Introduction. (welcome station)

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Gwendoline Jacobs
5 years ago
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Introduction. (welcome station) Hello, it is me, the spirit of Bento! If you have a look trough the magnifying glass you can see me waving. hello! Just come close so you can see me.

1 Introduction. (welcome station) Hello, it is me, the spirit of Bento! If you have a look trough the magnifying glass you can see me waving. hello! Just come close so you can see me. You can use the step to get closer if you want. Nice to see you! I am the spirit living inside the bento box. Do you wonder where the box is? Well, look around you. Imagine this whole space is a huge bento box and you shrunk to my size. It is a kind of maze and you can discover lot s of stories about the secret life I am leading inside the box. Yes, of course you know the bento box and perhaps you eat them every day. Still, I would like to show you the invisible part of o-bento. The part that is invisible but still it is there. Come, use your imagination and open up your senses when walking with me trough the bento box. Perhaps you will think about bento in a different way the next time you eat a bento. Think of me, the spirit of bento and look closely next time. I will wave at you!

Memories Because people eat Bento boxes so often, many people have memories about bento s. Memories are strange things. We all have them but we cannot see them. And we easily forget about them too.

2 Memories Because people eat Bento boxes so often, many people have memories about bento s. Memories are strange things. We all have them but we cannot see them. And we easily forget about them too. What would memories look like if you would make a drawing of it? Did you ever experience that you ate something or smelled something and suddenly got a memory of something that you thought you were forgotten? It works best with smell. You smell something, let s say toasted seaweed, and whoopp! In your head you see a memory of another time when you ate or smelled toasted seaweed. Smells are tiny keys to the locks of your memory. Do you have memories that are linked to bento s? What was the best bento box you ever had? And what was the worst? I would like to know all about your memories! You can write or draw them here on the ribbons. When we all leave our memories here we create a kind of monument for all the invisible memories of bento s that have long been eaten.

Waste There s a lot of food you can get. Shops are plenty and full of stuff. Fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, snacks and sweets. If you would own a shop, what would you want to sell in it?

3 Waste There s a lot of food you can get. Shops are plenty and full of stuff. Fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, snacks and sweets. If you would own a shop, what would you want to sell in it? Being the spirit of Bento it makes me happy to see and taste all the food available. Unfortunately a lot of the food that is grown is also wasted and thrown away. Because people only buy the most perfect vegetables, the ugly ones don t get sold. Next to that there is a lot of plastic thrown away because of all the pre-packed bento s bought in the shop. Plastic is not good because it makes the earth sick. The nice thing is that part of the solution is found in the bento as well. And you can help! You can use re-usable boxes instead of disposable plastic. And you can use the bento to put leftover food in. If this is the way you eat your bento you are helping food waste AND plastic waste! Thank you, you are making me a very happy spirit!

Seaweeds Sssshhhwwww. sssshhhhhwww Have you ever seen how seaweed grows? It moves with the water and flows from one side to the other. ssshhhhwww Can you move like that?

4 Seaweeds Sssshhhwwww. sssshhhhhwww Have you ever seen how seaweed grows? It moves with the water and flows from one side to the other. ssshhhhwww Can you move like that? Try to be some seaweed and flow with the tide. I ll make the sound with it: ssssssshhhhhhwwwwwww.. Well done, little weed. There are many varieties of seaweed you can eat like Nori, hijiki and Wakame. Which one do you like to eat the most? Actually, algae is not only good to eat. Algae can also be used for other things. You can also make plastic out of it. Plastic you can make from algae is called bioplastic because when you throw it away it will break down to pieces and finally be absorbed by the earth. This doesn t happen with regular plastic which is polluting the earth and seas. You can see that beautiful shapes can be made of algae-bioplastic. These are made with a 3D printer. Can you imagine printing your own bento box? Perhaps the box would have legs or a tail or. What would your 3d printed algae box look like?

Microbes I have been sitting inside your bento box, when I heard your parents tell you to wash your hands! Why? Did you ask. It is because of bacteria, the parents try to explain.

5 Microbes I have been sitting inside your bento box, when I heard your parents tell you to wash your hands! Why? Did you ask. It is because of bacteria, the parents try to explain. Tiny creatures that are invisible but the bad ones can make you sick. 'What? How can something invisible do that? It is like a bad fairytale. Why do dragons and fairies not exist but tiny invisible creatures that make you sick DO exist?! I try to whisper to you from deep inside your bento box that there are also good bacteria. You can find them here inside the box. These good bacteria are making you feel good and take care of your body but they also make sure you feel happy. Do you know fermented food like natto, miso or Soy Sauce? These kinds of food are a bit rotten but in a good way. The good bacteria are having a small party on these foods. It would be very nice if you could see them because sometimes I think they wear tiny party hats. I am a very happy spirit because I love natto!

Future meat Which kind of meat do you like to eat the most? Do you know from which animal the meat comes? There are only a few animals that we eat as meat.

6 Future meat Which kind of meat do you like to eat the most? Do you know from which animal the meat comes? There are only a few animals that we eat as meat. Mostly chicken, pork (from pigs) and beef (from cows). hmm I also see a lot of octopus shaped sausages. What kind of animal is that?? Why don t we eat dogs or hamsters or bats? In some places people eat snakes and crocodiles. Well, why not? Why would it be OK to eat a pig and not a dog? I don t know the answer. Do you? I think that in the future, when you are grown up, we will not be eating as much meat as we are today. A lot of people think we will start to eat more insects. In some places in the world eating insects is already very normal. Would you like to try some caterpillars or grasshoppers sprinkled onto your rice like furikake? Instead of eating meat we can also make fake meat of soybeans and can even grow real meat in a laboratory so we don t have to kill animals. Then we could have a drumstick with wings and dragon scales. Or meatballs with rabbit ears. Would you try that?

Fish I love fish swimming in the sea. Can you move like a fish? It s not easy. You would have to wiggle your whole body. Just try it. I will wiggle with you! Octopuses are really amazing!

7 Fish I love fish swimming in the sea. Can you move like a fish? It s not easy. You would have to wiggle your whole body. Just try it. I will wiggle with you! Octopuses are really amazing! They can change colour and some even have two hearts. Did you know that when they touch their food they can already taste it with their suction cups. Wow! What if you would be able to taste everything you touch! Touch the ribbons. How would they taste? Sometimes, when I play around in the bento box I look at the chunks of fish in there. Roasted eel, surimi, or tuna. When fish looks like that, you seem to forget about the beautiful creatures in the ocean. You just see some white or pink coloured chunks. Nothing to do with swimming fish and dancing octopuses. I ve got an idea to make you remember the fish in the ocean: When you get home, you can find a stone or even a shell, clean it, draw a fish on it and put in your bento box. Just to remind you of the beautiful sea your fish came from.

Rice Sssshhhhh!! Can you be still for a little while? Shhhh! Don t make a sound and sneak around quietly trough the white ribbons. Find a spot where you are completely hidden and no one can find you.

8 Rice Sssshhhhh!! Can you be still for a little while? Shhhh! Don t make a sound and sneak around quietly trough the white ribbons. Find a spot where you are completely hidden and no one can find you. Did you find that spot? Now, close your eyes and imagine you are in a rice field. *SOUND* Listen, All the ribbons around you are rice plants growing next to you and you are a rice plant too. Your feet are on the ground. Do you feel them? Imagine, small roots are sprouting from your feet into the ground. They are growing deeper and deeper and connect you to the earth. You are standing firmly into the ground and cannot move. As you might know, rice grows on wet grounds. The water reaches to your belly button. Inside the water is a rich life of little insects playing hide and seek around you. From your belly button up you are growing to the sky. Do you feel the wind on your skin? After a while you start to grow tiny flowers. The flowers turn into grains. The Rice seeds! The grains are your babies. You get about 300 babies. The farmer takes them off you and they might end up in a bento box!. All 300 grains together can make a nice rice ball. A few bites and they are gone again!

Water Without water we can t live. Water is more important than food. We could live without food for more than 30 days but we can t live without water for more than 3 days. We are made of water.

9 Water Without water we can t live. Water is more important than food. We could live without food for more than 30 days but we can t live without water for more than 3 days. We are made of water. You might not look like you could just turn into a puddle but really, the biggest part of you is water. Water is not only in you, but also in everything inside the bento box. It is used to grow the food inside the bento box. lf you have ever grown a plant yourself you know you need to water the plant regularly. Imagine there is a tomato in your bento box. The water that was needed to grow the tomato is about 13 litres. That s as heavy as a 3 year old child. To grow one single egg, you need 200 litres of water which is as heavy as a small horse. Quite amazing for a lazy tamago, isn t it? Everything needs water. Some things need more water to grow (like meat) and some things not so much (like green vegetables like lettuce) Sometimes, when your empty bentobox is being washed, I swim around in it! My umeboshi hat is keeping my head dry :)

Fungi Fungi, mushrooms, aren t they silly things? They are no plants. No animals. They have strange shapes and grow really fast. And they grow in the dark! Some mushrooms are very poisonous!

10 Fungi Fungi, mushrooms, aren t they silly things? They are no plants. No animals. They have strange shapes and grow really fast. And they grow in the dark! Some mushrooms are very poisonous! Some people believe they are made by witches. Do you like mushrooms? Which ones do you like? Shiitake, Shimeji, or? I like to see fungi inside bento boxes. I always think the person eating them must be a bit magical. Actually, the mushroom you know is just the fruit of the fungi. The roots, which is called mycelium, under the ground, is the fungi. Trees in a forest use the roots of mushrooms to talk to each other under the ground. It is like the internet for plants! Sending a WhatsApp message from pinetree to grass. What would they talk about? Perhaps about some children that were just having their bento-picknick at Ueno Park. Fungi is not only to eat. In the centre of the ribbons you can see edible bowls that are grown instead of made. They are made of soybeans overgrown with the mushroom roots and are both tasty and healthy. How about making edible bento boxes so you can take a bite of box?

Connection Do you remember when you ate your last bento? Did your father or mother make it for you? Or who did it? Do you make your own bento s? Or do you generally get them in a shop?

11 Connection Do you remember when you ate your last bento? Did your father or mother make it for you? Or who did it? Do you make your own bento s? Or do you generally get them in a shop? Some people say that when they make a bento for someone else, they put their love inside so the person eating it can feel the love. When you get home, you could write or draw a little note and put it in your empty box next time to send some love back to the person that made your bento. Even when the box is not made specially for you, many people have been touching the food in your box. Your food has been grown, cleaned, packed, taken care of and hopefully people put their love in it. So when you eat a bite of food you get connected to all these people that have worked on your food. Can you imagine them all front of you? Wow that s getting a bit crowded! Would you like to make a connection as well? Stick your hands inside the sleeves so you can be a little spirit of bento. Now, being me, you can shake hands or even hug a stranger on the other side.

The Bear Tree by Peter

The Bear Tree by Peter Introduction This story is about a 13 year old boy named John. John purposely ran away from his New York home in the 1830 s. He ran away because his dad could get very rough and