Japanese Box Lunches - By Regular People and by Punk Rockers!

In the west, when people are on a budget and don't want to spend money on eating out, they take sandwiches to work or school for lunch. Those lunches are packed in "Bags" and, hence, called "Bagged Lunches" by the savages who live in the west.

"Eat me or dieeeeeeeee!"

For the cultured folks of the far east, they don't eat bread, they eat rice... Actually rice is healthier for you than bread because bread has all sorts of things in it like butter (margarine?) and salt, etc... Rice is just rice.


But I digress..


In Japan, people pack a boxed lunch of rice and other gruel. This box of food is commonly referred to as, "Bento." Bento means, "Boxed lunch." (I think.) According to Wikipedia:


Here is a picture of a typical boring boxed lunch:

Boring bento box....

Here is a picture of a cool lunch that is packed by my punk rock friends who have waaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands:

Thanks to my friend Duncan Redmonds of the punk band Snuff (crazy f*ckers!) and "Den Den Mushi Mushi":

Japan is in a Depression! ¥300 Yen Bento!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Well, I have to admit it when I am wrong. I was completely convinced that, while we have little inflation in Japan, that we didn't really have any deflation at all.

Why? Well, 10 years ago, a liter of gasoline cost ¥95 yen. Today is costs ¥128. Food stuffs have all gone up in price too.

Seen on the road near Sasazuka Station on the Keio Line. It says

"Service Bento (no tea) ¥300"... It looked good too! 

One year ago a can of corn cost ¥85. Now it's ¥119.

But today I saw something that dropped my jaw: ¥300 yen bento! Like an idiot, I didn't take a photo of the bento but it looked pretty darned good too!

I have never seen ¥300 bento before. The photo is proof! If this is the direction that prices are going in Japan, then that's good news!

Hope my salary doesn't deflate with it!