In which I am in total heaven because today I received THE BENTO BOMB!

This is what happened to me today (in pictures!):

I got a big giant huge massive collection of bento-junk goodness in the mail today!

Food! Bento accessories! And two new boxes!:

Now. How did this awesome explosion of straight-from-Japan bento lurve happen, you ask? Good question! I shall tell you!

Long story short:

I befriended someone on Flickr in one of the bento pools. She’s an ex-pat living in Japan, and as a NW girl she misses Tillamook cheese, among other things. So we arranged a swap!

I sent her a box of stuff (cheese, crackers, Neutrogena eye cream, flour tortillas, Mexican spices, stuff she can’t get easily over there) from my local grocery stores, and she sent me a box of stuff (the highly-anticipated BENTO EXPLOSION FROM HELL!!!) from her local stores. She put post-it notes on some of the items explaining what they were or giving useful translation details (like “not microwave safe” or “this is a giant Cheeto”). She also included a really cool tourist guide for Tokyo, and a lovely hand-written thank you note for the box I’d sent to her!

I’m so happy I could just pop!

I spent over forty dollars in shipping (cheese and tortillas are heavy!), BUT IT WAS SO. TOTALLY. WORTH IT.