Just Bento

Can't help with the rice, I'm afraid - here in New Zealand it comes in packets helpfully labelled "Sushi Rice". Welcome to Just Bento though, and I'm sure someone else will be able to help. And with the large Japanese population in Hawaii I think you'd just have to go into a shop and ask for it when you get there!

Luckily, a lot of the recipes on this site are so wonderful that you could probably substitute your favorite rice (or the closest approximation of the proper variety you can find), and the result will still be delicious. I would recommend that you try what you can, using what you have, and save certain recipes (things like sushi, for example) for when you have the right stuff. Good luck!

Hi HaleiwaGirl! You’re moving to a truly beautiful area - I’m quite envious!

You might find this article useful: Looking at rice. For most Japanese recipes you’ll be using the kind of rice that looks like the second one pictured. Calrose (which is a Japanese type of rice that is grown in California) fits into that category. If your son has gotten into brown rice, then you will need the kind that is pictured 3rd, which is medium-grain brown rice.

Now there are many many different brands of that kind of rice, both Japanese and non-Japanese, but the important thing is that you get that sort of medium-grain rice. Prices for rice can range from the fairly inexpensive to very expensive; the ones that are actually grown in Japan (and imported to US grocery stores) tend to be the most expensive.

A few of the recipes on Just Bento / Just Hungry call for sweet or mochi or short-grain rice, but in that case I always specify it.

Aloha and welcome aboard. It's a nice bunch of people here, to be sure.

Really a place to be...have a nice time HaleiwaGirl!
And it's quite surprising to know that rice is not so common in countries like New Zealand.
Whereas Rice is a major part of every diet here in India.
A variety of delicacies made up of rice can be relished here.