Japanese box lunch

Some Japanese mothers are very busy in the early morning, because they have to cook an Obento (お弁当), a box lunch in Japanese, for their children. Maybe it is more fitting to use a word “create” than “cook.”

Since several years ago, box lunches called Chara Ben (キャラ弁) have become popular among young mothers and their children. The Chara Ben is a box lunch which is decorated by using colorful materials. The name of Chara Ben comes from Characters Bento. They are very cute and look like famous characters are in the lunch boxes.

From early morning they make pretty Obentos, like the pictures above. I think making them goes beyond the bounds of an ordinary mom’s job. It’s a kind of craftsmanship. Even if I were a young mom, I couldn’t make the Chara Ben everyday. I would also run out of characters to make them about.

Why do they need to do that? Of course, for their children. The children love such lunches and enjoy eating them up. But not only for their children, there is kind of a mom’s battle of who is making the most beautiful and cutest lunch. That’s why they can’t stop. They try to find a new pretty character and create it faithfully before anyone else does it. It seems Nori (海苔), dried laver seaweed in Japanese, is necessary material for making a high-quality Chara Ben.

Even if you have a lot of great ideas, you can’t make awesome Obentos without skill. So in Japan, there are many utensils that help making Chara Ben easier. Take a look at the pictures below. These are the cutting dies for thin materials, such as Nori, cheese, ham, and more. When you use them you can decorate the lunch much easier and prettier than before.

If you don’t have enough time to stamp them out, you should use Nori which is already cut into the shape of several characters — such as Stitch or Thomas and Friends. There is an amazing cooker, too.

I’ve never thought people could change the shape of an egg’s yolk. But Japanese moms are doing it! They put a boiled egg with heart-shaped or star-shaped yellow in these lunch boxes. Can you believe this? For them, Obento is not just a meal. And the lunch box is not only a container. Obento is a small world where they can show their ideas, skills, and talents.

Even though I’m not a child, these colorful pretty lunches make me happy, and I wish I could eat such artistic lunches when I was a child.

Some are very elaborate and impressive. See the pictures from “Spirited Away.”

Well… it’s not cute but it’s very high-quality, artistic and beautiful work. Maybe if I were a child, I would be afraid and cry when I opened my lunch box. I also couldn’t eat it for fear of her spell. Even if I don’t cry when I look at it, I’m not sure I can eat it up because it’s too awesome. I want to make a great Chara Ben someday, and hope to have talent to create an awesome one like this. Maybe you can too!