One of the (many) pleasures of train travel in Japan is buying a delicious bento box to enjoy during the journey, especially if you are taking a longer trip on the shinkansen (bullet trains). Bento boxes sold for this purpose are so popular that they have their own name, ekiben – eki means station – and most large stations have multiple ekiben shops to choose from.
Often the contents reflect local regional cuisine but my knowledge of Japanese food is still insufficient to recognise much of what I find inside, let alone be sure of where in Japan in might originate.
Still, the pleasure of presentation, variety, texture and taste is a joy and whiles away the time not spent gazing out of the windows at the beautiful views.
This ekiben from Tokyo Bento in Tokyo Station was just ¥880 (less than £6).
Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!6 Comments to "Tokyo Bento"
I totally agree with you! When travelling by train, we enjoyed our bento boxes while the rest of our party ate sandwiches from a 7/11 store! Only three months now, until we go back to Japan.
Oh Suelle, how wonderful. I’m constantly dreaming of the next trip. 🙂
What a visual delight! Our family made it a habit to pick up bento boxes on the many trains we took there. Some offerings were mystifying, but the variety was always great.
On our most recent trip we didn’t have that many train journeys (we stayed in Kyoto area for 8 days and we had a car in Kyushu) so not as many bentos this time. So lovely aren’t they?
That looks so lovely. Hoping to take a trip to Japan soon, and want to remember this!
I love ekiben! I wish we had bentos here – they sure beat cold sandwiches.