Bento Madness

I am now going to take you into the mystifying, mind-boggling and slightly horrific world of school lunches in Japan. Now when I was a kid, my mom threw a bologna sandwich in a brown bag with an apple and maybe some Lay's chips in a ziploc and that was lunch.

In Japan, however, moms compete with each other for who can make the most creative/cutest 'bento' (lunch box) for their precious little ones. Websites, magazines, and blogs abound with recipes and directions on bento-box production with themes covering Anime Characters, Sports, Seasons, Animals, and anything else a kid could ever want. Some examples:

Particularly frightening is what is being done with the weiner in this country. Japanese kids LOVE sausages. Kinda like hot dogs in the US. But did you know weiners can also be farm animals?

Now you can make your own weiner animals with the help of the good people at Nippon Ham. (click on any animal for detailed how-to instructions!).