Yup, it is true, I now have a blog just for bentos. You can find it at bento.raynesworld.net. Now I can focus this blog on all other aspects of my life.

We will be moving soon. We got a letter the other day telling us that this building will be torn down on August 1st. They are going to help us move and as soon as the new buildings are finished we will have first dibs on a new place. Mid-June Josh and Wendy will be moving up here so we are going to just look for a bigger house for all of us.

Well, that is all the non-bento news for now

I just got in 2 new bento sets from Ichiban Kan today plus some new accessories. I am going to wait until my next shipment on the 28th before I start taking pictures. I will bu putting them up soon. I have also found a place on eBay where I can get the Animal Click oshibori cloths so I will be getting those soon. I also ordered a green Hello Kitty bento today on eBay. I am trying to set up a more bento-centric blog on my other domain so I can keep my bento news separate from my other stuff as I am sure if there is anyone out there reading you may be getting sick of my bento posts. When I get that done I will post a link to there and then this will go back to being a standard blog with craft stuffs.

(I wrote this post 3 days ago but forgot to click publish. The actual post date should be May 21, 2008)

Well, I just got in another shipment from Ichiban Kan today. I just LOVE that store! Anyway, I got some furikake and some candies as well as some other things like 2 white boards, a face brush, a back scratcher, a cool CD pen for labeling disks, a pokemon bento bag, and other stuff I can’t remember. Anyway, on one of the things of candy, some strawberry hi-chew, there is a website that has a game where you can win wallpapers, backgrounds, and dividers. There is a code to put this game on your site so I figured I would share it here.

It is pretty much self explainitory. I do not read Japanese so I don’t go what all it says. Sometimes when you win it takes you to another game, and sometimes it takes you to where you can get a wallpaper or something. I’ve not had any problems with any of the downloads but use at your own risk. I feel safe with it, it is a well known company, but still, I am not responsible for any problems.

I just got in 2 more 2 tier bentos and 2 onigiri bentos, as well as the little utensil sets that fit in the top, some fishy sauce bottles, and 2 different onigiri molds, the traditional triangular kind and the tiny ones shaped like a heart, star, and bear. I also got these really cool straws from Japan. They are long enough to be used in a 20 oz bottle but they are bendy straws. They are even long enough to be used in the 32 oz Gatorade bottles. Anyway, still haven’t found my camera but as soon as I do I will post pictures.

Ok, I have gotten my very first bento. As soon as I can find my camera I will take a pic of it to post here. It is a small bento but I’ve found that amazingly it holds a decent amount of food, more than enough for a filling lunch. There is a store in San Fransisco that is opening an online store soon that has bento’s for $1.50! Granted you have to buy the bag and belt and any other accessory separately it is still a great deal. As soon as the shop goes online I will post more about it here. I have also placed an order with Asian Food Grocer and it should be in tomorrow (the 9th). On this first order I only ordered a few candies and some filled breads but if everything arrives safely I will order more because they have really good prices and a great selection. I really prefer to but from places that have a distribution point here in America as it saves TONS on shipping. I mean on the bento I ordered from Japan the shipping alone was over $11 which is quite a bit for such a small package where is the food from the Asian Food Grocer is being sent FedEx, is a rather large box, and it only cost less than $5 for shipping. With lower shipping I can buy more stuff and that makes me a happy Rayne! lol

Ok, my close friends know I now have a new obsession, bento boxes. For those who don’t know, a bento box is kinda like a Japanese lunch box. Here is a pic:

As you can imagine I will be posting more about my adventures in bento. So far all I have are 2 egg molds. It is a bit difficult for me to find affordable things here a most sellers are in Japan so the shipping is either very high or it takes sometimes up to 2 - 3 months to get something in. I love my egg molds, one is a teddy bear and one is a bunny. I used them for the first time today. I was not exactly successful, the eggs were too small and I tore one up a bit peeling it, but I can see that with just another try or 2 I’ll have it perfect.

For any other bento enthusiasts out there I came across something today. Collections Etc has silicone muffin cups that are heart shape on sale for $11.99. They ship for fairly cheap and are fast. Here is a pic:

These are great for use in your bento to keep moist or fragrant things seperated from your other food.

Anyway, this is all for now. I will be posting more later.