3 more years to go to Olympic 2020, Japan effort to cater Muslim needs of Halal food has been increasing. Compared to our first visit in 2013, it is getting easier to find Halal Restaurant in Japan. But, when you go to off-beaten path then it’s almost impossible to find one. Worry not because now you can order halal bento if you had plan visiting a region with no Halal Restaurant available. We ordered bento from tdjapan.com for our trip to Miyajima, Hiroshima.

The website is in English so it’s easy to place an order. They have various menu from different restaurant, but not all have nation-wide shipping option. So you should read carefully all information provided for each menu including order deadline. We ordered bento from WaO-Bento Kajiya because their menu got into popular ranking and also they have heating-type box. When you place your order, you can’t mix menu from different restaurant in one order. Also check for the shipping fee because different restaurant has different fee, and it’s quite expensive (more than half of the bento’s price) so we recommend to order more than one box. They will ask the date, time, and address for delivery too. Once your order has been placed, you will receive confirmation email.

We stayed at hotel in Hiroshima so we chose the option to be delivered to our hotel. During check-in we informed the hotel reception about our bento delivery time. The hotel staff was kindly kept it for us because we were away during that time.

We were surprised when we got our bento because the package was huge!

Inside the package was two box of bento. We ordered Makunouchi bento and Teriyaki-chicken bento. Both has heating-type box because we planned to go to Miyajima the next day.

The bento come with eating utensil, bento description, and instruction how to use heating-type box.

We stored our bento inside the fridge and brought it the next day for our trip to Miyajima. It’s reassuring when you already have your Halal lunch on your hand, so we could enjoy Miyajima fully without worrying of what to eat.

It was exciting to try the heating box! The heat generated was no joke, as it produce smoke quite lot, no wonder they said for not to heat inside a room with fire alarm. You should really read the instruction carefully step by step (even how to dispose the box afterward!). The Makunouchi box was bigger than Teriyaki-chicken one, so only half of the rice got heated. Also because they use some kind of steam methods, the fried food became soggy after heating. But overall, it’s still taste good!

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Ga kerasa ya udah tahun 2017 aja, tinggal 3 tahun lagi menuju Olimpiade 2020. Jepang pun makin meningkatkan usahanya dalam memfasilitasi wisatawan muslim. Jika kami bandingkan dengan kunjungan pertama kami di tahun 2013, sekarang sudah makin banyak restaurant halal dan juga tempat shalat. Meskipun kalau kita ke tempat wisata yang anti-mainstream masih susah banget nyari tempat makan halal. Nah, sekarang ga perlu khawatir lagi karena kita bisa pesan Bento Halal yang bisa dikirim ke mana pun kita berada di Jepang.

Kami memesan bento halal dari tdjapan.com. Situsnya dalam bahasa Inggris jadi ga perlu khawatir bingung memesannya. Selain itu, situs ini menaungi beberapa restoran, jadi pilihan menu yang ditawarkan pun beragam. Beberapa restoran hanya bisa mengirim ke daerah sekitar Tokyo saja, jadi memang harus dibaca baik-baik keterangan yang ada di tiap menu. Selain itu, order deadline dan ongkos kirim pun berbeda-beda. Lumayan mahal lho ongkir-nya, bisa sampai setengah dari harga bento, makanya kami sarankan sebaiknya pesan lebih dari 1 box. Setelah mengisi tanggal, jam, dan alamat pengiriman (dan bayar tentunya), kamu akan mendapatkan email konfirmasi pemesanan.

Kami menginap di hotel di Hiroshima, jadi saat check-in kami sudah memberitahukan sebelumnya ke resepsionis hotel kalau kami nunggu kiriman bento dan juga jam pengirimannya. Berhubung kami pas lagi keluar pada jam tersebut, pihak hotel menyimpankan dulu sampai kami kembali ke Hotel. Pas nerima paketnya, sempat kaget juga karena ukurannya yang sebesar dus air mineral.

Di dalamnya ada 2 box bento pesanan kami, Makunouchi dan Chicken-teriyaki bento. Ada keterangan tentang menu, alat makan, dan instruksi pemanasan di dalam box bento. Karena kami berencana untuk ke Miyajima esok harinya, maka bento pun kami simpan di kulkas semalam.

Rasanya tenang kalau sudah tau mau makan apa, sudah jelas halal pula. Jadi bisa lebih santai menikmati pemandangan Miyajima yang indah banget. Akhirnya tiba waktu makan siang dan kami pun mencari bangku taman yang menghadap laut. Lumayan seru lho pas mau nyoba menghangatkan bento-nya. Kita harus baca baik-baik petunjuknya karena panas yang dihasilkan emang panas banget! Sepertinya mereka pakai sistem penguapan gitu, jadi makanan yang digoreng agak basah setelah dipanaskan. Secara keseluruhan sih rasanya tetap enak kok!