Lunch at 185 mph

Something exciting is happening. I tried to capture it but failed, so you'll have to take my word for it. Maybe you'll cut me some slack. After all, I was skipping away at 300 kilometers an hour.

The rice is beginning to glow. The dull green stalks are waking up, brightening as if they're sipping light and it's trickling up their insides. By the time it gets to their tops, the green has turned into gold flecks, like lightening bugs buzzing about during the day. Yes, green is going yellow in a luminous way, and it all means that fall is just around the corner.

Fall in a great big city in a foreign land, isn't quite the same as home. Yes, leaves rustle and blow. Dogs and their keepers step lively through parks. Street lights dangle merrily in the wind. Still, it isn't the same as a walk through Green Lakes, where the fall makes leaves turn lavender and persimmon and dozens of colors in between. But Tokyo ain't central New York, where I lived for eight years, so we must move on. Plus, what does any of this have to do with food?

Enter the shinkansen, or bullet train to you and me. I love the shinkansen and would rather ride it than board a plane just about any day of the year. If I could figure out how to ride it from Tokyo to Seoul, a route I travel quite often, I would. There are big seats, big views and bento boxes. That, and a good book, are just about all I need.

Eki bento lunches began popping up at the turn of the century as trains began tracing the lands. Bento boxes had come into their own beginning in the 17th century when the merchant class began to grow. People would carry rice wrapped in leaves or placed in a box -- what we call onigiri -- and do to work, the theater, the outdoor mall. With trains, food sellers eschewed the fancy lacquered boxes and invented the perfect picnic lunch.

A bento usually follows certain proportions -- more parts rice to less parts protein to even lesser parts salads and pickles. It should involve many little tastes and a fair amount of vinegar to help keep the food fresh. I picked up one I thought contained maguro, raw tuna. It turns out it was something quite different, salty and slightly slimy in texture, but I managed to get it down. I was told later it might have been stomach or bladder. I didn't ask whose stomach or bladder. Once you pick your bento box, you've got to eat it or go hungry. The train goes fast, but it still takes a while to get home. And meanwhile, you've got the glowing rice outside to keep you happy.