Chara-ben!
There are so many businesspersons who bring hand-made “obentoes” or “bentoes” (lunch boxes) in Japan. It’s really good for them to do it because it saves their money and is beneficial to their health.
And some of them take more time and use their ingenuities to make their original bentoes called “Chara-ben”.

Pokemon characters on bento
Housewives make bentoes for their children but many kids tend to hate green peppers or carrots. So mothers had to exercise wisdom to encourage them to eat food like those kinds of vegetables.
Then finally they found the way. They started to put cartoon (or anime) character-shaped foodstuffs on bentoes and kids got excited at them. It may be no exaggeration to say that mothers have revolutionized the way of making bentoes.

Black Jack

Portrait of kabuki actor
In Akihabara, you can learn how to make Chara-ben in the French language! The Institute of Creative Industries and Culture (ICIC) will have a Chara-ben workshop in this coming March. “Obento” is experiencing a boom in France now.
*For more details, please look at; http://www.icic.jp/workshop/cat/o/000117.html (Japanese)
Akihabara is truly the “facility” to offer cutting-edge information!
2 Responses to “Chara-ben!”
Pingback from Charaben – Hoe Japans wil je het hebben? | De Sushi Times
Time 30/09/2012 at 01:54
[…] en deze Japanse ouders kunnen het maken. En zeg nou zelf, ziet het er niet geweldig uit? (via Tenkai-Japan) (via Face Food Bento) (via Just Bento) Ben je zelf ook helemaal enthousiast geworden, en zou […]
Pingback from Chara-ben! | Tenkai-japan: Cool Japan Guide – Travel, Shopping …
Time 26/01/2010 at 22:21
[…] the rest here: Chara-ben! | Tenkai-japan: Cool Japan Guide – Travel, Shopping … January 26th, 2010 at 7:41 […]