I finally visited the anime cafe in Akihabara and saw something weird

I went to that Gundam themed cafe last weekend on a trip to Tokyo. I noticed about half the people there were taking pictures of their food for 10 minutes before eating. The waitress told me they actually have a rule now about limiting photo time to 5 minutes because of crowding. Has anyone else seen cafes that are getting strict about phone use?

2 comments

2 Comments

lindal131mo agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, do you think the cafe is just trying to keep things moving, or are they actually worried about people hogging tables for Instagram content instead of eating? Tbh, I've seen that kind of thing ruin the vibe at a few ramen spots. It sounds like that Gundam cafe is just trying to stop the whole place from turning into a photoshoot studio where nobody actually enjoys the meal. Ngl, I wonder if they started that rule because people were straight up blocking the aisles with their fancy camera setups. I can't stand when you're waiting to sit down and someone is taking 100 pictures of a hamburger shaped like a robot head.

jamesf411mo ago

At a ramen spot near my office they put up a sign limiting people to 45 minutes during lunch rush. Worked pretty well actually. Most people were done eating in 20 minutes anyway, just sat there scrolling. Had one guy try to argue that he needed more time to "compose his shots" and the owner told him straight up this isn't a photography studio. They even moved a bunch of small tables closer together to make it harder to set up tripods and stuff.