Comments on: Japanese Passive Aggressive Bento Blog?

Question: Japanese Passive Aggressive Bento Blog?

duckierose — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 16:44:02 -0800

I am looking for a Japanese blog about a woman who left passive aggressive notes for her husband and son as part of the food in the bentos she made them.

A few years ago a friend of mine stumbled upon a Japanese blog of a woman who would create daily bento boxes for her husband and son, but leave passive aggressive notes in them as part of the bento.

Examples, via my friend: She would do stuff like draw a graph of their electric bill on his rice. There was another one where she drew a map of their house to the pharmacy out of nori and a note that said, "Don't forget to pick up your meds!" written out in fish flakes. And there was another one where she made a stereo out of nori with a note that said, "Your music is too loud!" and she put it in her kid's bento.

She, of course, has lost the link. I've run a few searches, but I think the whole "it's a Japanese blog" is making it more difficult.

Does this ring any bells for anyone? Its sounds just awesome enough that I would love to look through it.

By: No-sword

No-sword — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 18:15:26 -0800

I think Kasumin's blog is the one you want.

By: duckierose

duckierose — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:40:28 -0800

Those are stunning, but I don't see any passive aggressive bentos on there. Just amazing artwork.

By: Enroute

Enroute — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 20:04:26 -0800

Wow, that's amazing. Although I don't see anything passive aggressive in there, either. Not being able to read Japanese, I have no way of searching for the ones you described, but if you find them, it would be great if you could point us to them. I'd love to see the electric bill graph! Hilarious.

By: cjw333

cjw333 — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:19:34 -0800

I did a bit of searching but haven't yet found the blog that you mentioned. I did, however, find this:

passiveaggressivenotes.com

By: sour cream

sour cream — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 04:34:29 -0800

Wada Akiko? Now that's creepy.

By: purenitrous

purenitrous — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 09:15:12 -0800

I randomly clicked on Kasumin's blog and found this.

By: matteo

matteo — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 09:59:32 -0800

please do find it, it sounds like the best thing ever

By: wintersweet

wintersweet — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:20:44 -0800

Yeah, the Metropolis article makes it sounds like Kasumin is the one after all. I'm so shocked! I've looked at her bento creations many times, and I had no idea. The dark side of bento-making ... Priceless.

By: No-sword

No-sword — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:21:52 -0800

Yeah, the official title of her blog, give or take a shooting star or two, is "長女・次男坊にゃ虐待弁当＆ダンナは倦怠期逆切れギャク弁！" which, crudely and phrase-by-phrase translated, means "For my eldest daughter and younger son, abuse bento; & for my husband, fatigue-stage [of marriage] gyakugire gag ben[to]!" (gyakugire sort of means getting mad in a self-defensive way at someone who really has more immediate reason to be mad at you).

I didn't want to be all snooty and corrective, partly because I wasn't sure if there actually was a blog more like the one you described, but I think maybe your friend is misremembering or was misinformed the extent to which the blog was a cavalcade of passive-aggressiveness. (Maybe they saw someone else's blog entry with links to more extreme examples and came away with a slightly skewed impression that way?) The title of Kasumin's blog makes it pretty clear how seriously she takes it, I think.

The other possibility is that someone, as a joke, made a more extreme version of Kasumin's blog with entries like the ones you describe, but a quick Google search doesn't turn anything like that up, sorry.

By: duckierose

duckierose — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:07:33 -0800

I showed my friend Kasumin's blog, and she insists the one she saw was different. This is frustrating, to say the least, but I appreciate all your help.