WHEN BENTO BOXES ATTACK
It was a dark and stormy night…
Actually, it was more dark and humid. And loud. Seriously, this year the illegal aerial importers thought it’d be frickin’ hilarious if they all imported the same shipments of loud bomb-like fireworks for the residents of Oahu to burn up as if there was no such thing as a bad economy. I felt like I was in a warzone all day, with some jerks a couple streets down thinking it was okay to keep up the BOOM! noises until 3 am.
But anyway, back to my story… I heard a noise in the kitchen and in my groggy, blind-without-contacts stupor, I looked around and saw nothing. Only when I woke up to fry some mochi did I find out what the noise was. My bento boxes had escaped the cabinet and begun their attack…
I was terrified.
I’d left so many of them on the counter with leftover food in them… Were they finally going to get their revenge? Had I eaten my last onigiri? They poured out of the cabinet, eager to find me. Naturally, I did the only thing I could.
I ran and hid in my closet.
As I cowered in fear, I heard one of my children wake up and call out for me. Too scared to come out of hiding, I listened. Suddenly I heard Baby Girl cry out in fear. There were sounds of a struggle. Knowing that I couldn’t leave her to the rabid things, I steeled myself and emerged from the closet.
What I found was horrifying.
Baby Girl lay still on the floor, bento boxes all over her. I clamped my hand over my mouth, fearing they’d hear me breathing. I thought she was gone.
Thankfully, she was still alive. She weakly waved her hand at me and I tossed the boxes off of her and we both returned to the closet to hide. We sat there in the dark for who knows how long. Eventually, I heard something moving again. In my hurry to get Baby Girl to the safety of the closet, I’d forgotten about Buddy!!
We rushed out of the closet and found him in a similar state as I’d found her, covered in wild, frantic bento boxes. Strangely enough, a Spiderman bento box covered his face.
As we fought to rescue Buddy, the boxes realized that I, the one they had been searching for all along, was finally within their grasp. They quickly turned from Buddy and surged on to me.
That Little Red Riding Hood box was particularly vicious.
In the end, Mr. Pikko came and saved us all and after threatening to store them in the dumpster, they began to quiver in fear. Together we corralled them back into the kitchen. I gave them a little New Year’s promise that I’d take better care of them and… stop buying more of them… and they calmed down and went dutifully back into the cabinet.
I didn’t count them, though I definitely should have. Confidentially, I think I can fit at least a dozen more in here.
We’ll let that be our little secret. 
No children or bento boxes were harmed in the making of this blog post.
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- WHEN BENTO BOXES ATTACK – Bento Central - [...] Thought you could get away with mistreating your bento containers? Think again. [...]
- When is Too Many…well, Too Many? – Bento Central - [...] a nod towards Pikko’s recent humorous bento attack article, here’s a narrative about my overflow of bento boxes. Does the casual observer [...] ...
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My name is Crystal Watanabe and I'm 32 years old, living in Honolulu, Hawaii with my husband and two children. I have an addictive personality and that's a terrible thing when you're into cute bentos. I own over 200 bento boxes and way too many bento accessories!. 
This has to be the funniest post I’ve seen all year
It does kinda make me rethink my resolution to start using my boxes more. Maybe I should just let them live in peace!
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Yeah, there are actually quite a few in there that I haven’t even used yet! How insane is that?!? D:
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How funny!!! God, you have a lot of bento boxes!!!
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I must be stopped!!!
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hahaha this was really cute
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Glad you liked it! We had only brought out some for the kids, so when my daughter said it was time to cover Mommy, my son yells, “WELL, WE’RE GONNA NEED MORE BOXES!”
…
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Ha ha ha!! So funny!
And HOW many bento boxes to you have?!?
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I dunno, but it’s probably over 150 by now, which is really really bad. D:
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Such drama and intrigue!
I think I will follow your lead and quit buying so many bento boxes. Luckily they haven’t attacked me out of lack of use yet.
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Mine are more angry at forgetting to wash them I think. Or smashing too much food in. ; ;
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Lol this was a good post. I just reserved some space in our cabinets for mine, hopefully that will appease their appetite and they will not come get me! (Also I only have 5 currently).
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Five is a nice amount. There are some I really don’t like, so maybe I’ll give them away.
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This. Was. EPIC! I loved it and feel your hurt. Ah, the addiction…
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Note that I didn’t say I’d stop buying food picks and cutters and crap. >:)
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HAHA! I’ve been there, except in my house it’s cake pans and Interesting Baking Dishes.
This year I’ve resolved to clean out one cabinet/drawer/storage thingie every day. The theory is you start at one end of the house, work your way through it and start over when you get to the end.
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You sure have a lot of drawers/cabinets/storage thingies!
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i think my 3 year old would be more aggressive. she would cheerfully beat you while chanting hello kitty until you would submit and give in and give her the hello kitty item in question. it looks a lot like my mother in laws tupperware cabinet that used to attack all the babies in the family until drool and vigorous floor banging forced them into submission. now we use child locks to keep them back. good luck soldier
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Did you notice in Buddy’s photo that Hello Kitty is there, snickering evilly?
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She is an evil one. Acting all cute and suckering my poor 3 year old into evil doing unless she gets more costly kitty items. I would trust Kitty to be the one to be behind all the malicious bento activity.
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LOVED your article! Not only are you hilarious, but I just love the involvement of the kids in this little plot. They obviously have your sense of humor–I bet this was great fun for them, too. Tell them I want their autographs–LOL!
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Yeah, they loved helping. Until I asked them to help me bring the boxes back to the kitchen. Then they were like, “No thanks!” Little rugrats!!
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Ah, the unused bento box. I had a particularly beautiful one that I had left unused for almost a year (keep in mind I only owned about 5 boxes at this point). Then, about a week before Christmas, I took it out to use it. My reasoning was purely selfish, I must admit. The box is black inside. It was a perfect background for the red and green Christmas themed bento lunches I wanted to create for the week before Christmas. I only used one layer of the two layer box, however. It worked perfectly! Definitely showed of the colors beautifully! Then, I took a 6 day trip (which turned into 7 days due to weather here at home) to California. I practically ran to my old favorite, Ichi Ban Kan! (I really miss their on line store). It felt like home to be among the boxes and gear again. Then, to my amazement, I found that they had added a Daiso not too far from IBK! My cabinet is going to need redesigning to fit all the new gear and new boxes I brought back with me! It was pure heaven. I even found, in small grocery store, a Musubi mold! I tried it immediately upon my return home, of course! Sadly, I only own about 12 boxes now. Maybe it is better that I do not live close to a store that carries bento items! I could easily talk myself into many more boxes, picks, etc!
Thanks for the fabulous story, Pikko, you should make a children’s book about it… especially the superhero aspect… Buddy could become Bentoman and foil the evil Hello Kitty to save the beautiful maiden, Baby Girl!
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If I ever go to Japan I’ll have to bring an extra suitcase or something, cause I’d go crazy, I know it.
Neat idea about a children’s bento storybook! I should look into that!
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You might want to bring 2 extra suitcases and mail a few boxes home, too!
Wish I had been into creating bento at home when I lived in Okinawa. I would have really cleaned up! Of course, hind sight is always 20-20, isn’t it? (I think it was just too easy to go to the local corner store and pick one up).
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I think you should look into the book thing! You are a fabulous, creative, entertaining writer. Children would absolutely love a book about a super bento boy and a beautiful maiden. Even adults like us would love it!
Ps: Would sign a copy for me?
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Cute and funny!
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Thanks Okwes!
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I love it! I love the pictures of your kids “attacked” by the bento boxes. I am totally AMAZED at how many bento boxes you have! Happy New Year!
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Happy New Year to you too! I’m not really amazed, more scared…
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Bento boxes in your place really are overwhelming! They need to be used! Happy New Year! And I am looking forward for more bentos here in your blog!
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Yeah, part of my list of New Years resolutions actually… to use my boxes more. I have been gravitating to a set few boxes lately and neglecting the rest.
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wow, I am envious. I didn’t know that many bento boxes EXISTED, much less were owned by one person!
I live in the middle of NoWhere Indiana and if I wanted bento boxes, would have to drive to CHICAGO to buy them, and I’m on disability so really can’t afford to buy them plus shipping over the net. I’ve got two small ones that I finally broke down and bought on ebay because I wanted to pack lunches for my mom (she’s 84) and myself when we went driving around this summer to investigate all the covered bridges and other assorted landmarks in this area (with the price of gas needed to pack lunch, neither of us really have much money!)
I think I’d get some of that netting stuff and corral those suckers into that cabinet!!
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Hmm, interesting idea with the netting. I’ll have to look into that and see if I can attach it with velcro strips!
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Oh my! What a great story! And so much beautiful bentoboxes <3
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Thanks Lil’chan!
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I wish you a happy new year and lots of new boxes because when we love, we don’t count!
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You’re not helping my addiction with such comments! lol
Happy New Year to you too!
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Pikko,
Would you mind passing along to Rhiannon that I would be more than happy to send her one of the boxes I just picked up in California? I’m not sure what the proper way to do that would be.
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Done! That’s so kind of you!
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Thank you so much, Pikko. I see that I already have a message from Rhiannon in my inbox.
Pay it Forward, that’s what I say! Thank you again for helping me make this possible.
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zomg, this post is HILARIOUS. I am both jealous of and horrified by your insanely large bento collection.
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Don’t be jealous, I have very little kitchen left. ; ;
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Okay, nobody tell my husband, but after reading this I’ve changed my New Year’s Resolution from something boring to: Owning Enough Bento Boxes To Cover My Son.
He’s almost 9 and quite tall, so I have to get started!!
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