Cheburashka Bento - Have your Cheby and eat it too!

One of the newest characters to appear in Japanese animation is the Russian cartoon classic "Cheburashka."
The popularity of Espensky's creation ca be seen by his inclusion in popular home art forms such as Bento Kyaraben, the lunch box prepared artistically with Japanese cartoon characters made of food.

Bento (弁当) is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container.

Although bento are readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops (弁当屋), train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend time and energy for their spouse, child, or themselves producing a carefully prepared lunch box.

Bento can be very elaborately arranged in a style called kyaraben or "character bento". Kyaraben is typically decorated to look like popular Japanese cartoon characters (anime), characters from comic books (manga), or video game characters. Contests are often held where bento arrangers compete for the most aesthetically pleasing arrangements.

Miko "LuckySundae" is a very fine Bento artist who has the pleasure of eating her creations.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuteobento/sets/72157602921501238/

She has a book coming out and does this professionally.

http://cuteobento.blog43.fc2.com/