-= Bento A-Go-Go! =-

Welcome! Irasshaimase!

Rules - Codes - Join - Change Info - List - More

Opening Day: 29 April 2005. Last Update: 21 January 2008
Members: 353
Please forgive the slowness of updates lately. I have been having spam problems.

About Fanlistings - A fanlisting is, as the name suggests, a list of fans of a certain person or thing. Fanlistings originated online with a person called Janine and are registered at thefanlistings.org, which maintains a mighty database. There can only be one official fanlisting per topic. Some are wildly popular, even oversubscribed, and some are, well, obscure or esoteric. It remains to be seen which kind this will be. It's dedicated to Japanese packed lunches: bento.

About bento - To learn more about this delicious slice of Japanese food culture, please visit my site Bento Box!

Rules
The prerequisite underpinning all these rules is that you should be a fan of bento. It need not be your favourite thing ever in the world, but it should be one that you love. With that out of the way:

1. Be sure to provide a valid email address and country when joining. All official fanlistings are required to show what countries their members are based in, in the name of jolly international camaraderie. I can't/won't list you if you don't provide these two essentials. I would prefer a specific country in the United Kingdom to 'UK.'

2. You need not have your own webpage to join up, but if you do, please display one of the codes somewhere I can find it. Please put it up when you submit the 'join' form, so I can check it's there. I will not link to your page if I can't find the link/code graphic on it (it's a 'tit for tat' thing) - in that case I will just list your name. If you add the code later on, you can let me know by using the 'change info' form, whereupon I will add your url with a good will.

3. Listing of urls is at my discretion. If I find the content of your site objectionable, I will list your name but not link to your site. As a general guide, I am not a fan of racism, sexism, homophobia or any sort of cruelty, and for the sake of my good name will steer clear of sites that may be considered pornographic.

Codes
Please save the image you want to use to your own computer, and upload it to your own webspace. All codes should link to http://www.airandangels.com/bentofan/

I will probably be adding more codes in the future. Cool-looking donations would also be welcome.

50x50

100x50

text only
I ♥ bento
copy and paste in your HTML: <strong><a href="http://www.airandangels.com/bentofan" target="_blank">I &hearts; bento </a> </a></strong>

Join
Just fill in the form and click 'join'! If you have difficulty using the form, send regular email to webmistress (at) airandangels (dot) com. Please note, when deciding if you want your email to be linked on the list, that I cannot guarantee protection from spambots.

N.B. When I ask for 'code location,' I want to know where on your webpage I can see the code graphic that you've linked to this FL. I do not want your zip code or postcode *^w^*

Change Info

If you're already a member and wish to update your information, please use this form.

List
Click here to be taken to the List page.

More
Here are links I've collected to other useful bento resources around the Web.

About Bento
Lunch in a Box - A fun, helpful site with a friendly approach and practical tips.

Cooking Cute - this site kicks my site's arse ten ways from Tuesday. I find it tremendously intimidating, but it's an excellent resource.

Japanese Box Lunches - Virtual Japanese Culture - I love this site! Full of information and lovely images, clearly explained. It's designed as an educational resource for kids, but is plenty interesting enough for adult readers. The Virtual Bento packing game can be a bit frustrating but you can certainly learn a lot from it.

Modern Traditional Bento feature - Another good general information source, with clear explanations and lists. And diagrams showing how to fashion frankfurters into octopi, prawns, crabs or squiddlydids! WOOHOO! COCKTAIL CTHULHU!

bento moblog - A Japanese-American academic and mother keeps a blog, with the aid of her camera cellphone, of the lunches she packs for her kids. A great source of practical ideas for your lunches - and her 'reflections on bento cultural politics' are fascinating.

www.bento.com - It's really a general site about Japanese food and drink, but hey, they've got the domain name.

Bento Shopping Online
Jbox Bento Search - Jbox is a company run by an American living in Japan, offering unique Japanese items to people in the English-speaking world. So far most of my bento boxes have come from their excellent, frequently changing range. Good prices and reliable delivery.

Bento Boxes - Japanese Meals on the Go - You can buy this excellent recipe book from Amazon.com. Translated in English, with full, illustrated instructions to prepare authentic bento recipes. I've got it!

The Bento Store - A superb-looking eBay store (meaning that you can buy the items immediately, rather than waiting to win an auction) offering a wide and attractive range of bento boxes and accessories. It's especially the range of accessories that impresses me - all the little doodads like sauce bottles in cute shapes, food dividers, moulds and cutters.

Bento Obento Shop - Another eBay store with a very appealing range of stock - you can also find Japanese stationery. You have no idea how sites like this tempt me.

Tokyo Gift bento range - More eBay goodness. This is just one section of a larger store which also offers such delights as kimono-silk (chirimen) purses and Studio Ghibli anime merchandise.

Aranzi Aronzo Online Shop - An extremely cute Japanese shopping site, translated in English. Their aluminium bento boxes look adorable, and they have a wide range of other products that are useful in daily life, while adding a bit of unique style. Their motto is 'cute, strange, cool, silly, a little bit horrible, stupid and comfortable ARANZI ARONZO.' I think that's great. Their service when I bought a pair of slippers was charming and efficient.

Hakoya - the site of a Japanese manufacturer of stylish and charming bento boxes. I don't think you can order directly from the site (I can't read Japanese and have navigated by clicking links and seeing what happens) but you can see some lovely examples of their work and get ideas about what you want. I have two Hakoya boxes (bought from import stores here in New Zealand) and they are great.

Asianawest - Asian shopping site's selection of bento boxes including yay! Hakoya! Not a wide range but some very nice pieces.