One of the thing which you will realize when visiting an eatery; restaurant, diner or cafe in Japan will be the menu display. You can see the meals and beverage
offered at the place visually, not like in written words as in Europe. Menu display is mostly located outside, beside the entrance or sometimes inside the eatery.
For example, Kitsune udon. In Europe, it will be mentioned on a menu card as like warm udon noodle with sweeten fried tofu. On the other hand, diner which has a menu display has a food sample of Kitsune udon made from wax or plastic.
Therefore you can easily recognize how the meal looks like.
Please note that food samples located at the menu display is just a sample. The actual meal may be looks slightly different. Anyway, the difference is usually the appearance, not the ingredients.