Yesterday (Aug 30th), my sister and I participated in a Fashion Show to benefit a local Autism organization. My family goes to the hair salon that hosted the show and a few weekends ago I received a frantic call from my mother — she had volunteered me to walk on the runway, representing the 1940s (the show was “Fashion through the Eras” and had 1920s, 40s, 60s, 80s, Present, and Future styles). I went to the training on the 16th and then more models dropped out and I was asked to volunteer my sister. I convinced my sister to join the Show because she had done fashion shows before for Girl Scouts and I liked the idea of having someone there that I knew to be there with me. I don’t use this salon so I didn’t know anyone here. My sister represented the 1920s, which was perfect because she had a flapper outfit from the year prior!

Long story short, my sister is shy. I made this bento to give her something to look forward to and to calm her nerves. Plus I love making and planning bento (seriously, I was planning this bento all week) and since she started college recently, she’s been getting into bento as well. I bought this bento off of Yahoo! Japan for like $5. There wasn’t anything for size comparison (though I should have read 重箱/ピクニック遠足…) and when I received it I was surprised at the size. This was the perfect opportunity to use it and I love the fact that it’s clear and that the lid is raised up so bento items that stick up can still fit when the box is closed. I felt so proud when people were asking us “who made it?”, “where did you buy it?”, and when I replied that I made it, everyone was so shocked and exclaimed it was “sooo cute!” and “a shame to eat!”. I assured them I had taken plenty of pictures before handing the box to my sister.

This bento contains (from top left, clockwise):

• Wheat peanut butter and homemade strawberry jam sandwiches
• Okonomiyaki sauces (orange container)
• Nashi bears
• Okonomiyaki balls
• Inari-zushi
• Shilla Nayitae Roll cake
• Char Siu Bao
• 2 Mini-onigiri made with homemade furikake (radish leaf/bonito and carrot/sesame)
• Center: Homemade pickled radishes and bonito flakes (penguin)
• Voseges Chocolates (silver squares)

My sister and I both have blood sugar problems so i made sure to tuck in some interesting chocolates if we needed energy throughout the long day (12pm-7pm). The flavors were things like curry, chili, bacon, and so on. I also brought a diet citrus tea for us to share.

In preparation for this bento, I envisioned the box much larger than it was and had planned much more things to go inside. I was able to take my time and plod along while making this bento on Sunday morning. It took me about one and a half to two hours to make, but I was cleaning as I was cooking.  All in all, this was a great success in my opinion! We didn’t finish all of this though (cake, bao, and onigiri went uneaten).