Eating a Bento Box Lunch at Ueno Metro Staion, Tokyo

Amanda Barden Stradling, 25, right, an Ameri-Corps volunteer from Provo, Utah, with her visiting sister, Katherine Barden. Ms. Barden Stradling was in Tokyo for three months accompanying her husband (not pictured), a diplomatic intern. “We had just gotten back from Ueno Park, where they have all these temples to explore, and we were hungry so we wanted to grab some lunch. We knew we were going to have to wait for the train, so we just broke out these bento boxes. I later found out that it was kind of a faux pas to eat in the Metro. The man in the suit leaned over and said something to me, and I just smiled at him and he smiled back, so he was probably asking me how my lunch was; I had no idea. But that was a cool thing about Tokyo — the people were so nice because they knew I had no idea what was going on.”