Well, I have seen plenty of japanese tourists indeed and still feel butthurt about Turkish people who speak Japanese apparently with no effort at all, but it still seems weird to me that you can't see any other language than Japanese on the picture here. No Turkish, no English, no nothing, just Japanese. And with a nifty little Turkish flag so as to be sure where the ice cream is coming from. How has that picture not be taken in Japan?
But yeah, it's probably a regional thing indeed. But it's still no fair that you can find Dondurma easily in Japan, where the Turkish population is certainly quite low, but nowhere in Germany or even in Istanbul. ;__; Though to be fair, it was winter, but still...

YESSSS, I DID AND IT WAS DELICIOUS! I had pistachio flavored dondurma, and it came even with the teasing described in Wikipedia. :D Though they didn't do much teasing with me (fortunately), but the kids before and after me in the line? Poor little guys would have their ice cream cone snatched away when they didn't grab it fast enough. ^_^

I would totally want to read that thesis. But only with a good stack of dondurma in my freezer.