A Very Bento Christmas or What I did on my Holiday

Actually, my Holiday is just beginning since I don't go back to work until next Monday. But I won't be making lunches during my week off. I had a great Christmas this year and received a few gifts that will hopefully get me out of my bento rut. I got some mini cookie cutters, plus large ones, some food dividers, and a book about Japanese Garnishes. I also got a little creative and made some new food pics:


I got the idea for these food pics from this blog. I can't find the original post, and since I don't know Japanese, I can't search for it. I think that they actually sell ribbon or tape that is designed to be used as flags, but I improvised with some $1-bin ribbon from Michael's Crafts, double stick tape, and colorful food pics. I made a bunch of them, so they should feature prominently in my future lunches.

On Sunday my cousins and I ventured to New York to visit the Museum of Art and Design which recently moved to a new (larger) building in Columbus Circle. We also hit Kinokuniya, a Japanese bookstore located across from Bryant Park (near the NY Public Library). If you are traveling to NY, I highly reccomend this store. Not only are there books in Japanese, but there is nearly an entire floor of Manga, an entire floor of books in English about Japanese things, Magazines, Gifts, Movies.... In other words, so much great stuff!! They are a bit pricey so I couldn't afford the giant plush Totoro that I wanted, but I still walked away with some great finds:

A Miffy Classmates Bento Box. Ordinarily this would be out of my price range ($13) but I couldn't resist.

They had a pretty large selection of cookbooks in Japanese including a few shelves of bento-related books. Obviously it is silly of me to buy a book that I can't read, but I chose one which had a lot of pictures. Just like with the blog I mentioned above, I can get plenty of ideas by just looking at the pictures (although sometimes I have no idea what the ingredients are).

Since I couldn't afford the giant Totoro plush (or any of the great Totoro products they had), I splurged on this little Catbus Magnet.

So I was really pleased with Kinokuniya, and I wonder what other gems are hiding in New York which I have been missing. Any reccomendations?