Eki-Ben: a Japanese food classic

Believe it or not, but after six months since my last trip to Japan in April, I am still going through old pictures and still have old topics from the trip that I haven’t talked about yet. One of them, for all you travelers in Japan, is the famous boxed-lunches on trains called eki-ben (駅弁). Basically, these are bento boxed-lunches specifically for traveling along the railway system. I tend to associate them with the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) in particular, but you can see them at any major train station or platform, and even smaller, more rustic ones. The sheer variety, and excellent meals you can get special lunches make them a special treat and some have even taken lengths to collect and explore the various kinds of ekiben scattered throughout Japan.

On our last trip, we planned a mini-vacation to Kyoto with my wife’s family and my little girl who’s never been there before. They live in Kanagawa Prefecture, so after hopping a few early morning train lines, we reached the big station at Yokohama where the Shinkansen stops. There, we got ourselves some nice boxed lunches. My wife’s bento is a traditional bento-style meal fit for a Japanese traveler.

Eki-Ben Box

And inside:

Eki-Ben

You can see a few different styles of onigiri rice-balls, some smoked salmon in the middle, a little deep-fried chicken (kara-agé) and various other things to much. The box is fairly large, but not too expensive (about ¥500-¥1000) and can be a pretty gourmet meal.

And here was mine: a more Chinese-style bento meal, which I think cost about ¥700.

Eki-Ben 2

Contents worthy of a good dim-sum restaurant:1

Eki-Ben 2

I think we also had some Boss Coffee, purchased separately at Yokohama Station, as an extra refreshment, and a great start to our trip to Kyoto.

I once watched this special on NHK about exploring the variety of ekiben in Japan, and it’s pretty impressive. Smaller, rural stations will have unique, home-made style boxed-lunches only sold at one or a few stations, and whose box-labels are rare to encounter, while even in larger stations, different regions may have different brands. If you had the time and money, it would be an interesting experiment to see what you could collect across Japan.

If you go to Japan, and plan on hopping trains, especially the Shinkansen/Bullet Train, definitely try to pick up an eki-ben box lunch at the station. You’ll see many food booths selling them in stacked boxes in plain view so you can easily pick out what looks good. Don’t be afraid to experiment either; you may be surprised to see what delicious foods await under the lid.

Enjoy!

1 I definitely consider myself a dim-sum connoisseur, having enjoyed it now on three continents (Seattle, Dublin and Tokyo). Where possible, I tend to prefer Chinese food over Japanese food, but that’s just me. :)



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2 Comments on “Eki-Ben: a Japanese food classic”

  1. Stephen says:

    Nice Information and really helpful. I have also subscribed the RSS of the website to get regular updates, Looking more information on the same!

  2. Doug M says:

    Hello Stephen and welcome to the JLR!


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