お弁当: The easiest tasty food in Japan

October 14, 2023

Food in Japan is on another level than what I've had in the US. It's absolutely delicious. And so much cheaper, especially if you take the current exchange rate into account.

When I first moved to Japan, I lived in a share house. When I lived there, I never cooked once. It was a ~3 month span of nearly never eating a home-made meal.

(I'm not sure how I survived living there )

While restaurants were definitely on the list of potential food, there was another option that I often went for.

お弁当べんとう (bento, box meal)

お弁当べんとう are the best.

They come in all varieties, and aside from eating them when you don't wanna cook, they're pretty convenient to grab if you're on vacation in Japan and don't want to take the time to stop at a restaurant.

Best part is, they're easy to find.

You can find them being sold…

…at a スーパー (supermarket)
…at a コンビニ (convenience store)
…at an 駅えき (train station)
…at stands on the side of the road
…at a レストラン (restaurant)

…and more. They're everywhere.

They often consist of rice, some sort of main dish, at least one side veggie, and a 漬物つけもの (pickled vegetable).

While most places have a ton of options for the main dish, the quality and price will vary depending on where you get them. Thankfully, in Fukuoka, you'll struggle to find a bad meal.

コンビニ

While I essentially lived on お弁当べんとう from the コンビニ when I first moved here, I haven't gotten one in a while.

They're tasty and all that, but to be honest, once you've devoured enough コンビニ food to fuel a giraffe for 8 years and start to get sick of it, there are better options haha.

But again! They are tasty and great in a pinch, especially if you haven't tried them before.

Here's a 唐揚からあげ弁当べんとう(Japanese fried chicken bento) that I believe was from セブン (711) or ローソン(Lawson's):

The nice thing about コンビニ is that they ask you things like 温あたためますか？(Do you want this heated up?) so you don't even need a microwave to enjoy these ^^

As far as my suggestions go for コンビニs:

セブン has the best お弁当べんとう and is closely followed or surpassed by ローソン depending on the お弁当.

ファミマ (Family Mart) is best for ファミチキ, which is fried chicken that is very worth trying.

And ミニストップ (Mini Stop) is for the fun desserts that are mostly ice cream.

スーパー

I have a feeling that most people who come to Japan are first in love with コンビニ, and then slowly move on to スーパー once they realize that スーパー are cheaper, tastier, and have more options.

Could just be me though.

Here's an お弁当べんとう I found at a スーパー in 天神てんじん (Tenjin) which is one of the two main city centers in Fukuoka:

めっちゃ美味おいしかったー (It was so good)

If you're not a picky eater, you just have to try as many things you can find in Japan, お弁当 or not. Just try everything.

Doing that is how I learned I enjoy 馬刺ばさし(raw horse sashimi [yes you read that correctly]).

By the way, スーパー may have a microwave you can use as well, but that's not quite as guaranteed from my experience. Or I just never looked hard enough. Most of the time you can find them directly past the checkout though.

Be on guard!

When you buy an お弁当べんとう from a スーパー, you're likely to get hit with an お箸はしいりますか？ (Do you need chopsticks?).

It took me something like 3 years to get used to that question and not needing them to repeat it because I wasn't expecting it

They ask you that at the コンビニ too, so I don't know why it always confused me specifically at スーパー…

駅弁えきべん (train station bento)

These are pretty good and usually on the fancier side. I usually see the fanciest ones when I'm riding the 新幹線しんかんせん (bullet train).

I think I've had some with 唐揚からあげ (Japanese fried chicken) before (it's my weakness) but here's one that looks a bit more colorful:

There are お弁当べんとう that often have a bunch of side dishes and veggies in them which are really good, and ones like the above are pretty healthy too (unlike 唐揚からあげ which I get way too much of).

Traveling in Japan

Whether you live here or are traveling, make sure you don't miss out on the experience of delicious お弁当べんとう.

Also, since Fukuoka is known for having some of the tastiest food in Japan, definitely put it on your list if you're coming to Japan with food adventures in mind.

But no matter where you do go, make sure you know how to order what you want, or ask if there's a certain ingredient that you might be allergic to by hitting the Study Now button in NativShark:

Study Now

By the way, if you do want to sit down an enjoy a meal, then 定食ていしょく (set meals) are a good way to try a lot of different things at once while getting a restaurant experience.

I'll have to go over 定食ていしょく in another email soon ^^

Weekly writing prompt:

You're talking with your language exchange partner and they ask you about what types of things you did for Halloween when you were a kid. You tell them…

This prompt is based on a request made by corrrreyw in the community! Thank you^^

Post your responses here and let's talk about them!

Feel free to ask for help if you want to say something specific as well. Both myself and other learners will be in there offering advice and help~

Submit prompts you want to see here.

Great job from everyone on last week's prompt ^^

When inviting a friend to the movies, someone used a sentence that used the word 暇ひま (free time).

While it can often be a pretty good word to use, there are also some nuances to be aware of!

Here's a response I gave in the community:

This also looks good

I would replace any questions that have a 。 with a ？ instead to help match the formality better^^

Other than that, dropping を is really natural to do

But tbh depending on the friend this could be perfect haha. Gonna get a bit deeper into nuance now though so feel free to not worry about anything from here 👀

I know there are some people who don't like the word 暇 so using this word can either be perfect or cause a bit of a negative nuance depending on who you're talking to. (very generally speaking, younger people are more okay with it. Maybe mid 20s and under? then above that people tend to go for what I talk about below)

Personally I prefer to ask if a person's schedule is 空いてる to avoid this. So 今週末こんしゅうまつ空すいてますか？もし空すいてたら、(映画えいが見みに行いきましょう！ // 映画えいが見みましょう！)

This is because, in my experience, なら tends to be a bit stronger like they know you are that if statement. I used -たら to help make that less strong. Though depending on what speaker you talk to, people might say different stuff. I think it's location-based for what people generally feel on the differences of these.

カツカツ

For the first probably 6 or 7 years of my studying Japanese, オノマトペ (onomatopoeia) were my downfall.

They just didn't make sense to me.

To add salt to the wound, whenever I didn't understand it, Chie (who grew up speaking Japanese) would always say "Doesn't it just sound like it though??"

No, it doesn't. 😭

Thankfully NativShark teaches a lot of them, along with how people really use them. And with enough practice, time, and exposure… eventually, you just get the hang of them and forget that it used to be really tough.

Never underestimate the power of showing up!

You will get there as long as you keep going.

If the above Japanese is difficult for you, all you need to do is keep hitting the Study Now button, and you'll understand it when you get there. Especially when using a study resource like NativShark, you'll be fine as long as you show up as much as you can. This screenshot comes from a vocab flashcard in Phase Three.

NativShark goodie bag

Here come another 4 Units from the content team!

Oh hey, is that an onomatopoeia lesson?

New Phase Three Units

New Podcasts Episodes:

The Konnichiwa Podcast

Stink Bug Nuggets - Spotify