This a small wooden box my mother carved as a Christmas present for my father. This insides contain the music box mechanism from one of the Pepsi-Cola musical cigarette lighters my father had as promotional material while setting up the the Pepsi-Cola plant in Okinawa. It plays the Pepsi jingle “Pepsi-Cola hits the spot“.

On the outside of the box, besides the traditional bamboo motif, you will see the Japanese characters for “Ben” and “Son” as found on her Hanko or chop. I think she did a wonderful job of having the carving wrap around the edge of the lid and go down the the side of the box onto the lower half. She said that her carving instructor was always a little annoyed at her as she insisted in carving much deeper and more three dimensionally than called for in traditional Japanese carving.