New Years in Japan is a very important time of year, in fact it is the MOST important time of year! Forget Japanese Christmas, New Years is when everyone has time off work, companies release cool expensive food like these gold leaf potato chips, and families get together and eat New Years cooking, also known as Osechi ryori.

But what is Osechi ryori you may ask, don't worry we wrote a whole post explaining osechi ryori here! But essentially it's the expensive and special food Japanese people only eat at New Years which is said to bring prosperity in the coming year!

Every year there's always special collaborations for these osechi ryori, like this Hello Kitty one! And this year is no different with Barbie having teamed up with food company Itochi Shokuhin and Seibu and Sogo department stores to release this very special New Years osechi bento!

It comes with two layers packed with 32 different kinds of food in it! That's enough to feed 2-3 hungry tummies! What makes it even more special is that the first layer contains very traditional Japanese New Year foods, whilst the second more western style food with broccoli and cranberry pork! Usually osechi ryori only contains the Japanese style cooking so this is a cool new take on Japanese New Years cooking!

The box is hand painted by artisans in Ishikawa prefecture, and the hot pink colour and Barbie logo really make it pop compared to the usual osechi boxes! What's more is that it's made from plastic which makes it more durable compared to its wooden counterparts, which means you can use it again and again!

What makes this osechi ryori bento even more special is the fact it comes with a limited edition (less than 20,000 in existence) Barbie doll! You can get the bento at Tokyo Seibu and Sogo department stores or online at Itochi Shokuhin's store for 34,560 Japanese yen (Roughly US$310) and there's only 330 sets available!

We're sure many of you subscribed to our Japanese candy subscription box would love to try this, but sadly due to the perishable nature of the food inside it's only available in Japan.

What do you think of this perhaps strange collaboration? Cool or just plain silly? Let us know in the comments!

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