What makes Japan very convenient for non-Japanese speaking travelers is that they usually have plastic food samples. Known as “shokuhin sanpuru” (食品サンプル), customers can know what they’re ordering, or just point at them to staff to show their orders. But now, Japan is experiencing a record heatwave which has melted plastic. Of course, this includes the ankles of a few anime figures. And yes, even the plastic good samples aren’t safe from the heat.
Several netizens have noticed the melting Matcha Latte samples at a cafe in Nagoya. They then posted it online, which of course went viral. The heat-melted plastic food even made the national news back in Japan.
These plastic food displays are made of silicone and vinyl chloride, and with Japan’s intense heat right now, they will melt. NHK reported that the inside of the display reached about 60 degrees Celsius. This was constant during a stretch of two whole days, and because of that, they just melted. However, it seems that the cafe has “fixed” their little melting problem for now…
source: NHK
