Cute Totoro Themed Bento ^_^

Isn't it cute!? It's a Totoro themed bento! This was actually a project for my Japanese class (we were learning about Japanese food). The assignment was to first choose a theme, then design and make an authentic Japanese bento. My friend and I teamed up to create this cute Totoro bento.

We spent two hours cutting and shaping food, and then trashing our funny looking shapes. It was horrible :( We probably wasted a huge amount of food. For example, do you see that flower? Well it's made out of tamago (egg), which we bought due to convenience, and a scored hot dog. I bet we threw away/ate over half the package of tamago before getting the petals to spread apart without breaking. Such a waste!! I don't know how those Japanese mom's make their kid's bento so cute!? Well I guess if you did this everyday you'd become pretty fast, but still....

See those meatballs with eyes? They're supposed to be susuwatari, you know little fuzzy black spirits that floated around the attic in the movie? And the eggs with sesame seeds for eyes are supposed to be chibi totoros (mini totoro).

So, what do you think? Is it as good as the Japanese bentos?

For tips on making bentos similar to this own or other cute bentos, click here