For those of you in the states, my family included. This is a picture of comparison.Considering the size of our typical American lunch boxes, especially the ones from the 70's and 80's. Whether they were the big tin ones with thermos inside or the plastic ones with thermos inside. Also, in American sized lunch boxes, you could fit almost anything in there, right? A sandwich placed in a sandwich bag, a whole apple, a small sack of chips and perhaps a Twinkie or ding dong, lol!
So, look at this Japanese lunchbox. It's about the equivalent of a slice of regular bread! Now is that not ridiculously small or what? And us mother's who live in Japan have to cram the sandwich, the side dish, rice and veggie all in that one tiny little box! Ha ha ha! That's exactly why I think in the US, taking lunch is easy and it's simply taking lunch! But in Japan, trying to widdle your lunch down to fit that itty bitty teeny weenie of a size and it's truly become art! Anyway....just thought many of you in the US, might like to see exactly how small these obento boxes really are! : )
Looks like a few obento boxes for sure. And I actually have another Spongebob one that broke and another Thomas, he is using at school right now. When Branden first started yochien. He got 1 obento box, because 1 is plenty. But then you make some stew and you need a bigger one. or summer comes and your obento's are smaller and lighter so then you buy a smaller one. And suddenly you got obento overload! Ha ha ha. Also, they are super easy to break! If they fall just once, especially the lids....forget about it! Go buy another! Sigh! Ha ha ha! That's why I like the bigger Spongebob one in the back, it's all plastic and it is darn near unbreakable! Ha ha ha! But yup, obento boxes have a funny way of adding and multiplying in a household in Japan! And now we add the winter metal one I just got today.....see what I mean? Ha ha ha! : )
A few month's back, I was finished making Branden's obento and suddenly the lid fell. Didn't even fall very hard. But sure enough, the lids to obento boxes are made like fortune cookies, meaning they break so easy! Can you see the crack on the right?
And here is one of my biggest obento boxes, I think this one is 550 ml oh wait, I take that back. My 100% plastic Spongebob one is 600 ml! And that is freakishly big for a child's obento box! Standard for an adults size, but huge for a child's obento box. The smallest one I have is the metal winter one and that's only 300 ml!!! Really small isn't it? Anyway, I hope this was interesting. I know many of you don't live in Japan and are curious about our obento's and obento boxes. Also about the word itself. Obento, means lunch. Obento bako, means lunch box itself. Obento is the polite way to say it. And just plain bento is the normal way. : )
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