Bento Boxes

I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm accomplishing something if I throw together a PB&J, some pretzels, an applesauce and a cookie and pack them in a lunch box for London's school lunch.  I mean, hey, that's better than the school lunch, right?

But I have to say that in the field of lunch preparation, (some) Japanese moms outshine (some of) us US moms like a red giant star outshines a white dwarf.  How do I know this?  Well, not by direct observation, but by observation of their tools of trade.  What am I talking about???  Bento boxes.

Bento boxes are small containers - lunch boxes - that contain a variety of Japanese foods in small portions.  I have a bento box - they come in some beautiful styles and colors - but I've never used it because my big 'ole American appetite requires more food than will fit in one of those little boxes. 

The bento boxes for adults can be beautiful, but the bento boxes for kids are beautiful inside (or at least those done by those over-achieving Japanese moms).  I've heard it's quite the competition in Japanese schools to have the best looking bento box and this is what I mean...

These photos are from a "recipe book" my neighbor Kelly bought at a Japaese book store.  These are how-to instructions for achieving these amazing, edible, healthy creations for your kids lunch.



The bunny is made from cooked egg whites and yellows cut with special cookie cutters.

 

Here are the direction pages for how to make some of the creations.  They actually trace designs on paper before cutting them out of egg (I think?).  The details are made with nori (sea weed) and carrot.

Note how they place the parts together with tweezers!



They are fond of making cartoon characters - Bugs Bunny!

Little Miss and Mr. Men characters

Some sad looking cats...

The stores are full of utensils for making these cute little lunches - mini forks, cookie cutters, decorations, etc.  These are some mini forks that the kids talked me into buying...

How could you eat a lunch that looked so cute??? 

Call me lazy, but no matter how early I woke up, my kid's lunches will never look like these!!!

Slippin' and Slidin'

Our neighbor, Kelly, had a brilliant idea several weeks ago when she picked up a 300 foot roll of thick tarp from an Oki YardSales deal that we could make an awesome slip and slide for the neighborhood kids.  This fourteen foot wide bolt of tarpaulin has sat in her front yard ever since, waiting, beckoning us.  Well today when the temperatures were topping 100 for the "real feel", and the pools are closed (the calendar indicates that it should be cooling down, so why not close the pools???), I'd had enough of the waiting and announced to Kelly that today was the day.  So with the help of a few other neighbors (thanks Joe and Mike!) we picked out a good hill, made sure there wasn't too much concrete around for the little ones to crash into, and made us a good, old-fashioned, water-park-worthy slip and slide!

Emmy catching a ride with Courtney

It was awesome!  And it didn't take too much coaxing by the kids to get the adults to join in!  Clothes and all!

What better way to cool off after setting up the slide?  Kelly trying it out!

Me and Em

Liz havin' a go!

Happy Birthday Emmy!

Yes, our baby girl had her birthday today and turned the Big "4"!  I think she had a pretty good day - donuts for breakfast, open some presents, a special "Celebration of Life" event at school, swimming with all the family in the afternoon (we had the whole pool to ourselves so we told her they opened it just for her :), her choice of dinners (Daddy's famous hamburgers, corn on the cob and baked beans) and then cake and more presents with some neighbors.

The cake was a "water cat" - an imaginary creature that Emmy and London play all the time.  I have no idea what a water cat is, so this was my interpretation.  They are very good at imaginary play and will spend hours "being" water cats, leopard birds, etc.  They seemed to think it was a reasonable proximity to the actual cat as I heard no complaints!

With her friend, Lydia

Our neighbor Kelly makes all occassions special and she left this message on the fence for Emmy at the bottom of our hill for all to see.  Thanks Ms. Kelly!

The New "Cake Boss"

I don't know if you've seen the reality show called "Cake Boss", but it's about this New Jersey, mafia-looking baker who makes some pretty fabulous looking cakes.  Well, we have our own Cake Boss in house - Cannon!  He started one summer day when he was bored making cake balls - a delish new variation on cake that is a mushy combination of frosting and cake.  After a few tries at those, he graduated to homemade corn bread and yesterday, for our neighborhood Labor Day cookout, he designed an all-American cake.

It's a tri-layer red, white and blue cake decorated like an American flag.  It was his creation and I think he did a pretty good job!!!

Mission SOS

That would be Save Our Spiders...

Now, if you know the slightest bit about me, you probably know that I have arachnophobia.  Bad.  Real bad.  So why am I rescuing spiders?  Well, this is how the story goes...

Last year when we moved here and were still living in the Hamagawa Lodge (hotel) we discovered that Okinawa has big bugs, particularly big spiders.  Every day, to get to the car, pool, etc. we had to pass this bush that contained the web of a HUGE banana spider.  HUGE.  So in order for me to function, I had to make peace with this spider and I did so by naming it "Muffin" (get it - banana muffin).  Every day we'd pass the web and the kids and I would call out "Hello, Muffin!"  It made me feel only slightly better, but better nonetheless.  Apparantly, though, this made quite an impression on the kids who would comment about the well-being of Muffin throughout the past year.

About three weeks ago, a smaller version of Muffin (albeit still big) set up shop on our bushes, right outside of our front door.  Immediately christened Muffin Junior there was nothing I could do but let the thing stay.  I have to say, it's been pretty interesting watching the thing catch bugs, rebuild its web, etc.  And for a spider, banana spiders are pretty (can I really call a spider pretty?)  And the best thing about banana spiders is that they don't venture far from their webs.  Everytime I come in or out, there's Muffin Jr., which, in a way, is a good thing because at least I know where she is.  She's not crawling up my wall or hiding out in my shower drain.

But yesterday Muffin Junior crossed the line.  She laid two egg sacks.  And this morning Cannon came in from taking the recycling out and announced that my "worst nightmare" had come true.  The egg sacks hatched!!!  EWWWW!  Yes, thousands of itty, bitty baby spiders were now hanging out in my bushes.

OK, I was fascinated for a minute or two, but then I had to call in reinforcements, ie. Kelly, my savior neighbor.  After snapping a few photos, Kelly extracted the babies with the utmost care

and "relocated" them to the woods across the field. 

Of course those tricky little spiders quickly figured out what she was doing, so they would drop down into the bush only to reappear a few minutes later and quickly make another web. 

Those "dots" are tiny spiders!

So after two or three trips to the woods, and a nice trimming of part of my bushes, Mission SOS was completed.  Muffin Junior was left to live another day, but she better not try that stunt again!

Here we go again...

If you didn't learn your worldly geography on the last typhoon posting, then I will offer a refresher course.  That little island under the words "3 PM Sat" is Okinawa!  Good job I haven't put out my porch furniture again.

Emmy's First Day

Emmy's stepping up a notch this year and entering an all day Montessori program out in town.  Well, it's off base, but that doesn't mean it's Japanese-speaking.  Although she did inform me today after her second day (in the middle of the hardware store), "At my school, we're learning to speak English and Japanese."  And then she counted to 5 for me in Japanese.  Sweet!

My baby girl is growing up!!! (I apologize about the photography, Emmy is going through a phase were you can't get a good picture of her.  She either has a cheesy smile or looks away...)

Outside school, it's humid so the lens clouds up fast!

Ready to go to her class.

And she's off, without even looking back. :(