This thread is so much fun - so many places I haven’t thought of in years, with all of them calling up memories of different times and places. I never encountered Shakey’s when I was a kid, but when I moved to Japan 30 years ago, Shakey’s quickly became the place I would go to escape my homesickness (being from NJ, “home” = “pizza”). Shakey’s was huge here, they had 500 yen all-you-can-eat buffets that were very popular. A lot of what they offered was pretty weird by NJ standards - corn pizza, squid pizza, pickled ginger pizza, etc., etc. - but it was enough to keep me going. Then Domino’s arrived in Japan, and Shakey’s gradually faded. Domino’s is still going strong. The real veteran US chain in Japan is KFC - somehow everyone here has been persuaded that KFC is the traditional US Christmas dinner. Many of the shops have life-size Colonel Sanders’ figures standing outside the door, and at this time of year, they dress them all in Santa suits.