A mother pushing a stroller pointed to a menu at a food stall

Food stalls in the precincts of Sensoji Temple — Mother in front of the food stall

Why does the same food taste so much better when eaten outside? It's that strange feeling that you get when you buy and eat yakisoba at a fair, even if it doesn't taste so good when you think about it. Some people even say that eating it on the balcony tastes better than eating it indoors. Why is that?

When I looked into it, I couldn't find a clear reason. Some say it's just a belief, others say it's because eating outside produces beta waves in the brain. One of the reasons that caught my attention was that it was due to the translocation effect. The effect of moving from one place to another is that being away from your daily life and in a different environment stimulates your senses and affects the center of your autonomic nervous system, resulting in relaxation. If this is correct, then the reason why eating outside tastes so good is because it is unusual, but if you eat outside every day, the effect of the change of location will eventually wear off and you won't taste it anymore. I wonder how it is.

As you walk to the left with the main hall of Senso-ji Temple in front of you, you will see a row of food stalls. The stalls are lined up in a slightly wide aisle. Whenever I come here, there are always stalls lined up, and I wish they would turn this place into a permanent store like Nakamise, but that never happens. The fact that it remains a food stall for so long makes me think that they are trying to make the food taste better when eaten outside.

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