Eat Fresh at Subway in Tokyo

The Marunouchi area sits between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace.  It is the financial center of Tokyo. It is also the premium shopping area for the affluent.  Practically all buildings in the area are skyscrapers.  The street level shops are boutiques of big name Japanese and foreign fashion designers.  The interconnected basements of these buildings have many small restaurants catering to office workers.  

One day I happened to be at the basement of the Marunouchi Building.  There I found a unique shop of the Subway Sandwich chain.  It was growing its own lettuce in an enclosed hydroponic “Subway yasai lab” (yasai is Japanese for vegetable).  To me that was an interesting concept.  Even though the “yasai lab” could hardly produce enough lettuce, it supported the advertising slogan “Eat Fresh at Subway”. 

Apparently I was the only person who had any interest.  From the picture, you can see that people eating lunch at the counter paid no attention to the “lab” at all.  I found out later that the”lab” was installed two years earlier in 2010.  Its novelty must have worn off long ago.