Last updated: February 28, 2022

DARUMA ingredients
- A radish
- A piece of seaweed

1. Carve radish to create daruma’s face.
2. Make stripes of daruma’s body by cutting with a knife.

3. Cut a piece of nori seaweed with a seaweed puncher or scissors into shapes of eyes. Cut off a strip of shredded seaweed to make eyebrows and mustache of daruma.
CHICKEN ingredients
- Cooked white (sticky) sushi rice, about 150g
- Frozen corn kernels
- A piece of seaweed
- A piece of red pepper

1. Place cooked rice on plastic wrap. In the center of the rice, add your choice of filling if you would like to.

2. In the plastic wrap, shape the rice into a round ball.

3. Create eyes by cutting a piece of seaweed with a seaweed puncher or scissors.

4. Unwrap the rice from the plastic wrap and place in a bento box. Add the eyes and pieces of corn to create a beak. Dip a chopstick in ketchup and color the cheeks.

5. Cut a piece of red pepper with a heart shape cookie cutter or knife.

6. Fill space within the bento box to allow for heart shape head crest to stay in place at the top of the rice ball.
Mayumi Johnston
Author of Japanese character bento blog, “Spice Up Your Life With a Taste of Japan” funbentobox.com. She has taught character bento classes at Whole Foods Market and Tokyo Central.
@funbentobox

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