The online bento community is banding together in a fundraising effort to help raise relief funds for Japan in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami disaster. To find out how you can join in, visit the Bento4Japan website!

Happy Belated New Year to all our bento fans! We hope that the first month of 2011 has been a great one for all of you and that you’ve all been having fun with our cookbook!

We have some great news for you all. Maki, Quirk Books, and myself have all pitched in to offer a great giveaway in the spirit of the new year.

Three lucky winners from our giveaway will receive a Yum-Yum Bento Box Fukubukuro or “Lucky Bag”. In Japan, the fukubukuro is a sealed bag containing items of value greater than the bag it’s packaged in. Together, we’ve assembled a great lucky bag containing some great items for making your own cute bentos with our recipes!

The prizes will be in a cute bento bag and will come with a copy of Yum-Yum Bento Box. However, these are not just regular copies of the book.

That’s right! These books are autographed by both Pikko and Maki, the only three copies in the world signed by both authors! Even if you already own a copy, wouldn’t you love to receive the bag and the signed copy? It’s easy to enter.

Four Ways to Enter

1. Comment on this post and tell us what subject you think makes the cutest bento. Is it a white kitty? Smiling piggies? A little boy?
2. ‘Like’ Yum-Yum Bento Box on Facebook and leave a comment on the giveaway post.
3. Follow Yum-Yum Bento Box on Twitter and tweet the following: “Win a bento lucky bag and an autographed copy of Yum-Yum Bento Box from @yumyumbento!! http://tinyurl.com/6dnkfdm” Post the link to your tweet here!
4. ‘Like’ Quirk Books’ Facebook page Home Sweet Home and leave a comment on the giveaway post there as well!

Entries that do not follow the instructions above will not be counted. Maximum of four entries per person. Only one prize may be won per person. Deadline to enter is Friday, February 4, 2011. Three winners will be drawn after closing and prizes will need to be claimed within 48 hours or the prize will be forfeit and a new winner drawn.

Don’t miss out on your chance, enter to win now! If you’d like to purchase the book as a gift, the book is available on Amazon.

Hi everyone! Word has come in that some people that pre-ordered Yum-Yum Bento Box: Fresh Recipes for Adorable Lunches from Amazon have already received their copies! To celebrate this momentous occasion as well as to celebrate my 500th bento, I’ve made a charaben of the cover of the book. Enjoy!

For more photos, check out my personal blog, Adventures in Bentomaking.

Can’t wait for Yum-Yum Bento Box? Neither can we! In the meantime, here’s a video by Pikko on how to make one of the bento in the book, a Three Little Pigs Bento!

Designed by Maki, this cute little bento is easier to make than you think! Just keep some leftover food from dinner and add it in with onigiri and some fresh veggies. Visit Pikko’s blog at Adventures in Bentomaking and Maki’s blog at Cute Obento!

In just over a month, our book will be ready for distribution from Quirk Books.

These bentos are lunches that did not make into Yum-Yum Bento Box. Personally,  I really like them a lot, such as the mini-pizza with crab (I bought them at Costco in Japan) or pompadour haired inarisushi.

Please check out the book on Amazonand sneak a peek!!

The next one that did not make into Yum-Yum Bento Box is this  “Clock Bento”. To make this, wrap some fried rice with usuyaki tamago (crepe style Japanese omelet).  In Japan, this omelet rice is called “omu-rice. It’s very popular here and of course, my kids love this one!

To wrap the rice with usuyaki tamago,  put the omelet onto the plastic wrap. Place the fried rice onto the usuyaki tamago and wrap it with your hand.  The number are cut with nori, the hands and dots from salami, and a little pea makes the center. If your kids aren’t very enthusiastic about learning to tell time, perhaps this bento would be a great way to make learning fun?

Thank you  for visiting the Yum-Yum Bento Box website!

First of all, I would like to introduce myself. I’m Maki Ogawa, born and raised in Japan, and the mother of two sons. I’ve been studying English since I stayed in Los Angeles for three months when I was young, but I am still learning, so please feel free to comment in English to help me. In the meantime, Pikko will help me with my writing.

We will be posting bentos from time to time to show you charaben that we feel you’d just love to learn how to make or ones that did not make it into the book. Our first one is a hedgehog bento of mine that didn’t make it in.

To make the hedgehog, I combined two cookie cutters.  The hedgehog’s body is made with fried SPAM or ham and is cut with a flower-shape cookie cutter. You can find a set of Wilton Crinkle Shape Cutters on Amazon. Cut the bottom of the flower off.

The face of the hedgehog is made of cheese and is cut with the tip of knife-shape cookie cutter. (You can also cut this with a toothpick.) Cut into the face piece with the same flower cutter to fit them together. Use punches to cut a little eye and nose out of nori for it. Fill the rest of the bento with fresh fruits, veggies, and leftovers from dinner.

When you buy cookie cutters, it’s very interesting to think of different ways they can be used together. Try thinking outside the box and you can find many different ways to use them.

To see more of Maki’s beautiful charaben, visit Cute Obento or her japanese blog.

Thank you for visiting the new Yum-Yum Bento Box website! Maki and I are happy to launch this site both as a bento resource and as a source for information about the book and any events related to marketing of the book. As we get closer to the book’s release date, we’ll be linking to any reviews or articles written about the book as well as giving details about any press events we’ll be doing.

The Yum-Yum Bento site will feature six areas:

• Home – The main page will be the central area for news, blog posts, and images.
• About – The About area contains details about Yum-Yum Bento Box’s authors, Pikko and Maki.
• Blog – Maki and Pikko will be writing about bentos that were not chosen for the final version of Yum-Yum, tips and tutorials, and new bento ideas.
• Press – This section will document any media relating to the book and its authors. Contact information for the book’s publicist is available.
• Buy – Yum-Yum Bento Box will be available from various online retailers as well as several specialty stores around the world. This page will give details on where you can purchase a copy.
• Share – Submit an image that uses a recipe, design, or idea from one of the lunches in Yum-Yum Bento Box and we may choose to put it on the site to share with the world!

We hope you enjoy the site and our upcoming book. We’re both very excited about its release and hope it brings a smile to the faces of you and your loved ones! Pre-order it today!