Play with your food.

Speaking of my affinity for all things cute, I received a book called Face Food as a gift from my brother. It’s filled with photos of charaben– Japanese character bento boxes. The time and effort that went into creating these edible works of art is awe-inspiring. Here are a few of my favorites:

Wouldn’t you like to see Piglet doing a jig for you when you opened your lunch?

Mr. Strawberry looks rather distinguished, no?

When traveling around Japan to take photographs for his book, Christopher D. Salyers spoke with the creators of the charaben (mostly mothers of young children.) Most of these women told Salyers that their charaben were not meant to be art. Rather, the charaben were created to encourage their children to eat well, to help them to become more popular, and for the enjoyment the characters would bring to them at lunchtime.

The three little pigs appear to have eyes made of poppy seeds. Imagine the time and patience it took to perfectly place each eye, each ear, each snout. Ah, the things we do in pursuit of cute.

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