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The Unique History of Japanese Plastic Food Samples (tokyoweekender.com)
53 points by PaulHoule on Jan 30, 2024 | hide | past | favorite | 20 comments


Kappabashi Street (かっぱ橋道具街, Kappabashi Dōgugai) Which is a short walk from Asakusa temple/shrine.

Some of the stores will sell models to individuals, despite being directed at the food industry.

Many of the cookware, metalware and china stores around here are display sites for volume sales and are less interested in selling one-off china to westerners. "it depends" -The knives they sell are fantastic but not having an entire side of bluefin tuna to de-bone, I couldn't justify one.

The tiny bespoke "your bidet or toilet will look like this" models in the plumbing supplies stores which are made of porcelain and fired with the exact revolting avocado-green or puke-pink hue you want are also very sweet. I can't quite decide what you'd do with them, maybe plant a tiny cactus or something.


PSA: silicon is not silicone.

If it is plastic-like, it is silicone.

If it is glass-like, it is silicon.

Getting these details right gives your writing credibility. Getting it wrong takes it away.


Seems like you were able to figure out which was which, though?


Sure, I know that the writer is making a mistake, and I mentally can replace every 'silicon' with 'silicone'.

I also know that it would take approximately 10 seconds to look up the definition of the word (if they often get it wrong) and that if they aren't willing to spend 10 seconds to use the correct word, they are probably taking other shortcuts (in reasoning or research). This fact makes me less likely to accept their reporting and conclusions without corroborating evidence, because I trust them less.

Which is just saying what I said in my initial comment in a less succinct way.


> I also know that it would take approximately 10 seconds to look up the definition of the word (if they often get it wrong) and that if they aren't willing to spend 10 seconds to use the correct word

But how does one know to look up the definition of the word? How does anyone know whether they're using every word correctly, without obsessively verifying _every_ word? I'm pretty sure I'm using "obsessively" correctly, but I'm not sure if I've ever looked up "obsession".

Silicon/silicone seems more egregious to a technical crowd, but some of us will obsess over "click/clique," "decimate," "begs the questions," whatever.


>How does anyone know whether they're using every word correctly, without obsessively verifying _every_ word?

that's why once upon a time a published work went through multiple staff members, one of which had the very job you just explained.

now that the bar to publishing has been permanently lowered by technology and the current state of things writing quality has -- predictably -- declined.


Good PSA, but to be fair: It's a blog and not a big publication with professional editors, which themselves tend to make more egregious errors (Malcolm Gladwell's "Igon Values" comes to mind).

I'd be more worried if I read a technical article about "silicone wafers." This is ultimately a human interest piece.


It would be nice if there were more than two photos of the plastic food to go with this article.


I happened to accidentally stumble into a plastic food store while in Osaka a few months ago. I just looked up the name, and they have a web storefront! [1]

Admittedly all in Japanese, but the top part of the side bar shows you examples of pure fake foods, then the section under the "Sale" box gets you to fake-food style accessories, like USB drives, phone cases, and hair clips. Lots of pictures there to show the variety and quality!

(Edit: Sorry if this reads like a shill, I have no affiliation, and didn't even buy anything while I was there! Just took very touristy pictures.)

[1] http://morino-sample.jp/?mode=cate&csid=0&cbid=1803129&csid=...


When I was in Osaka I accidentally stumbled into what looked like a model store. There were all sorts of display cases with all sorts of models, from airplanes from WWII and before to futuristic mecha. All kind of jumbled together without any sort organization by type or manufacturer.

Then it hit me. I was not in a model store but a model display case store. All those hobbyists would need a way to display their models and this store fit just that need.

I know a lady from Osaka who responded, when I said I'd be excited to return there: "Really? It's so boring here!" If she only knew. And to bring it full circle, her sister-in-law hand-makes fake food.


I don't even have an iPhone but I do want Grilled swordfish case!

http://morino-sample.jp/?pid=142067608

Offtopic: curiously, if you try to use HTTPS then you would be redirected to HTTP version. Go figure.



Amazing. They're so realistic, I assumed it was done by some kind of plastication process applied to samples of real food. Hard to fathom that it's done by sheer artistic mimicry.


The (quite good) Wim Wenders film 'Tokyo-Ga' covers the manufacturing of these in some detail.


Thank you. Now I can be properly impressed, something the article didn't prove.


I was thinking the same. I can respect a decision to only show four photos max for [reasons], but in that case, photo number three absolutely gets cut for more food.

Photo three is just kinda bad anyway.


The artistry involved is incredible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9E77WZGCpQ


Nice! Although calling them "samples" sounds a bit strange, at least for me a "sample" is something you can actually sample, i.e. smell or taste, which wouldn't work if it's made out of plastic. Maybe "mockup" would be more appropriate?

Also, I imagine the restaurants have to regularly dust these off and check for spiderwebs etc., otherwise they'll quickly turn into the opposite of mouth-watering...


it can be argued that you're sampling the food with your eyes in this case





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