In Japan, plastic models of food are common outside of just about every eatery. In order to provide potential customers with information about exactly what's on the menu, shokuhin sanpuru (??????, “food samples”), or highly detailed replicas of every dish served in the restaurant, are displayed near the entrance. Customers peruse the food samples, and then decide to enter the shop or keep looking for someplace to eat.
There is an entire industry devoted to creating these food samples. The Tokyo neighborhood of Kappabashi is home to a cluster of these small businesses that make plastic food samples,
