and the best way to enjoy the blossoms is an outdoor picnic with friends.

Picnics become super popular this time of year,

and along with picnics comes the ubiquitous Japanese lunch: the bento.

[Life in Japan Theme Song]

Oh Sarah, are you digging into your bento?

Yes? Oh my goodness.. You ate all your meatballs already?

What do you guys do? Do you do the nori ... with the rice?

And you put some chicken in it too or just like that?

Uh, just like this.

Now these guys have real bentos here.

What kind of bento did you bring today, Takako?

Today is salmon bento

"Shake" bento — salmon

Looks delicious!

Wow!

Wow for real

Wow — that's good.

Everyone's different

She loves onigiri

It looks like it's from a convenience store

Did you make that? Yes.

You made that?! Wow!

It looks like a convenience store.

You put nori here

You put the onigiri (rice ball) here

If you do this

You open it.

It's nice, isn't it?

It's like a convenience store.

So the nori is crispy.

Really, a bento is just the Japanese word for any prepared or packaged lunch that you take with you (or buy along the way).

Hey Dude! Is lunch good? Yeah.

Good.

Here's what Ruth made me — it's steak and rice. Oh, it's going to be so good!

Wait wait, look at Yoshi.

Everyone's so cute!

The photographer's side and those being "photographered"

"Photographered?"

Once you've enjoyed a good bento, then you can fully enjoy the beautiful spring blossoms of Japan.

Bentos and Blossoms are a match made in heaven — well, really Japan.

Can I have your phone?

What, I want your phone. OK take turns, OK?

Yea!

Whoa Dude! Did you find a cool stick to use?

Awesome.

What are you doing? Are you fishing? Are you a statue?

Ah, look, are you fishing? Did you catch.... Aw look, you caught a cute little girl. Look, aww!

Hi, how are you?!

After seeing the beautiful homemade Japanese bentos, we thought we'd ask Misa san to show us how she does it.

With three girls of her own, she knows all about making obentos.

Today we've come to our friends' house, Misa san!

She's going to teach us how to make kawaii (cute) obentos

Plus, I just found out that she has a massage salon,

So excited!

Fresh Salon, by Misa san.

Today we're making kawaii obentos and my friend went grocery shopping

And bought some super cute, prepackaged little things.

These are already pre-cut.

Look at these ampanman little sausages.

Oh my goodness!

Fun!

Egg

white soy sauce

What are you making now?

Japanese fried eggs

What was that?

Sweet sake

Ah, sugar.

This is so fun!

There's no time in the morning!

That's true

No time to beat

My type of mom.

fast is better

Which one?

This one

Anpanman Oh my

Edamame

Do you always put them in?

Sarah loves them.

Seasoned salt.

Nice

Omelet

I'm not that good...

Maybe you should watch YouTube...

You do a little bit, roll it, push it out and put the rest of your egg in

And then you keep rolling it.

Very interesting. I need to buy this type of skillet.

It's got a cool handle with it, too.

Well done.

The peanut gallery over there...

Meanwhile over here, there's some games going on.

(Singing) Let's go to the next world, yeah!

It's looking good.

How much stuff that I want to eat!

Cut them into the useful portions...

Freeze them, then cook it together.

So she has it all cut and ready to go.

She freezes it in the right proportions.

one by one

They're heating up in there, aren't they? Yes they are.

And now, the bento box?

I forgot our bento boxes.

So they have all sizes and styles and colors and dividers

It's just endless

Sena, soon you will be in 6th grade, right?

The same as Anna and Rebecca.

Onigiris for children are difficult because they're small.

This one portion can be used for one big onigiri

So fast!

About like that.

I just learned how to make onigiris the professional way.

By a Japanese mom.

The professional way.

And now from here...

It's that little triangle.

Oh cute!

If you do it like this...

and like this...

It's easy to eat.

Now this is the part that helps make it super cute

Is how they put it all in the bento box.

Isn't that cute?!

That's got salmon inside of it.

Which one should we use?

Help

This

Put them in the edamame.

Now stick that thing!

Anna's first go at it

Wow

One more

Now you can make bentos at home.

One more

Aw, so cute!

Because it won't fit in a small one,

I'll put the chicken in here.

That's quite the lunch. It is.

I knew there was corn - ha ha!

I knew it!

Wow! Look at that!

Can I eat it now?!

It's the finished...

Oh wait!

Oh egg! Wait, we're not done.

I'm going to watch this over and over so I can make it.

And now, where can it go?

How can we?

We need a bigger bento box!

Can I eat these two now? Sure.

Joshua, look!

Look at that complete bento box!

That is awesome. Amazing.

There's the beans, there's some corn, chicken, some eggs and rice.

Sausage... What are these?

Potato Oh, I really want it!

How many times have you made a bento lunch?

Oh Sarah, what's one of your favorite things?

Green beans. Edamame beans, right?

How is it?

Yummy? Oh good.

Yum! Oh, you finished it!

done.

Ah, Sena is making pizza.

Pizza master.

I'm really hungry. Well good, we're going to eat.

Sena, what's your favorite kind of pizza?

Probably margarita.

Nate also Yes, I also like it.

And now Anna's making the pizza.

I worked at Pizza Hut.

What?! Oh, you delivered pizza. Uh huh.

Many years ago.

OK, let's see. You got your nut and what are you doing?

Throw it and now I need to try to get it before it goes inside here.

Oh, before it goes in there you save it!

Can I try it? Can I try?

Can I try? No.

Now they're eating the bentos — how are they? Tasty?

Oh, the pizzas are coming out — yummy!!

Look at this!

You're going to eat the whole thing?

No, only this little part. Oh, OK

Oh, now we get to have some pizza,

We get to eat some chicken and French fries and ooo, yummy stuff!

These are real French fries. They sure are real French fries.

And it's a Wii party time — oh my!

Oh boy!

Whose throwing?

Whose throwing? Sarah?

Sarah's throwing.

Oooooohhhhhh!

Sena jumps!

Jump Sarah, jump!

Joshua, we can't see you!

Picture!