French Fries Frenzy at McDonald's in Japan

Kids having a "potato party" with a huge load of fries as others spectate.

60 fries containers were stacked up along with a little pink balloon that announced the effort to consume the fries.

During October, McDonald's Japan has been doing a special sale: "all French fry sizes are 150 yen per order." This means that ordering large sized fries is now a bargain. Some people are taking advantage of this sale and held their own "potato party", in which they order a huge number of fries, and then "upload the images to Twitter or their own blogs." However, others are somewhat upset that not all of the fries will be eaten, which means wasted food. According to the article, "In Japan, you are expected to clean your plate. Not doing so is seen as wasteful. And being wasteful in Japan is a sign of bad manners." Anyway, for the group of kids who ordered sixty French fries, the eating went on for three hours while the adjacent walkway was packed with their friends who watched and took photos. Many criticized the "potato party" as being immature and impolite, since in Japan there are much higher expectations towards how people should act in public. I, personally, don't think it is such a big deal. In fact, I encourage the "potato party." I wonder if kids in the United States would do the same if there was a special sale of fries in American McDonald's restaurants. And if you can't finish all the fries, you can give them away to friends or take them home. Come to think of it, I would really enjoy participating in the party because I enjoy McDonald's French fries very much. I'll just need to bring a lot of ketchup.

Article link: http://kotaku.com/5955694/at-mcdonalds-in-japan-french-fries-are-causing-all-sorts-of-chaos

- Hanli Tjahyono