Just Bento

Two quick bits of news:

• monbento is releasing a mobile app soon, and to commemorate they are giving away an iPad and 100 bento boxes.. No purchase necessary to enter.
• Rakuten Global, the international part of the Japanese online shopping mall giant Rakuten, is holding a free global shipping campaign until May 17th. If you buy at least 10,000 yen worth of products from a participating merchant, up to 5,000 yen of your international shipping cost will be free (you’d pay for any extra shipping). This doesn’t just apply to bento box sellers of course so if you are a figure collector or a hobbyist or a Japanese fashion fan and so forth you could use this offer too. (I see one of my favorite craft supply stores there…) (Via @saraosenton - thanks Sara!) - this one is over now.

A little technical note for people who read this site via Google Reader or another RSS reader, or subscribe to post updates via email:

I’ve switched over from Feedburner to another service called URI.LV. The reason I switched over is that Feedburner has kind of been neglected by Google (who owns the service) for a while now, and with their announcement that Google Reader is being shut down soon, it’s kind of logical to assume that Feedburner will fade away too.

• If you are an email subscriber: You shouldn’t see much of a change at all, but there is a chance you may need to re-add the sender of the mail (thechef [at] justhungry [dot] com) to your address book if the emails end up in your spam folder.
• If you are an RSS reader subscriber: You should not see any change at all. If you want to be doubly sure you’ll continue to receive updates, subscribe to this link and delete your Feedburner subscription.

(Incidentally, if you’re looking for a replacement for Google Reader and are Mac or iOS based, I’ve been using NetNewsWire for ever, even before there was a Google Reader. I highly recommend it. Otherwise if you’re looking for a web based solution Feedly looks pretty nice.)

This notice applies to both JustBento and JustHungry - it’s posted on both since not everyone subscribes to both. (AND WHY NOT??? (just kidding))

So that’s it for the techincal stuff. Going back to talking about food next time. ^_^

If you are on a Japan Airlines (JAL) international flight this month, I have a feature article in the May issue of Skyward, their in-flight magazine. It’s called Bento Love and is about the growing popularity of homemade bentos outside of Japan…a subject I have a bit of familiarity with ^_^ They don’t have an online readable version unfortunately, but if you do get to read it I’d love to hear from you. Here’s the link to their table on contents. continue reading...

We moved the site to a new server...and for some reason Feedburner (the service that sends emails of new posts) decided to send out the last 10 posts again one big email! It shouldn't happen again (fingers crossed). My apologies for clogging up your email box!

I'm in the process of updating JustBento, and so you may see some disruptions to service over the weekend. Fear not though, the site is alive and well, just getting some work done. ^_^ If you need something to read in the meantime JustHungry will stay open (I'm working on one site at a time), where I've just posted the final lesson in the Japanese Cooking 101 course.

Also: if you're looking for a Mother's Day bento set, monbento has a 20% off sale on a very nice pink and white set right now. OK pink for moms may be a bit of a cliché but...it is very nice looking!

I'll see you back here next week, hopefully with the site still intact ^_^;

Update: Looks like all is well for the moment..iif you're seeing this line the move well ok!

My baby has been doing well, despite her mother’s absence. continue reading...

Expect several bento box and accessory reviews soon…and maybe a few surprises. continue reading...

There seem to be more and more bento related contests these days, but the annual contest held by the longtime JustBento friends Bento&co is still one of the biggest in terms of great prizes and number of outstanding entries. This year the grand prize is a 6 day trip to Kyoto, including airfare if you live outside of Japan! That’s a prize worth flexing your creative bento muscles for. Besides the Grand Prize winners, 20 finalists will receive various bento-related items as prizes. The theme this year is different too: it’s Pasta Bento. Be sure to read all the rules, and I wish you all good luck! I will not be participating as a judge this year….so who knows, maybe I’ll enter too ^_^ (Alas I am ineligible…I’ll have to pay my own way to Kyoto, sniff.)

• Link: Bento&co 2013 International Bento Contest