Lotus root, burdock appetizer and omelet with hieroglyphs: what they feed at the train station in Tokyo

As soon as the train starts moving, people of all nationalities start unpacking their travel lunches. And the Japanese have them decorated with special aesthetics and care. After all, it was here that the culture of bento takeout originated. And the variety of grocery stores, kiosks and shops with bento at Japanese train stations just makes my head spin.

Blogger Inga aka melon_panda, who has been living in the Land of the Rising Sun for a long time, demonstrated what they feed at the Tokyo train station and told the story of her lunch.

Well, are you all full?.. The other day I went on a business trip to Tokyo for one day. Usually, when I'm eating, I always dream of having lunch in a trendy restaurant with a glass of champagne after the necessary things, and then having a cake after that… As a result, like everyone else, after a day of frantic running around, in order not to lose a minute, I buy a bento lunch in a box at the station and, like everyone else, I unwrap it in the first seconds after the train starts. The railway bento, I believe, is a mandatory item of the program, without it the trip does not count — neither business nor tourist. It's not even a fact that it will be super tasty, but it's definitely interesting!

A box of food with you, purchased on the road at the station— is a cult in Japan. Exhibitions and sales of such dinners with dishes typical of different regions are periodically held in supermarkets in Japanese cities — you can not go anywhere, but go grocery shopping and buy exactly the same bento that you ate 5 years ago in Osaka or Fukuoka. These are memories, and a little sentimentality, and business, anyway.

At the entrance to the station of a big city, there will always be a large shop-a gallery of souvenirs, pastry shops, bakeries and ready meals - that's where the choice is the largest. If you have been swept past and you have already reached the place where the directions are divided - trains, metro, shinkansen - there is still a chance to buy food, but if you have already found your platform and got on it - the choice of bento is reduced to one kiosk. But even there you can choose from several options of sandwiches, onigiri, 4-6 lunches.

This is what a showcase with Tokyo dinners looks like.

There is the greatest choice in such a store.

A win-win option for a child, usually there is no question of throwing out the box, even though it is disposable.

I must say right away, it was an expensive lunch — 1580 yen, about $ 15. You can buy both two and one and a half times cheaper, it will not be worse, only the number of microbeads inside the box is smaller and not so rich in design.

Here the box was made of something like thin plywood, under a lacquer tree, and under the lid there was not only a complete list of the menu, as in a restaurant, but also a wonderful postcard with a retrovid that can be sent by mail. I would definitely have done so if I hadn't splattered it.

The food was very tasty, especially with hunger, so in general — all these vegetables, mmm! Pay attention to the ratio of vegetables, rice and meat. The ball in the middle is dessert, and I just didn't eat it. This is a mochi ball rolled in starch with bean filling. I see only extra empty calories in it, especially after a heavy lunch, imho, it doesn't make sense at all.

Pumpkin, a piece of rankon - lotus root, the holes of which are stuffed with meat, the same slice of root, but without filling, a spicy snack of burdock root and carrot with sesame seeds, another carrot, a piece of konnyaku, a stalk of something.

Above the fried fish is an omelet with a fried print.