Lunchboxes are selling like hotcakes at service, parking areas.

Byline: Masato Inoue

Sep. 28--TOKYO -- Lunchboxes featuring local produce seasoned by fancy Japanese restaurants and hotels are prompting hungry drivers and their companions to stop at service and parking areas on expressways.

The Central Nippon Expressway Co. group, which manages the busy Tomei (Tokyo-Nagoya) and Meishin (Nagoya-Kobe) expressways, was the first to launch such lunchboxes as brand goods.

The expressway operator, in collaboration with a travel agent, named the lunchboxes "Hayaben" (deluxe express lunch), following "Ekiben" lunchboxes available at railway stations and "Soraben" lunchboxes available at airports, and registered the name as a trademark. It sells 20 varieties of the lunchboxes at 10 locations.

The "Hanabiwa Musume" (flower daughter at Lake Biwa) lunchbox priced at 2,830 yen, available at the Taga Service Area on the Meishin Expressway, includes Omi beef, a specialty in Shiga Prefecture, and ayu (sweetfish).

The "Suruga Aoi Monogatari" (the story of hollyhock in the Suruga region), available at the Fuji River Service Area on the Tomei Expressway in Shizuoka Prefecture contains small shrimps, a specialty of the prefecture, and tuna from a popular restaurant. The lunchbox sells for 2,680 yen.

An official in charge of lunchbox sales at Nakanihon Ekushisu, a Nagoya subsidiary of the expressway operator, said, "There are lunchboxes for travelers at railway stations and airports. We thought travelers would be pleased if they were available on expressways too." The West Nippon Expressway Co. group, which operates west of the Kinki region, offers two kinds of lunchboxes with special "oshizushi" (lightly ...