A little taste of haute cuisine in a bento box.

During my most recent trip back to Japan, I had a chance to do some proper train travelling, indulging in several ekiben or station bentos along the way. Here's a brief report, plus what you need to know if you try your own train and ekiben trip.

One of the questions asked in the comments to my first Japan trip report was what kind of healthy 'fast-food' options there were. In that vein, I thought I'd talk about something that you can see for yourself, in a way. You might have heard already how totally awesome Japan's convenience stores, called conbini or konbini, are. They are like the 24 hour delis and bodegas that you see all around a big city like New York in a sense, but go several steps further in terms of customer service. Competition is fierce between the major conbini chains like Lawson, Family Mart, and 7-11, and competition between the conbinis and the fast food restaurants for the quick-meal market is quite serious too.

Japan's 7-11s are not quite the same as the ones in the U.S. to say the least. One of the services they offer is takeaway or home delivery of pre-ordered meals, including bentos. They have a dedicated web site for this service, called 7meal (セブン・ミール) (in Japanese only.)

In case you don't follow my other food blog, Just Hungry, I am in Japan for the next 3 months. I'll be reporting on non-bento stuff over there, but of course I'll be posting about bento related things here!

I just got here yesterday, so I don't have much to report yet, but here are some photos of takeout bentos available locally, in the suburban area of Yokohama (a major port city near Tokyo) where my mother and stepfather live.