For most Japanese mothers, lunch is not just simple food preparation and packing meals for their love ones, they spend their time arranging the meal in aesthetically pleasing way. These lunch boxes are known as “Bento.” Bento is a Japanese word for a meal served in a box. In history, bento is a packed Japanese lunch box, same idea to, the Korean dosirak, Filipino baon, or the Indian tiffin lunch. Today, they are a vibrant art form admired around the world.
If you’re interested on creating one for yourself or for your love ones, there are plenty of garnishes and interesting side dishes for your bento. A basic Bento is only divided into 2 parts: half of the lunch box is filled with rice, the other half is filled with a range of complementary foods, such as eggs, vegetables, meat or fish. Below you’ll see some of well-designed Bento that goes beyond the basic Bento preparation.
Harvest Bento. A well-designed bento that looks like the Sun Maid Raisin girl. (via: Sakurako Kitsa)
I Wanna Rock & Roll All Nite. This was made by Susan Yuen. She chose Gene Simmons of the popular band, KISS (via: Susanyuen)
Lovely Bento. Yaoi is one of Ramachan’s favorite manga. Yaoi is a Japanese word, which is in fact itís an acronym. It comes from “Yama nashi, Ochi nashi, Imi nashi”, which means “no climax, no point, no meaning”. (via: Ramachan)
Camping Bento. Perfect lunchbox for adventurous people specially going camping bento. (via: Lillergy)
Meta Knight bento. This Meta Knight bento was made of a rice ball with plastic wrap, and Anna put some seasoned seaweed inside. Meta Knight is dark blue with a gray mask, so I put ground black sesame seeds around the bottom half on the side of rice ball for the blue part. (via: AnnaTheRed)
Sony Playstation. A bento made by a gamer. (via: Markpascua)
Star Wars Bento. A star wars-inspired bento showing the planet Tatooine’s twin suns, Tatoo I and Tatoo II. (via: Vingt Deux)
Spidery Monster Bento. MisterMan, as the creator call it, gets a salmon salad sandwich on whole wheat thin with lettuce and cheddar. Guarding it is fanged tomato spider with baby carrot legs. (via: Sherimiya)
Starbucks Bento. Starbucks’ marketing department can borrow this idea for their future print advertisement. (via: Ricoco) 
Kanda Bento. Here’s another anime-based bento design. This is the face of Yuu Kanda, one of the best D.Gray-man character. (via: S-in-C)
Ouendan Monkey Magic Bento. This is from the Monkey Magic segment of the sequel to the Nintendo DS game Osu. (via: Kickintheheadcomic)
Lost Bento. A Bento made by an avid viewer of popular TV series, LOST. (via: Aibento)
Nekobus Bento. Anna truly made an art out of frozen meatballs, broccoli, egg, cheese, snowpeas, asparagus and seaweeds. (via: AnnaTheRed)
Geisha Bento. In all the Bento design listed here, this one is really unique. It’s like a sculpture placed inside a bento box. (via: Sakurako Kitsa)
Konata Bento. This is Konata from Lucky Star Anime Series. (via: KandiKawaii)
Koi Pond Bento. Cathryn explains that he stones surrounding the pool are soy-braised button, bunashimeji (beech), and tiny enoki mushrooms. The Koi are kamaboko with red bell pepper and nori details. (via: Cathryn3)
Bioshock Big Daddy. Here’s another game-based Bento. Meet Bioshack Big Daddy and the little Sister. (via: Kickintheheadcomic)
Mokona Bento. Mokona is the pen name of the lead artist of the all-female manga-creating team Clamp. Mokona here is made of a giant rice ball (via: Nikoleart)
Power Puff Girls. Fans of power puff girls will surely love this. (via: Luckysundae)
House of Bento. This house looks yummy from the outside. I wonder what’s the inside. (via: Lillergy)
Goju Ryu Suparinpei Bento. The Karate girl is made of mozzarella, smoked ham and nori. The backgraound is made of mushrooms, green onions, mozzarella, pepperoni and turkey. (via: )
Frog Bento. Awesome tree frog sculpture. (via: Sakurako Kitsa)
The Oz-Man Cometh. Another excellent artwork by Susan Yuen. (via: Susan Yuen)
Bento of Super Smash Bros.. Featuring Pikachu and Mr. Game & Watch! (via: Kickintheheadcomic)
Spongebob Bento. Spongebob is made of a whole grain bread with mortadella and cheese. (via: Lovebones)
Death Note Bento. Death Note is another popular Japanese manga/anime series. (via: Kickintheheadcomic)
Phoenix Suns Bento. Kawaiikiki made a bento about her favorite NBA team, the Phoenix Suns. (via: Kawaiikiki)
Spring Picnic Bento. This is an entry bento design by Laura for the Spring Contest sponsored by Bento & Co. (via: Laura Bento)
Wallace and Gromit Bento. Wallace and Gromit is one of the creator’s favorite British animated films. Susan use rice stuffed with barbeque chicken to create Wallace and kamaboko for his eyes and teeth. (via: Susan Yuen)
Sea Bento. Ironically, there’s no seafood in this bento. (via: Liloaznangel)
Patapon Bento. Patapon is a rhythm game for PSP. You push the buttons to make the Patapons march, attack and defend from enemy. (via: Kickintheheadcomic)
Xmas Bento. Kids will surely love this even though it’s not Christmas season yet. (via: Nonochan)