You may wonder why a posting about Krispy Kreme is in the "culture" category of this posting and not in the food category. Read on - you'll see that it does have to do with the unique "culture" of Japan.
Would you stand out in the freezing cold winter weather for an hour & a half just to have a Krispy Kreme donut? No, you say? Well, that's what thousands of people in Tokyo have done & continue to do. Last week I was walking by the outlet that opened in Shinjuku (opened last year) & I couldn't believe it - people lined up in droves waiting to get into the shop to buy a sugar bomb! Below is the photo I took with my cell phone. 
Of course, this doesn't happen just with Krispy Kreme. The same sort of thing can be seen at Cold Stone Creamery - the ice cream shop - in the Roppongi Hills complex. Can you imagine the conversation when one friend calls another: "Hey, Nobu-chan, let's go stand outside in the freezing cold & line up for a nice cold bowl of ice cream!" "Yeah, Mari-chan, and after that we can take the subway over to Shinjuku & stand out there for a couple more hours waiting for a donut! Yummie!"
I can remember 20 years or so ago when Hobson's ice cream opened up & they were rumored (is "known" to strong here?) to have paid "sakura" (it can mean a cherry blossom, or as in this case, it's a slang term for "shills") to line up outside to buy ice cream. Human nature is such that whenever we see a long line of people waiting to buy something we figure it's gotta be good & we want some of it!
Restaurants here would (and probably do) give anything to get their name in any of the popular magazines. If they can get people coming in & especially lining up to get a taste of their food, the restaurant can become a hit place almost overnight. That lasts about as long as it takes to get the next one written up, but it's good business when they get it. And, if the restaurant is truly good, people will come back - but still, there are those who go only because it is the "happening now!" place.
Now - if you really want a good donut get yourself out to San Francisco & go to Bob's Donuts on Polk Street - KK - eat your donut holes out!
Gotta run - I think there is a new tofu store out there somewhere that is willing to pay me to line up for a tasty tofu treat. Follow me!
