Bento #71: Monkey Magic from Ouendan
January 29, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - video game Tags: Monkey Magic, Ouendan
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My boyfriend owns many DS games, and usually once he plays, he moves onto a new game. But there’s one game he still plays once in a while, and that’s “Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!” (“Elite Beat Agents” in the U.S.)
Bento #71: Monkey Magic from Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!
Created and eaten on: 1/25/2010
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Bento #70: Babar
January 27, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - american Tags: Babar
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I usually sleep in on Saturday morning. When I get up, I watch “qubo.” Qubo is programming for kids. We don’t have cable TV, so there’s not much choice, but I do like a couple of shows that are on qubo on Saturday morning. This one is a favorite of ours.
Bento #70: Babar
Created and eaten on: 1/23/2010
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stuffed stuff: Noby Noby Boy
January 25, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in stuffed stuff Tags: katamari damacy, Keita Takahashi, Noby Noby Boy
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As I posted before, I won Penny Arcade’s Katamari Forever contest. After I gave my address to Jeff at Penny Arcade, I couldn’t wait to see the awesome Noby Noby Boy scarf.
I received my package on December 28th. I can’t explain how excited I was. I hurriedly opened the box and I carefully opened the bubble wrapped scarf. The first I thought “Oh my god it looks even more awesome than I could ever imagine!!” I looked for the head… but I couldn’t find one.
Aw how cute his... butt looks... (It does look cute, though. ) *I didn't make this scarf! Scroll down for my Noby Noby Boy plush.*
That’s right, they sent me the tail end of the scarf by mistake. I was just… very sad, thinking “I knew it! I thought it was too good to be true. Maybe I didn’t deserve it…” in my head and I had pretty much given up.
Katamari prince: "Did you see the head?" (Those little plush dolls were sewn onto the scarf by the way) *I didn't make this scarf! Scroll down for my Noby Noby Boy plush.*
I sent an email to Jeff at Penny Arcade. He wrote me back right away, explaining that he had given the addresses to Bandai Namco, and they were the ones who shipped the stuff. He was very understanding, apologetic, and sympathized with my situation. He contacted Bandai Namco (and probably the person who won the second prize) and made an arrangement. Bandai Namco would send me and the other person a pre-paid FeDEX label, so I could ship the scarf back and get the head end of the scarf.
The scarf was knitted beautifully. It was hard to say "good-bye." *I didn't make this scarf! Scroll down for my Noby Noby Boy plush.*
I was pleasantly surprised that the other person had agreed to do this. The honesty of this Katamari fan made me really happy. (Well, I haven’t received the head end but… I’m optimistic!) When I got a pre-paid label, I realized that it was going to be directly shipped to the second prize winner. So I decided to make a little thank you gift for her.
Noby Noby Boy saying "Thank you!" to the second prize winner.
Stuffed stuff: Noby Noby Boy
Created and stuffed on: January 2010
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Bento #69: Nekobus #3
January 19, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - ghibli (totoro, etc...) Tags: makkurokurosuke, nekobus, studio ghibli, totoro
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Hooray! I finally made the first kyaraben of this year!
I wanted to make it a lot sooner, but I just couldn’t come up with an idea. I thought of making a different/easier bento but I really wanted the first kyaraben to be “new year themed.” I was worried about not finishing it on time since I was so out of touch, so I made it on our day-off. 
Bento #69: Neko bus #3
Created and eaten on: 1/18/2010
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non-bento #21: kagami-”onigiri” Totoro
January 7, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - ghibli (totoro, etc...), bento blog - non bento Tags: rice ball, studio ghibli, totoro
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For those who have missed my previous post… Kagami-mochi is a decoration for the New Year in Japan. It’s made with 2~3 round rice cakes stacked on top of each other. Traditionally, you break it and eat it on the second Saturday or Sunday of January. I wanted to make some easy non-bento food on January 1st. It was really nothing special but I thought I’d just post some more pictures of this anyway.
Non-bento #21: Kagami-”onigiri” Totoro
Created and eaten on: 1/1/2010
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Mochi-tsuki
January 3, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else Tags: mochi-tsuki, rice cake
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My boyfriend has been taking a Japanese class for almost 4 years now. At the end of every year, his school has a “mochi-tsuki” (rice cake pounding) event. We went there at the end of last year, and had a lot of fun! So I decided to share it with you.
Rice cakes are made with mochi-rice (stickier than the regular sticky rice) made soft by soaking it in hot water for a while then mushed and pounded in a wooden or stone mortar with a wooden mallet.
When I was little, my grandmother used to make it every year, but she had a “mochi-tsuki machine” because it’s so much easier than pounding to make mochi, and it’s still a lot fresher than store bought mochi.
“How hard can it be to make rice cake?” you ask.
Probably harder than you think.
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Happy Happy New Year!
January 1, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else, bento blog (all) Tags: soba, studio ghibli, totoro
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We didn’t go out on New year’s eve. We stayed home and I cooked “toshikoshi soba,” and we just watched the ball drop on TV. “Toshikoshi-soba” means “the end of the year soba noodle.” In Japan, people eat soba at night before the year’s over. Any soba eaten on the night of December 31st is “toshikoshi-soba.” What kind of soba you’ll eat depends on your family tradition, where you’re from, etc… For us, I just cooked soba and ate it with a little bit of scallions, kamaboko (fish cake), carrot and enoki.
Our toshikoshi soba 2009!
And to start off 2010, I made this for my boyfriend’s brunch! It’s not very special, but since we make rice balls for brunch almost every weekend, I thought I’d play with it a little this morning. I’ll do a post about this later, but here’s a picture.
It’s “kagami-mochi” Totoro! Well, it’s not mochi (rice cake), but I decided to stack them on top of each other like “kagami-mochi.”
Just like my any other Totoro, they’re made with rice mixed with black sesame seed and seaweed powder, stuffed with tarako (cod roe), and the chibi-Totoro is made with a quail egg.
Kagami-mochi is a decoration for the New Year in Japan. It’s made with 2~3 round rice cakes stacked on top of each other. Traditionally, you break it and eat it on the second Saturday or Sunday of January. But my grandma wasn’t that strict about when we broke the kagami-mochi though. I remember her beating the crap out of a kagami-mochi with the back of a knife because mochi gets rock hard after being displayed for a couple of days. (A lot of time, people use a mallet or hammer to break it.) Most of kagami-mochi sold in a store is shrink-wrapped now so it will never get too hard or moldy. We stopped by at Sunrise mart (a local Japanese grocery store) the other day and got ourselves a “kagami-mochi.”
This year is the year of tiger, so it came with a cute little tiger figure.
Have a happy new year, everyone!
新年明けましておめでとうございます。
今年もどうぞよろしくお願いいたします。
アンナ
