Pacific Tides
My name is Thomas Sturm and I'm a programmer, photographer and writer.

Now go outside and look at the sky.

Yum!?!

Japanese restaurants traditionally display artificial menu items in their shop windows, and every visitor to Japan has been dazzled by the amazing quality and realism of the plastic models for every conceivable food item that can be found in restaurant windows.

Sooner or later it dawns on the visitor that there must be a massive industry for artificial food items in Japan, where huge amounts of fake sushi, spaghetti plates and curry bowls are produced. But for the casual tourist there is usually no opportunity to visit one of these factories.

Tony McNicol is a journalist and photographer in Tokyo and he visited one of the plastic food factories at the outskirts of Tokyo and has a great slideshow and article on this subject on his site.

While looking at the photos I started wondering how often one of the plastic food artists catches themselves licking their fingers while shaping epoxy into the shape of a dessert... :)

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