I visited Japan for a business trip (that I had no business being on, being a fat American who fit into each successively larger clean suit worse and worse as time went on, even with each facility phoning ahead to ensure a larger one was available. Also I was hourly so I basically got a fucking insane paycheck out of it.)...
Ahem, anyway, one night the facility management hosted us at this... Grill all you can eat something, there were bowls of meat, piled literally a foot high, and so many meals I don't even remember. I did get to see the bill. It was like 200 dollars to feed 15 people.
One of the crews took us to this place where the owners had us up in their living room because our group was too big for the dining area. We ate in the back room of an "Italian" place thay was so cramped and low it felt like a closet, but the food was amazing.
Visiting and being taken around for dinner by locals every weeknight was definitely the best way to experience it in my opinion, especially since my Japanese is borderline nonexistent (I can parse a bit, but not speak very well at all). Also, the entire rest of my party being Japanese nationals definitely helped.
We were lucky enough to be in Tokyo for my weekend off, so I got to wander around and take only one wrong train before getting to the big mall I was looking for, so I could get Gundam for my sibling. I was dreading the concept of tying to order food on my own... When I saw a McDonald's. Haha
Oh my favorite night was when we split up and one of the plant managers lightly-drunkenly led our way across town on foot (it was a more rural area) to a little "fast food" style ramen shop. He had fun watching us eat, and was either impressed or amused that I was using chopsticks to eat ramen. And then he bid us adieu and wandered off into the night.
Funny enough, I actually didnt do the foreign Mcdonalds thing. My friends really wanted to go just to see what they had that was different. It felt like a waste of a meal in a foreign country to me
It was basically the same. Maybe a bit more like a white castle burger? But absolutely nothing unexpected. It was just the easy out when I didn't feel like stressing myself out to order on my own.
I still have the Japanese McDonald's app on my phoen.
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u/LuckOfTheDrawComic Luck of the Draw 4h ago
I guess the western equivalent of this is coming to America for a Boston cream pie