Lotus root, burdock snack and omelette with hieroglyphs: what they serve 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 design them with special aesthetics and care. After all, this is where the bento takeaway culture was born. And the variety of food stalls, kiosks and bento shops at Japanese train stations makes your head spin.

Blogger Inga aka melon_panda, who has lived in the Land of the Rising Sun for a long time, demonstrated what they serve at the Tokyo 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 travel, I always dream of having lunch at a fashionable restaurant with a glass of champagne after doing some necessary work, and then having an afternoon cake... In the end, like everyone else, after a day of frantic running around, so as not to waste a minute, I buy a bento - lunch in a box - at station and, like everyone else, I turn it around in the very first seconds after the train starts moving. The railway bento, in my opinion, is an obligatory item on the program; without it, a trip is not considered - neither business nor tourist. It’s not even a fact that it will be super tasty, but it’s definitely interesting!

When entering a station in a big city, at the beginning there will definitely be a large store-gallery of souvenirs, pastry shops, bakeries and ready-made meals - this is where the choice is greatest. If you are rushed past and you have already reached the place where the directions are divided - trains, subways, shinkansen - there is still a chance to buy food, but if you have already found your platform and reached it, the choice of bento is reduced to one kiosk. But even there you can choose from several options for sandwiches, onigiri, and 4-6 lunches.

A box of food to go, purchased for the trip at the station, is a whole cult in Japan. Exhibitions and sales of such lunches with dishes characteristic 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, whatever one may say.

This is what a showcase of Tokyo lunches looks like.

This store has the largest selection.

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

Let me tell you right away, it was an expensive lunch—1,580 yen, about $15. You can buy two or one and a half times cheaper, it will be no worse, only the number of micro dishes inside the box is smaller and the design is not as rich.

Here the box was made of something like thin plywood, similar to lacquered wood, and under the lid there was not only a full list of the menu, like in a restaurant, but also a wonderful postcard with a retro view that could be sent by mail. I definitely would have done that if I hadn’t gotten it dirty.

The food was very tasty, especially if you were hungry - 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 ball of mochi rolled in starch and stuffed with beans. I see only extra empty calories in it, especially after a heavy lunch, IMHO, it makes no sense at all.

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

Above the fried fish is a fried omelette.