えき 弁当 (Eki Bentō)

ONE of the things I told myself to try as many as my finances will allow me is Japan's well-known 

えき 弁当 (Eki Bentō) aka Train-station bentos.

Named as such because of the long commute some have to take for domestic tourism or for work, it becomes the meal of choice during these train rides. When I watched a snippet of Japan Hour on Channel News Asia in late 2010, I remembered the entire episode was about 3 people travelling to various parts of Japan just to try different types of Eki Bentō. One of the featured bentos was from Hachioji Station. Read more at this guy's bento page.

However, I remembered one bit of info from the programme stating how to spot the authentic / good quality bentos. And that is to look for the Ekiben logo at the bottom left corner of each bento packaging.

For me, I'll keep my eyes peeled for bentos from Nippon Restaurant Enterprise (NRE). I'm sure its gonna be expensive, but check out the site to see what I mean. You may even download NRE's menu.

If bento is your kinda thing, there's this comprehensive site, Just Bento, by bento cookbook author, Makiko Itoh, with a post on
Eki Bentōs. It gives info on where to buy ('cuz it's not available at all train stations) and price range of these bentos.

I hope things go well with the visa... I so wanna try one of these!

*Picture sourced from Google Images.