Lunch Time: Where's My Bento?

Let me take some time to talk about bentos. Bentos are lunch boxes. Usually, they are home made. However, you can buy take out bentos from places like convenience stores or Hotto Motto, which is a takeout bento chain restaurant.

In the States, when I think of lunch boxes, I think of sandwiches or last night's dinner in tuberware. This is not true here in Japan.

Bentos here tend to be actual meals, not a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They are also thought through carefully before they are made. Housewives will have strategies about where they should put food and how the food should look, so that the overall bento not only tastes good but it looks mighty appetizing and pretty.  This is why many times little kids might have little sausages that  look like cute octopus.

At school, most of the kids bring bentos made by their mothers. I remember once I went with one of the clubs to a special competition. All of the kids had nice bentos. However, one girl had food from the convenience store like me. Before this day, I always felt bad for the housewives and working mothers who had to labor away every day and make these bentos for their kids and husbands. However, that day, I felt bad for the kid because she was the only one without one. It was strange to see it from the other side. Instead of thinking about the bento through the woman's perspective, I was realizing how important it was through my student's perspective.

Students of course are not the only ones with bentos. Many married people who work with me also bring their bento to work. Men have the bento that their wives made for them. Women have the bento that they made for themselves, probably after they had made their children's and then husband's bento.
Most of the single crowd, including myself, just end up buying a bento from school or we get lunch from somewhere else. Sad! I need to find a guy that would make a cute bento for me. lol. That would probably be very difficult to find. lol.

Anyway, here is a link that has really cute bentos. These are all works of art. The kitty one is super adorable. Take a look here.