Bento Corner

A request from the girl for more chocolate and banana sandwich. Bento also includes chicken nuggets (frozen item) and carrots.

After the guitar bento all my creative juices have been sucked out of me and I was happy to oblige with this easy, plain, yet very tasty sandwich.

Rabbit rock star with chicken nuggets (frozen food item), snap peas, strawberries and rice with furikake.

I really felt a bit insane making this bento -- in particular the guitar. I was creating it the night before while watching Heroes season 2 (love that show!!) and I found myself questioning my sanity over and over while trying to create the guitar strings. Final product is still all bendy and warped looking. No matter. Guitar is made of cheese and nori while the rabbit and stars are made of hanpen (more fish cake because we just can't get enough).

I created this bento because of the girl's comment about rock stars concerning the last bento.

She said she got a lot of comments from her classmates and even her teacher about how that was a cool rock star. Guess that's OK since once in a while I think my daughter deserves rock star status.

And along the lines of rock star, it is once again my shame to admit that for our wedding anniversary my husband has already sprang his gift onto me. It's a very small trinket and includes a conflict free diamond after my big stink about no more trinkets unless they were "clean".

And in return I've gotten him a smashing gift -- I believe it's called zilch or more commonly known as jack sh!t.

Yes, I totally know what you are wondering. I think my family said it best after our engagement, "Wait, why does a nice guy like him want to marry you?!"

It's a big mystery to me too.

Hinamatsuri bento for Girl's Day. Bento includes 3 nori maki with takuan, cucmber, and shibazuke; sauteed shimeji mushroom with snap peas; cube steaks sauteed in butter and garlic; and tamagoyaki. The emperor and empress are made of cheese, nori and imitation crab.

Today the girl has observation of Hinaningyo (special dolls displayed at Hinamatsuri) at her kinder. When I was a kid my parents bought me the huge 7 level set that every girl had back in the day. I still have this set but the girl has never seen it nor know of its existence.

I  have no idea of the condition of the dolls as it just gets stored away whenever we relocate. I have no gumption to display it but this is the one item I cannot part with because of the shame and the guilt associated with it knowing my parents spent a lot of money to get this for me.

In America I could totally get away with ignoring tradition, but in Japan, especially if your child is not attending international school, it's hard to ignore it. There's some pressure to do as everyone else does or your child could get left out. I'm trying to maintain a balance to hold onto our own values but I still cave in some places.

So to march on with this tradition, my son and I made this to display in our current Tokyo residence:

It was technically my son's project but I had to assist. But he did a great job with the empress' mouth, no?

3 Flower bento with edamame caterpillars, sweet teriyaki chicken, and snap peas. Please excuse the blurry photo -- I got so lectured by the husband about how to properly take photos. He should know by now it's useless to talk to me from a technical standpoint because I listen to him like Charlie Brown listens to his teachers..."wah, wah, wah....wah, wah, wah..."

My daughter asked why the one star is wearing sunglasses -- I told her that was actually a rock star flower. Then she said, "Whaaa~t? That's no rock star, mom. Rock stars are suppose to have their mouths open because they are singing!" Kids these days -- they are just so hip.

Speaking of kids we are getting a break from ours this weekend! My parents have (insanely) agreed to try and take them off our hands a couple of weekends this month since the husband and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary.

But you know the joke is our proposal/marriage is not exactly legal...if not legal at least very questionable. No, really I'm not kidding. It's true.

When my husband proposed to me he was incredibly sick and I had to tend to him like Florence Nightingale. The dutiful, devoted girlfriend I was. Uh, no. I just drugged him so he was completely high on Nyquil until he slurred "wanna get married?"

Intention behind propsal -- questionable tactics.

Me, on the other hand, completely forgot my vows at the alter and laughed it off (yes, indeedy, I laughed) while my husband had to "remind me" (read: forced me to say with gritted teeth) of what it was I had vowed to fulfill.  

Commitment to marriage -- not taken very seriously.

Yet here we are two kids later, still going over our proposal/marriage play by play and continually questioning our level of sanity. Because that's what it takes to keep our marriage alive.