bento geek

What? Super cheap 99 shop bento
When/Where? My house, early night
Comments: Had this with a 110YEN shochu wine cooler thing (not everything at 99shop is 99yen, its just all cheap.) I'm on a budget, so for the most part we're stuck to budget bento for the moment. This one wasnt bad for the price. The fried potato patty was really soft, and had a not-too-thick beef flavor. The rice was a little dry, but had the deep fried seafoodish blob on it for flavor. Also some sort of pickled strands of something in a cupcake cup thing... Better than I thought it would be. Only 150YEN!

What? Meat slices and plain rice
When/Where? infront of my balcony, noon
Comments: Had this with 100YEN orange juice. I have my job interview tomorrow so decided to eat some fancy food for goodluck. The rice was plane, the glaze on the meat was nice, but a little gummy. There were some yummy noodles under the slices of meat, and a small side dish of potato salad (with no mayo?) to the side. Quite good, but not enough variety of tastes. 530YEN

What? 99shop fried potatoes
When/Where? My house, night
Comments: I couldn't do it. I couldn't go with out eating dinner. I was weak. There goes my money! (I sound homeless, trust me, I'll be eating lots of good food non-stop once I get a good job again.) So I went to the 99shop (If you are in Japan, you should go there too, super cheap food and house stuff...most everything is 99YEN) and bought their potatoes in fried chicken batter tray. I also added a 19YEN Japanese Traditional style salad dressing packet to make the potatoes less dry. Sounds boring? But really, it's yummy stuff. Ironically Kayo later stopped by my neighborhood to hang out so we went out to eat dinner so it was kind of a waste to eat those, but good cheap meal none the less, even if not really bento. 99YEN.

What? Yakisoba bento from three F
When/Where? Late afternoon my house
Comments: I'm running low on money, and if I can be strong enough this will be my only meal today. Yummy yakisoba, the sauce was a little thin though. The meat and boiled egg were good. 295YEN

What? homemade tempura and 'sushi' bento
When/Where? my house, late morning
Comments: My friend Yuka went with her family members to do a Japanese custom of like "grave watching" and her relatives made lunch food. They had some left overs so they gave it to me like a bento. Free bento number one! The 'sushi' (and I say it in the English sense of the word) was yummy; the rice was some how almost sweet but not quite. The tempura was a little thin, but good too. Included tempura green beans, which I hadn't ever tried before. Yummy all around. FREE

What? circle k bulgulgi meat bento
When/Where? the streets of shinjuku, afternoon
Comments: Had this with some odd fruit drink (100YEN). This was bulgulgi flavor (if you aren't in the known, thats a Korean meat sauce similar to teriyaki sauce) that didn't taste the same as the bulgulgi I had in Korea, but it was yummy none the less. 495YEN

What? cheese on rice bento
When/Where? my house, night
Comments: Ate this with grapefruit juice (gotta get your citrus!) and a cheesecake flavor Crunky candybar. With a name like that, you know its crunk. The bento was basically just cheese with some chili sauce on golden rice. The cheese burned the top of my mouth. 300yen.

What? lawsons (conbini) tempura bento
When/Where? downtown shinjuku, about 4:00
Comments: I had this with a drinkable blueberry yougurt thing (100YEN). Orginally I was going to buy a Big Mac from McDonalds but got this instead. This tempura bento came with a sauce packet for the tempura, tasted like soy sauce basically. Good tempura, several different types. The prawns were thick and yummy. The veggies were a bit mushy, but I liked this bento. 500YEN

What? boring sunkus bento
When/Where? late at night, my house
Comments: I accidently took this picture in small picture mode, but it doesn't matter because you aren't missing much. Boring flavor, soggy contents, not-so-specail rice, this was one crappy bento. Reminded me that Sankus isn't as good as 7/11 (although cheaper) this bento was 490YEN.

What? Chicken sauce noodle bento
When/Where? 11:30 at night, my house
Comments: Ate this with a Yebisu big can beer. (240YEN?) Before I bought this one, a foreigner in front of me was angry that he was charged the wrong price but he couldnt explain it so he was just pointing at the receipt with an angry look. Eventually the clerk got it, and gave him the 20yen the foreigner was demanding. A lot of effort for 20 yen. This bento was a more "Western" style bento. Nice chicken, the meat was soft and tender, the sauce was tangy and kind of thick. There wasn't enough noodles though, and they were really greesy (but maybe they were supposed to be) and the veggies tasted like they were from a can (which I guess they were)... if you skipped the veggies and noodles, this was a good bento. As a last thought, it's a little sad when your beer is more than half the cost of your dinner! Bento was 380YEN.