Hot dogs shaped like octopi, apples cut into rabbit-shapes and rice balls wrapped in seaweed—welcome to the world of Japanese bento food!

A bento is the Japanese equivalent to an American lunch box. The bento box has different partitioned sections and is filled with delicious food for people to take to work or school. Parents often spend a great amount of time shaping the food into cute animals for their children.

This past Sunday, the Society for the Refinement of Polyvarietal Entertainment, hosted a Bento Picnic at the University’s Arboretum. The club spent Saturday purchasing and cooking the food to be enjoyed the next day.

SRPE was started several years ago by a group of friends who wanted to get together and share their common interest in anime.

 ”It’s not just about watching anime,” Michael Kolbas, a senior in computer science and SRPE chairperson, said. ”It’s about getting exposed to the culture and meeting people and giving back to the community.”  

Soon after its inception, the group decided to start volunteering at local anime conventions, such as Animazement which is held in Raleigh. This service later evolved into organizing and participating in other events, like the Bento Picnic.

Kolbas explained that in addition to the Bento Picnic and organizing trips to conventions, the club also has “misadventures,” where the members go shopping at various locations and then have a nice dinner together.

“They’re called ‘misadventures’ because we end up going somewhere we didn’t mean to go,” he said.

According to Kolbas, one of the great things about the club is the many different people who belong to it which allows them to plan a wide array of events to suit everyone’s interests.

“With a variety of people and interests, we can do different stuff,” Kolbas said.

The Bento Picnic is one of the most popular of the club’s events, and one that combines many of these various interests.

“A lot of typical bento food is labor intensive,” club member Samson Melamed, a doctoral student in electrical engineering, said. “It’s nice to get a lot of people together to share the burden, and get together to socialize and enjoy the nice weather.”

Kolbas explained that part of the fun of participating in the picnic is obtaining and preparing the food the night before.

“It’s a good chance to get people out to visit a bunch of different grocery stores,” Kolbas said,  ”like the Japanese convenience store.”

Because of the variety of food served, everyone can participate in cooking depending on what they can or want to learn to cook.

“Everyone gets to learn to cook different things,” Kolbas said.

Melamed agreed and explained that it was interesting getting to see who was more adept at cooking a certain type of food, such as Japanese food, Korean food, etc.

“It’s also nice to see everyone’s unique backgrounds,” Kolbas said.

Samantha Smith, a sophomore in biochemistry, helped to prepare the food on Saturday and attended the picnic on Sunday. She was excited about having the picnic in the Arboretum and getting to hang out with the club.

“It’s a different experience with lots of food, Smith said. “And you get to hang out in a place with lots of plants.”

One of the dishes served was a popular Japanese food called onigiri. It consists of a rice ball formed into a triangular shape, then wrapped in seaweed (called nori in Japanese). The inside can be filled with a number of different things, from salted salmon to pickled ume, which is a fruit common in Japan.

The club members all came to SRPE for different reasons, but very much enjoy the atmosphere that the club brings.

“I originally came to the club because of my interest in learning Japanese,” Melamed said. ”It gave me the opportunity to get exposed to the media coming out of Japan.”

“I like SRPE because, like most of the people here, I’m interested in Japanese animation and comics,” Smith added. “[But] it’s open to other forms of entertainment.”

According to Kolbas, the term “polyvarietal” refers to the club’s openness to other forms of media, not just Japanese anime and manga.

Kolbas hopes that more people will come to the club for a fun, relaxed environment and the chance to get out and do something with the club members’ combined interests.

“If anyone thinks it sounds interesting, they are welcome to join us,” Kolbas said.