Great Bento Ideas: Colorful charaben for Hinamatsuri (Girl's Festival)

March the 3rd was Hinamatsuri, or Girl's Day in Japan. (You can read about Hinamatsuri in my Japan Times article [1].) Since this is a day to celebrate girls, there were some very cute and girly themed decorative bentos made. Here are just a few that caught my eye.

Lia of Bentolicious [2] is the queen of cut-out work, and her Hinamatsuri bento is no exception. Look at the neat precision of those cute little decorations, cut out of colored cooked egg sheets or omelettes (usuyakitamago how-to here [3]) The bases are chicken fried rice.

[4]

Read all about it on her blog [5].

This little lady by My Lunch Is Cuter also uses colored egg sheets. I don't think the creator has a bento blog (she didn't link to one) but that is a great name for one (hint hint) She does indeed have a blog, right here! [6] Also check out her creations on her flickr photo stream [7].

[8]

Mihochin-san of the Japanese bento blog Nao-chan no kyaraben to kyara-suweetsu [9] (Nao's charaben and chara-sweets) has been featured on these pages before. (I don't think she has a book out yet, unlike several other Japanese charabentoists. She should have one for sure.) I love her Hinamatsuri idea of using quail's eggs for the heads with decorative picks as hair decorations. Here are her hina doll 'cupcakes' - the cake part is actually mixed sushi (gomoku-zushi). Maybe not the most portable thing, but for a very special lunch at home maybe?

Here are the quail egg hina dolls in a more portable pose, on top of chirashizushi (scattered sushi). She says that this was her husband's bento. What a lucky husband!

Check out her bento blog here [9] - again it is all in Japanese, but she has tons of pictures to inspire and amaze you.

And here's another use of picks as hair accessories, in a sandwich bento by ABQ Bento Mama. The use of simple kamaboko slices for the kimono is inspired!

[10]

Check out her Flickr photo stream [11] for more bentos and other food creations.

Lastly, this is not a Hinamatsuri bento, but very girly nonetheless so I've included it here. I love it when people see shapes in nature that can be used in their edible creations. The little Goldilocks in this bento by funlunchbox has a red bell pepper dress and yellow bell pepper hair. And of course there are the three inarizushi [12] bears in the other part of the box too. Adorable!

[13]

Check out more easy and fun bento ideas on the Fun Lunchbox blog [14].

See more great bento ideas [15] from around the bento blog community!

(As always, if you want your idea to catch my eye, the best way is to join the Just Bento [16] or Just Bento Bento Gear [17] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)