In the area where I work, there're several office buildings, each of which easily house 800-1000 worker bees like me. And everyday around 12 noon, 65% of us famished bees swarm out in search of food. The results: lines outside restaurants and eateries, stressed-out waiters and waitresses, and handy conversation starters like, "Crowded isn't it?", "Yeah, lots of people...", "Doesn't feel good leh..."
Approaching the situation like a typical techie, today I asked my co-workers why people don't just stagger their eating times.
Expected answers like, "Oh 12 to 1 is the official time", "It's how things usually work here", etc. followed by a couple of shrugs, but I was delighted to hear, "We Japanese like crowds; we get nervous when there aren't people milling about all over the place."
Never thought of it that way.
(PS: Someone please tell me what "staggered" is in 日本語)
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