Just Bento

This week I’d like to address a question that comes up frequently - where and how to buy the bento items and boxes mentioned here as well as on other bento blogs and sites.

Look locally first

As much as I love online shopping, I believe in shopping at your local stores first. You’re supporting your area’s businesses, and you don’t have to pay shipping costs. Besides, it’s arguably a bit better for the environment (especially if you take public transportation!) since the goods have already travelled to your area.

You might argue, “but I don’t have any stores near me that sell bento stuff!” I don’t either. Our local Japanese groceries don’t stock anything in the way of bento boxes and such. But it’s always possible to find alternatives for lunch boxes or dividers and so on. As I wrote in one of the earliest articles on this site, it’s not necessary to buy a box that is labeled as a Bento Box in order to bring bento lunches. You can use cupcake cups, paper or silicon, as bento dividers, picnic utensils, and so on.

If you live in an area with Asian dollar stores, aka 100-yen stores, they are a great source for cheap and cheerful bento boxes and equipment. In the U.S. these for now are mostly in California and the west coast, though New York also has a few. Japanese or Asian housewares stores may also carry some things (keep in mind that bento lunches are not part of the Chinese Asian culture, so you may not necessarily find bento items at stores that primarily cater to a Chinese clientele.) To locate Japanese grocery (and related) stores near you, consult the Japanese grocery store listings (go to your geographical area page from there) on Just Hungry.

General Japanese grocery stores usually do not carry bento gear. Their non-food sections tend to concentrate on things like proper ceramic tableware and traditional gift items. This may change if the popularity of bento lunches continues to grow, but for now don’t expect to find much in the way of boxes and such. You may still be able to find some accessories like plastic baran (dividers) meant for sushi or decorative picks. You will, of course, find all kinds of food items.

Online English-language merchants that sell bento gear

• J-List and its PG-rated part (same store without the boobies) JBox. This store remains one of the most reliable sources of bento supplies. They ship worldwide which in my book is a big plus. (Disclaimer: Just Bento is a J-List affiliate, but I’m also a happy long time customer!)
• Sugar Charms is a cake decorating supply store that also carries a lot of bento things. Ships within the USA only.
• Japan Centre carries a small selection of bento items from Daiso, the major 100-yen shop. Non-food items are shipped worldwide, and food items are shipped throughout Europe. (Their physical store in London carries a bit more. If you want them to carry more online I think it’s worthwhile to let them know about it.) (Disclaimer: Japan Centre is an advertiser on this site, but I’m also a happy customer!) [Update]: Hannah Tokumine, operations manager of Japan Centre, emailed me to let us know that very soon (no later than the first week of May) they have a much larger selection of bento items like bento boxes, bento belts, picks, onigiri molds (moulds) and cutters online, with most items priced at £1.45 and 200 yen items “marginally more”. That’s great news especially for bento fans in the UK and Europe.
• Ichibankan USA. The online store of this California based 100 yen (dollar) shop just opened for orders yesterday. Unfortunately they ship within the continental USA only.

Getting the most out of eBay

The main source of bento gear for non-Japanese speakers and residents is eBay. There are now dozens of merchants selling bento related gear. Whenever you are buying something, make sure to comparison shop (some merchants are way overpriced). Most merchants are based in Japan or Hong Kong, and ship worldwide, but expect to pay quite a lot for shipping. I like to stick to the merchants who have clear descriptions of the dimensions and capacity of the bento boxes they sell.

Did you know that eBay offers RSS feeds of their listings, based on search terms? You can set up one and subscribe to it in your favorite news reader. For bento things, go to Advanced Search and enter bento in the terms to search for, and enter amy, cd, music, mac, osx, software in the terms not to search for. This filters out all, or most, mentions of Amy Bento (an aerobics instructor), CDs and music related items from Brazil or Portugal (Bento is a popular nickname in Portuguese it seems), and listings of Bento the software program. You can also select House and Garden as the category. Once the search results page is generated, scroll down until you see the RSS button, and click on it to subscribe. You will get a nice listing with prices and thumbnail pics. This is how I generate the eBay Bento listings page (which you can just bookmark if you don’t want to bother with the searching).

Buying directly from Japan using shopping services

The items listed on eBay, J-List and such are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to bento gear - a lot, lot more is available only in Japan. Unfortunately, most of the online stores that sell them are in Japanese only, and do not ship overseas.

But you don’t have to give up there. If you don’t have a handy friend or relative that lives there, there are an increasing number of shopping service web sites that will get the stuff you want and then ship it to you, for a fee. The fee varies but is usually around 10-15% of the purchase price, plus the actual cost of the goods and shipping. Some sites also charge a membership fee. This route may only be for serious collectors, but considering that they are offer a combination of translation, buying, shipping and payment services, it’s a fairly good deal.

An updated list of shopping services is maintained on this page. One that has gotten several positive comments is i-tm4u. For instance commenter Anna from Russia used them to buy a handcarved wooden bento box, and ODG from Hong Kong also had a positive experience. One of these days I’ll try out a couple of these services for myself and report back. (At the moment I rely on the free “mom” service…)

Searching Yahoo! Japan Auctions and Rakuten Ichiba

If you’re looking for bento stuff available in Japan besides the ones I mention in the Bento item of the week series, many are sold through Yahoo! Japan Auctions (which is so popular that eBay had to give up in Japan) and Rakuten Ichiba (marketplace). Both sites are in Japanese only, and only accept Japanese search terms. Here are some direct links to bento-related search results (let me know if you’d like to see some others):

Yahoo! Japan auctions:

• Bento　弁当
• Bento bako (bento box)　弁当箱
• Lunchbox ランチボックス
• Handmade bento ハンドメイド　弁当 - you can find things like handmade bento bags
• Wooden bento box 木　弁当箱
• Stainless steel bento box ステンレス　弁当箱
• Aluminum bento box アルミ　弁当箱
• Character bento (kyaraben) キャラ弁 - this one is good for searching for cute bento making equipment like face punches and molds

Rakuten:

• Bento 弁当
• Bento box 弁当箱
• Lunchbox ランチボックス
• Handmade bento ハンドメイド　弁当
• Wooden bento box 木　弁当箱
• Stainless steel bento box 　ステンレス　弁当箱
• Aluminum bento box アルミ　弁当箱
• Character bento (kyaraben) キャラ弁