Japanese food

The Mainichi Daily News has just posted this year's Ekiben of the Year.

I freaking love ekiben, they're so good and give a little taste of the local area as you're riding the train. These things are usually pretty well made being that it only takes a few bad incidents and then no one wants to eat your ekiben.

The idea of a boxed lunch is interesting in terms of culture. In America, box lunches are usually considered cheap things to eat on the go, and are poorly made for mass consumption. While this does occur in box lunches in Japan, the idea of a high-end box lunch also exist. They're usally made locally in small batches fresh for that day, and can only be found at a specific station. For many casual travelers around Japan, these local ekibens become the gateway to spurring tourism for some of the more unknown parts of Japan.

I've been reading the manga Oishinbo (美 味しんぼ), Viz just released themed volumes of the translation of this monster of a comic. Its been in print in Japan since 1983 and is still being written. To the Japanese, food is a very common topic. Many Japanese folks don't like to talk about controversial subjects, so most of the time you end up talking about food or the weather. Oishinbo takes this idea and explores how crazy the Japanese get over food and how much one can talk about food and the subtlety of different foods Japan has to offer. But there is more going on here than just food, it's the selling of Japan as a creditable culture. Back when this comic was first being published, the spread of westernization was driveing Japanese culture into oblivion. Japanese were getting more and more excited about western culture and losing sight of thier own. Oishinbo was a manga which attempted to convince Japanese readers, that Japanese culture is worth something, and if people didn't pay attention to it, it could disappear forever.