Omotenashi: How the Japanese Remind Us We Deserve to Be Happy
It’s a lot more than just “being nice”
On our last night in Tokyo, we missed the korot stop. It was nearly 8 PM, and we knew this was our last chance. “Dude! We have to turn around!” My friend and I got off at the next stop along the red Marunouchi metro line that connects Shinjuku and Tokyo Station, then hopped right back in to go the other direction.
I can’t recall whether it was Ginza, Kasumigaseki, or Shinjuku-sanchome station, but I still remember exactly what the tiny stall selling little pieces of heaven looked like. It was a 10-foot-long aluminum box with two glass displays, their bottom half straight, the upper half curved — the kind you typically see in bakeries and cake shops. “Thank god!” The single-pull metal shutter was still open.
The two ladies behind the counter were already packing up to go home, but when they saw us running towards them yelling, “Korot! Korot!” they stopped in their tracks. A korot, by the way, is a crêpe filled with whipped cream, wrapped tightly like a little pillow, at the center of which may sit a piece of banana with some chocolate sauce, a strawberry, or any other delicious filling you can imagine. It’s the closest you’ll ever come to biting into a cloud, and if you do, you too will gladly get lost in the giant spider web…
