As promised two traditional wooden models in replacement of Choukaku Nidanbento that we no longer offer. These are the Iriko Keiyaki and the Awase Koban. Both are lacquered with traditional urushi lacquer and have an exceptional finish.

Also you will find three new plastic bento boxes respectively named Hana Red, Hana Black and Temari.
All these three models all have a little handy trick: the removable part of in the middle can turn upside down and make the bento less high when the meal is finished. So it takes much less space! The better to understand the system is to go take a look at the pictures of these products.

Bento boxes I was using 30 years ago were made from aluminum. Most of aluminum bento boxes disappeared by early 80′s and plastic ones replaced them since then.
My bento life finished as aluminum bento boxes disappeared and started again in junior high school thanks to hermetic plastic models which solved the problem of wet dish leaking into the bag.
I remember that my favorite bento meal was some rice with nori (seaweed sheet). It was simply plain rice with nori added on the top. Other things such as octopus shaped sausages, omelet and apple rabbit completed the meal. I was very happy with this simple bento.

These days kid’s bento has changed a lot. The style which is very popular at the moment is called Charaben (character bento). Of course kids like them, but this is mothers who are really crazy about. There are many blogs featuring pictures and teaching how to make them.
I was very surprised when I heard that bento became very popular overseas.
Here is some little advices for those who are thinking to start a bento lifestyle.
- try to avoid wet dish in the box.
- use soft silicon cups in the case you put wet dish.
- enjoy your new lifestyle

In case you never heard about Pinterest, it is a social network that allows you to share the stuff you like using ‘boards’. On these boards you can virtually ‘pin’ pictures of things that you find interesting. As for Twitter, the whole community can see what you post on your account. Also anyone can ‘re-pin’ your selections.
Right now this new network is particularly popular in English speaking countries but it should not take long before it is getting popular elsewhere.
You still need an invitation to open an account but considering the rapid development of the site this may change very soon.

If you already are a Pinterest user we are very interested about your feedback!
Otherwise feel free to ask us for an invitation!

With the arrival of the timeline for fan pages we were more or less forced to redo the layout
You can see the results here: http://www.facebook.com/tokyosmart.
We tried to do something that remains in the minds of our site with a rather simple design and a large picture from our shop.
What bothers us with this new layout is the disappearance of the ‘Welcome’ tab, which allowed us to display a custom page when a visitor arrived on the page. This personalized page allowed us to present our activity and invite the visitor to become a fan.
With the new timeline a lot of restrictions have emerged. By example we are not allowed to display the url of our shop or to add a ‘call-to-action’ (become a fan, comment …) on the cover photo.
Anyway we had no choice as all the fans pages were concerted to this format on March 31.
In the end we’re pretty happy with the result and hope you will like this new presentation.
Lately we haven’t had much time to develop our fan page (and our blog as well) and we will really have to improve that. So we think about a way to make them more lively and interesting to our fans. If indeed you have any ideas as always feel free to let us know! I also remind you that you are free to post messages to our fans so do not hesitate.

Otherwise we have a bit of delay on adding new products particularly due to the move which was made without incident.
Coming soon new ceramic cats (which are not Maneki-nekos) and three new bento boxes.
We still hesitate to add a few Tanuki statues.

Also for those who subscribe to the newsletter be informed that we will move to a new format which will allow us to have prettiest newsletters and to reach more people since they were blocked by some Internet companies.

Finally we have another project in the pipeline that this time would be dedicated solely to Japanese customers. A project that we found interesting but that will take time because it requires that we develop the manufacture of the product here in Japan!
Although this project does not directly concern Tokyo Smart it will be developed in parallel. Rest assured however that this should not have a great influence on the store as we organize ourselves so that everything goes smoothly.

Tokyo Smart
478-0024
Aichi-ken Chita-shi
Minamikasuya 4-245
- JAPAN -

What it means is that from now for any order over 2kg / 4.4lbs you can choose a cheaper option than EMS while still benefiting from an insurance and a tracking number.

Note that this should be the last change regarding shipping before a while