Near the entrance of many Japanese restaurants, there are often elaborate displays showing plastic replicas of menu items. We were a little bemused by all this fake food. Personally, I didn't find anything tempting or appetizing about these displays.
But according to Wikipedia, fake food displays have a long history in Japanese culture and are a real art form. They are called sampuru, which comes from the English word "sample." Such displays first started appearing in the 1800s and were made out of wax. Now they're hand-molded out of plastic vinyl and cost big bucks to manufacture. Custom-made for each restaurant, replicas of a complete menu can cost over a million yen to produce.
[Photo by My Rare One]
