Departments
万歳
BANZAI
"ten thousand years"
More than sixty years after the end of World War II, many Americans still associate the Japanese exclamation banzai! with warfare. During the Second World War, Allied servicemen fighting in the South Pacific were often subjected to suicidal, human-wave “banzai attacks” of Japanese troops.
Despite the usage of the word in World War II combat, banzai itself is an innocent word. (Most Japanese-English dictionaries translate it as “hip-hip-hooray!”) Japanese often shout banzai in celebratory situations, or to rally the group for an important task. Japanese company employees may shout banzai when a new branch office is opened; and a baseball team may use the expression after winning a hard-fought contest.
弁当
BENTOO
"box lunch"
A bentō is a convenient boxed lunch. Traditionally, bentō were packed in wood or lacquer boxes. These forms still exist; but today Tupperware and Styrofoam containers are also used.
The bentō may contain rice, fish, meat, or pickled vegetables. Two particularly popular varieties are the unagi-bentō, which contains eel, and the maku-no-uchi, which consists of rice mixed with meat and vegetables.
The box lunch is ubiquitous in hectic Japan. You will see people eating bentō in any number of situations in which it is necessary to eat quickly with minimal space and time for preparations. Office workers scarf down bentō at their desks or in the company break room. University students eat them between classes.
Many people pack their own bentō, but it is also possible to buy pre-packed box lunches. They are sold in kiosks at train and subway stations. (In fact, there is a specific term for the “station box lunch”—ekiben 駅弁).