On a fine morning in September 2017, a one-of-a-kind restaurant was launched in Tokyo, Japan. The staff, donning crisp white uniforms, bowed down and greeted the customers waiting outside before kindly inviting them to try cuisines at their eatery. A video shared by the restaurant showed people giving orders and staff jotting everything down with big smiles on their faces. One woman ordered an iced coffee. An elderly server noted the order on her clipboard and chuckled because she did it “perfectly.” Another staff asked a customer sitting in a different spot if she brought the "right" order and the customer wholesomely replied, "It's perfect." It was perfect, but not "right" because this "restaurant can't get your orders right," as they have stated on their official page. But unlike most eateries around the world, no one made a fuss about it as this place celebrates “mistakes,” which is why it is called “The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders.”
The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders is a 12-seat pop-up restaurant in the Sengawa suburb of Tokyo. Here customers don’t demand orders to be right, because they know that the servers here are people suffering from dementia. According to YourTango, these servers get their orders right in just 40% of cases, but surprisingly, the customer satisfaction is 99%. According to The Washington Post, the parent of a former owner of the cafe has dementia, and the new owner agreed to let them rent out the space each month as a dementia cafe. They work with the local government to reach out to dementia patients in the area.
Representative Image Source: Pexels | RDNE
Dementia is a neurodegenerative condition in which the brain ceases to function properly. Per The Washington Post, more than 6 million Japanese people have dementia, and the number is expected to grow to 7.3 million by 2025. The condition has no cure. With the orientating axis of the brain losing its balance, the patient is left to dwindle in uncertainty, often going through memory loss, loss of attention, and other symptoms. This is what happens with the servers at this restaurant who don’t deliver the orders correctly.
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Olly
Like the server who delivered the iced coffee on that day, others served their orders too. But soon enough, something unusual started happening inside the restaurant. “That’s not what I ordered,” one customer told the server, “But hey, that’s okay,” he exclaimed. People who ordered burgers were getting noodles and those who ordered yakisoba got vegetable tempura. Yet, the ambiance of the restaurant seemed to be perfectly cheerful. People sitting on tables seemed happy. They were clicking selfies with servers. One customer told a 90-year-old server that she looked so youthful. The old woman giggled and explained, “I didn’t know if I could do it. But I came. And it feels so wonderful.”
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Akane Zen
Explaining the reason behind this wholesome idea, the restaurant wrote on its website, “All of our servers are people living with dementia. However, rest assured that even if your order is mistaken, everything on our menu is delicious and one-of-a-kind. This, we guarantee. We hope that this feeling of understanding will spread across Japan and throughout the world.”
Although the servers are all patients, the vibe here is fantastic. Plus, the restaurant offers music too. In the clip shared by the restaurant, Kazuo Mikawa can be seen introducing his wife Yasuko who was diagnosed with dementia. After the diagnosis, she left a lot of things she loved to do, like playing piano. She often said that there wasn’t a point in living anymore. Kazuo urged her to take up piano once again and they started playing together. With Yasuko on piano and Kazuo on cello, they now entertain the restaurant’s customers with soothing music. “It is important as a society that we support each other. We all have something to contribute,” a staff member said in the movie, as the restaurant exploded into thunders of applause for Yasuko.
The restaurant takes care that its servers are well-supported. Table numbers and order forms are color-coded for their ease. “A lot of elderly people are either in nursing homes or are just sort of shut away in their homes, so I hope that our initiative will give people with dementia something to look forward to,” Yui Iwata, who helps run the café, told The Washington Post. “If people get a deeper understanding, it would become easier for people with dementia to go out, as well.”
Over the years, the incredible cafe has won numerous awards. In a 2019 promotional movie, restaurant producer Shiro Oguni said, “We want to change society to become more easy-going so, dementia or no dementia, we can live together in harmony.” Oguni’s efforts are paying off and people are loving it too. In the same movie, a customer said, “I think there should be more places like this.”
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Why do some folks use social media but don't engage?
Psychologist says people who never comment on social media share these 5 positive traits
For over 20 years, social media has developed into a staple in many people’s day-to-day lives. Whether it’s to keep in communication with friends and family, following the thoughts of celebrities, or watching cat videos while sipping your morning coffee, there seem to be two types of social media users: commenters and lurkers.
The term “lurker” sounds equally mysterious and insidious, with some social media users writing them off as non-participants at best or voyeurs at worst. However, mindfulness expert Lachlan Brown believes these non-commenters have some very psychologically positive and healthy traits. Let’s take a look at how each one of these traits could be beneficial and see how fruitful lurking might be even though it can drive content creators crazy.
1. Cautious about vulnerability
Consciously or not, making a post online or commenting on one puts you and your words out there. It’s a statement that everyone can see, even if it’s as simple as clicking “like.” Doing so opens yourself up to judgment, with all the good, bad, and potential misinterpretation that comes with it. Non-commenters would rather not open themselves up to that.
These silent users are connected to a concept of self-protection by simply not engaging. By just scrolling past posts or just reading/watching them without commentary, they’re preventing themselves from any downsides of sharing an opinion such as rejection, misunderstanding, or embarrassment. They also have more control on how much of themselves they’re willing to reveal to the general public, and tend to be more open face-to-face or during one-on-one/one-on-few private chats or DMs. This can be seen as a healthy boundary and prevents unnecessary exposure.
Considering many comment sections, especially involving political topics, are meant to stir negative emotional responses to increase engagement, being extra mindful about where, when, and what you comment might not be a bad idea. They might not even take the engagement bait at all. Or if they see a friend of theirs post something vulnerable, they feel more motivated to engage with them personally one-on-one rather than use social media to publicly check in on them.
2. Analytical and reflective mindset
How many times have you gone onto Reddit, YouTube, or any other site and just skimmed past comments that are just different versions of “yes, and,” “no, but,” or “yes, but”? Or the ever insightful, formerly popular comment “First!” in a thread? These silent browsers lean against adding to such noise unless they have some valid and thoughtful contribution (if they bother to comment period).
These non-posters are likely wired on reflective thinking rather than their initial intuition. Not to say that all those who comment aren’t thoughtful, but many tend to react quickly and comment based on their initial feelings rather than absorbing the information, thinking it over, researching or testing their belief, and then posting it. For "lurkers," it could by their very nature to just do all of that and not post it at all, or share their thoughts and findings privately with a friend. All in all, it’s a preference of substance over speed.
3. High sense of self-awareness
Carried over from the first two listed traits, these silent social media users incorporate their concern over their vulnerability and their reflective mindset into digital self-awareness. They know what triggers responses out of them and what causes them to engage in impulsive behavior. It could be that they have engaged with a troll in the past and felt foolish. Or that they just felt sad after a post or got into an unnecessary argument that impacted them offline. By knowing themselves and seeing what’s being discussed, they choose to weigh their words carefully or just not participate at all. It’s a form of self-preservation through restraint.
4. Prefer to observe rather than perform
Some folks treat social media as information, entertainment, or a mix of both, and commenting can feel like they’re yelling at the TV, clapping alone in a movie theater when the credits roll, or yelling “That’s not true!” to a news anchor that will never hear them. But contrary to that, social media is a place where those yells, claps, and accusations can be seen and get a response. By its design, social media is considered by experts and the media as performative, regardless of whether it is positive or negative. Taking all of the previously mentioned traits into account, one can see why they would prefer to “observe the play” rather than get up on the stage of Facebook or X.
On top of that, these non-commenters could be using social media differently than those who choose to fully engage with it. Using this type of navigation, there may be nothing for them to comment about. Some commenters are even vying for this for their mental health. There are articles about how to better curate your social media feeds and manipulate algorithms to create a better social media experience to avoid unnecessary conflict or mentally tiring debate.
If you go on a blocking spree on all of your accounts and just follow the posters that boost you, it could turn your social media into a nice part of your routine as you mainly engage with others face-to-face or privately. In terms of commenting, if your curated Instagram is just following cute dogs and all you have to offer for a comment is “cute dog,” you might just enjoy the picture and then move on with your day rather than join in the noise. These non-commenters aren’t in the show and they’re fine with it.
5. Less motivated by social validation
The last trait that Brown showcases is that social media users who browse without posting tend to be independent from external validation, at least online. Social media is built to grow through feedback loops such as awarding likes, shares, and reposts of your content along with notifications letting you know that a new person follows you or wants to connect. This can lead many people to connect their activity on social media with their sense of self worth, especially with adolescents who are still figuring out their place in the world and have still-developing brains.
Engaging in social media via likes, shares, comments, and posts rewards our brains by having them release dopamine, which makes us feel good and can easily become addictive. For whatever reason, non-commenters don’t rely on social media as a means to gauge their social capital or self worth. This doesn’t make them better than those who do. While some non-commenters could have healthier ways to boost their self worth or release dopamine into their systems, many get that validation from equally unhealthy sources offline. That said, many non-commenters’ silence could be a display of independence and self confidence.
Whether you frequently comment online or don’t, it’s good to understand why you do or don’t. Analyzing your habits can help you determine whether your online engagement is healthy, or needs to be tweaked. With that information, you can then create a healthy social media experience that works for you.