CONVENIENCE STORE FOOD

I like convenience stores in Japan. They are very convenient. They seem to stock all the essentials for life. I suppose they are comparable with dairies in New Zealand, but their prices are similar to, and occasionally even cheaper than supermarkets. If you wanted to buy a meal from a New Zealand dairy, you could get a meat pie, maybe a sandwich, an ice-cream or yogurt, a reasonable range of cookies and snacks like potato chips or maybe some fruit. 

You can't get meat pies at Japanese convenience stores, but you can buy a whole range of obentos (lunch-boxes) featuring various combinations of rice, chicken, grilled salmon, cooked vegetables, noodles, salads. You can buy a pasta meal, sushi and rice balls, sandwiches and filled rolls, and of course cakes, cookies, snacks and sweets. You can heat food you buy in the store microwave, and if you don't carry your own chopsticks in the ecologically approved way, disposable utensils are available. 

Here is my lunch on the last day of my ride around Lake Biwa. The coffee, peanut chocolate and rice ball were all delicious. The calzone thing was horrible. It was full of not very good mayonnaise, which is a real let-down if you are expecting melted cheese. I should have made more effort to read the packet.

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