the Bento Journal is a simple tool for end-of-day reflection. By spending time reflecting on four choice moments from the day (a food, deed, conversation, and desire), the rush to bed is calmed, and memories and lessons are rescued from forgetfulness, so that “today” is preserved for “tomorrow.”

Scratch a word, write a story, or draw a picture. The box design and simple prompts of the Bento Journal make daily reflection easy and enjoyable. Don't let the days slip by; use your journal as a tool to remember and reflect.

“I came up with the design for the Bento journal, sitting at my desk one day, thinking through how I could journal simply at the end of each day with a little bit of structure. I was processing through how to create guidelines for end-of-the-day reflection, and the shape of a rectangle split into four different quadrants just popped up in my mind's eye.

The concept of marrying that visualization with the story of a bento box was so obvious to me. Living on Guam for some time and becoming familiar with bento boxes out here, it must have just been floating around in my mind. It was one of those super quick and super simple realizations, and I knew that I had something that was going to work. I got excited about it because I thought it was a really novel idea, but I didn't gain confidence in the idea being what I was looking for until I started designing it in my design program. Once I started seeing how I could maintain the simplicity of just a normal sheet of paper while adding enough structure to really provide some value besides just a lined piece of paper, that's when the idea really finished taking shape in my mind, and I was ready to really get to work.”

Jared Ball, creator of the Bento Journal

The design of the Bento Journal began and remains extremely intentional. It started with a geometric approach, using the page dimensions as the core unit to measure everything in the journal, including spacing between text sections, margins from the edge of the page, and the structure of the four quadrants and the box that contains them. From there, the approach evolved.

At first, the journal was duplicated into a “Light Edition” and a “Dark Edition,” giving readers a brighter or darker cover option with no changes beyond the exterior. Over time, the concept developed further to give each version more personality and a clearer identity. Each edition gained its own name and design language, with small but purposeful details that match its theme. That evolution led to the two editions available today: the Box Edition and the Sushi Edition. Each edition comes with 183 journaling pages. That means that both editions together make a full leap year’s worth of journaling pages, 366 in total. This allows the book to remain slim and comfortable to use, with a complete collection of both editions containing an entire year’s worth of journaling. You can learn more about the design behind both the Box Edition and the Sushi edition below.

The Box Edition is essentially the first edition of the Bento Journal, and it preserves several of the original design elements from the earliest version.

The cover colors were among the last details to change, since this edition became the darker counterpart to the original idea of offering both a dark and a light option for journalers to choose from. Its overall design draws inspiration from a traditional Japanese bento box, simplified into four clean quadrants that hold the journal’s four prompts and writing spaces.

The cover palette reflects common bento box colors, with deep reds and blacks, a wasabi-inspired green, and orange accent lettering on the spine and back drawn from tobiko, also known as flying fish roe. Inside the journal, you will notice chopsticks used as a recurring visual element on the contact page, the description page, and at the end of the journal, where they rest to signify that the work is done and the journal is complete. The interior containers also feature rounded corners, echoing the rounded edges found on many modern bento boxes.

The Sushi Edition took shape out of necessity. To present two journals side by side, there needed to be enough distinction between the editions to honor their shared concept while still offering two clearly different products. That requirement turned into a gift, because it allowed a whole new design language to emerge for this second edition.

The Sushi Edition fulfills the purpose of the original Light Edition, featuring a white cover background and soft, bright tones on top. Its orange is inspired by salmon sashimi, while the warmer salmon-pink tone draws from ginger often served alongside sushi. Soy sauce brown is used as the accent color on the spine and back, adding a bold, flavorful touch.

Inside the journal, the original chopsticks motif was replaced with rows of rice, which became one of the defining design elements of this edition. Each grain of rice was intentionally designed and placed to feel naturally random. The interior boxes use crisp ninety-degree corners, a detail that echoes the sharpness of the knife used in sushi preparation, even though that connection was a happy coincidence in the design process. On the final page, you will find a drop of soy sauce to mark the end of a great meal and the completion of the journal. Rather than being a simple illustration that looks like soy sauce, it is actually a vectorized photo of a real drop of soy sauce, spilled and photographed specifically for this edition.

The Bento Journal is printed, cut, and shipped through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. One of the biggest benefits of KDP is that it helps keep the cost as low as possible for customers.

The main drawback of using KDP is that quality control is ultimately in Amazon’s hands. Because Amazon produces and ships such a high volume of products, there is less time available for detailed inspection of each individual order. For now, this fulfillment method is the most practical way to deliver the journal efficiently and affordably. In the future, the goal is to provide additional options that offer even greater quality and overall satisfaction.

Every mother has been asked, “Why do I have to go to bed?” and Mother Bear is no different. Take a stroll through the garden before bed with Little Cub and Mother Bear as they search for the Goodnight Stone, a very special stone that will help all mothers teach their little cubs why we sleep at night.

Written as a simple poem, this bedtime story and its watercolor illustrations make the perfect book for beginning a calm, restful night of sleep.

Information about the story of The Goodnight Stone coming soon . . .

Information about the artwork of The Goodnight Stone coming soon . . .

Print quality and shipping information coming soon . . .