 is usually eaten as "karē raisu" — curry, rice, and often pickled vegetables, served on the same plate and eaten with a spoon, a common lunchtime canteen dish.It is less spicy and seasoned than Indian and Southeast Asian curries, being more of a thick stew than a curry.British people brought curry from the Indian colony back to Britain and introduced it to Japan during the Meiji period (1868 to 1912), after Japan ended its policy of national self-isolation ("sakoku"), and curry in Japan was categorised as a Western dish.