Neil Duckett

A few weeks ago the good folks from Mark Batty Publishers approached me saying they were putting out books on Japanese visual culture and wanted Japanophiles to review them. The first thing i did was check what the word Japanophile meant.

Japanophile - Japanophilia is an interest in, or love of, Japan and all things Japanese. (It’s opposite is Japanophobia.) One who has such an interest or love is a Japanophile. Various cultures and peoples have gone through various periods of Japanophilia, for various reasons, throughout history.

Once the word checked out I promptly agreed and a week later they sent me a book on “Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes”

I’m not a massive reader of books these days, so lucky for me there’s lots of pictures and what fantastic pictures they are, all about the Bento Box.

This book provides a fascinating insight in to the Japanese Bento Box and the integral part It’s played for the last several hundred years.

The book is not only very entertaining for the pictures of the Bento Box but at the back there’s a how to section providing a great example for you to try on your own. I probably won’t be rushing out to do it myself but for anyone with kids it would be a bit of fun.

My first experience with the Bento Box was back in 2002 and for an Australian lad growing up on a sound diet of “Meat and 3 Veg” i went home hungry. These days with a much more mature palete and a great willingness to experiment and appreciation of finer foods I can devour the majority of the Bento Box contents.

I’m looking forward to getting my next book on Graffiti in Japan, if It’s half as good as this I’ll be very impressed. You can buy Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes at Amazon for about 10 bucks.

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