This weekend I went on a hiking adventure with my girlfriend which is great, then on our way back we stopped at Omiya station cuz we were starving. I don’t know what to call it, but there’s an area you walk around and can buy a bunch of premade food or bento. It was amazing. There were so many options and all of it looked amazing, good god.
So we bought a bunch of different things like some sushi, Chinese food, and a meat bento. It was all so good. Okay prices, somethings were pricy but the variety, I love the variety
Also, the restaurants in stations are amazing. Y’all got any good station experiences you wanna share?
7 comments
Glad you had a fun time up there.
I’ve really enjoyed the cheap soba stands on JR train platforms. Â¥300 and 30 seconds later bam there it is. Sometimes it just feels good to have a hot bowl of noodles and a Green car seat waiting for you in wintertime.
“Ekiben” (the sometimes overpriced but beautifully crafted bentos you likely saw) are wonderful in different regions. I remember Ise (Mie) and Hakata (Fukuoka) very fondly for their shrimp ones and mentaiko ones, respectfully.
My all time favorite was Hachinohe station (Aomori). Not in the station per se, but just off the station tracks a ways is a massive fish market with little individual grills everywhere. You just plop yourself down and cook the stuff that you bought for a nice lunch. Bubbling clam shells and steaming crab legs as far as the eye can see. Tohoku food is very underrated and well worth a try.
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All this fuss about food but no mention about toilets?
Hakata eki would be paradise for you.
20 years ago I set foot inside Kyoto station for the first time, and to say I was blown away is a massive understatement.
I understand now that there was a lot of controversy about the station being too modern and not particularly “Kyoto-esque”, which I totally understand now. But back then, as a total bumpkin who had traveled outside my home state in the U.S. maybe twice, I simply couldn’t process everything I was seeing. The architecture itself, the scale, the cleanliness, the sleek trains gliding in and out, the compact and immaculate shops, the somehow organized hustle and bustle, as if it was choreographed… it felt like I had stepped into a scene from Star Wars. I still take a minute to take it all in every time I pass through.
So, yeah, less than a specific experience per se, but I guess the generally unique experiences you can get at various stations are what I love. I mean, it’s always trains and shops and people and whatnot, but from Fukuoka to Kanazawa, from Beppu to Sendai, each one seems to have its own flavor, at least the major ones. Somehow the familiar feel of each one makes you always feel like you “came home” when you arrive, even if you don’t even live there.
New to japan ?
Welcome 😉
…are you new here? Because this is literally every medium to large size station in a major city.