New form of luxurious poverty arrives at Japanese convenience stores with Tenkasu Gohan

New form of luxurious poverty arrives at Japanese convenience stores with Tenkasu Gohan

Lawson tempts us with rice topped not with tempura shrimp, but tempura nothing. With prices for just about everything continuing to rise in Japan, putting together a “one-coin” lunch, i.e. a lunch that costs 500 yen (US$3.40) or less (500 yen being Japan’s largest denomination of coin), at a convenience store is getting harder and harder to do. Sure enough, on our recent trip to a branch of the Lawson chain, the fried chicken bento boxed lunch t…