Vintage/retro aluminum bento boxes from the '60s, '70s and '80s are popular as room accessories as well as for bento.

This is not your everyday bento for sure. Offered by a bento maker in the town of Nikko, the Nikko maizoukin (Nikko treasure) bento costs 150,000 yen, about US $1340 at today's exchange rates. It can only be ordered in Japan of course, and must be pre-ordered.

Posting here slowed down this past week, but never fear! Starting on the 2nd, I'll be kicking off a Getting Started With Bento Making series. If you're interested in incorporating bento lunches into your daily life, be sure to tune in.

In 2007, I made a series of resolutions aimed at improving my health and fitness, not to mention losing weight. I can't say I followed through on all of those resolutions, but one thing that did stick was making bento lunches at least a couple of times a week. As I wrote earlier, it has helped me to lose some weight, as well as eat healthier all around. I hope you'll join me as I continue my healthy-bento adventures in 2008!

Looking forward to the new year, here's a juunishi or Chinese zodiac print furoshiki, Japanese wrapping cloth.

This is the very last day you can donate to Menu For Hope! And a nice bonus - take a look at the beautiful poem about Lesotho <a href="http://sotho.blogsome.com/2007/02/08/my-country-my-home/'>here by Rethabile.

Just Bento is taking a few days off to take care of a ton of offline duties. We'll be back on the 26th, Boxing Day - an appropriate day to start talking about getting into the bento making spirit for 2008.

Happy Holidays!

Bento item of the week is a weekly feature on Just Bento. This week's item is this adorable bento box.