What is ekiben? Ekiben comes from two Japanese words “eki” which means “train station” and “bentou” which means “boxed lunch”. Ekiben is an essential item during travel by bullet trains in Japan. They were born in the late 1800s when the first slow coal-powered trains started running in Japan, taking hours to reach their destinations and their restaurant carts being too expensive for common folk to afford. At first ekiben consisted of the simple two sesame rice balls meal but eventually the shops selling ekibens opened at the train stations providing a wider variety of lunches. Of course now, there are thousands of types of ekibens to choose from and…
Traditional Japanese Crafts of NIPPON-ICHI
As the summer in Tokyo starts heating up the streets, we decided to introduce you to more cool things inside the JR Tokyo train station, a perfect place to pass through or just enjoy on the hot summer day. Tokyo train station is the busiest train station in eastern Japan and boasts an amazing architectural design and the greatest history. When you pass through the magnificent dome gates, you can find a large shopping area where you can discover a ton of fun things and delicious foods. This time we would like to introduce you to the souvenir shop inside the Tokyo station’s Southern Terrace, called NIPPON-ICHI. Originally based in…
Convenience and Ease of IC Cards
As I mentioned in the ATM entry, Japan is mainly operating on cash-system payment methods. However, there are other options that have become widely and conveniently available in the recent years. IC cards: SUICA IC cards (Integrated-chip cards) are a type of a pre-paid card that is shaped just like a regular credit card but it can be purchased and charged at the train stations only. Having an IC card eliminates an inconvenience of constantly having to carry around cash and trying to figure out how much your ticket to a certain train station would cost. After you got your cash from the ATM just transfer it to your IC…