{"id":198,"date":"2006-05-31T21:50:13","date_gmt":"2006-05-31T12:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-05-31\/198"},"modified":"2006-05-31T21:50:13","modified_gmt":"2006-05-31T12:50:13","slug":"its-all-about-the-bento","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-05-31\/198","title":{"rendered":"It’s All About the Bento"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/a><\/div>\n\n

Starting preschool is a big deal in Japan. It's a “big kid”\nstep<\/a>, and as such can be a mix<\/span> of excitement and stress for the kid,\nAnthony included. It puts parents<\/span> in a difficult<\/span> situation, because while\nyou want to play up the excitement, you do so at the risk of playing up the\nstress. He gets, for example, the excitement of a new<\/span> backpack and thermos<\/a>, but\nthen has then has the stress of having to carry them. Of course, just going\ncan be stressful in and of itself.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nOne big difference to Anthony between daycare and preschool is that he now\ngets to bring his own lunch. This is a big<\/span> deal, and because of the\nmasterful way in which Fumie handled it, it's a big<\/span> deal that is devoid of\nstress.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\nFirst, she got him a Shimajiro bento box. (“Bento” means\n“boxed lunch”.) Shimajiro is a young<\/span> cartoon tiger character\nfrom a magazine<\/span> that we get every month, with lots of age-appropriate\neducational activities for Anthony (we've been getting it for years, as a\ngift<\/span> from Fumie's mom, and the activities keep in step with his age). The Shimajiro<\/span> stuff is excellent for parents, and of course the kids love it. We all like<\/span> Shimajiro. (Shimajiro's mornic web site<\/a> is less lovely, and\nwon't let me link to the bento box marketing page!)\n\n<\/p>

\n\nIn addition, the rest of the lunch-related things are Shimajiro\n(chopsticks, spoon and fork, bag to carry it all in), so it makes a nice<\/span>\nset whose neatness even Anthony can appreciate and enjoy.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAs the Mom, Fumie is of course concerned with preparing a healthy<\/span> meal, but\nthat doesn't matter if he doesn't eat it, so she puts a lot<\/span> of effort\n(forethought, testing, and execution) into making fun<\/b> and\ntasty<\/b> meals.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nThe bento in the picture at the top of this post is the second one he\nbrought to school. The cooked<\/span> carrots are cut into shapes (airplane, and\nteddy\/Shimajiro heads). The apple<\/span> slice is in the profile of a bunny.<\/span> He loves<\/span> everything in it. It was all<\/span> made fresh in the morning, just before\nhe left. Fumie made sure that he got to “help” make it, so he\nhad “vested ownership”, so to speak. The same was<\/span> done with his first school bento,\nshown here.\n\n<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Anthony's First Bento<\/b><\/big>Fish,\nrice, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, and a cheese<\/span> nugget<\/div>\n\n\n

\n\nIt wasn't actually his first bento, though. A week prior<\/span>, Fumie had\nconceived a “preschool pretend lunch day” with Anthony, where she prepared\na bento<\/span> for him and he ate it while pretending he was at preschool. It was all<\/span> fun and excitement, and he really enjoyed it.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nBy the way, when I said that the bento experience is devoid of stress, I was talking<\/span> about Anthony. It's highly<\/span> stressful for Fumie because it's so\nmuch work and so much is riding on it. He might<\/span> feel stress and pressure if\nhe can't finish on time, so she's made sure that he can handle the setup\nand cleanup of all the bento things himself. (Not all bento boxes sold for\nhis age are actually appropriate for his age.) She prepares each bento so\nthat it's easy and fun to eat, and has positioned the whole experience as\none where things go smoothly and he feels accomplishment.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nI wouldn't have even thought of most of this stuff; she's really done an\nexceptional<\/i> job with this.\n\n<\/p>

\n\n(All this worry about “stress and pressure” might make it sound\nlike we're trying to shield him from the world, but it's just the opposite. The preschool<\/span> is very much of the “don't do<\/b> for them, teach\nand help<\/b> them” school of thought, which is one reason we chose\nit. He has a<\/span> lot of new responsibilities now -- like eating lunch without\nhelp -- but let's not forget that he's still only three years old. The weight<\/span> of the world is something to be borne in increments.)\n\n<\/p>

\n\nDuring a normal week, Anthony brings a bento<\/span> four days (Wednesday is always\na half<\/span> day, so lunch is at home), and the bento is still the focus of those\ndays. When he wakes up in the morning, he always wants to know whether\ntoday is a bento<\/span> day, and he's proud to carry the bento himself.\n\n<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Yesterday's Bento<\/b><\/big>\nRice with vegetable furikake<\/a>\nWeiners cooked to look like octopi\nBite-sized shiitake mushrooms<\/a>\nMini tomato\nAn egg wrap with a spinach-like vegetable\n<\/div>\n\n

In the end, it's food, so it has its own built in measure with which to\ngauge success:\n\nHe's never left a single bite uneaten.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

You can see all his bentos, updated each morning one is made, at the Anthony's Recent Bentos<\/a> page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starting preschool is a big deal in Japan. It's a \"big kid\" step, and as such can be a mix of excitement and stress for the kid, Anthony included. It puts parents in a difficult situation, because while you want to play up the excitement, you do so at the risk of playing up the stress. He gets, for example, the excitement of a new backpack and thermos, but then has then has the stress of having to carry them. Of course, just going can be stressful in and of itself. <\/p>

One big difference to Anthony between daycare and [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}