Osechi are special foods prepared for the New Year and served in jūbako boxes, which look like oversized bento boxes. Each box has 3-5 tiers and there are rules dictating which foods go into which tier.
The dishes include shrimp, herring roe, miso soup, anchovies and fish, all with special meanings for a family celebrating New Year’s together. The types of dishes vary depending on where you live, but they are all designed to bring some sort of good luck in the upcoming year. Since traditionally cooking on New Year’s Day was not allowed, the boxes were prepared and stacked the days before the year ended. Now you can buy store-brand osechi at 7-Eleven.
Upscale department store Takashimaya offers such pre-made meals, and famously sold a $230,000 18-carat gold-plated osechi box a few years back. This year they’re working with Nintendo to release a ¥27,000 ($226) Super Mario Bros. osechi meal. It’ll include themed dishes that reference the game, and a 16-card collector’s set. It also has its own Super Mario-themed, 3-tiered jūbako box.
$226 isn’t necessarily a bad price when you consider the meal is supposed to feed an entire family, usually over several days.
Readers in Japan can place an order at Takashimaya starting in October until Christmas Day.
via TheVerge
