As a foreigner, one often hears the rule "do not eat/drink in public" or at least "do not eat/drink while walking. If you're going to eat/drink, stand off to the side" because it is considered to be rude. Most of us abide by this rule, for fear of getting the unsettling stares from passing Japanese. I myself, rarely see a Japanese person walk down the street with even a
bottle of water in hand (I can perhaps count the times I've seen someone walking with food/drink on one hand). However, this rule seemed to be quickly forgotten the moment me and my friends stepped into Kobe's China Town.
Not only does Kobe's China Town have a rather extensive selection of on-the-go treats, food carts and restaurants pack the streets, with rather impressive lines of customers at each stand. It seems difficult to get through China Town without some how ending up buying a pork bun or some other sort of meat on a stick or fried pastry.
Inadvertently, I began taking pictures of these people
eating on the go. A public act that so many Japanese frown upon, was being documented even when I didn't mean to document it. My friends and I even commented after leaving the China Town street that, once one steps foot outside the gate, food has been eaten, and people act like this "disgraceful" action was never performed. For some reason, people felt it was more acceptable to eat while walking on this one street, than anywhere else in the whole city.
As a foreigner, one often hears the rule "do not eat/drink in public" or at least "do not eat/drink while walking. If you're going to eat/drink, stand off to the side" because it is considered to be rude. Most of us abide by this rule, for fear of getting the unsettling stares from passing Japanese. I myself, rarely see a Japanese person walk down the street with even a bottle of water in hand (I can perhaps count the times I've seen someone walking with food/drink on one hand). However, this rule seemed to be quickly forgotten the moment me and my friends stepped into Kobe's China Town.
Not only does Kobe's China Town have a rather extensive selection of on-the-go treats, food carts and restaurants pack the streets, with rather impressive lines of customers at each stand. It seems difficult to get through China Town without some how ending up buying a pork bun or some other sort of meat on a stick or fried pastry.
Inadvertently, I began taking pictures of these people eating on the go. A public act that so many Japanese frown upon, was being documented even when I didn't mean to document it. My friends and I even commented after leaving the China Town street that, once one steps foot outside the gate, food has been eaten, and people act like this "disgraceful" action was never performed. For some reason, people felt it was more acceptable to eat while walking on this one street, than anywhere else in the whole city.
Kobe Chinatown can be seen as an exotic liminal space so that normal rules don't apply. Especially with hawkers selling their treats on the streets: where else are you going to eat?
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