(John Daub): So here we are at Tōkyō Station. That behind me, in beautiful Tokiwa green,
is the Tōhoku Shinkansen. The bullet train that heads up north. In this episode, we're going to be eating
some of the most delicious, ekiben, which are bentos used to eat
on the trains. It's very regional and it's a lot of fun. It is a special train just for us to ride and show you the beauty of Tōhoku. It's going to be an exciting event. I hope you enjoy it. Off we go! ♫ Intro music ♫ Irrashaimase (Welcome!) Peter von Gomm: ONLY in JAPAN Tōkyō Station is the city's main
bullet train hub. There are many ways to enter,
but we'll go through Yaesu Central entrance
to the Shinkansen platform. ♫ (Upbeat techno music) ♫ There's our ride: the beautiful
E5 Tōhoku Shinkansen Hayabusa bound for Shin-Aomori. Today we're on a special train,
just for us. We're riding on the JR East Pass
(Tōhoku area). 5 days of unlimited Tōhoku Shinkansen and local train adventures. Hold up! We need our lunch! And I know just the place in the station. Ekibenya Matsuri is open from 5am
and has bentos from all over Tōhoku. There are dozens and dozens of
different kinds of ekiben which are bento box lunches
sold at train stations for travel. It's a way to learn about a place. Eat the local cuisine. There's something for everyone here. So where are we headed? Tōhoku, the north part of Japan's
Honshu island. Tōhoku is made up of six prefectures: Fukushima, Miyagi, Yamagata,
Iwate, Akita, and Aomori. The Hayabusa super-express makes stops at Ōmiya, Fukushima, Sendai, Morioka, and Shin-Aomori. From these hubs you can branch off
in every direction with the pass. Our adventure today starts from here,
Tōkyō Station. The Tōhoku Shinkansen's Hayabusa,
Yamabiko, and Nasuno bullet trains depart a few times an hour,
from 6am to 10:44pm. Our trip to Shin-Aomori will take about
3 hours 30 minutes reaching a top speed of
350 km/h (217.4 mph). Welcome to the Shinkansen. This the Tōhoku Shinkansen heading north. And over the course of this trip,
we're going to be trying one of these.
But I can't eat all of these alone. So, helping me out, is this man. Peter von Gomm: Hi Peter von Gomm, the voice
of ONLY in JAPAN. He's got a magic voice and a magic touch. We start off with two colorful ekiben: a spring-seasonal specialty and a train lover's favorite. John: Woah Peter: Ooh
(John laughs) Peter: The train has left the station. John: The Hayabusa bento features
the E5 in Tokiwa green. It's long and compact,
the utensil included. Ingredients listed for those with
allergies on the side. ¥1300. It should be eaten the same day. Spork, makes every meal more fun,
doesn't it? Kids and adults without chopstick skills
will have no problem at all. Inside: a weiner sausage; karaage,
Japanese deep-fried chicken; mini hamburg; shumai dumpling;
tomato rice, or is that ketchup? And a honey apple dessert from Aomori. My ekiben is from Hirosaki in Aomori:
the cherry blossom mankai (full bloom) sakura sushi for ¥1280. Inside: pink ginger cut to look like
cherry blossoms The fallen ginger blossoms on top of
regional seafood from Aomori: scallops, ikura (salmon roe), tuna, salmon. The color with egg and greens,
outstanding. All prepared the night before, trucked to
Tōkyō Station by dawn. The first of seven ekiben on this Tōhoku
train adventure. Peter: All aboard! Oh wow! John: Woah! Peter: Oh look at that. That is kid friendly. John: I love this one because they have
all of the cherry blossoms on top of it Peter: Right.
John: Probably some secrets under the cherry blossom petals. Peter: And I think we're gonna trade. John: Yeah I don't think so. We were pulling into the first stop after
Ōmiya, Fukushima Station. Peter: Sure you don't wanna trade? John: No, I'm good. Peter: Hmm, nice. Got some flavored rice with ketchup. Kids love ketchup and rice. And this is a hamburg. That spork is
coming in very handy. John: You look very sophisticated sir
with your spork. ♫ Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart ♫ Peter (in British accent): Yes, I only dine with the finest plastic sporks. Mmm. John: Ekiben come in all sorts of shapes. This one is long like the Shinkansen and this one is round. Peter: I love how this one looks like it's
made from wood. Peter: Like the hinoki (cypress).
John: Right, yeah. Peter: The attention to detail always is just
exquisite in the bentos. The pink is ginger? What is the pink? It's ginger, right? Shoga. John: Yeah.
Peter: Yeah. John: It's ginger, meaning, it kinda cleanses
the palate for the fish underneath it. Oh look at this. We got like a treasure
underneath here. There's some ikura (salmon roe),
some sake (salmon), Peter: Oh wow. John: Hotate, scallops.
Peter: Oh dude, you're killing me. John: Wow
Peter: Wow Peter: How did I end up with this....
bullet train bento for kids? John: After a few minutes, we pulled out
of Fukushima Station. Next stop: Sendai. They took an ingredient, the red ginger,
and made that into something beautiful. Peter: Right.
John: I really appreciated the details of it. And all the ingredients were super fresh:
the ikura, the hotate, the scallops the little bit of vegetables there. Really good balance. Peter: Yeah. It's a fun bento.
It's a sophisticated bento. John: I got the better of Peter this time,
but he does get to keep the case. Between Fukushima and Sendai, the Hayabusa
super-express Shinkansen cruises fast through Ichinoseki Station
without stopping. ♫ Dramatic music as the train thunders past ♫ It's a thrill to see it zoom by. The Tōhoku Shinkansen crosses through
some very scenic places: long views across rice paddies,
mountains on the horizon. We're about 30 minutes away from Sendai. We'll have to eat quickly. Now we're getting close to Sendai now and that means, gyutan, or beef tongue. Peter: One of my favorites. John: Really?
Peter: Yeah, I love gyutan, yeah. John: What makes these bentos special
are that they are self-heating. John: Both of these.
Peter: What? John: Yeah right. So you're going to eat a hot lunch. A hot ekiben. Peter: Ahh, I gotta see that to believe it. John: This is the atsugiri-gyutan, a famous
ekiben from Sendai. It has a hidden secret. That yellow string pulls out activating
the self heating unit on the bottom. ♫ Carmen Suite No.2 by Bizet/Guirard ♫ (Sound of string being pulled) The ekiben starts heating up within seconds. After a few minutes, you've got yourself
a hot lunch. Sendai's famous gyutan, or beef tongue,
grilled with rice and spicy garnishes. That one is not the only game in town. This is a char-grilled gyutan bento with
yellow string as well. Pull the string and within seconds the heat
cooks the contents to perfection. (Sound of string being pulled) Inside, seven generous cuts of
beef tongue on rice, pickles and a carrot to give it
great color. And yes, it's also piping hot. Keep the bowl inside the box. Which one do you think is better? John: Get ready... Peter: I just pull it like a party popper?
John: Ready? John and Peter: 3, 2, 1. Peter: Oh geez! Wow.
Dude, it's really hot! John: Yeah, it's starting to heat up. Peter: That is incredible. You can feel the heat coming off of it. John: Oh I got steam coming out of it.
Peter: Yeah, me too. It's actually like hot to the touch.
Holy moley, feel that. John: Oh my god!
Peter: Right? Is yours too? John: It's getting there.
Peter: Mine feels hotter than yours. John: Yeah. Peter's is hotter, like a real grill. No false advertising here. Two minutes later, we can't wait any more. Done. John and Peter: Wow!
Peter: Look at that. This is incredible. I've never had something like this,
that heats up. Self heating. John: Yeah, it's hot to the touch. Yours was dangerously hot. Peter: Exactly, dangerously hot. John: So you do want to be careful. In the bottom of it is a chemical
self heating unit. It takes about two to three minutes
and then you have... Peter: piping hot beef tongue. John: Look at the steam rising here. Peter: Ooh, ooh. Look at that. Wow, this is amazing. John: Yours look like an actual
yakiniku grill. Peter: Voilà. Look at that.
It's steaming man. John: This bad boy meal is going to have
to wait as we pulled into the capital of Tōhoku, the biggest city, Sendai. We stopped here for several minutes, which is perfect to let our
ekiben cool down a bit. As the passengers departed, we got ready to chow down. As we are in Sendai Station right now. This looks incredible. Yours seems to have more volume of... Peter: Yeah, I think I won on this one. John: You might have but both of them
look incredible. Peter: Yeah. Let's give this a try here. John: The main difference seems to be that
Peter's has a char-grilled taste, mine is thicker and spicier. Peter and John: Mmmm John: That's so good. Peter: Man. Really flavorful. John: What is different with the
texture of this, it's a lot chewier, and not as fatty. Peter: Right. John: Oh they do have some garnishes here. A little bit of a special salt came in it. Peter: What's most impressive for me, besides the fact that it heated up
to this piping hot level, is that it is very fresh tasting. Like it just came off the grill at
a gyutan restaurant. John: So we just left Sendai. It is now time to eat this bento, which we
have from Aomori prefecture. We turned back to seafood ekiben. The uni-gohan bento: that's sea urchin. A delicate seafood that's either
loved or hated. The fresher it is, the better it tastes. Unique compact chopsticks. Uni on the bottom, gobo burdock root, egg, ikura, and wakame seaweed on the top. Not bad! On the other side we have kobore ikura and toro salmon grilled bento for ¥1280. Inside, that ikura is laid perfectly on a
gorgeous piece of salmon. I'm sure they put a lot of thought
into the colors. The red box a perfect complement. I can't wait to sink my teeth into this one. Woah! Woah! Peter: Oh wow, look at that. John: This looks great.
Peter: That's lovely, isn't it? John: Look at that! Peter: Now I've never had chopsticks
this small before. John: Wow! Look at that.
Peter: What is the deal with this? Peter: And it's in it's own, like, little
plastic carrying case. Let's see here. John: Interesting... Alright. John: Itadakimasu!
Peter: Interesting... Alright, itadakimasu! Peter: Uni!
John: Yeah. Peter: Oh wow.
John: Is it good? Peter: Yeah. That's really good. And it's... It's not been seasoned with anything, it's You can really taste the natural sea-flavor.
I can taste the ocean in it. John: Really? (Laughs)
Peter: Yeah, seriously. John: I'm just stunned at the visual of this. The piece of salmon right in the
center of the bento with... I just spilled ikura on top of it.
Peter: Yeah. John: On the left you have some salmon, an egg
and a little bit of vegetables here and some pickles. John: This is just an incredible visual.
Peter: Yeah, have you seen that before? John: Alright. Peter: Oh look at that. John: That's pretty special.
Peter: I envy you. Mmm! How is it? Are those eggs exploding in your mouth
right now? John: This is probably my favorite. This might be my favorite. Peter: So far?
John: Yeah. Peter: I liked the gyutan, but I like this uni as well. A lot of people are put off by uni, sea urchin, just because of the, the look of it, the color and... John: But not you.
Peter: Not me! (John laughs) It had a very, very good balance of proportion meaning, it has just the right amount of ikura, just the right amount of salmon. Peter: Right. John: And I loved the textures of it. Each one had a different feeling every
time I took a bite of it. Peter: Right. Yeah, I feel the same.
Mine is well balanced I've got the ikura, and some egg, and some kobo, which is burdock root. But the main attraction -
as it should be - is the uni and uhh, sea urchin is the best
I've had in Japan. I've had it in other countries as well But the Japanese sea urchin is very good,
and it tastes great in a bento. John: The final bento, we'll be eating in
a completely different part of the train. In fact it is first class,
if not beyond first class. It's the GranClass. Peter: I'm glad I'm dressed for the occasion. That's a tuxedo coat. John: As we pull into Morioka station,
the capital of Iwate prefecture, we moved to another part of the train
for a bit of luxury. Morioka is where the green E5 Tōhoku Shinkansen
train separates from the E6 Akita Shinkansen, which heads towards the Sea of Japan. Today we have a little welcome party on the platform for us. Welcome to Morioka Station! The new Tōhoku Shinkansen Shuffle should
never be repeated unless you want a divorce. It did leave the ladies in tears,
and I burned off a few calories. (Laughs) Did I make 'em laugh? Do you see that? It's kind of a famous scene where the Akita Shinkansen
is kissing the Tōhoku Shinkansen. This one will start to take off towards
the Sea of Japan from here. So we say goodbye, but a lot of people like to... Like to take pictures, as you can see. I can show you here the link real quickly. Welcome to the highest of high class. The GranClass, a leap above the green car. Both: Wow! Peter: Look at this!
John: This is nice. John: It is very much like first class on an airplane: red carpet, cream leather seats, gold trim,
loads of amenities. Welcome to the GranClass.
This is a special car that's in the front of the Tōhoku Shinkansen,
and we brought two bento to try in this, these ekiben are the gold
standard of ekiben. This is the first place winner of
the ekiben contest. It's called the Fuko bento. John: So I thought we would eat it here, have a seat.
Peter: Yeah. Peter: Nice. This is luxe man.
John: Aaah! Nice. Peter: Let's have a look. John: Wow. I like the fact that you can see
the ingredients on the label. Peter: Right.
John: On the other side of it. John: Right, let's get into opening.
Peter: Yeah. I'd rather just look at the real thing. John: Are you ready?
Peter: I'm ready! Both: 3, 2, 1. Both: Woah! ♫ Cello Suite No.1 by Bach ♫ The Tōhoku Fuko bento takes the best of all
six prefectures, all in one box. Inside, an explanation of the cuisine
in Japanese. Chopstick taped to the top. Six compartments and two for rice
on the bottom. A bite of so many places in the
celebrated Tōhoku region. Meat, vegetables, rice, seafood, even a
big sweet bean on a stick for dessert. Super healthy, it is a must try when
traveling north. Both: Gochisōsama-deshita.
(Thank you for the meal.) John: This was a really good bento. What did you think comparing
the ones we had on this trip? Peter: Well, for variety, this was absolutely a number one,
it had everything covered. My favorite is the Sendai gyutan. That box that heats up is just incredible, the technology. John: Probably my favorite on this trip too, although... I don't know, I'm really torn because that one with the
ikura and the salmon in the middle of it, just dumped ikura on there, was so good as well! Peter: Look, it's not fair to judge these
bentos, they're all awesome. John: These seven ekiben are just a sampling of the choices you have
in each major train station. Ekiben are usually reserved for express trains, not local ones, so you'll find them mostly at major stops. Which was your favorite? Which area or attraction of Tōhoku
do you like best? Leave your thoughts or your travel experience
in the comments on this video. John: We're just about to arrive in Shin-Aomori. John: This has been a pretty incredible trip.
Peter: Yeah. John: We've eaten a lot of bentos. This is the end, but now we
get to explore. Peter: It's just the beginning. John: I guess it would just be the beginning. This train actually will continue, the Tōhoku Shinkansen,
to Hokkaido. But for this pass, this is the limit. Shin-Aomori station is our final stop
for the Hayabusa. The city center not far away,
connected by local train where more adventure awaits. Well, we've arrived at Shin-Aomori,
this is the destination. The final stop of the pass here. Peter: It's a liitle chilly.
John: It is a little chillier up here, again, this is about 3.5 hours from Tokyo. Peter: It's been a fantastic trip up here. We ate our way the entire way,
fantastic bentos. John: Yes, you can eat your way across Japan,
and you can start with an ekiben. Or two, or three, or four... If you'd like more stories and adventures from Japan,
hit that subscribe button, and check out another episode
and travel with me, to the farthest corners of the country. Mata ne! (See you again!)
