Yummy Bento Boxes

One of my favorite aspects of Japanese food culture has to be Bento. Bento boxes are basically pre-made, ready-to-eat lunchboxes; but they differ from any kind of American equivalent in that they are usually very fresh, offer a great variety of foods in each package, and are often quite delicious. Oh, and did I mention that they're often very cheap? When I have a busy day at the lab (or, before I got to Tokyo, whenever I was going to be on a train for half a day), I like to grab a bento for abou 400 yen (~$5). This usually comes with one or more types of meat, several different kinds of vegetables, and rice and/or noodles. I like to think of bento as the working-man's lunch, but you can also find a lot of "specialty" bentos that are priced anywhere from 1,000 yen to over 3,000 yen (that's over 30 bucks). Here are some of my favorite bentos that I've had so far: