The dining table is where communication happens. Gathered around a table, people share the delights of seasonal ingredients and the simple joy of eating, and it also offers an opportunity to think about how the food gets to their table. Sitting with friends and family, meal time can forge relationship and nurture emotional growth. And when people all over the world sit down to enjoy Japanese food in their own country, there is also a connection being created between them and Japan. The aim of this theater is getting together the people who have actually gathered here from around the world and connect them via the medium of food, in the hope of moving together toward a better global future.

The Japan Pavilion featured a 150-seat circular theater space where interactive performance called Future Restaurant took place. The performance ran 34 times per day, and the total of 6000 times during the whole period.

Fitting to the concept of the Future Restaurant, a giant chandelier lights the circular stage where cooking performances are acted out. Visitors are seated at tables around the stage, where they use media table to access information on ingredients, choose their own dishes, and participate in the meal. All kinds of Japanese dishes, traditional ones as well as those already popular around the world, come up on the table one after another. The key phrases that unify the experience are “itadakimasu” and “gochisosama.” Chopsticks, the traditional utensil, are chosen as an input interface for the media table. Moving images of Japanese landscape in four seasons accompany the experience.