shinkansen bento – a step up on the ekiben

Eki, in Japanese, means train station. So the eki bento, or ekiben, is the train station bento box. At stations all around the country, quick bento lunches can be bought right on the station platforms before boarding a long train home, and the Shinkansen bullet trains – equipped with flip-down trays and roomier seating - are the best trains on which to put this practice to use.

But, coming back from my trip to Kanagawa and Tokyo - which ended up being predominantly a culinary excursion - I decided to finish my time with an upgraded ekiben, something the station platforms wouldn’t be able to supply.

Like many train stations in Japan’s larger cities, Shin-Yokohama station is connected to a network of shops and a basement-level food court, although the term food court gives the wrong impression. Laid out like the jewelry section in a department store, vendors sell freshly made bentos of all kinds – whether sushi, chili shrimp, or cob salad. 
 
The price is a bit steeper down here, where they charge per hundred gram, but the quality is high. As you can see here, I went with some maguro tuna sushi and an assortment of tasties like marinated squid, hijiki salad, and salmon roe over noodles.

Put together with some Yebisu white silk beer it cost me near 25 bucks, but all in all, this high-speed picnic made the trip back a lot more comfortable.

tsunami (not food)

Tsunami damage and nuclear holocaust aside, it has been a fairly uneventful week. That has to sound strange, callous, and backwards, but look. Western Japan was not hit as hard as the north: in fact this area is unaffected to such an extent that my only experience of the situation is coming from the news. And even the news has started to trickle out, and now normal programming is resuming on TV, with only intermittent interruptions for announcements and broadcasts from the emperor (THAT was not normal). Regardless of the fact that Fukushima is still not under control. Regardless of the fact that people are waiting in the snow for water and blankets.

I am unable to help them, of course. I understand that on an intellectual level.  Even if volunteers were being accepted, which they are not (since they would also have to be fed and blanketed, as well as directed), my profession does not lend itself to emergency situations. Maybe just like Ryo Ishikawa said, doing your daily job the best you can may be the only thing to do right now. But it doesn’t sit well. Of course I’ve also donated, which you can too. I donated directly to the Japanese Red Cross. But then, I live here, so all I had to do was drop it in a box. For those overseas, online methods are also available. If you are donating, I recommend caution in selecting only well-established organizations like the International Red Cross and Salvation Army. I’m sure you’ve been flooded with links to these sites by now, so I don’t need to post them here, but please, consider donating.