This is how a Japanese train bento is made
I've always wondered how a Japanese train bento was made.
Luckily, the folks at JR Tokai Passengers have let me in and show me how it's made.
This video is part of my new series called Made in Japan,
where I go in and show you how truly things are done here in Japan.
I'm so excited to show you this, but before I start,
if you want to see what I'm doing on the daily,
check out my Instagram account.
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and if you have any questions about Japan or your Japan travels,
check out my Discord community.
All right, let's go inside of the factory.
If you've ever eaten a Japanese train bento,
good chances it was made by JR Tokai Passengers.
They sell bento boxes, onigiri
and otsumami sets at Tokaido Shinkansen stations,
employing about 530 staff to make this all happen.
And today, I'm taking you into the heart of it,
where train bentos are made in Japan, at their Tokyo Shiomi factory.
So I've made it inside the building, let's go see inside of the factory.
Excuse me, can I go in the factory with you?
All right, we're in! So the factory is quite thorough and meticulous about
preventing staff from introducing contaminants:
bacteria, dust, etc into the factory.
So they enforce strict policies on dress code, cleanliness, and sanitation,
which is, I'm sure, comfort to many of their customers.
To start the bento making process,
the ingredients are received in the loading dock.
Every single box from vendors must be inspected.
They inspect about 250 to 300 boxes every day!
So after the inspection, boxes are brought to the refrigerators and freezers.
Boxes are organized by category, like meat and pickles,
so that the staff can quickly access the ingredients.
Now, the preparation process begins.
Wrap packages like these are taken out of the boxes and sterilized.
In this area, vegetables are peeled by hand.
Then they're washed in an electrolyzed water tank.
Finally, they're placed in this machine to spin dry.
There's a door just behind me, let's see what's in this room.
Oh, he's cutting fish.
Apparently, the ingredients are all cut by hand and each one is counted
in order to prepare just the right amount
based on how many bentos are being made that day.
Now that all the ingredients are sliced up, the cooking process begins.
This is the boiler area.
Japanese boiled dishes are cooked in these giant baths.
That's takenoko, in English — bamboo shoots.
Let's talk to that guy.
Excuse me, can I ask you a question?
How much food is made at one time?
What is your favorite food to make?
Why is that?
They also boil daikon radish, konjac and satoimo.
To cook the pumpkins the workers also use a special oven.
So this is where they grill the fish.
Check it out.
The temperature and duration the food is cycled through the grill
are precisely set to ensure food is cooked perfectly, each and every time,
but, just in case, the temperature is also checked when it comes out.
And this is the fried section.
Definitely, my favorite place in the factory.
Right now, pork katsu is being fried for their spicy masala katsu curry sandwich.
Wow, that looks so crispy!
Immediately after frying, the katsu is dipped into the curry sauce.
I can watch this all day!
Other foods like karaage, fried shrimp and korokke
are also cooked in this fried oasis.
After all the food is fried, it's then cut into pieces and ready for the bento boxes.
Alright, so this is where all the rice is made and packed.
A bento box wouldn't be complete without rice.
So it's no surprise that this factory
makes 260 kilograms of rice (about 570 pounds) every day.
I guess workers here always have a rice day.
Look at all these machines!
This giant pot itself can make up to 13 kilograms (about 28.5) pounds of rice,
so in order to fill the day's demand, the factory utilizes a team of rice cookers.
The rice is then spread out by hand to help air it out,
so it's nice and fluffy when it goes into the bento boxes.
The factory also produces a flavored rice.
This one in particular is Asari no Takikomi Gohan (clam-flavored rice).
It's used in one of their popular bentos, Fukagawa-meshi.
Rice isn't just for bentos,
but it's also used to make onigiri — the Japanese rice ball.
If you don't already know, Japanese love their onigiri.
The factory makes about 2 000 onigiris every day.
So this machine makes these square rice beds,
and then the fillings are added on top by hand.
Afterwards, the machine takes the filled rice beds
and presses it into a triangle shape, and finally adds the wrapping.
Depending on the type of onigiri though,
the seaweed is sometimes done by hand.
I think this one is Tsukune — chicken [meat]ball.
I hope you're enjoying the tour, but before I continue on
I want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor for this video — Bokksu.
If you don't already know, Bokksu will provide a gourmet experience
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First time users will get a Seasons of Japan box,
and after that you'll get a theme box like this one.
This month is Bokksu's fifth birthday,
so it includes staff's favorite snacks,
which takes you on a tour of five Japanese prefectures, off the beaten path.
As always, you get 10 to 25 snacks in your box, depending on the package you choose,
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That said, let's continue on with this tour!
Wow, look at that guy over there.
I wonder what he's doing. Let's go ask him.
Excuse me, can I ask you a question?
What are you doing?
How often do the machines break down?
So it looks like everything's been refrigerated,
so now all we have to do is wait till this evening.
All right, we're back. It is after 1 a.m. in the morning
and look at all of these people hard at work.
Let's see what they're doing.
Now, it's time to finish up the plating and complete the final product.
To ship out the bentos as fresh as possible on the day,
the factory plates all of the bento boxes after midnight.
Each worker is responsible for one task on the production line.
It's amazing to see how many different dishes are all packed into one bento box,
and the factory makes different kinds of bentos every night.
So when one bento product is completed,
the workers restock a different set of dishes
in preparation to box the next one.
In total, about 8 000 bento boxes are made at the factory every day,
but due to coronavirus it's about half that now.
Holidays are the most busy
as that's when customers are traveling the most on trains,
so during this time, they make up to 10 000 bentos per day.
At the end of the production line, two workers are paired
to inspect every single product before final packaging.
What do you look for during the inspection?
What's the common issue with a bento box?
So what happens with the ones that don't pass?
After the inspection, the bentos are cleared for the automatic packaging machine.
Once packaged, the finished products are then moved to the shipping prep area.
Each product has a barcode which needs to be scanned into the system.
When scanned, the system notifies the worker,
by a flashing number above the shelves, in which basket to stock the product.
The number on the display represents how many items to stock
and each basket on the shelf represents a store location.
This is amazing. There's just so much food here.
Let's go check out some more.
After midnight, bentos are not the only product being made.
Foods like sandwiches and onigiri are also being ready for morning delivery.
Let's have a look at the sandwiches.
First, cutting the bread crust by machine
and spreading the margarine as well.
Other ingredients like mustard, katsu and lettuce are added by hand.
Once the sandwich is completed, it's processed through an automatic slicer.
Then packaged one by one, again by hand.
Then the sandwiches are wrapped by machine, to complete the process.
Oh, and some onigiri needs some extra topping,
so this is done by hand as well.
This Made in Japan tour wouldn't be complete
if I didn't show you the back office.
Wow, even all of the office workers are suited up. It's pretty awesome.
Excuse me, what are you doing?
How do you decide what goes into a bento?
How did you get this job?
During the interview, did they test you by making you taste food blindfolded?
So this is where all the new products are born — the development room.
The team comes up with new ideas,
creates test products and conducts taste tests.
They'll even create products many times until it's perfect
and ready for mass production.
One of the most important things to check is whether or not the food
tastes good when it's cold because bento boxes are made to be eaten cold.
What are you testing today?
How is the prototype coming along?
So back to the factory.
Finally, from 3 a.m., delivery workers start to load the trucks for morning deliveries,
so that the bentos are ready in stores for customers
just before the earliest bullet trains start running.
All right, that is how a Japanese train bento is made.
Let me know what you thought in the comments,
also let me know what you thought of
my Made in Japan series; I'll be doing more.
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hit that subscribe button and the bell button,
and I'll catch you guys in the next one!