1. Nursery School and Ideological Appopriation of the Obento
1.1. Most nursery schools are private
1.2. Different from the hoikuen
1.2.1. Another pre-school institute with longer hours
1.3. Learn more about how to be a good Japanese student, than the typical reading and writing
1.3.1. Japanese and Student are equally stressed
1.4. Learning to follow direction, to do as ones told and "ganbaru" are social imperatives, taught in the schools
1.5. Japanese social ideal that is reiterate nationwide by politicians, corporate and marriage counselors are first introduced in nursery school
1.6. Marks a transition both away from home and into the "real world" which can be difficult for the child
1.6.1. The Obento is intended to ease a child's discomfiture
1.6.1.1. No more obentos after first grade
1.7. Sign of a woman's commitment as a mother
2. Mothering as Gendered Ideological State Apparatus
2.1. Rituals surrounding the obento consumption in school, situate what ideological meaning the obento transmits to the child
2.2. The child must eat everything in the box.
2.3. Food should be made easy to eat, portions cut small and edible with fingers or chopsticks
2.4. Obento is one aspect of the far more expansive and continuous commitment a mother is expected to make for her child
2.5. If a child succeeds, a mother is complimented; if a child fails, a mother is blamed.
2.6. Motherhood is institutionalized through the child's school and such routines as making the obento as a full-time, kept at home job.
2.6.1. Women, not men are sustaining a child through food, and carrying the ideological support of the culture that the food embeds
3. Obento
3.1. Nursrey school childrens boxed lunch
3.1.1. Japanese mothers tend to make obentos for their children
3.2. Highly crafted elaborations of food
3.2.1. Array of miniature portions
3.2.2. Artistically designed and aranged
3.2.2.1. Put in a sturdy and cute container
3.3. Everyday practice of Japanese life
3.3.1. Invested with a gendered state ideology
3.3.1.1. Obento must be done by the mother; but both the child and the mother are judged and constructed
3.3.1.1.1. One of the most worrisome concern facing the mother of a child going of to school for the first time.
3.4. 5/6 course minaturized meals
4. Japanese Food
4.1. The Key element is the appereance
4.1.1. Degree how the food looks is at least important as it tastes and how good and sustaining it is for the body
4.1.2. Presentation is critical
4.1.2.1. Foods are cut or broken up to make contrasts of color, texture and shape.
4.1.2.1.1. Foods are meant to oppose one another and clash
4.2. No food is just food in Japan
4.3. One code is for smallness, separation and fragmentation
4.3.1. Portions are cut to be bite-sized
4.3.2. Nothing large is allowed.