During lunch, the teacher checks the bento appearance and will encourage the mothers to do their best effort to continue that way the current standard or to improve themselves if they failed in expectation. Directors often mentioned the difficulties to educate foreign mothers whose enrolled their child is enrolled in preschool. They used to make sandwiches or to give simply put some fruits into a brown paper bag. radically different Very shocking from the colorful Japanese bento boxes. That was a shock for all The school teachers were horrified at because these mothers’ attitudes towards food didn’t meet the Japanese teachers’ expectations. The bond between the mother and the child –in other words, the bento box has to be noticeable (visible?) seen by others and the most beautiful as the mothers can do must be presented visually in the best possible manner by the mothers.

In one respect aspect, through the delicious and appealing looking bento box, the child starts to identify the school as an “uchi” where he feels like at home. On the other hand aspect, because of the huge symbolism laden lunch ritual during lunchtime, the this learning process of the instills the appropriate group behavior. in group It is as important as any other knowledge learnt in school.



(I hope you found find it interesting)  Yes, very interesting indeed.

Children and the lunchbox in Japan (recap)

It’s quite hard for the Japanese people to talk about love. Some say “Japanese don’t talk about love, they do it”. And they also show their emotions by using symbols.
So now I’m going to talk about “obento” which is the Japanese term for “lunchbox”. It’s a box that contains a single-portion of food. Basically, you can buy it everywhere: in a (or the) railway station, supermarket, or bento-shop. But the best of all is the aisai bento, the “bento made by your loving wife”. This kind of bento is cooked by a spouse for her husband or a girl for her boyfriend, and fulfills the pragmatic function of feeding. But beyond that, cooking, caring about the balance of food, colors, and arrangement shows ones concern and is like saying “I do care about you, I like you”. One can even write a message with cut up food like “Otsukaresama” which is an expression said to others when they finished their day at work. So Japanese people don’t have to say things with words, they have tools to express these feelings.

As a collectivism society, Japanese people are instilled from childhood with the idea of belonging to a group. The transition from home (which is the uchi) to school (which is the soto) can be quite traumatizing for a children, according to Japanese society. To ease the child in the transition, the mothers are expected to cook an attractive lunch every morning during the first 3 years, this becomes an important symbol to the mother-child relationship. During lunch, the teacher checks the bento appearance and will encourage the mothers to continue doing their best or to improve themselves if they failed. Directors often mentioned the difficulties with educating foreign mothers who have enrolled their child in preschool. They used to make sandwiches or to give fruits in a brown paper bag, which is radically different from the colorful Japanese bento. That was a shock for all the school-teachers because these mothers’ attitudes towards food didn’t meet the Japanese teachers’ expectations. The bond between the mother and the child –in other word the bento- has to be noticeable (visible?) (either is fine) and as beautiful as the mothers can make it.
In one aspect, through the delicious and appealing bento, the child starts to identify the school as an “uchi” where he feels like at home. One the other aspect, because of the huge ritual during lunchtime, the learning process of the appropriate behavior in a group is as important as any other knowledge.



(I hope you found it interesting)

(I found it very interesting! You are quite proficient at your English.)