Obento lunch boxes

Yesterday morning (after spotting the pheasants), Tetsu suggested we go off hiking.  (It was a nice idea but we ended up NOT going as we could still see snow on the mountaintop.)  BEFORE we gave up on the hiking idea I decided I'd MAKE a picnic lunch.  Ah... memories of my obento making days!!

When my children were in kindergarten, everyday I sent them off with a little obento (lunch) box.  Even now at the kindergarten, the children bring their own lunches packed in little aluminum boxes that can be heated as is in a steamer...  The kindergarten feels that the lunch "connection" between mother and child makes the daily separation easier.  Anyway.. I began my many years' long routine of making obentos.  I bought books showing how to make the cutest, the healthiest, the most beautiful obentos that a child would gobble up joyfully.

I'm pretty sure my children have good memories of their obento years.  I decorated their rice with cut out cheese flowers and seaweed animal faces.  I cut up wieners so that they looked like miniature octopi.  Obentos, mine and Japanese mothers, were a work of art!!!  It was easy to get carried away in the early years!

(By the way, I sent Takumi to kindergarten a couple of times with sandwiches, a whole apple, a bag of rice crackers and Oreo cookies and he came home upset because his friends teased him and said he'd just brought snacks that day for lunch.  I went back to making him a rice obento.)

My obento making mornings stopped when the kids were in elementary school.  Good!  I was tired of getting up early and making a full meal before 7:00.  The education policy was no longer keeping a connection between mother and child, it was now, "train these students to appreciate all types of foods, not just what mom caters to".  Students were required (and probably still are) to eat everything on their tray, though some teachers allowed them to leave ONE thing untouched.  Leiya had trouble with school lunches because there were many things she didn't like.

When Takumi went to high school, he was back to obento lunches again.  Grrr.

"He eats a lot more than he did in kindergarten!"

So I was back to making grilled fish, simmered meat and vegetables, wrapped rice balls and macaroni salad before 6:30 in the morning.  And while I was at it, I decided to make Tetsu a lunch too.  Might as make two if I'm going to all that work in the morning.  And I had my ulterior motives.

I made Tetsu pay me $3 a lunch!!!  Such a conniving woman this foreign wife is!!!

I figured Tetsu was paying twice as much for a bowl of noodles everyday at lunchtime.  If I was going to daily do something that I wasn't thrilled about, then I might not mind as much if I had a little play money coming in (and Tetsu'd be saving money too).  I gave thought to making Takumi pay me $3 also but Tetsu said that was taking it too far.  It was my duty as a mother to supply Takumi with a free lunch...  true...

Oh well, this started out as a tale of Tetsu and my outing yesterday... 

We finally took our lunch to a hot spa place and after enjoying an outdoor bath we sat at a picnic bench in a nearby park. That's why there are pictures of the interesting tree with a "hole" in the middle of it...  Two trees had grown together.  And the daffodils were surrounding the picnic bench.

My hastily put together obento was a slice of salty salmon, salad, chicken and bamboo shoots and a sweet omelet.

The omelet was made by rolling it with seaweed strips as I cooked it.

Tetsu laughed when he saw the aluminum lunch boxes the obentos were packed in.

"You must have pulled these out of the depths of the cupboard!   These aluminum boxes look like something from the war years.  How long has it been since you made obento?"

I didn't make him pay me $3. But I did let him buy me bottled tea.