A few years ago I spent some time living in Japan. Like many gaijin before me I fell in love with the culture and left with a few quirky habits. One such wonderful discovery was Japanese cuisine.There is an old Japanese saying that ‘You eat with your eyes’. The idea that food should be just as beautiful to look at as it is to taste. One such example of this is the Obento. I have often been amazed by the effort and creativity put into preparing elaborate bento boxes. I know that the traditional Obento is often negatively associated with ideological and gendered meanings but I love the concept of a healthy, homemade (or at least mostly homemade) meal that is packed into a compact, portable box so that it appears delicious and appetizing several hours later.

Now I confess reader, that despite best intentions, in my day to day life this is something that often gets overlooked due to time constraints or laziness. Today I was feeling a bit nostalgic and as I had a bit of time on my hands decided to inject a bit of art into my lunch…

My humble homage-

Firstly sandwich Nb although not pictured here I did eat the rest of the packet of crisps


followed by Fruit and finished up with this cute little fellow who was a present from a lovely friend