It’s called “breaking the ice” ahaha

But the commuter trains used to be different.

I wonder how much of this is influenced by Starbucks. I’ll never forget meeting a French couple while traveling about 7 years ago. I got the usual anti-American rhetoric from them (why anyone thinks that insulting your country within 2 minutes of meeting you is remotely polite/interesting/acceptable is beyond me, but I digress), before they went on to crow about the new Starbucks in Paris.

They told me how they hate everything American, but love Starbucks because they can take their coffee with them. Such a small thing. Not long after I remember going to Japan and seeing Starbucks out and about and thinking, as you noted, that this would change Japanese eating habits.

In a lot of ways it is nice because, well, I get hungry and want to eat. But I’m old enough to remember how things were “before,” and it’s just interesting to see the change.

If you are just going to Japan within the last 5 to 7 years or so, then this picture wouldn’t tell you too much. But if you have a longer association with it, then you’d notice the cultural shift.

I spend most of my time just a 100 miles outside of Tokyo in Tochigi. When I read Marie’s post I was in a Tully’s that is run by a guy I know. Thought the place has a really comfortable interior (see the photo below) and is the only really nice coffee shop in town, my friend told me that takeouts account for 65% of sales.

Plus the kid is a little chubby.

I wonder how long it will be before girls stop putting their hands in front of their mouths while laughing?

No, seriously, it is just interesting over time to see how social rules have relaxed.

As for the picture, you’re not supposed to eat on the trains or while walking though I have been here for 18 years and have always seen it happen on occasion. It’s just becoming more common now.

When I asked my Japanese friends why, they all said that eating a hamburger or hot dog requires one to open the mouth very wide. . . Something they claimed no self-respecting Japanese person would ever do in public.

These same people earnestly claimed that Western-style toilets, rice planting machines and combines, beef, big cars, and a host of other things are so totally against the nature of the Japanese that they would never catch on.

If the answer is not eating on the train, could it be:
1) Eating without covering his mouth with one hand?
2) Something about the chocolate cake?
3) His coat is buttoned?
4) No keitai, no ipod??