Cool bento

I watched one interesting Japanese TV program called "Cool Japan" last week. This program introduced about Japanese cool things. They focused on how cool the Japanese bento culture is.

They reported some fantastic bento boxes and technologies. For example, one Ekiben(train lunch) has easy re-heating system.

Foreigner guest commentators were surprised how cool the Japanese bento culture was.

In addition, the Japanese style bento is getting popular in the U.S recently.

Some people started to make "bento" for their kids instead of sandwiches and banana. A lot of kinds of bento boxes are sold on the internet and we can find a lot of related books in the book stores.

Also, Mrs. Deboran Hamilton who used to live in Japan makes the Japanese style bento and she introduces her bentos in her blog.

Meanwhile, a new style hand-made bento is booming in Japan these few years. It's called "Kyaraben (Japanese Character Lunch Boxes)" and tons of images are up loaded on the internet. Few years ago, Kyaraben was really rare but, now a lot of products to make these bentos are released and it's getting popular. Also, this trend just started to spread to the U.S.

Why are bentos getting famous in the U.S?

First of all, bento is known as healthy food compared to the U.S typical lunch box such as sandwiches and banana.

Actually, a lot of parents concern about a nutritious balance.

Generally speaking, the Japanese style bento has a lot of variation of side dishes and it has deeply considers the nutritious balance in there.

Meanwhile, American style lunch boxes don't have it. Sandwiches mean peanut butter and jelly in the U.S.

Some people bring a cold pizza and snack or only granola bar. I don't think that it's good for kids.

So, now, some mothers realized that kids need to eat better lunch and they started to follow the Japanese style bento.

Second, bento looks really cool in the U.S, because bento has a lot of variation of stuff and they're organized really well.

Also, bento box design is really cool and kawaii(cute). In addition, these products have amazing technologies.

It's the similar situation that the Japanimation is popular in the U.S.

For these reasons, bento is getting popular in the U.S.

However, I don't think bent will become a major lunch style in the U.S.

The reason is very simple. As you know, it requires a lot of time in the busy morning. Most of Japanese moms wake up early to make it or prepare it the previous day. Also, American moms aren't ambidextrous like Japanese moms.

They understand how great the Japanese bento is, but they can not make it every day.

So, what is the better situation in the U.S?

I think they should make better sandwiches because their staple food is bread. They also can use some bento ideas in there.

Kyara-sandwiches looks nice and kids would become happy at lunch time.

Many American moms are working compared to Japanese moms, so I think they don't want to spend a lot of time to make their lunch boxes in the busy morning. If they add more good consideration for well balanced nutritious food, it's enough.

Making kyaraben everyday is too much and impossible.

Written May 30 revised Dec14

Reference URL

http://lunchinabox.net/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWyOInzopQU
http://www.nhk.or.jp/cooljapan/previous/index_1104to06.html