Displayed in restaurant windows to help customers choose their menu (and also to stimulate their appetite), sampuru (サンプル - a loan word from the English “sample"), the famous Japanese fake food replicas, are real pieces of art, made to order for each restaurant.

A great deal of craftsmanship goes into every food replica, because they must look identical to the represented dishes, and there are even specialized competitions for making sampuru.
These high quality food replicas are products unique to Japan, and an elaborate restaurant window, displaying sophisticated sampuru, is probably one of the many images defining Japan.

Sampuru

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Inu-yarai, Kyoto house bamboo skirts