McDonalds recruitment poster in the style of a Ghibli movie poster
Greetings again from Tottori!
So today we went to a McDonalds in Japan. This may seem like a mundane experience if it weren’t for two things:
- I’ve been boycotting McDonalds in the US for over 2 years (read more at the bottom).
- The difference in menu choices and food presentation.
But when lured with prospect of chocolate covered fries, and the fact that I haven’t had a burger in over a month, how could we say no.
I had a Big Mac, but it actually lookedcloser to the picture than the mess I usually get in the US. Andrea ordered the Ebi-Burger, which is a patty made of breaded shrimp (it’s really good).
Ebi-Burger
Big Mac
You can see the shrimp!
Halloween Choco Fries
Medium drink… note how they don’t tower over the meal.
The other benefit of McDonalds in Japan is portion size. The medium soft drink is somewhere between a small and kid’s size in the US.
I know people like to complain about the size of drinks getting smaller and being ripped off, but we shouldn’t be drinking that much soda anyway.
I apologize for the fast food rant, but if you ever come to McDonald’s in Japan, try an ebi burger and maybe even a bacon and potato pie (Looks like an apple pie).
Until next time, stay awesome!
Boycott:
The reason behind my boycott is multifold. It really all started back in 2009 when one day, I was craving a double cheeseburger. I mean, REALLY craving one. So after my work day, I went over to McDonalds to get a double cheeseburger and lo and behold… it was the most mediocre thing ever. It even tasted like I was expecting, but the satisfaction wasn’t anywhere near what I wanted. From there I started eating there lesss.
A couple of years later, I ran across the book Chew On This, from the same people who wrote Fast Food Nation, the inspiration for the documentary “Super Size Me”. This book changed the way I viewed eating fast food. Though it didn’t completely change my diet, I decided to stick to only Big Macs and fries, and only on certain occasions.
Not long after that, there was discussion of the minimum wage, and long story short, I disagree with the fact that McDonald’s contracts constrict local franchises from being able to raise their minimum wages without truly hurting their own bottom line. They also made some comments in their employee handbook telling employees to “eat smaller portions” and also released an unrealistic budget ( http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/354633)
(http://www.salon.com/2013/10/23/video_mcdonalds_tells_workers_to_get_food_stamps/ ).
These things, along with the food additives left a bad taste in my mouth so I swore off the golden arches.
Japan McDonaldsdoesn’t pay their employees more than in the U.S., but with nationalized healthcare, and better job training, they’re not left in a dead end job as much as U.S. citizens.
Tottori Awesome 