Obento and My Sack Lunch

Growing up my school lunches were never very 'cool'. I had the usual apple and pb & j, along with the occasional snackpack, but hey, I never really thought twice about it. I can remember my buddy Jason constantly playing with his fruit snacks. He was always able to have the coolest fight scenes, but it was never the same when I tried. My fruit snacks always seemed dull, along with the rest of my food. I guess I was always just taking the sack lunch for granted, and never really thinking about the time my mother spent making it.

However, upon learning of the ritual of the obento, I started to look at my sack lunches a little differently. The mothers in Japan would spend huge amounts of time, not just in preparation for the obento to be eaten, but in thinking of what to give their kids in it the next day, etc... Learning this really made me start to think about my mom, and the time she spent in making my lunch. Sure, she didn't spend a ton of time making it, but still, I could have made my own sandwich and lunch (although if I did, the lunch would have consisted mainly of pudding and pop, with the occasional Cheetos or fruit snacks.

Though I never thought of it this way before, just like those mothers in Japan who showed compassion to their little kids by making them ornate obento every day, my mom was showing me that she loved me every day, though I never noticed it.