Asparagus Bouquet Bento

This is a very simple bento that was a lot of fun to make. I don't like asparagus, but my husband does so this was all about an excuse to cook him some. The mamenori bow is the best part I think! Here is the video of the making of the bento, pretty much step by step. I skipped all the actual cooking parts because I'm never sure if people want to see those steps or just how things go into the box.

Fanime part 2

Here are pictures of me talking away at the panel and some of my little girl having a blast at the convention. The videos that I used at the presentation will be going up very soon!

While I was in town for Fanime I couldn't help myself and had to go shopping for bento boxes. It's an addiction, I swear! I didn't have a chance to shop very much, but I did find a few shops with boxes and accessories in Japantown, San Jose.

First we stopped at Nikkei Traditions (219 Jackson St.). We had a good time browsing and my daughter loved the dolls on display. I bought a one-tier flower shaped box, some fish soy sauce bottles and beautiful chopsticks.

Next A-chan practically dragged me into the Shuei-Do Manju Shop because I'd been promising her some mochi. She got mochi, I got mokona and we bought my husband a treat too!

Nichi Bei Bussan (140 Jackson St.) was a lot of fun to browse! They had tons of stuff from furniture to cosplay. They had larger, picnic sized bentos and lovely furoshiki.

Nijiya Market (240 Jackson St.) had some contemporary bento boxes and a few accessories like containers and such. More importantly, though, they had Japanese carrots and even better they had konpeito!! We bought two bags of konpeito and they were gone by the end of the weekend.

Hoping with all my might that we wouldn't get a parking ticket, I decided that we had to go into just one more store before going back to the car. Nikaku Japanese Arts (615 N. 6th st) is upstairs and jam packed with all kinds of things from pottery to anime and manga. They have a good deal on large square bento boxes with furoshiki and chopsticks as a set. Even though we spent a lot of time there we didn't get a ticket :D

Fanime was Fantastic!

Last week was a huge chaotic visit to California and Fanime, which was just plain awesome. My little girl travels like a trooper which is great since our layover flight was delayed by about 4 hours and we ended up landing in San Francisco around 1 am or so. The list of touristy things we did completely centers around Japan, lol. Japantown San Jose, Japantown San Francisco, Fanime, The Japanese Tea Garden at the Golden Gate Park, the carousel at GGP, etc.

Fanime was soooo much fun! The cosplay was incredible - especially the huge cosplay groups. Thank you to all the wonderful people who came to hear me ramble on about bentos!! I love sharing my obsession with others and I hope that it was somewhat informative :) Please give me any comments - I would really like to have some feedback about it so that I can do a better job in the future.

Soon I will have the information on the stores that I prowled in San Jose that have bento related items for sale with addresses and everything. I will probably get to that sunday. (One of our cats was discovered to be very ill when I got home from the trip and taking him back and forth to the vet, worrying, etc. is making me slower posting things than I had intended. ) I'll also start posting the other videos of bentos, yay!!