Here are some links of interest from bento blogs around the world:

• Mook of FrenchBento is assembling a list of bento supply sources in France (French). If you know of any, let her know!
• Pikko of Adventures in Bentomaking is holding a 100k site hits bento contest. There still seems to be time to enter! Check out her hit counter in the top right corner of each page.
• If you are a fan of wiener flowers, you'll like these step by step instructions for making sunflower wieners. (In Japanese, but the pictures tell the story well enough.) It does require a fat wiener or sausage and a long skinny wiener.
• Do you have a hungry growing teenager to feed? Wonder how Japanese moms cope with such beasts? Here is a bento blog by a mother of a high school age boy. The amount and variety of food in each bento is amazing!
• And finally, some kyaraben/charaben that caught my eye. These all feature non-anime characters, and look fairly uncomplicated to make, should your child (or you!) be a fan: Pinga (Pingu's little sister); Snoopy; Elmo (his red face is made of imitation crab stick that's been unrolled and flattened); the three-eyed green aliens from Toy Story (not strictly a bento, but too wierd/cute to pass up).