Mimi thinks this is a good restaurant to eat at in the mall.
Japanese are very visual. Supermarkets lay out food for easy view of what you're buying (fish and rice are basic staples). Gift shops, convenience stores, and some supermarket displays show you cut open versions of the food so you can see what they look like inside. Restaurants usually have full picture displays of their menu and many even have reproductions for display. Plastic food displays are a big market in Japan.
Vehicles made out of fish.
Vending machines are EVERYWHERE in Japan. You can find one on the street every 2-3 blocks and in almost every public building. They're even on the sides of the rural roads leading up into the mountains. Note in the picture below that you can get both hot (red labels) and cold (blue labels) drinks from the same machine. The machines at the train station let you use your train payment debit card (PASMO) to buy drinks. Other vending machines we saw sold a variety of items such as hot and cold food, music CDs, watches, newspapers, toys, etc.
Japan has popular American restaurants like McDonalds and Duncan Donuts (they call it Mister Donuts) but the menu is quite different, often limited in selection compared to here, and the food can taste extremely different (just ask Mimi). Japanese donuts are not even close to US donuts and the Texas Burger at McDonalds would make any Texan laugh. The Texas Burger meat tasted different than we're used to and came with a "barbeque sauce" that tasted more like teryaki sauce. Below is my shrimp sandwhich from Subway, one of the primary sandwich selections.
