A note about restaurants

There are two types of restaurants in Japan; type a, where all the wares are on show in the window either as pictures on laminated card or plastic models of the actual food that are faded by the sunlight and greyed by a mountain of dust. They often have big windows so you can see inside. These are what I shall call the good-bad places. Good in so far as they do exactly what they say on the can, but bad because they are too easy, there’s no mystery, they are playing easy to get. Contrast this with type b. Type b restaurants are shrouded in mystery, a curtain shawl covering their doorway and frosted glass to protect their modesty. No cheap photos or plastic tat telling you what to expect, just a few symbols daubed on the curtain or the awning. The exude foreboding. These are the bad-good restaurants, the ones you covert, lust after but the fear of failure stops you chatting them u... sorry, going inside and discovering their delights. Why though? Are these restaurants so comfortable in their own skin that they don’t need to rely on strangers in town? Or is it just me being a cowardly coward? Answers on a postcard to ....