Japanese Restaurants

Eating at some of the cheaper restaurants in Japan isn't quite the shoes-off tatami experience that most people think of. It is, however; something more fun and interesting.

You can go to cheap ramen restaurants where instead of ordering from a menu, or talking to any humans for that matter, you simply put money into a vending machine, choose the food you want, and then give the food tickets to the waitress. She will shout out the order to the cook, and within minutes delicious food is at your table.

In another restaurant we ordered the food from the waitress, human-style, and she typed it into a small PDA. The chef started cooking the food and we saw our bill automatically print out without the waitress even leaving the table. Getting the bill before even getting the food is a whole new level of Japanese efficiency.