I’m coming up on my second week in Tokyo. During the day I’m a marketing intern and weekend nights I work at a bar. I feel like I’m running around in circles hopping from one train to the next as I switch lines and try to catch an express. I haven’t found a place to settle yet so I haven’t been able to cook for myself or at least pack a lunch.
My internship is located in a small part of town with not much going on. I suppose you could joke that it’s the inaka (the country), and not even the suburbs of Tokyo since people live in actual houses and have space to move around in them. Someone has even got a nice plot of land for a hatake (vegetable garden). Therefore, when lunch rolls around and my stomach starts to grumble, I’m left with some limiting choices: Family Mart or Seven-Eleven.
There is a place that makes obento (box-lunches) but the menu is made up of either fried chicken or pork which are both soggy and covered in so much grease that you can’t taste or even feel anything since it all just slips right down your throat.
That leaves me stuck with the combini, which actually right now, I don’t mind too much. I’ve always been a fan of the combini since I was a kid. They’re basically the quick-fix masters from fulfilling my sweet-tooth to paying my bills. They were honestly something I missed while I was back in the States and I was delighted when I found a Famima!, a branch of Family Mart, which opened a few stores in southern California complete with the cleverly wrapped onigiri and all.
So it’s my second week of living off of combini food and I haven’t even gone through half of the options yet. I started off with the cold ramen which is actually a favorite now. I’m a fan of the hot ramen but in the summer heat I find the cold ones to be a great compromise. I’ve also had the cold udon and somen. Today, I got a cold ramen salad with a delicious, spicy sesame dressing. I also always get an onigiri (usually tarako (spicy cod roe) or sekihan (rice with red beans)) because as my grandmother says, you can’t get full unless you eat rice. And the best part: it’s all for about 500Yen (5 bucks)!
People make fun of me because I actually look forward to the combini. I suppose I’ll eventually grow tired of them but there are so many options and varieties, it’s going to take at least another month. But I can’t wait for next season’s line of delectables so perhaps I’ll never tire of it!
Say, is there some sort of site or forum that rates combini foods on scales such as taste, price, healthiness, and over all quality or value? I think that would be pretty cool.
