There seem to be more and more bento related contests these days, but the annual contest held by the longtime JustBento friends Bento&co is still one of the biggest in terms of great prizes and number of outstanding entries. This year the grand prize is a 6 day trip to Kyoto, including airfare if you live outside of Japan! That's a prize worth flexing your creative bento muscles for. Besides the Grand Prize winners, 20 finalists will receive various bento-related items as prizes. The theme this year is different too: it's Pasta Bento. Be sure to read all the rules, and I wish you all good luck! I will not be participating as a judge this year....so who knows, maybe I'll enter too ^_^ (Alas I am ineligible...I'll have to pay my own way to Kyoto, sniff.)

• Link: Bento&co 2013 International Bento Contest

Another chance to get some great bento gear, and this one is almost no-effort!

The results of the Bento&co contest are in, and the winning entry is....

Ladies and gentlemen, start up your bento-making engines. The Bento&co contest is back!

A contest with a cash prize! What can be better?

The results of the big Bento&co Contest have been announced - the grand prize winner is Huang, who gets to go to Kyoto in September! As I mentioned earlier, I was one of the judges for this contest, and it was a very difficult task indeed to come up with a top 50, let alone a top 20. Everyone was really pushing the envelope!

Here are some of my personal favorites that didn't make the finalist list (with one exception).

A quick note to let you know that the top 20 finalists in the Bento&co Contest 2011 (announced here previously) has started! Check out the entries on their blog.