I'm very happy that JustBento is featured on the website of Redbook Magazine, in a slideshow titled Bento Lunches for Grownups. It has 9 bentos from this site (maybe you'll recognize a couple) that are all very easy to put together. It was a real pleasure to work with Ava on this, and I hope it will introduce even more people to the world of bento. (For those of you not in the U.S., Redbook is a major women's magazine, aimed primarily at American working women with families. Wikipedia on Redbook.) If you found us via Redbook, welcome! You'll find a lot of information here, from the very basics on up. We're just concluding a Bento for Beginners online course called Bento 101: Getting Into The Bento Habit (start here, and follow the links at the bottom) which may be helpful if you're curious about how it all works. I'd also like to belatedly say hi to everyone who came over from LifeHacker. Hi guys! Bento really is a pretty good life hack. ^_^

Onigiri rules all, and a gorgeous spring bento.

An article that really gets what this site, and the book, are all about.

There is an article about bento lunches in the Wednesday, September 9th edition of the New York Times, titled What's for Lunch? Enter the Bento Box, a Touch of Japan, by Samantha Storey. I'm quoted there several times; also quoted are my fellow bento bloggers Pikko of Adventures in Bento, Biggie of Lunch in a Box, and many others - including quite a few Just Bento readers! (It's up to you to match up the real name with the online presence :)) It's one of the best mainstream media articles (in Engish) that I've seen so far - not just focusing on over-the-top kyaraben, or bentos for little kids, as many seem to do. (Samantha also blogs about her own bento-ing efforts.)

If you've found your way to Just Bento via the NY Times article, welcome! If you are new to bentos, you might want to start with the Bento Basics section. Bento friendly recipes of all types, not just traditional Japanese (though there are plenty of those too) can be found on the sortable recipes list. If you want to look at complete bento examples with step-by-step instructions and timelines, take a look at the bento lists. Want a way to ease into the bento habit? Try the Get Started Handbook, or follow the Get Started Bento Challenge program. You'll find a lot more useful links on the left of this page. Last but not least, you may want to join our community of bento enthusiasts by <a href=http://justbento.com/forum">joining our great forum, or our flickr pool.

Welcome to the wonderful world of bentos! お弁当の世界へようこそ！

(Update: Mook of FrenchBento has posted a translation of the article in French. (Mook de FrenchBento a une traduction française de l'article pour les francophones.)