Thank you for showing us. This recipe is for ichiban dashi ( first dashi ). Do you reuse the konbu and shaved katsuo-bushi and add more katsuobushi to make niban-dashi (second dashi ) too ?
I have both recipes in my Japanese cookbooks, but almost all recipes require first dashi, so I have never made it.

Thanks for the post, Kirin :)
Basically , if I don't want to eat at a restaurant and save a little money, I just go to the depachika and buy it there ?

An unagi corner ? a tempura corner ? A tonkatsu corner ? Wow that sushi is reasonably priced !
You can get like two plates at the Kaitenzushi for that :)

There will always be leftover food , but transporting or giving it away it is too costly.
The cost of the remainder is already paid for by the regular sales.
tough, but that's the way it is.

Interesting.
Cooking in a silicon holder is not new here, but the shape is unfamiliar. I use Chinese bamboo steaming baskets ( you know the round ones :)
The crepe maker is imho a waste of money and space ( and how do you get the last dough out of the mixing bowl ? Haha ! ). You can get the same with a small crepe pan ( it's teflon coated , like a normal pan, but smaller and very compact )

As for the Tajine being compatible with Japanese cooking, I almost fell off my chair reading that ! The way of cooking with a tajine slaoui ( the earthenware pot) originated from the Berber people of the Maghreb (consisting of Algeria, Tunesia and Morocco ) these days more commonly known as Northern Africa ) . It is used on a charcoal fire for the slow stewing of foods ( meats, chicken , vegetables ) which is excellent for blending the tastes of the meat and vegetable and the many spices used.
Gas stoves are too hot for an earthenware tajine ( it would break ).
Interestingly , the Berbers used tajines only for small groups of people, for larger gtoups they used large copper tinned pots, called k'dra.

Of course I only know this because I have a cookbook on traditional Moroccan cookbook and another solely dealing with tajine recipes. And I've been to Algeria a few times, but I've only eaten traditional food once or twice :) there. ( Business trips ^^ )

You can look up one very well known recipe here on my blog http://brandnewbearings.blogspot.com/2009/08/moro...

The pickles maker looks interesting because I just bought a book on japanese pickling ( ! ) but I still haven't found the necessary rice bran. Yet.

Did anyone ask the employees how they felt about this customer-friendly approach ? I only see suppositions here about their stress.
In Europe I regularly see news articles about worker satisfaction, of how satisfying or stressful people find their jobs.
I can't read Japanese (yet) but do you have articles like that ?

Hi Kirin, ひさしぶり　だね ^_^

That's so interesting . I didn't know that not every Japanese likes to eat natto.
Do the Japanese feel the same about natto as the comments : you really like it or you really don't like it , with no in between ?
It must be like Brussels sprouts : some people adore them and other start gagging by just looking at them.
I love natto , because of it's unique texture and I love Brussels sprouts too :)
You can see more of it in my article here :http://brandnewbearings.blogspot.com/2009/05/japa...

Walter

Hi Kirin, to be honest , I find it very hard to believe you can transfer fat cells from your arms to your chest by massaging them.
I will just have to get rid of the fat around my waist by dieting and training just like I did before.
I mean, even if it worked in which direction should I rub the fat ?
Down to my legs ? No , I don't want fat thighs..
To the back ? No, I don't want fat buttocks..
Upwards ? No, I really don't want a C cup, thank you very much !
Maybe I can massage it all the way down to the bottom of my feet ? That way I can add a few centimeters to my height ?

As for wanting to look good at older age, men are no different ! And if you train well , you can look good and be fit at older age.
That's true for women and men.
How ? Well you can find a lot of good advice on the site of Clarence Bass ( http://www.cbass.com/ )
Look at these pictures http://www.cbass.com/PICTORAL.HTM to see how he kept his form.
This picture http://www.cbass.com/IMAGES/Clarence-70.JPG is as he's now ( at 70! ) and still in top shape.And he does it by training hard once a week.