I bought these a long time ago and never did use them. Not sure if they get old or stale... What kind of noodles are these?

Hi Maki, I hope you are feeling better. I said in another comment, I love your website. I re-read my copy of Just Bento about once a week. I've tried out other books, but I still love yours. It's really got me started cooking again and I really love making bentos. I <3 you!

Dear Maki... I have really enjoyed your Just Bento website and become such the bento-holic! Your book is amazing, so 'arrigato gozaimas!' I'm a Purser on board American Airlines and we recently had a dish that I thought would make an excellent salad in a bento box. I'm still a novice, but eagerly learn from the masters such as yourself! The dish was some sort of a seaweed saled with dark, thin slices of seaweed (Wakame, Hijiki? I really don't know) It also had edamame, white sesame seeds and a mandarin orange slice on top. I took pictures so you can see what I'm describing.

Whilst staying with my parents recently I purchased a package of “sushi rice” from a major UK supermarket. The rice was their own brand and was grown in the USA. Without having anything to compare it to for a side by side comparison, this rice didn’t seem at all unusual when raw. However, once cooked it seemed rather different to the rice I’m used to using for Japanese food.

Hi there!

Hi Maki,

Hi! I grow fuki (Japanese Butterbur) and have been hunting for recipes that don't call for it canned. I have found a few sites that explain how to prepare it for cooking - salting, boiling, peeling the stalks, etc. - but very few recipes, and no fresh tsukemono/pickle recipes for the stalks, the leaves, or the flower buds/stalks. Do you have, or know where I can find, any?