Geisha Doll Bento Set

I've read the reviews about this product being too small and was really apprehensive about buying it because I needed a lunchbox for school next year. After debating about it for a week, I decided to bite the bullet and buy it. In the end, I like it a lot! It is made in japan (not in China-a 1st subtle sign that it's of good quality). When I saw that, I said "wow, that just made my purchase worth so much more!" I don't intend to offend any Chinese here (I'm chinese myself!), but China tends to produce rather low quality items. This seems very sturdy and durable, the paint looks like as if it would stay on for a long period of time. The plastic lid cover is on very securely. Overall, the design and quality of this bento is superb. Now, the main concern, the size. When I saw it in real life, I was actually surprised at how BIG it was! No, by no means am i saying that it's a big bento. It is small. However, after reading the comments, I imagined it to be so much smaller. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised. This box is definitely enough food for lunch in accordance to the Japanese ideal of a lunch. I can easily see how this will be a filling lunch if one knows how to pack a bento efficiently. I'm excited to use this bento and I know that I will be very full with my lunch during the school year.

This gave me delight for many years - it's adorable and great for a fun but portion controlled lunch. Problem though - I generally hand washed it, but with a busy week, this week I threw it in the dishwasher, and the pattern painted on it has now largely disappeared. The pink section is completely blank, the white section is heavily faded and the black section seems just fine. So all those folks that say it's dishwasher safe... I respectfully disagree. Writing this because I'm seriously on the fence between ordering it again, because it was one of my favorite lunch sets, or not, because I don't want to always have to handwash. :/

My daughter has been using this bento box for years. It has held up well. I pack a more American lunch: sandwich, fruit/veggies, etc. or crackers, cheese, meat and fruits/veggies. Mussels or shrimp with bread on the side and fruits/veggies. You can fit an entire sandwich in this box in the top tier. Using square bread I would utilize the heart shaped sandwich cutter and all four pieces fit nicely. When I used rectangular bread I cut the crusts off and cut the sandwich into four pieces, two rectangles and two triangles, and I could fit it in nicely. Also tortilla roll-ups fit nicely in this box. I really prefer putting fruit/veggies in the top tier though since I like their fruit/veggies to be over half their lunch. Doing that their is not room for a sandwich but when I am not packing sandwiches I use the face tier for fruits/veggies and when I pack sandwiches I'll include a whole piece of fruit in their lunch bag.The hat piece can actually hold crackers, nuts, or other dry foods. You just teach the kids to turn the bento upside down when they take that piece off. I use silicone cupcake liners to separate foods in the box which allows for a more compactly packed lunch. I was hesitant when I first got these because they seem small, but learning a few tricks for compact packing makes this bento completely useable for a preschool through elementary aged child. Once they get a little older you will have to add another type of container in order to provide the right amount of food. Still, I before I got these i tried a lot of different container options and they never worked well or they only lasted one year. This is well worth the price.

I wanted a bento box container my daughter would like. The head makes a nice bowl to store a napkin, cookie and/or a love note. The middle has a tupperware-type cover. Three sections, all dishwasher safe. You can put a salad in one level, meat & cheese shapes in another or tiny silicon containers full of little items - get creative! Take a small cookie cutter or stamp [bento supplies sites have hundreds of shapes] and cut meats, cheeses and vegetables into flowers, hearts, animals, etc. Bento makes lunches fun! Mine never come back with uneaten food in them. If you are using portion control for your child, this is also a fantastic tactic. Lots of tiny servings of different items keep it interesting and they don't notice they're eating less. Small children, say 5 and under, go bananas for bento. I purchased a cute washable cloth drawstring bag to carry this - leaving room for a juice or milk box. I found one that looked like a pink pig with ears. Small drawbacks to consider: my daughter had a tough time stacking and getting the bento strap back on without help. Also, the adorable design of this set, plus the food shapes and colors in her "surprise" lunches were drawing a LOT of attention at lunchtime. Other kids would 'oooo' & 'ahh' so much, she felt embarrassed and finally asked me to stop sending bento lunches :(

Every other reviewer was absolutely correct to say that the geisha is a teeny-tiny little thing. The strap is easy to apply, once you realize that there are grooves on the black bowl and the bottom pink bowl, you just have to slip the strap inside of them. Not good for taking moist items (although we made jell-o in the head (part with the lid), sandwich cutouts in the bottom portion (think mini tea sandwiches with extra veggies & maybe a little cheese) and either cut up veggies for the top (hair) with a sealed packet of dressing, or a packet of instant miso (the school staff will add the hot water for children).

This is a wonderful addition to a child's (or adult's) lunch box. I use it mainly to pack raw fruits and/or vegetables in the bottom and middle containers. You can pack a little salad then put a little container or baggie of dressing in the top bowl/hat so things don't get soggy before lunch. The area under the hat isn't very large (due to the domed lid on the middle section) but I find it useful for holding things like little picks for the fruit or sauce packs, napkins or individual hand wipes, or a small amount of cookies or dessert items (little candies or mints.) The small size of this container set makes it easy to pack in a lunch box along with another container for a main dish that may need more temperature control (we use a sandwich container that has an ice pack for cold items like cheese and meat or sandwiches, or a little thermal container for hot foods). With the cute styling on this lunch buddy, my child is more excited about getting those fruit and vegetable servings packed every day (she doesn't want to leave her friend at home) and that to me at least made the cost of this container set worth the price.

This is very cute and small. But the real problem is the hat/bowl. 1. How can you fit (not enough space anyway) things inside it if it goes upside down to then lock it? 2. What can go in that bowl/hat upside that you can eat?

My daughter, who takes lunch to school every day, requested this cute Bento set for her 9th birthday. It was reasonably priced, but a bit smaller than I had envisioned. The black "hair" is a little bowl! The bottom part (her pink kimono) isn't liquid-proof. The white part (her head) does have a liquid-proof cap that really works. One of my daughter's favorite snacks is fresh cucumbers with salt and vinegar, and I sent that in the head part without ever having vinegar leak out. However, the directions and info that came with it are all in Japanese, so I had no idea whether or not this was dishwasher safe. I put all pieces (except the elastic band that holds everything together) though the dishwasher and it didn't melt. However, whether from being in my daughter's backpack or from the dishwasher, I'm not sure which, the little eyes and other parts started scratching off within the first week of use. I touched up the black parts with a Sharpie. After a couple of weeks of daily use, my daughter asked for a regular lunchbox again. She likes to take an apple and sometimes a granola bar as part of her lunch, and neither of those items would fit in this box. It was a hassle to pack this AND have to take an additional bag for a couple of other things. So, she still has it and she may use it occasionally, but it just didn't work out great for us. I would recommend this for kids who want to take rice or pasta in the pink part and veggies or broth or whatever in the white part.