Lunch on the go

This time I will give you an extended description of food on the go, meaning while traveling from place to place, where to get it and what else you can do to fill an empty stomach.

First up: The classic, ekiben. Eki meaning station and the ben-part coming from bento (=lunch box), they are boxed lunches especially for the hungry traveler. Different locations feature different contents and meals, often with local specialties and fresh veggies. Sushi is also a regular sight here, as these lunches are freshly made and only sold on the day they are "assembled" anyway --> no fear of getting bad fish.

Ekiben box

And that's how they come

Ekiben content

My first ekiben

Sushi ekiben

Of course there are bakeries and other shops around as well, what's for dinner is up to your imagination.

Lunch on the go

Fried chicken ekiben

The most basic of all Japanese foods designed to be eaten while traveling or as a quick snack is the onigiri, rice balls a in triangular shape. You can chose from a whole palette of fillings, from salmon to plum to just plain rice and weather they are wrapped in nori or not.

Onigiri

Onigiri guide

As you can see, these have instructions on how to unpack them, and those are needed, as an extra layer of foil prevents the nori from soaking up and becoming soft. Removing this is easy once you know how to do it, but w/o the instructions may take some time.

Oshizushi are sold only in certain parts of Japan and are basically an ancestor of the modern sushi. In the past, fish was preserved using sour rice and packed in leaves, which over time developed into the sushi as we know it. Oshizushi consist of a layer of pressed fish over rice and packed in leaves, making them comfortable to carry around.

Oshizushi - Closed

Oshizushi

Wherever you are, you won't starve in Japan, even if you dismiss all those restaurants around (~ 1 per 80 Japanese) and go for snacks like bread or some dumplings.

Yakimanju@Chinatown

(upgraded) Yakisoba-pan

Even though the bentos and snacks fill you up good, sometimes you just want to go out and grab lunch or dinner at a restaurant, so let's talk about those.
I am just talking about Japanese food here, of course there are Italian, French, Chinese, ... restaurants around, but you know those, no?

The most common form of restaurant is probably the shokudo, recognizable by it's large window with food displayed in it. If you choose something you see there, you can count on the food you get to closely resemble the one outside:

Shokudo window

Shokudo window

"But how", you might ask, "are they able to put food in their windows, and not just pictures? Won't it go bad?". The answer is simple: Fake food. You probably won't believe it when you see them the first time, but everything displayed is fake, made from plastic, incredibly detailed and pretty close to art sometimes. These replicas seriously look delicious!

Kappabashi-dori - Fake food

Kappabashi-dori - Fake food

If you are near the Kappabashi-dori in Asakusa you can shop for a bowl of fake-Ramen or some fake sushi, but be warned: The prices are steep.

Aside from the shokudo, which offer a wide range of foods to choose from, specialized restaurants can also be found, be it the common ramen-eateries or the high-class sushi restaurant.

Udon-shop

Sushi windowshopping (Odaiba)

Another type: Izakaya are bar/pub eateries and can be found all over Japan. Here businessman get some beer and chicken skewers before returning home.

The shopping itself (if you don't feel like traveling around or eating out) is pretty much the same as everywhere else, with the exception of the abundance of Convenience Stores, called conbini.
Pretty much every neighborhood has at least one of them nearby and there are many different chains.

Convieniece store

7-eleven

The food you can buy here is pretty similar to the ekiben fare, with the addition of warm food. Its common to get your bento warmed up right before you pay (not for sushi, obviously), getting you a hot meal at any time of the day/night. Conbini bentos tend to be a bit cheaper than ekiben, by the way, but you don't get the regional variety.

Conbini bento

Tonkatsu bento

Different melon shapes and enormous prices

So that's about it for preventing starvation, and seeing as my travel is coming to and soon, this will be one of my last posts.

So long and stay tuned,
JuergenS

written by  JuergenS on September 3, 2010 from Kyoto, Japan
from the travel blog: Two month of Japan
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

Rail star

Public transit is the obvious way to go for any tourist and the system of Japan is really good. In fact, if a train is late even by a few seconds the conductor is expected to hand in an written apology. Quite different from the trains at home.

The train everyone talks about is of course the Shinkansen, the bullet train. This one comes in different varieties and speeds and is the fastest earthbound way to get from one city to another.

Shinkansen

Shinkansen

Of course there are "normal" trains as well, also Limited Express trains, Express trains, overnight trains, ... You name it, they got it.

Finding your platform and train should not pose that much of a problem, even without Japanese, as long as you stay in the major cities, where the announcements are made in English as well as Japanese. If in doubt: Ask someone, you should be able to find some English speaking staff.
Might be problematic in more rural areas.

Train schedule - English

Train schedule - Japanese

Also, with the movie in the cinemas and the games coming up, there are trains specially decorated with Pokémon. Didn't notice any difference aside from their outer appearance, the kids love them though.

Pokemon train

Pokemon train

If in Tokyo the main means of transport is the metro system, it's the city buses in Kyoto.

Kyoto city bus

Kyoto city bus

At the boarding areas one can see weird lines on the floor, these are guides for where to stand in line, and it works! No pushing, no cutting in line, everyone enters calmly and without making a fuss. Of course this is not entirely true, but it's still way better than the mess we get sometimes at home.

Lining up

Lining up

Lining up

There are other systems for riding a bus as well, as I learned when I tried the buses in Tama Plaza. Here it's pretty much the opposite from Kyoto: While also a flat rate, you enter by the front door, pay when right then and exit using the middle/rear-door. Caused some confusion when I came from Kyoto.

Taking a taxi is generally more expensive than public transit for lone travelers, but cannot always be avoided. Also, they are convenient! Note that you never touch a door in Japanese taxis, the driver opens and closes them from the diving seat via a button.

So long and stay tuned,
JuergenS

written by  JuergenS on September 3, 2010 from Kyoto, Japan
from the travel blog: Two month of Japan
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

Travel route

We are preparing to leave Japan now, packing our stuff, calculating customs, deciding what to take and what has to stay behind for other stuff to fit in the trunk, and saying our goodbyes to this country.
Tomorrow we will travel to Narita, where we will spend a night in a hotel before boarding the plane back to Austria on Sunday.

There were times of confusion and slight panic, troubles and worries, but those all seem insignificant now. After all, the good times, the fun, the interesting discoveries and great food will be what we take with us, as well as some life experience and the feeling of having grown a little.

My Japanese got better during these two month, I met lots of people, traveled to lots of places (approx. 7000+km of train travel), got lost sometimes and bought lots of stuff.
For me, traveling (as opposed to holiday) is a thing to do alone, as you can only get a real glimpse of the culture and character of the place you visit by personally confronting it, by doing as the locals do and making mistakes. A second person of your home always is way too big a temptation to speak your own language instead of struggling with the local one, for instance.

To my mind, two month were a good duration for this travel and I wouldn't miss a second of it, but for now it's enough. I probably would need some kind of employment or study to keep me busy. Not for the lack of things to see, mind you, but for the making of a real life, not just a holiday, in Japan.

I will do a proper recap post sometime after reaching home, might take some days though.

So long and stay tuned,
JuergenS

written by  JuergenS on September 4, 2010 from Narita, Japan
from the travel blog: Two month of Japan
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

The end of this traveling road

Hi there, this is the final post of this blog!

Two weeks ago our travel through Japan ended and we returned to our "normal" lives. Since then I moved and started university, organized all those souvenirs and had a fun get-together with friends.

This definitely was a journey I won't forget, so much happened, we visited so many places and I can't even describe the feeling of standing on top of Fuji-san during sunrise.
We looked all over Tokyo from the Tokyo Tower, got surrounded by deer in Nara, tasted the sheer diversity of Japanese cuisine and watched a hanabi taikai in Gunma, nearly got "templed-out" in Kyoto, I rubbed shoulders with thousands of fans at Comiket and experienced the remains of the horror of Hiroshima and the zeal of the locals there.
Too many impressions to summarize properly, so I decided to let pictures tell the story instead.I created a photo-book out of the thousands of photographs I took and ordered it to be printed and sent to me. It didn't arrive yet, but I won't keep you waiting till then, here is a digitizes version. Enjoy.

It was a really fun time, lots of excitement and interesting experiences every day and culinary delights where ever you go. Of course, humans tend to remember only the nice times, and there definitely where unpleasant and frustrating situations, but I feel it all helped me grow a bit, especially language-wise.
Also, I enjoyed my first holiday with Marion, fond memories there!

Its a little sad that it's over already, there definitely are some things I wanted to do but wasn't able to, visit Koya-san and Hokkaido for example, but all in all it was fulfilling and worthwhile time.

That's it, thanks for staying tuned for so long, you can change the channel now.

JuergenS

written by  JuergenS on September 6, 2010 from Linz, Austria
from the travel blog: Two month of Japan
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...