I traveled to Japan many times throughout childhood, and we dined at so many awesome restaurants within the Ginza area of Tokyo. This molded what would become an absolute love of Japanese cuisine.

One of the most fascinating and alluring things I remember about most of the Japanese restaurants were all those amazing plastic (artificial) food displays in glass showcases fronting the establishments. It’s one thing to read the menu, but to physically SEE it almost immediately sells it. Genius!

Bringing this custom here, upon walkin past a Japanese ramen shop in Waikiki last night, I snapped these shots of their plastic food display in front…

Yes, these are all plastic displays of the real deal. Looks pretty real to me! From that chashumen, to the peas on that fried rice, to the foam “head” topping that Kirin beer, good gracious, I want a bite and a sip! Hold the polystyrene, please. lol

When my dad was running Hawaii’s papaya industry and doing marketing in Japan, he had to get a couple of those plastic displays that depicted a papaya in really ono-looking service form. It costed a hefty $500 for a custom-made plastic papaya with a scoop of of plastic ice cream in it. And another 5 “Bens” for a simple plastic papaya with a plastic lemon wedge in it.