Explore everyday life in Japan
Yes, it is true. Mothers in Japan, and sometimes fathers as well, do make character bento boxes for their children. And yes, a lot of time and preparation does go into making them.
My son and his nursery school class recently went on an outing to a park outside of the city that we live in. About a week before this outing occurred, my wife began asking my son what kind of bento box he wanted. So as not to disappoint, my wife sat our son on her lap, pulled out her iPhone, opened Google Images, and began scrolling through the characters he mentioned. As is typical of boys his age, two Kamen Rider figures were his clear favorites, so my wife searched for two images that she could use and asked my son for his approval.
The next day, my wife bought some tracing paper, placed it on top of her iPhone screen, and began tracing templates of the images she had found. The day after that, she began making test runs of the character shaped rice balls she planned to make. By the next day, she had decided she was capable of making the character bento of my son’s dreams. Now all she needed to do was buy the ingredients.
The following day, my wife went to a supermarket in search of some blue colored rice seasoning mix. The supermarket was all out. The day after that, she went to another supermarket, and then another. Both supermarkets were out of all the blue colored seasoning mixes that they usually carry. My wife began to panic. One of the characters my son had chosen was blue. She started calling supermarkets to see if she could find one that had what she was looking for. Fortunately, she found one that did. A supermarket near her parent’s house still had some blue colored rice seasoning mix in stock. My wife asked them to hold one packet for her and then called her mother to request that she ride her bike over to the supermarket and buy it immediately.
On the day of my son’s nursery school outing, my wife got up at four o’clock in the morning and began toiling away at his bento box. By a quarter to six, she was finished. She placed it on the table where my son normally sits for breakfast and then began worrying whether he would like it or not, whether he would be able to carry it to school and the park without flipping it over and disrupting the contents inside.
As if it were Christmas, my wife woke my son up and led him downstairs. She asked him if he was ready to see his Kamen Rider bento box and when he answered with a smiley, Yes, she led him to his seat and told him to look inside his lunch box. He did, and fortunately, his reaction was great!
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting daily updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.
Thanks for this. I live in Hawaii and I've seem some creative Bentos :) Cheers!
I'm glad to hear it. Some people definitely take bento making to another level. It's really fun to watch your children react to opening them. They definitely get excited.