Yesterday I took a trip to Tokyo to take advantage of Obon, when half the city leaves for their home prefectures to be with family, turning Japan’s capital into a ghost town for four days. It was fun, walking around the usually-bustling Shinjuku and Shibuya with very few people around me, and my wife and I had a pleasant time. I made a point of leaving Tokyo right around lunchtime so I could eat one of my favorite things in the world: ekiben, the famous “train station bento” that you buy at train stations to eat on a train. The world of train station bento lunches is great — each station makes it own unique type which represents what that part of Japan is known for. Visit Hokkaido and you’ll be able to buy ika-meshi bento, which is flavored rice cooked inside a delicious squid, while no trip to Toyama is complete without eating masu-no-sushi, a delicious trout sushi pressed into a round wooden frame and eaten like a pizza. Our prefecture is famous for Daruma dolls, so naturally Takasaki Station sells ekiben in a special daruma-shaped bento box that’s quite delicious.
Tokyo during Obon is empty, it’s actually pleasant to be there.
