You’ll want both hands free and stomach empty before digging into this onigiri behemoth.

We recently stopped by Tokyo boxed lunch specialist Kitchen Dive to buy a three-kilogram (6.6-pound) bento. While we were there, our eyes glazed over at the sight of the counter filled with massive meals, many of which were stuffed with mouth-watering fried foods.

At the edge of our vision, though, we could make out a row of onigiri, or Japanese-style rice balls.

But this is still Kitchen Dive, and as such the establishment has a reputation to uphold. So while Kitchen Dive can hook you up with a palm-sized onigiri for just 30 yen (US$0.27)…

…or, for 100 yen, one that’s slightly bigger than the rice balls you’ll find at the convenience store.

If you’re really hungry, you can get a gigantic half-kilo rice ball, which costs 300 yen…

…but if you’re really, really hungry, the madmen at Kitchen Dive can also provide you with a one-kilogram (2.2-pound) rice ball!

Kitchen Dive’s largest onigiri, which also happens to be the biggest rice ball we’ve ever come across in Tokyo, is priced at 500 yen. The one we picked up had edamame soy beans mixed in, but no seaweed wrapping.

To put a full kilo of rice in perspective, onigiri usually contain somewhere around 100 grams of rice, so this monster is equivalent to 10 of its orthodox brethren. Alternatively, a customary curry rice serving in Japan uses about 300 grams of rice.

▼ Kitchen Dive’s 30, 100, 300, and 500-yen onigiri

Needless to say, this isn’t the sort of thing an ordinary person can eat in a single sitting. Even our own Mr. Sato, whose proven himself to be in possession of an extraordinary stomach time and time again, couldn’t polish it off by himself.

▼ Not that he didn’t try, of course.

500 yen might be a lot for an onigiri, which typically sell for about 120 yen at convenience stores and supermarkets. But since the Kitchen Dive giant is ten times normal size, but just a little over four times the normal price, it’s actually pretty awesome value if you don’t mind taking the leftovers home to munch on over the course of the next day or two.

Shop information
Kitchen Dive / キッチンDive
Address: Tokyo-to, Koto-ku, Kameido 6-58-15 Land Sea Kameido
東京都江東区亀戸６丁目５８−１５ ランドシー亀戸
Open 24 hours

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