Papaben AKA Takupapa Interview

This image © DETACH.

The above image was one taken during my lunch with Papaben (aka Takupapa) and his son, Takkun - two of the cooler bento wiz's featured in Face Food. (As you can see above, I'm being presented with my Mario w/ raccoon tail bento, an image taken from the box of Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers 3... how freakin' cool is that!?) Active on the Tokyo bento blog circuit, Papaben approaches his charaben designs with a cool air of worldly confidence and just a pinch of dry wit. See further examples in the book... for now, here's some nuggets from my interview:

Since when and why did you start making Charaben? How often?

Since April 2006. My wife was hospitalized for some time, so I started making obento in place of her. About four times a week.

Who do you make Charaben for? How is his/her response?

I make them for my son in kindergarten now. He used to love anything I make, but now he is happy only when I make a character that he likes. He seems to have had enough.

This image © PAPABEN.

On average, how much time and money do you spend on making one Charaben?
Varies, from 30 minutes to 4 hours. About 200 yen.

Describe a typical Charaben-making day’s schedule.

The day before I come home at 12AM and spend 1-3 hours preparing the character. I wake up at 8 and make the obento in 30 minutes. I photoshoot for 5 minutes and give the Charaben to my son who leaves home at 8:50.

How do you choose which character to make? Which character is your favorite?

I choose characters that my son knows. The easiest characters to make are the characters with big parts and less lines.

This image © PAPABEN.

What is the most difficult/challenging thing when making Charaben?

The biggest challenge is choosing the character. I am careful about nutritional balance and visual color coordination.

What do you think draws people to Charaben?
Seeing children smile!

List the following three in the order of importance: nutrition, taste, and visual.
Nutrition, visual, taste.

What is the moment that makes you love/hate Charaben?
I love Charaben when I see my child with a big smile on his face.
I hate choosing the character to make the night before.


This image © PAPABEN.

What is Charaben to you?

Charaben is a collection of precious times I spent with my son. Each and every Charaben has an episode, and I hope they will become good memories when he grows up.

JustBento.com Gets Some Face Time w/ Face Food

There is a positive review of my book over at JustBento.com, a "site about making tasty, quick and healthy bento box meals." It really is a well-informed blog, and worth the daily visit (if you're that into bento boxes, that is...).

The article's writer, Maki, nutshelled Face Food as such: "The book is not really a how-to book, but rather a sort of pocket sized coffee table book... but the most interesting text is the introduction and the too-short questionnaires with a few of the bento creators... a nice intro to kyaraben."

Ok, I'll bite: you really like it for what it is, and that's cool... Thanks, Maki!

And, as if she needed further Kawaii Points, Maki and JustBento.com are raffling off their advance copy of the book... to one lucky commenter! So jump over to the site and leave your info before the deadline: this Tuesday, February 19th.

Kawaii bento heads!

LOST (YOUR APPETITE?)

This image © KUBO.

If anyone missed last night's Lost, hit up iTunes: it really was one of the better episodes I've seen, and proof that this season (though short... thanks, Writers Guild of America!) will continue to deliver.

On other J.J. Abrams-related topics, the rumor mill is churning for the new Trek feature:

Alternate realities?

Klingons?


(two Trek posts in one week? Ouch.)

Happy Valentines Day

I love you all... in that way. :-P

Waiter, There's a Hair in My Potter!

I'm pretty outspoken in my detest for the Harry Potter series (I just think there are loads and loads of better books out there (esp. for adults... yes, I said it...), all of which should garner just a spec of the sort of attention Potter commands, etc.), but I can't deny the numbers, and the world-wide fanaticism is simply impossible to ignore. Even in charaben, we have Potter. Face Food contributor KUBO sends me these from her vault:

This image © KUBO.


This image © KUBO.


This image © KUBO.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not against immature prose, or even geekdome for that matter. I just have a hard time following the exploits of a little boy as he fights off magical owls instead of the pangs of his own sexual maturity. F*ck... read Huckleberry Finn for cripes sake... or, ok, this is the fantasy genre we're talking about... and for an audience of "young adults." So how's about R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms series involving Drizzt Do'Urden? Those are loaded with mature themes, and are a hoot to read. But back to Potter: it all looks great as charaben, no? Albeit just a tad creepy.

And for the geek record: I own an original box set of Choose Your Own Adventure books, and the first two seasons of the original Star Trek on DVD. Ouch. Where the heck is my Spock bento, eh!!!????

PHOTOS.COM on FACE FOOD

Interesting from dietary and cultural perspectives, yes, but ultimately these carefully constructed meals are driven by the same passion that lies at the heart of all truly great design. Thereby serving as yet another reminder of what makes anything we do worth doing—love.

Some very kind words via Chris Dickman's Photos.com blog. Thanks, Chris!

The World According to Junko

This image © JUNKO.

Mother Q: Ok, you can use my Hello Kitty bento images but I want written permission from the Sanrio Company so I don't get sued... please have your lawyers contact me at the following...

Mother P: Thanks! I'm so so happy you want to use my charaben in a book in America! I have always dreamed of New York City! Unfortunately I have no high resolution images... will that be a problem?

Mother X: My fees will be $1000 per image for international rights, etc etc...

Compiling images for Face Food was an exciting yet disheartening process. Not every charaben expert responded to my messages, and some (after an initial contact) disappeared off the face of the earth.

This image © JUNKO.

One such Japanese blogger was Junko Terashima. Her designs, which have a surreal angle and distinct Western influence, would have brought a little more of the absurd into the book... unfortunately, Junko failed to get to me in time for printing... but thanks to the web, she'll still turn stomachs with her unique takes on the bento. I still loves ya, Junko!

This image © JUNKO.


This image © JUNKO.


This image © JUNKO.


This image © JUNKO.


This image © JUNKO.

MUKU Interview

With Face Food, I was enamored by the passion-play process that goes into the making of charaben. Notwithstanding the heart's natural ego, every artisan was eager and willing to work with me, and to share their own photographs, designs, ideas and personalities. One such friendly face was MUKU. Here is an interview I did with her while in Tokyo. (Note: the images within this article are all ones that failed to make the cut of the book!)

Since when and why did you start making Charaben? How often?
Since about 1.5 years ago, to lessen my daughter’s dislikes. I make them almost everyday.

Who do you make Charaben for? How is his/her response?

For my daughter, who is always delighted to see them. She is now more interested in food and eats anything I make.

On average, how much time and money do you spend on making one Charaben?
About 30 minutes. Less than 200 yen.

Describe a typical Charaben-making day’s schedule.

I make a drawing the night before. I wake up at 6 and finish making Charaben by 7. I have two daughters so I always make two.

How do you choose which character to make? Which character is your favorite?
Whatever my daughers’ want. Disney princesses, Lilo & Stitch, Pokemon, Hello Kitty


This image © MUKU.

What is the most difficult/challenging thing when making Charaben?

I always try to make Charabens that not only look nice but are nutritional also. Characters with small and complicated parts are hard to make.

What do you think draws people to Charaben?
That Charabens make children happy.


This image © MUKU.

List the following three in the order of importance: nutrition, taste, and visual.
All are the most important. A good Charaben has all of these three.

What is the moment that makes you love/hate Charaben?

Love: My daugher eats everything and anything that I make, which I enjoy making also. I was once on TV for making Charaben!

Hate: When it just doesn’t look like the character my daughter requested.

What is Charaben to you?

Charaben is a way of communication between a parent and a child. I started making Charaben for my daughter, and now I talk with her more, mostly about food. She makes suggestions as to how I should make the character, for example. She now eats even the vegetables that she used to hate. Now that I am on TV sometimes making Charaben, I am more serious about it, and I hope to continue improving my skills.

This image © MUKU.

From Naruto to Love Target! Nico Inspires!

A Japanese anime site posted a small how-to for a character bento, due to increased popularity of charaben among anime fans. (From one impassioned item to the next, right? Even easier when you can meld together themes, characters, graphics...) This particular otaku blogger proclaims that "yes, as if painted onto a palette, a lunch box gets decorated with food... as an otaku, as an otomen... I shall give it a try. So I made a charaben last night... though it is so pathetic."

His humility intact, the end result would most likely fail to turn heads at your local school cafeteria, but it's a unique opportunity to compare the original inspiration (a charaben of Naruto):

with the blogger's own attempt, of two of the boys from the manga Love Target:

Interestingly enough, the Naruto charaben appears to be a design of Nico, one of the artisans featured in Face Food. Further proof on the difficulty making charaben!

This site is relatively fresh, but I will do my best to maintain it as a definitive resource for charaben fans, since such a site seems to be lacking on the English language side of the world... that said, please bear with me as things shift and adjust. But do check in daily for regular charaben links and visual samples!

Just released! Face Food!

"Lunch and cartoon characters have never looked so good together..."

Read what MBP has to say about Face Food:


























"Dating back several hundred years, the Japanese bento box is as integral a part of the country’s culinary identity as sushi. Today, a contemporary version of the bento box exists, inspired by the rampant popularity of movies, television shows and manga. These charaben, made by parents (mostly mothers) eager to bring attention to their children’s lunch boxes, comprise food crafted into visually creative, appealing and recognizable forms, and are as much about planning and preparation as nutrition.

What better way to make children eat than to turn their midday meals into cartoon characters and video games? With Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes, writer and designer Christopher D Salyers documents the very real phenomenon of how rice, seaweed, mushrooms, tofu, hot dogs, fish cakes and just about any other edible delight you can imagine are shaped into the likes of Pikachu, Daraemon and Cinderella, bringing health, heart and imagination to the bento box, not to mention a bit of one-upmanship. A brief how-to guide, ingredient lists and interviews with charaben enthusiasts illuminate the many dynamic reasons behind this wholly Japanese pursuit.

As Salyers writes: “There is something marvelous and enchanting in charaben, a something we should all look to find within ourselves - a convalescence of youth. For all of you who have ever eaten or prepared a slap-dash PB&J sandwich, or have been victim of school cafeterias, I offer up these pages as proof that when you show this much dedication to what you or your child eats, the end result will be nothing short of astounding.”

If you have never seen or tasted charaben, Face Food will open a whole new world to you, proving once again how the visual can say so much about a culture and its practices."