Photo c. Satoru Ishikawa

Editor's Note: Additional recipes and an introduction to the history and cultural significance of the o-bento, or Japanese lunchbox, can be found in Merry White's essay O-Bento.  See also Conrad Totman's Rice: A Major Force in Japan's History--The Basic Mechanics-- for more background information.

Click here for a PDF of easy Japanese recipes for children, including instructions for temaki zushi, onigiri, maki zushi, temari zushi and Japanese-style salad dressing.  The ingredients for onigiri and temari zushi are readily available.  Seaweed and sushi rollers (for temaki zushi and rolled sushi) can be found in many supermarkets and Asian grocery stores.  All the recipes are child-friendly and can be used to introduce a number of topics, including Japanese culture, nutrition, mathematics (measuring the ingredients, demonstrating fractions with the final products), and science.