You may wonder what the title of this article is about.
It was about 10 days ago on the calendar that JR Shinagawa Station celebrated the 150th anniversary of its temporary opening between Yokohama and Shinagawa in the Meiji era (1868), and was holding a reasonably lively commemorative event.
To commemorate the anniversary, several ekiben shops in the station were selling special bento boxed lunches, and among them, Yokohama Kiyo-ken, famous for its shumai bento, was promoting it extensively. Let’s not be extravagant, here it is.
The picture used for the wrapping depicts the Tokaido Line running over a levee built on the coast around Shinagawa in the Meiji era. There are several other pictures and photos of the Meiji era. It is truly a world apart from today.
The contents of the lunch box are like this.
The menu includes the following items.
Fried rice with dried young sardines and nori seaweed
ShuMai
Chicken in chili sauce
Spring rolls
boiled Komatsuna and scallion
Stir-fried green onion and scallion
Fritters with shrimp and scallion
Vinegared flavored kamaboko, jellyfish, and Nishikinshi-Tamago
Apricot with syrup, etc.
The character soy sauce container “Hyo-chan” is also a special 150th anniversary edition.
That is the end of my report. I enjoyed the lunch box afterwards.
I could have ended this article, however, I would like to add a few more photos I took at the Shinagawa Station.
There is an anniversary stamp rally in the station.
There was a lot of effort put into the event, with a special merchandise stand set up.
The shopping zone was very crowded, although it is unclear how much of that was due to the 150th anniversary events, as Shinagawa Station was now recovering from the Corona disaster over the weekend.
This is a special corner for receiving commemorative boxed lunches from Kiyo-ken. This space is usually used as an information center, but on this day, it seems to be completely occupied and rented by Kiyo-ken.
While regular items such as shumai BENTOs are sold, the special area seemed to be primarily a drop-off point for 150th anniversary commemorative lunch boxes.
Behind the shop staff, you can see a stack of boxed lunches (available only by advance online reservation), limited to 100 or so. I actually signed up in advance and came here to pick them up at the designated pickup time. I am very careful in my preparations, you know 🙂
So, that was my bento story.
Thank you very much for reading to the end.
Camera used for this article: FUJIFILM XF10
