Photos of the Kyoto LOFT event!

This just a short update on what is going on with my health and things.

The good news is that I am feeling a bit better on an everyday basis. The really bad, painful infection I had has finally (mostly) cleared up, so I'm not reliant on heavy duty painkillers anymore. The bad news is that, my actual health condition is a bit worse than the infection. Which means that I'm going to have to start a course of radiation therapy again. But not to worry anyone too much...since I am now getting regular checkups (unlike the last time when you know, I stupidly tried to tough it out until I was almost bleeding to death(!!)) I am not going to have to get surgery or things like that. I guess I will have to face the ongoing fatigue issues, but well...I what to expect, and have strategies to deal with it.

In the meantime, if you want to see short posts from me and you are on Facebook, please consider Liking my Facebook JustBento/JustHungry page, which has been growing steadily since early this year (when I finally started paying attention to it. ^^) I am continuing to translate a few Cookpad recipes every day (previously) - if you want to find ones I've done, look for 'translated by makikowi' at the bottom of the recipes. I also have a new series in store for JustHungry starting next week, which I hope you'll enjoy. And for you bento fans, yes JustBento is coming back in full force soon - it's not dead by any means! You may see some other writing for me somewhere very soon too. ^^ Stay tuned!

And...thank you so much for your continuing patience and support as I battle my health issues. m(.)m

(Cross posted to both JustBento and JustHungry. Note: comments are closed on JB since the site is still a bit broken in the background, but they are open on JH if you want to say something to me, or kick me in the rear for the lack of bento posts, or something. ^_^)

A Back To School giveaway! Back to school? Already?

...because let's face it, it's lame! But the reconstruction of the site is taking a lot longer than planned. But, it will be back as soon as possible - hopefully much improved! In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the archives, such as the Keeping Your Bento Safe and Summer Bento Safety articles now that the weather is warmer in the northern hemisphere. In particular, please be careful about the safety of your proteins - not just meat, but vegetarian protains too like tofu. Be safe and healthy! And wish me luck to finally get this site reconstruction done... -_-

Two quick bits of news:

• monbento is releasing a mobile app soon, and to commemorate they are giving away an iPad and 100 bento boxes.. No purchase necessary to enter.
• Rakuten Global, the international part of the Japanese online shopping mall giant Rakuten, is holding a free global shipping campaign until May 17th. If you buy at least 10,000 yen worth of products from a participating merchant, up to 5,000 yen of your international shipping cost will be free (you'd pay for any extra shipping). This doesn't just apply to bento box sellers of course so if you are a figure collector or a hobbyist or a Japanese fashion fan and so forth you could use this offer too. (I see one of my favorite craft supply stores there...) (Via @saraosenton - thanks Sara!) - this one is over now.

A little technical note for people who read this site via Google Reader or another RSS reader, or subscribe to post updates via email:

I've switched over from Feedburner to another service called URI.LV. The reason I switched over is that Feedburner has kind of been neglected by Google (who owns the service) for a while now, and with their announcement that Google Reader is being shut down soon, it's kind of logical to assume that Feedburner will fade away too.

• If you are an email subscriber: You shouldn't see much of a change at all, but there is a chance you may need to re-add the sender of the mail (thechef@justhungry.com) to your address book if the emails end up in your spam folder.
• If you are an RSS reader subscriber: You should not see any change at all. If you want to be doubly sure you'll continue to receive updates, subscribe to this link and delete your Feedburner subscription.

(Incidentally, if you're looking for a replacement for Google Reader and are Mac or iOS based, I've been using NetNewsWire for ever, even before there was a Google Reader. I highly recommend it. Otherwise if you're looking for a web based solution Feedly looks pretty nice.)

This notice applies to both JustBento and JustHungry - it's posted on both since not everyone subscribes to both. (AND WHY NOT??? (just kidding))

So that's it for the techincal stuff. Going back to talking about food next time. ^_^

If you are on a Japan Airlines (JAL) international flight this month, I have a feature article in the May issue of Skyward, their in-flight magazine. It's called Bento Love and is about the growing popularity of homemade bentos outside of Japan...a subject I have a bit of familiarity with ^_^ They don't have an online readable version unfortunately, but if you do get to read it I'd love to hear from you. Here's the link to their table on contents.