the time has something to do with the national tide of obesity?

Perhaps if we had more rules - more proscriptions - we wouldn't be a nation that is increasingly occupied by fat slobs. Robyn

[Ohba]

It's times like this that make me glad I don't live in Japan. Life is so proscribed. 

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Do you reckon that eating everything everywhere all the time has something to do with the national tide of obesity?

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Nope, I'd say it's more to do with eating (and drinking) crap in industrial quantities, adopting sedentary habits, and failing to accept the consequences as self-inflicted and avoidable.

[JasonTrue]

I think the answer, as the Saturday Night Live skit goes, is volume.

I spent some time with a friend in Nara and Wakayama, and in fact, we ate "everywhere", including, of course, in the car, at yatai, in restaurants, from samples at a wagashi shop, and near the front the steps of one of her friends'.

We weren't eating while walking (maybe a pace or two), but we were eating frequently, with probably no more than an hour or two between nibbles of something. I certainly eat a lot of different things with other friends in Japan, but her habit of never being far from food was a bit of a surprise for me.

My friend's secret to such indulgence while still maintaining a healthy weight was that she was eating relatively small portions of everything... in fact, she ate only a portion of what she ordered, and that was from much more modest servings typical of Japan than what Americans are accustomed to. She commented that she gets bored of the same flavor quickly.

Americans like eating, rather than tasting. Accordingly, we often mistake "big" portions as "generous", instead of tedious. Our obesity problem is mostly the inability to recognize when we're getting full, or the inability to stop eating as long as we have food in front of us. Also, we drink more of our calories than most of the rest of the world, and there's not much of a signal from beverages that we are getting full.

[sanrensho]

I think the answer, as the Saturday Night Live skit goes, is volume.

It's definitely the portions. On the other hand, I have never been fatter than when I lived in Japan. If you live in a large city like Tokyo, there is so much good food that you can never get bored of eating. And eating. And eating. And eating...