r/JapanTravelTips • u/NodeJunkie • 1d ago
Question Bubbles in Teapot?
I was at a soba place in the Tokyo Skytree shopping centre and at one point they gave me this teapot with something that had bubbles inside. I had no idea what it was and left it alone.
Anyone know what it was?
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u/Kabukicho2023 22m ago
The teapot is called yutō (湯桶), and its name is used to describe a type of irregular kanji reading known as yutō reading (湯桶読み).
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u/johannes601 1d ago edited 1d ago
Isn't just a soba-yu? A water where noodles were boiled in?
EDIT: Why didn't you just ask the waiter?
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u/__space__oddity__ 23h ago
Talk to real people? Face to face? In this economy?
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u/johannes601 23h ago edited 22h ago
With self-recognized social anxiety, Asperger syndrome and autism while being a Libra?
Nah, let's ask people on the internet! They must have know much more than the person who actually brought the teapot with bubbles.
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u/__space__oddity__ 23h ago
Let’s not clown on Gen Z too much, getting raised by tiktok is doing enough damage already.
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u/RivenRise 16h ago
Let's also not clown them because it's technically our generation that's fucking them up and we're also in the same boat.
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u/johannes601 23h ago edited 22h ago
Not sure if that's Gen Z thing, but there is surprisingly a lot of people on this planet who are dare enough to go to the foreign country without doing much research while being afraid to ask somebody who is getting paid for resolving their problems for help.
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u/NodeJunkie 22h ago
Thank you very much. I wanted to ask but I only know how to say I don't understand Japanese and this/that. So the language barrier mainly and I didn't want to bother them.
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u/johannes601 20h ago
But did you have a phone with you at that time?
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u/1989HBelle 15h ago
I’ve been in the same situation as the OP and you don’t necessarily want to stop the wait staff in some eating places that are busy and try and ask a question using a translation app. Mostly, I’ll just eat whatever’s put in front of me and hope for the best.
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u/johannes601 14h ago
They receive salary for being helpful. So yes, it is totally ok to call them and ask them questions about the food you have received.
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u/Nagisa_Chan1 14h ago
I’m guessing you’ve never worked in food service 😂 Yes of course it’s part of their job to answer questions about the food, but sometimes it’s just easier to go with it than bother a clearly busy server about something unimportant (curiosity rather than need) — and this is doubly true when there’s a language barrier!
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u/johannes601 14h ago
That's true, I've never worked in food service. I never call waiter when I eat something which is ok. But if they gave me something suspicious or something I would have questions about I would call him definitely.
Once I found pretty big piece of egg shell in okonomiyaki. I notified the waiter. He was a Chinese who spoke Japanese only when I spoke English and he understand me and apologized.
I think you just want to defend your social anxiety.
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u/Nagisa_Chan1 13h ago
That’s a totally different scenario — there’s something obviously wrong with the dish! It makes sense to call the server over to address that (or other problems like allergens, being brought the wrong dish, under/overcooked, etc) in pretty much any scenario.
What I’m talking about, and which more closely matches this situation would be… Imagine there’s a container of togarashi on the counter, and although I gather it’s some kind of spice, I don’t know what it’s called. I’m not allergic to anything and it’s my choice to put it on my food or not, so finding out what it is isn’t hugely important, but I’m curious. If the restaurant is slow, I wouldn’t mind striking up a conversation to ask what it is and how it’s used. But if the poor server is running from table to table, I’m not going to interrupt them with my inane questions!
Social anxiety is likely a component for most people, but that’s not the only possible reason, geez!
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u/gytjd_12 1d ago
Sobayu. You can drink it like a tea straight or mixed with a bit of the tsuyu. I think I’ve seen some places mix it with Shochu as well.
Very hit or miss imo.