This is a small wooden box Christine carved as a Christmas present for my father, Benny. Inside, it contains the music box mechanism from one of the Pepsi-Cola musical cigarette lighters that Benny had. He used them as promotional material while setting up the Pepsi-Cola plant in Okinawa. The box plays the Pepsi jingle “Pepsi-Cola hits the spot“.

On the outside of the box, besides the traditional bamboo motif, you can see the Japanese characters for “Ben” and “Son” as found on Christine’s Hanko or ‘chop’ (name stamp/seal). I think she did a wonderful job of having the carving wrap around the edge of the lid and continue down 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 on carving much deeper and more three dimensionally than was called for in traditional Japanese carving.