Worldwide Bento
Once upon a time my mother used to send me to school with a carefully prepared bento. This was before the days of the Internet, and certainly before Japanese culture was so “cool.” My evil second grade teacher took my bento out of my hands, and made the kids pass it around for inspection. By the time my beloved bento returned to me, it had been handled by about 25 people and I didn’t want to eat it any more.
This story still makes me sad.
Now, the bento seems to have reached an almost mainstream status.
If you had told me when I was a child that a sign like this could be placed on the street and make sense to people, I don’t know that I would have believed you.
The American bento does look a little bit different from the classic Japanese eki-ben, but the principles are still there, I suppose.
However, there are many times when I am traveling that I wish I could pick up a lovely bento like this. We just don’t have them here in the States.
Mmm. Getting hungry?
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that in ancient china if you were REALLY fat that meant you were...
omg i feel so bad for a that monkey help it some one plzzzz
Marie,
December 10th, 2005 at 12:14 pmYou are making me hungry! Here in Taiwan, we have bento, too, a holdover/gift from the Japanese Colonial Period, 1895-1945, 50 years when Japan ruled Taiwan as a colony, and the lunch box remains a staple of Taiwanese culture, but it is called “Biantang” in Mandarin, and few people know the word bento. But biantang are available at every shop at every corner, you would think you right smack in the middle of Japan here sometimes……
mmm hungry indeed! great pics
December 10th, 2005 at 2:44 pmUmm… Come visit SF bay area, I’ll show you 100s of places to get them.
December 10th, 2005 at 4:44 pmabout 18 months ago I put up a series of ekiben photos at my fotolog
I think I may have to update it with the ones from Tohoku…
December 10th, 2005 at 6:19 pmThe timing of this is funny. I *just*, as in 10 minutes ago, did a search on some bento stuff, and came across a not-half-bad band called Bento. Their website is http://bentomusic.com/ and their first album is in iTunes so you can give it a spin. I bought it.
December 11th, 2005 at 12:12 amThe first time I’ve seen anyone wax lyrical about a lunchbox. Though I’d stack my good old PB&J against a bento any day. Did you know in elementary school I had a Menudo lunchbox? (P.S. Menudo rocks!)
December 11th, 2005 at 11:22 amI think that as things progress worldwide, more and more J-words will enter English vocab. Just as many Italian, French, Spanish and German (even Swedish smorgasbord) words have entered the English VoCab, we will see about 50-100 Japanese words in every day use soon: bento will be normal take out word very soon: “Yes, give me the bento take out!”
Sushi and wasabi and tofu were early entries, along with anime and sashimi, but soon another dozen or so choice J-words will become common overseas.
Recommendations? Nominations?
December 11th, 2005 at 11:41 amYes!! Number one.. Hentai.
There’s a place called Tokyo Lunchbox in my work bldg., unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have any real bento.. My hopes to practice Japanese with the proprietors got dashed when it turned out they’re Koreans. (And as cool as they are, I don’t intend to start another lingo in the middle of two others.)
December 11th, 2005 at 12:09 pmYes, HENTAI could enter the Enlgish vocabularily any day now. Good one, Duo!
Maybe KAWAII, too?
December 11th, 2005 at 5:03 pmI nominate genki. Its a real useful word to describe a feeling or person.
December 11th, 2005 at 5:45 pmYes, sure, GENKI must go on the list!
What about HAI? I can just imagine Westerners going “hai hai” while listening to a friend discuss something with them…. could it catch on?
December 11th, 2005 at 6:17 pmWell, i for one certainly hope “bento” doesn’t enter western vocabulary any time soon! Why? Well, my family name (i’m Portuguese btw) is Bento, so just imagine if your family name was Spaghetti or Smorgasbord. Not very nice is it?
December 12th, 2005 at 3:30 amHai nope never, i say that by mistake to my flatmates sometimes rather than yes and they just look confused and ask why im saying hi in the middle of a convo.
I would also say sashimi isn’t even a commonly used word yet O.o people don’t seem to know what it is if you mention it (in the student generation that is)
One that was easily accepted is shinkansen. Moshi moshi is at least known by people but not used.
I don’t think general use words such as genki will ever really transfer, the words tend to be something that is a name of something that is infact japanese.
December 12th, 2005 at 1:25 pmOh forgot to mention the American bento doesn’t look anywhere near as nice. Looks like they just threw random stuff they had in there O.o
December 12th, 2005 at 1:26 pm