Better than you think. Ekiben.

Though I'm just in the early stages of planning this trip, one thing that I do know already is that we'll be taking the train to take us from one place to another.

This being Japan, even the food that is served aboard trains is taken very seriously.

The bento, or lunchbox, is the Japanese solution to eating on the go.  A kind of bento sub-genre, or some might say a whole separate cuisine, is the "ekiben."

The word comes from "eki-uri bento," which literally means "station box meal"  and they are sold at train stations across Japan and are standard fare on Shinkansen (bullet train).

Ekiben come in countless styles, varying by ingredients that reflect both the season of the year and the location that the box originates in.  Amazing to think that the food in the box actually changes with the season.  In the US, the contents would be the same all year round.  We're so boring.

Ekiben are served in all sorts of containers (is there a Hello Kitty one?) but mostly in the style of the basic bento -- a shallow box divided into sections with different food in each, along with a portion of rice.

The history of the ekiben is that it originated in the late 1800s as the rail network spread throughout Japan. Local stations competed to offer bentos to the passengers and to show off their local delicacies.

Originally, they were sold by peddlers to passengers who called out to them from the carriage widows. Later, speed became the focus of the train schedules, and it became impossible to stop long enough to buy the local ekiben, but the tradition continues. Today,  ekiben are served on Japan's express trains and "shinkansen" bullet trains and ekiben can be bought from kiosks located all along the station's platforms.

Ekiben are easy to buy and relatively speaking, cheap eats.  Prices range from as low as ¥300 for a small snack bento to above  ¥3000 yen for elaborate bentos. Most full meal size bentos are in the ¥700 to  ¥1200 yen range. 

They say that the best ekiben provide a small window into the regional cuisine and culture of the place where the bento is produced and that the people who make and sell these bentos do so with great thought and pride in what they do.  For me, they'll be a fun way and hopefully, a tasty way to enjoy what otherwise might be a very boring train ride!