In Japan, the culture of making a packed lunch, or bento, is a way of expressing love from the giver to the receiver: the more beautifully the box is arranged, the more love it expresses. From kindergarten through primary school, it is very important for parents to get up early and make a bento for their child, because this is how they show their love and care. Arranging it attractively, with plenty of colour, therefore matters a great deal, as it draws children to eat. The favourite vegetables are carrots, sweet peppers and tomatoes, which have striking colours and high nutritional value. From secondary school through university, when food is bought in the cafeteria, some households stop making bento at home — and that opens the way for young women to show their homemaking skills by making a bento for the person they are seeing. A bento expresses love well, because making one means getting up early (in some homes it is made in the evening and left in the fridge, or made from the leftovers of dinner). Receiving a bento from a girlfriend is therefore something a young man can show off. Even in working life, bringing a bento to eat at the company is still considered rather stylish, because it expresses love from the giver to the receiver and shows homemaking skill too. A bento is thus something to show colleagues — and it can convey the giver's feelings as well.