sakura week in japan

Have you ever heard the proverb ” HANA yori DANGO” ?
HANA is flower and DANGO is a sticky rice, so that means Dango is better than flower. It has similar in meaning to “Bread is better than the songs of birds”

Every day on TV, the forecast tells us where to go and what we should take for the cherry blossom viewing. Start from the type of the matting to save the spot, new type of drinks just came out for this special season, and of course BENTO (J-style lunch box) was the main topic to talk about.

When you go to the famous department stores food section, you’ll see tons of BENTO which has an idea of “petit- celeb”. These days in Japan, it’s popular to feel the celebrity life in a more casual way. When you go to the store, many products has the idea of celebrity life style. Especially the food is easiest way to enjoy it. For example , one of the BENTO has the name of the chef called Sakai who used to be an iron chef. The price is little expensive than regular BENTO, but it’s selling very well. Also the BENTO which has the name of the famous restaurant sells good too.

What is very interesting for me is, even you don’t know the name of that chef or restaurant, some how people tend to buy the BENTO which says ” produce by …. chef ” or ” .... restaurant’s exclusive BENTO” kind of thing. Why? There is many things behind it. Maybe you can say, this fact reflects current social conditions where many people are appealing for food safety in addition to health.

For me, spiffy-looking color BENTO are tempting. Now, the tantalizing smell from the cherry blossom made me hungrier !