This is a cute card I made..... I was going to put it on theOtaku, but it was the wrong size. I'll put it up later. :) Maybe.
Friday, November 14, 2008
The Sky's the Limit!
This is a cute card I made..... I was going to put it on theOtaku, but it was the wrong size. I'll put it up later. :) Maybe.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Fun Quizzes!!!
So, which Furuba charcter are you most like? Find out with one of these fun quizzes!
Which Girl From Furuba Are You?
Hee hee! Her's the "Tohru" result!by ink.black.sky
Which Fruits Basket Character Are You?
by ~NekoMimi16
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
By Maki
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Quick tip: Easy cute bento components with stickers
14 Oct 2008 by maki
As I’ve stated here many times, I love looking at charaben/kyaraben (cute bento) masterpieces, but I can’t see myself devoting that much time and effort. I’m also a bit nervous about handling food that goes into a bento box too much - and the less experienced one is, the more fiddling around is needed.
I ran across this method of adding color and cuteness to bentos while perusing Amazon Japan (as I do regularly). It’s so easy and obvious that i was a slap-my-head “why didn’t I think of that!” kind of moment. The book in question is called ラップdeおむすびおべんとう (rappu de omusubi obento: Obento omusubi (onigiri) with plastic wrap), and it basically introduces the concept of making onigiri wrapped in plastic wrap (Saran wrap), and using stickers to decorate them on the outside. I haven’t actually bought the book yet, but the idea itself is such an obvious and easy way to decorate any bento or lunch box component.
I often read on Japanese charaben/kyaraben blogs that the main reason why they take so much time to create cute bento is to encourage their kids to eat. Well, what can be more fun than opening up your lunch and finding a brownie with googly eyes on it, or a smily-face sandwich? And even a steamed carrot may be more appetizing with a smiley face on it.
In the photo above, I’ve put sticker faces on a small sandwich, a brown rice onigiri, a carrot and a brownie. It took me about 5 minutes to do all four. Anything that you might wrap in plastic wrap can be decorated with stickers. The easiest way to make your own stickers is to use printer-label sheets, draw or print on your designs, and cut them out (a paper punch is handy for circles). Or maybe your kids can make their own, for you to stick on their lunches. You don’t even have to do faces - if your kids are anything like my niece and nephew, stickers probably breed around them, reproducing themselves like bunnies. Take a few of your kid’s favorites and stick them on!
Some tips and caveats:
The plastic wrap on the surface you want to decorate should be as smooth as possible. Press them on securely so that they won’t come off and possibly get lost in any surrounding food.
Make sure that the stickers are on the outside of the plastic, and on the top surface, not touching any food directly.
Take extra care that your bento is totally cooled down before packing it with stickerized components, otherwise the ink may run and other unpleasant things.
Have fun!
(Note: The lighting in the photo makes it look as though the beasties are looking towards an eerie light from a UFO or something that is drawing them in. I was going to try to fix it but I left it as is…)
Quick tip: Easy cute bento components with stickers
14 Oct 2008 by maki
As I’ve stated here many times, I love looking at charaben/kyaraben (cute bento) masterpieces, but I can’t see myself devoting that much time and effort. I’m also a bit nervous about handling food that goes into a bento box too much - and the less experienced one is, the more fiddling around is needed.
I ran across this method of adding color and cuteness to bentos while perusing Amazon Japan (as I do regularly). It’s so easy and obvious that i was a slap-my-head “why didn’t I think of that!” kind of moment. The book in question is called ラップdeおむすびおべんとう (rappu de omusubi obento: Obento omusubi (onigiri) with plastic wrap), and it basically introduces the concept of making onigiri wrapped in plastic wrap (Saran wrap), and using stickers to decorate them on the outside. I haven’t actually bought the book yet, but the idea itself is such an obvious and easy way to decorate any bento or lunch box component.
I often read on Japanese charaben/kyaraben blogs that the main reason why they take so much time to create cute bento is to encourage their kids to eat. Well, what can be more fun than opening up your lunch and finding a brownie with googly eyes on it, or a smily-face sandwich? And even a steamed carrot may be more appetizing with a smiley face on it.
In the photo above, I’ve put sticker faces on a small sandwich, a brown rice onigiri, a carrot and a brownie. It took me about 5 minutes to do all four. Anything that you might wrap in plastic wrap can be decorated with stickers. The easiest way to make your own stickers is to use printer-label sheets, draw or print on your designs, and cut them out (a paper punch is handy for circles). Or maybe your kids can make their own, for you to stick on their lunches. You don’t even have to do faces - if your kids are anything like my niece and nephew, stickers probably breed around them, reproducing themselves like bunnies. Take a few of your kid’s favorites and stick them on!
Some tips and caveats:
The plastic wrap on the surface you want to decorate should be as smooth as possible. Press them on securely so that they won’t come off and possibly get lost in any surrounding food.
Make sure that the stickers are on the outside of the plastic, and on the top surface, not touching any food directly.
Take extra care that your bento is totally cooled down before packing it with stickerized components, otherwise the ink may run and other unpleasant things.
Have fun!
(Note: The lighting in the photo makes it look as though the beasties are looking towards an eerie light from a UFO or something that is drawing them in. I was going to try to fix it but I left it as is…)
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Better Tomorows.....
... are something to always hope for! Join me on this fantastic fanlisting! I am "Momo" on the 11th page of U.S. fans!
Start finding your better tomorow at Better Tomorows! . I'm sure you'll have fun!!
Start finding your better tomorow at Better Tomorows! . I'm sure you'll have fun!!
Monday, September 22, 2008
About Tohru
Tohru Honda
Fruits Basket character
Created by
Natsuki Takaya
Voiced by
Yui Horie (Japanese)Laura Bailey (English)
Profile
Nicknames
Miss Tohru, Miss Honda, Sissy (by Kisa)
Age
16–18
Gender
Female
Occupation
High school student
[edit] Development
According to Natsuki Takaya in interviews, Tohru Honda was the first character she created for the series,[6] with Yuki and Kyo Sohma soon after.[7] When asked how she came up with Tohru's personality and background, she said:
I thought that for a girl to accept other people's feelings so wholeheartedly, she'd have to have a slightly unusual way of looking at things so that she wouldn't be crushed by having so much empathy. But I still worried that I needed something else to flesh her out. And then the thought, "Oh, yeah--I'll make her use super-polite language, and use it incorrectly!" came to me all at once. After that, her character was completed in no time.
—Natsuki Takaya[3]
Takaya gave Tohru a name normally used only for men because she likes to give masculine names to female characters "to balance them out."[8] In addition, Takaya chose to have other characters address her as "Tohru-kun", using an honorific typically used for boys, because she thought it was "a more dignified form of address."[3]
Laura Bailey, the English voice actor for Tohru, said in an interview that the aspect of Tohru's character she most related to was her optimism, while the most difficult was her formality. According to her, Akitaro Daichi, the director of the Japanese anime series, was particularly concerned that Tohru's "sweetness and formal nature didn't get lost in translation"; Bailey acknowledged that English does not have the same kind of speech formality as Japanese, but claimed Tohru's "humble nature can still be communicated through inflections and tone." Bailey reported using the original Japanese performance of Yui Horie as a basis for Tohru's mannerisms and inflections.[9]
It is said that Tohru's father Katsuya Honda named her Tohru because "it brought out her hidden flavor, like adding salt to sweet things."
[edit] Character outline
[edit] Personality
Tohru is depicted as polite, optimistic, extremely kind, and selfless.[1][10] Several other characters, including her friends Kyo,[11] Rin,[12] and Hanajima,[13] tell her she needs to look out for her own interests and not shoulder everyone else's burdens. At the start of the series, she is living in a tent rather than staying with her friends, Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima, to avoid being a burden to them,[4] and she has an after-school job as an office janitor to pay her tuition fees so that her grandfather does not have to.[4] Yuki once describes her as not the sort who sees her life as a "glass half-empty."[14] Tohru is so kind-hearted that she cannot make herself say mean things while playing a wicked stepsister in a class production of Cinderella,[15][16] and when her mother told her the bedtime story of how the cat was excluded from the Chinese zodiac, in sympathy she declared she wished to be born in the year of the cat.[4]
Tohru describes herself as an excellent housekeeper who loves to cook.[4] In the original Japanese, Tohru habitually speaks formally (see Honorific speech in Japanese), but not always correctly.[3] She picked up this habit from her dead father, Katsuya, after he died when she was three, as a way of replacing him in her mother's eyes.[17] Tohru tends to be especially concerned for people with minor illness. This comes from the circumstances her father's death, when Katsuya was originally diagnosed with a fever but eventually died of pneumonia.[18]
She was raised by her mother, Kyoko, until Kyoko died in a car accident shortly after Tohru entered high school, a few months before the series start. Tohru treasures her mother's photograph and vowed at her death to keep Kyoko the most important person in her life.[19] Tohru is distressed whenever she feels she is being "unfaithful" to her mother, for example, when she gets failing marks on end-of-term exams, thus endangering her promise to graduate high school,[20] or when she falls in love with Kyo.[21][22] Tohru eventually realizes that her vow is an attempt to cling to the past, and that Kyoko would have wanted her to move on and fall in love with someone else.[23]
[edit] History
A few months before the series begins, Tohru's mother died in a car accident, leaving her an orphan in the care of her grandfather. When his house needs remodeling, she moves into a tent on land that turns out to belong to the house of Shigure Sohma. When her tent is buried in a landslide during a rainstorm, Shigure convinces her to move in with him and Yuki as housekeeper in exchange for room and board. As she settles in, Kyo Sohma arrives to challenge Yuki. In the confusion, Tohru accidentally embraces him and he transforms into a cat, and when she stumbles into Yuki and Shigure, they transform as well into a rat and dog, respectively. The Sohmas explain that their family is cursed, and they are possessed by spirits of the Chinese zodiac plus the cat legend says would have been if it had not been tricked by the rat into missing the induction feast (see Zodiac origin stories). Tohru promises to keep their secret, under the threat of having her memories erased—a compromise agreed to by Akito Sohma, the mysterious head of the family, who orders Kyo live with Shigure as well.[4]
Tohru is soon friends with the three Sohmas—especially her classmates Yuki and Kyo, who she hopes will become friends themselves[24]—and they in turn are slowly affected by her presence.[25][26] Yuki is especially touched by Tohru's request that, if her memory is suppressed, he remain her friend,[27] which no one had asked him before.[28] Kyo initially appears to dislike Tohru, but he, like Yuki, is "drawn" to her kind heart and gentle demeanor. However, his inability to express his feelings results in frequent impulsive angry comments to Tohru, for which he usually ends up apologizing. Gradually Tohru meets the other cursed members of the Sohma family, and through her kindness and sympathy is able to help Hatori,[29] Ayame,[30] Kisa,[31] Hiro,[32] and Ritsu.[33] Her encouragement to Kisa also helps Yuki face his own self-doubts and accept becoming president of the student council;[31] in addition he knows, by a cap Tohru treasures,[14] that she is the lost little girl he once led home, an act that showed him that he was not as unneeded by others as Akito claimed.[34] Tohru becomes particularly close to Kyo after his foster-father Kazuma Sohma forces him to reveal the monstrous "true form" of his curse;[35] although initially repulsed, Tohru stays with him even after he violently tries to push her away.[36] Both Yuki[37] and Kyo[38] fall in love with her, though neither tells her.
As she learns more about the zodiac curse, Tohru becomes increasingly distressed by its cost to her friends—especially Momiji Sohma's separation from his little sister, Momo, who does not even know they are related,[39][40] and her friend Arisa's longing for Kureno Sohma, who cannot see her because he is bound to Akito.[41] When she learns that the feared Akito is the "god" of the zodiac and of the bet he made with Kyo, which could result in the cat being confined for life, she resolves to break the curse.[5] Tohru asks for help from Kazuma,[42] Rin,[12] and Kureno.[41] Despite setbacks and being warned off by Rin—who also seeks to break the curse, in order to free Hatsuharu—Tohru refuses to give up her goal.[43] She eventually receives encouragement and hints from Shigure,[21] who is using Tohru to weaken the curse for his own reasons.[44][45]
Meanwhile, Tohru's feelings for Kyo develop and she eventually admits he is the Sohma she wants the most to free, because she loves him.[46] This, however, only distresses her further, as she feels she is being unfaithful to her mother's memory.[22] However, when Tohru finally confesses to Kyo, he tells her he knew her mother when he was a child, and that he could have saved Kyoko from the car that killed her except it would have revealed his curse. Unable in his guilt to accept Tohru's feelings, he says her love is an illusion and runs away.[47] As she follows him, she meets Akito, who believes that Tohru's kindness to and acceptance of the cursed zodiac members has made them unfaithful to him, weakening their "bond" to the point that Momiji[48] and Hiro[49] have been freed from the curse. As he angrily confronts her, however, Tohru realizes that he is trapped by the past as much as she herself has been, by clinging to her mother's memory, and she extends her hand in friendship to Akito and introduces herself as a new start. However, before Akito can accept, Tohru falls down a nearby cliff when the ground collapses in the rain.[23] The accident makes Kyo realize how much he values Tohru,[50] and also allows Akito to finally break away from the roles he has held for most of his life.[51]
Tohru survives the fall and is hospitalized. As she recovers, Akito accepts Tohru's friendship,[52] and comes to accept both the person he is, instead of the god he has believed his father wished him to be,[51] and the woman she was born as, instead of the man she was raised to be.[53] Meanwhile Yuki, who has realized that what he wants from Tohru is an unconditional "motherly" love, not the love of a woman,[28] convinces Kyo to reconcile with Tohru, and when she is discharged from the hospital, Kyo confesses his feelings for her.[51] This acceptance of the cat, the first friend of the god of the zodiac,[54] breaks zodiac curse and all the Sohmas are freed.[51] In the last chapter, she and Kyo are shown packing to move to another city to continue his martial arts training, so that eventually he can inherit Kazuma's dojo, and in the final pages they are shown as a loving elderly couple with a granddaughter.[55]
[edit] Reception
Tohru has been cited by reviewers as key to the appeal of the series, especially the manga version.[56][57] Her cheerfulness and sympathy for other characters is frequently commented on:[1][58] "Tohru is the essence of cheerfulness and faces hardships with a positive attitude while being extremely compassionate to everyone around her."[2] However while "Tohru is notorious in the series for being happy and cheerful even in times of great taxation",[59] as a reviewer at Anime News Network put it, her characterization is seen as more complex than that even at the start of the series,[60][61] and more so as series progresses.[62] Her unusual personality is seen by reviewers as a product of her upbringing:[63]
[Her parents'] approach to family life and parenting is informed by their own failings as members of destroyed families, and the result is exactly the kind of family that would produce someone like Tohru.[64]
—Carl Kimlinger, Anime News Network
She is also seen as resembling her mother as she grows up.[65]
According to Natsuki Takaya in interviews, Tohru Honda was the first character she created for the series,[6] with Yuki and Kyo Sohma soon after.[7] When asked how she came up with Tohru's personality and background, she said:
I thought that for a girl to accept other people's feelings so wholeheartedly, she'd have to have a slightly unusual way of looking at things so that she wouldn't be crushed by having so much empathy. But I still worried that I needed something else to flesh her out. And then the thought, "Oh, yeah--I'll make her use super-polite language, and use it incorrectly!" came to me all at once. After that, her character was completed in no time.
—Natsuki Takaya[3]
Takaya gave Tohru a name normally used only for men because she likes to give masculine names to female characters "to balance them out."[8] In addition, Takaya chose to have other characters address her as "Tohru-kun", using an honorific typically used for boys, because she thought it was "a more dignified form of address."[3]
Laura Bailey, the English voice actor for Tohru, said in an interview that the aspect of Tohru's character she most related to was her optimism, while the most difficult was her formality. According to her, Akitaro Daichi, the director of the Japanese anime series, was particularly concerned that Tohru's "sweetness and formal nature didn't get lost in translation"; Bailey acknowledged that English does not have the same kind of speech formality as Japanese, but claimed Tohru's "humble nature can still be communicated through inflections and tone." Bailey reported using the original Japanese performance of Yui Horie as a basis for Tohru's mannerisms and inflections.[9]
It is said that Tohru's father Katsuya Honda named her Tohru because "it brought out her hidden flavor, like adding salt to sweet things."
[edit] Character outline
[edit] Personality
Tohru is depicted as polite, optimistic, extremely kind, and selfless.[1][10] Several other characters, including her friends Kyo,[11] Rin,[12] and Hanajima,[13] tell her she needs to look out for her own interests and not shoulder everyone else's burdens. At the start of the series, she is living in a tent rather than staying with her friends, Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima, to avoid being a burden to them,[4] and she has an after-school job as an office janitor to pay her tuition fees so that her grandfather does not have to.[4] Yuki once describes her as not the sort who sees her life as a "glass half-empty."[14] Tohru is so kind-hearted that she cannot make herself say mean things while playing a wicked stepsister in a class production of Cinderella,[15][16] and when her mother told her the bedtime story of how the cat was excluded from the Chinese zodiac, in sympathy she declared she wished to be born in the year of the cat.[4]
Tohru describes herself as an excellent housekeeper who loves to cook.[4] In the original Japanese, Tohru habitually speaks formally (see Honorific speech in Japanese), but not always correctly.[3] She picked up this habit from her dead father, Katsuya, after he died when she was three, as a way of replacing him in her mother's eyes.[17] Tohru tends to be especially concerned for people with minor illness. This comes from the circumstances her father's death, when Katsuya was originally diagnosed with a fever but eventually died of pneumonia.[18]
She was raised by her mother, Kyoko, until Kyoko died in a car accident shortly after Tohru entered high school, a few months before the series start. Tohru treasures her mother's photograph and vowed at her death to keep Kyoko the most important person in her life.[19] Tohru is distressed whenever she feels she is being "unfaithful" to her mother, for example, when she gets failing marks on end-of-term exams, thus endangering her promise to graduate high school,[20] or when she falls in love with Kyo.[21][22] Tohru eventually realizes that her vow is an attempt to cling to the past, and that Kyoko would have wanted her to move on and fall in love with someone else.[23]
[edit] History
A few months before the series begins, Tohru's mother died in a car accident, leaving her an orphan in the care of her grandfather. When his house needs remodeling, she moves into a tent on land that turns out to belong to the house of Shigure Sohma. When her tent is buried in a landslide during a rainstorm, Shigure convinces her to move in with him and Yuki as housekeeper in exchange for room and board. As she settles in, Kyo Sohma arrives to challenge Yuki. In the confusion, Tohru accidentally embraces him and he transforms into a cat, and when she stumbles into Yuki and Shigure, they transform as well into a rat and dog, respectively. The Sohmas explain that their family is cursed, and they are possessed by spirits of the Chinese zodiac plus the cat legend says would have been if it had not been tricked by the rat into missing the induction feast (see Zodiac origin stories). Tohru promises to keep their secret, under the threat of having her memories erased—a compromise agreed to by Akito Sohma, the mysterious head of the family, who orders Kyo live with Shigure as well.[4]
Tohru is soon friends with the three Sohmas—especially her classmates Yuki and Kyo, who she hopes will become friends themselves[24]—and they in turn are slowly affected by her presence.[25][26] Yuki is especially touched by Tohru's request that, if her memory is suppressed, he remain her friend,[27] which no one had asked him before.[28] Kyo initially appears to dislike Tohru, but he, like Yuki, is "drawn" to her kind heart and gentle demeanor. However, his inability to express his feelings results in frequent impulsive angry comments to Tohru, for which he usually ends up apologizing. Gradually Tohru meets the other cursed members of the Sohma family, and through her kindness and sympathy is able to help Hatori,[29] Ayame,[30] Kisa,[31] Hiro,[32] and Ritsu.[33] Her encouragement to Kisa also helps Yuki face his own self-doubts and accept becoming president of the student council;[31] in addition he knows, by a cap Tohru treasures,[14] that she is the lost little girl he once led home, an act that showed him that he was not as unneeded by others as Akito claimed.[34] Tohru becomes particularly close to Kyo after his foster-father Kazuma Sohma forces him to reveal the monstrous "true form" of his curse;[35] although initially repulsed, Tohru stays with him even after he violently tries to push her away.[36] Both Yuki[37] and Kyo[38] fall in love with her, though neither tells her.
As she learns more about the zodiac curse, Tohru becomes increasingly distressed by its cost to her friends—especially Momiji Sohma's separation from his little sister, Momo, who does not even know they are related,[39][40] and her friend Arisa's longing for Kureno Sohma, who cannot see her because he is bound to Akito.[41] When she learns that the feared Akito is the "god" of the zodiac and of the bet he made with Kyo, which could result in the cat being confined for life, she resolves to break the curse.[5] Tohru asks for help from Kazuma,[42] Rin,[12] and Kureno.[41] Despite setbacks and being warned off by Rin—who also seeks to break the curse, in order to free Hatsuharu—Tohru refuses to give up her goal.[43] She eventually receives encouragement and hints from Shigure,[21] who is using Tohru to weaken the curse for his own reasons.[44][45]
Meanwhile, Tohru's feelings for Kyo develop and she eventually admits he is the Sohma she wants the most to free, because she loves him.[46] This, however, only distresses her further, as she feels she is being unfaithful to her mother's memory.[22] However, when Tohru finally confesses to Kyo, he tells her he knew her mother when he was a child, and that he could have saved Kyoko from the car that killed her except it would have revealed his curse. Unable in his guilt to accept Tohru's feelings, he says her love is an illusion and runs away.[47] As she follows him, she meets Akito, who believes that Tohru's kindness to and acceptance of the cursed zodiac members has made them unfaithful to him, weakening their "bond" to the point that Momiji[48] and Hiro[49] have been freed from the curse. As he angrily confronts her, however, Tohru realizes that he is trapped by the past as much as she herself has been, by clinging to her mother's memory, and she extends her hand in friendship to Akito and introduces herself as a new start. However, before Akito can accept, Tohru falls down a nearby cliff when the ground collapses in the rain.[23] The accident makes Kyo realize how much he values Tohru,[50] and also allows Akito to finally break away from the roles he has held for most of his life.[51]
Tohru survives the fall and is hospitalized. As she recovers, Akito accepts Tohru's friendship,[52] and comes to accept both the person he is, instead of the god he has believed his father wished him to be,[51] and the woman she was born as, instead of the man she was raised to be.[53] Meanwhile Yuki, who has realized that what he wants from Tohru is an unconditional "motherly" love, not the love of a woman,[28] convinces Kyo to reconcile with Tohru, and when she is discharged from the hospital, Kyo confesses his feelings for her.[51] This acceptance of the cat, the first friend of the god of the zodiac,[54] breaks zodiac curse and all the Sohmas are freed.[51] In the last chapter, she and Kyo are shown packing to move to another city to continue his martial arts training, so that eventually he can inherit Kazuma's dojo, and in the final pages they are shown as a loving elderly couple with a granddaughter.[55]
[edit] Reception
Tohru has been cited by reviewers as key to the appeal of the series, especially the manga version.[56][57] Her cheerfulness and sympathy for other characters is frequently commented on:[1][58] "Tohru is the essence of cheerfulness and faces hardships with a positive attitude while being extremely compassionate to everyone around her."[2] However while "Tohru is notorious in the series for being happy and cheerful even in times of great taxation",[59] as a reviewer at Anime News Network put it, her characterization is seen as more complex than that even at the start of the series,[60][61] and more so as series progresses.[62] Her unusual personality is seen by reviewers as a product of her upbringing:[63]
[Her parents'] approach to family life and parenting is informed by their own failings as members of destroyed families, and the result is exactly the kind of family that would produce someone like Tohru.[64]
—Carl Kimlinger, Anime News Network
She is also seen as resembling her mother as she grows up.[65]
Tohru Honda
Gender
Female
Female
Age
16-18 years old
16-18 years old
Hair
Light Brown
Eyes
Blue (In Anime)
Light Brown
Eyes
Blue (In Anime)
Brown (In Manga)
Height
5'2"
156.7 cm
Height
5'2"
156.7 cm
Weight
101.4 lbs
46 kg
Status
Housekeeper Of the Sohma House
Quote
"Thank you for everything you've done for me."
Voice
Laura Bailey
Yui Horie
Types of Onigiri!
From http://www.justbento.com/ -- a really good recipie site!
Onigiri On Parade: A guide to onigiri (omusubi) rice ball shapes, types and fun
5 Nov 2007 by maki
[Update:] Also check out the Onigiri (omusubi) FAQ!
Onigiri (or omusubi, the other name for the same thing), the cute little rice ball, has really become popular outside of Japan in the last few years, in large part it seems due to its iconic status in anime and manga. While the onigiri is not limited in Japanese food culture to just bento use, it’s an indispensable part of the bento maker’s repertoire.
Previously on Just Hungry, I’ve explained how to make onigiri twice: the traditional, hot salty palms way, and an easier method using plastic wrap and a cup. And you can always use a plastic onigiri mold if neither method appeals. However, I have never really gone into depth about the different shapes and kinds of onigiri. So, here it is - a parade of different kinds of onigiri: shapes, coverings, fillings, and more.
But first to dispell some onigiri myths…
Onigiri do not have to be triangular in shape.
Onigiri do not have to be covered with nori seaweed.
Onigiri do not have to have a filling.
If the rice is sushi rice (flavored with sushi vinegar), it is no longer onigiri, it’s sushi.
The one rule of onigiri is…
Onigiri must be made with sticky, short- or medium-grain rice, ideally steam-cooked japonica type rice. If you can’t get a hold of Japanese rice (also commonly sold as ‘susi rice’), Italian medium-grain rices uses for risotto like vialone (which is the most like Japanese urichi-mai), arborio and so on can be used. Long grain type rice just will not stick together sufficiently. See the Looking at Rice article for an in-depth explanation of different types of rice, and what can and cannot be used successfully for onigiri.
(Note that I’ve used white rice for illustration purposes for this article, but properly cooked brown rice can be used in most cases too.)
The keys to great tasting onigiri are
Good rice, properly washed and cooked. There is a big difference between mediocre rice and good rice
Sufficient salt to flavor the onigiri - either on the outside if making the usual type of onigiri, or with a salty filling inside, or salty enough sprinkles.
Traditional onigiri shapes
As stated above, an onigiri does not have to be triangular. As long as it holds together, it can be any shape possible.
Above are the the traditional hand-formed onigiri shapes: triangle, flattened round, and cylinder or tawara. Tawara is the shape of the traditional straw bale that was for storing and transporting rice.
Type 1: The plain, unadorned, unfilled onigiri
This is a plain ball of rice, lightly salted on the outside. There is no filling, nor any cover. If one has excellent quality rice, such as top class shinmai (new rice from the current harvest) and wants to savor the pure flavor of the rice, this is the one to have.
A plain onigiri like this is the essence of Japanese food to me: rice, and salt. Rice was so important that the wealth of lords used to be measured in how much rice their lands produced, and salt is used extensively in Shinto rituals even now, to purify and sanctify. The onigiri as religious icon? Why not?
Type 2: The filled, nori covered onigiri
This is the most popular kind of onigiri, with a small amount of salty filling in the inside covered with plain rice, which is covered partly or fully with nori. Depending on if you like your nori crispy or a bit soft and moist, you either carry the nori separately and wrap it around the rice when eating, or put it on the rice when making (and when the rice is still warm). Since it’s like thin paper, it can be cut easily with scissors, and is used quite a lot for decorative ‘cute’ bento.
Type 3: The sprinkled onigiri
This is a filled or unfilled onigiri that is sprinkled on the outside with something. Sesame seeds, gomashio (sesame seeds mixed with salt), or furikake (mixed savory sprinkles - there are many various flavors) are commonly used. The one on the left is sprinkled with gomashio, and the one on the right with two colors of yukari (dried shiso leaf powder).
Type 4: The mixed-rice onigiri
For this type of onigiri, the rice is first mixed with something, then formed into a ball. The example above on the left is mixed with green peas, and the one on the right is mixed with homemade furikake made from radish leaves and bonito flakes (recipe ). Since the rice is flavored, this type usually doesn’t have a filling, and is often not covered to show the rice off (or just has a minimal nori strip). Anything can be mixed into the rice like this as long as it’s not too moist or oily, which will make the rice grains fall apart.
Type 5: The visible-inside onigiri
This type of onigiri shows off the inside and is only wrapped around the sides, rather than all around the ball. This one is rather more difficult to make than other types.
Type 6: Onigiri with alternate wrappings
Nori is the most common onigiri wrapping, but there are other wrappings. Here is one wrapped in salted green shiso leaves.
Other wrappings include nozawana zuke (pickled green leaves) and hakusai zuke (pickled nappa cabbage), thin dried kombu seaweed called tororo, and so on. I’ve even seen salted lettuce leaves and kimchee used as wrappers. Onigiri wrapped with alternate wrappers can be filled or unfilled, depending on how salty the wrapping is.
Type 7: Yaki Onigiri - grilled onigiri
Onigiri that is grilled on a wire grill until crispy, then brushed with soy sauce or miso. Yaki onigiri are best served hot, though they can be chewy yet tasty bento additions. Yaki onigiri usually do not have fillings, though some people like to put a little umeboshi or okaka inside (see the Filling section below).
What goes inside the onigiri
In response to my previous onigiri posts on Just Hungry, the question asked the most is about fillings. I have already written about this before, but it bears repeating here. Basically, anything that fits with rice and is not too greasy or watery can be used as filling. So, if the traditional fillings don’t appeal to you, try things that you like and see how they taste!
If you are a traditionalist as I tend to be, here are the most popular fillings.
From the top, clockwise:
Shiozake or shiojake, salted salmon which is grilled and flaked. It’s easy to make your own.
Umeboshi (salty pickled plum). A little of this goes a long way. It also has some antibacterial qualities, so it’s the ideal filling for onigiri that might be travelling at room temperature for some time. The photo shows regular soft umeboshi Not shown here is the crunchy and smooth skinned kariume.
Tarako, salty cod roe that is cooked and cut into small chunks. (While tarako is closely related to mentaiko, spicy cod roe, you don’t see mentaiko used as an onigiri filling that often for some reason, but it’s equally good as an onigiri filling.)
Okaka is bonito flakes or katsuobushi (the kind used for making dashi stock) mixed until moistened with soy sauce. (Confusingly it’s also just called katsuobushi or katsubushi.) You must take care not to mix in too much soy sauce, or it will seep through the rice and cause the onigiri to crumble.
Umekaka, bonito flakes mixed with umeboshi.
Kombu no tsukudani or shio kombu - kombu seaweed that’s been cooked in a soy sauce based sauce until tender and salty. Other types of tsukudani can be used too. How to make your own kombu no tsukudani.
Rather less traditional but widely popular:
Tempura - shrimp tempura (shrimp fried in a light batter) used either as a filling or on the outside. This type of onigiri is called tenmusu. It’s a regional speciality of the city of Nagoya.
Canned flaked tuna mixed with mayonnaise - the tuna is almost always oil-packed. This filling doesn’t keep that well - eat within a few hours.
A piece of chicken karaage (fried chicken).
Various kinds of chopped up pickles
Fun with onigiri
If you use molds you can make other shapes too, such as these above. Why not a bunny or cat onigiri? Personally I don’t use molds much since I can make them by hand a lot faster, but they can be fun if you have the time, or are making them for a party or something like that. (I actually used egg molds to make the ones in the photo.) Faces can be made with cut nori or anything you can imagine. It should all be edible though!
You can also play around with the size of the onigiri. Here’s a ‘jumbo onigiri’ side by side with a regular sized onigiri. The Jumbo has three kinds of fillings inside,has about 2 1/2 cups of rice, and comes in at around 600 calories. It’s a two-fisted onigiri!
Eater beware, or the calories in onigiri
A small to average sized onigiri has around 1/3 to 1/2 cup of rice, which is 80-110 calories. Depending on how big you make them they could be even more. If you are doing portion control, it’s best to pre-measure the amount of rice as in this method.
Freezing and keeping onigiri
Onigiri can be frozen, well wrapped and filled (except for tempura and chicken karaage type fried fillings, which can get soggy or tough if you microwave them later). I would not make onigiri with frozen rice however - it’s best to form the onigiri an then freeze it. You can then de-frost them, still wrapped, at room temperature, in the fridge or gently defrosted in the microwave. See also: Keeping onigiri fresh and more.
Combined with the previous onigiri articles linked to here, I hope that this answers most, if not all, of the onigiri questions you may have. (Except for the famous Hawaiian Spam Musubi. I still haven’t tried it. Anyone want to invite me to Hawaii? ^_^)
[Edit:] This post is Bento Of the Week on Yum Sugar. Thanks to Team Sugar!
Before asking a general question about onigiri, please check out the Onigiri FAQ page. Chances are your answer is already there!
Onigiri On Parade: A guide to onigiri (omusubi) rice ball shapes, types and fun
5 Nov 2007 by maki
[Update:] Also check out the Onigiri (omusubi) FAQ!
Onigiri (or omusubi, the other name for the same thing), the cute little rice ball, has really become popular outside of Japan in the last few years, in large part it seems due to its iconic status in anime and manga. While the onigiri is not limited in Japanese food culture to just bento use, it’s an indispensable part of the bento maker’s repertoire.
Previously on Just Hungry, I’ve explained how to make onigiri twice: the traditional, hot salty palms way, and an easier method using plastic wrap and a cup. And you can always use a plastic onigiri mold if neither method appeals. However, I have never really gone into depth about the different shapes and kinds of onigiri. So, here it is - a parade of different kinds of onigiri: shapes, coverings, fillings, and more.
But first to dispell some onigiri myths…
Onigiri do not have to be triangular in shape.
Onigiri do not have to be covered with nori seaweed.
Onigiri do not have to have a filling.
If the rice is sushi rice (flavored with sushi vinegar), it is no longer onigiri, it’s sushi.
The one rule of onigiri is…
Onigiri must be made with sticky, short- or medium-grain rice, ideally steam-cooked japonica type rice. If you can’t get a hold of Japanese rice (also commonly sold as ‘susi rice’), Italian medium-grain rices uses for risotto like vialone (which is the most like Japanese urichi-mai), arborio and so on can be used. Long grain type rice just will not stick together sufficiently. See the Looking at Rice article for an in-depth explanation of different types of rice, and what can and cannot be used successfully for onigiri.
(Note that I’ve used white rice for illustration purposes for this article, but properly cooked brown rice can be used in most cases too.)
The keys to great tasting onigiri are
Good rice, properly washed and cooked. There is a big difference between mediocre rice and good rice
Sufficient salt to flavor the onigiri - either on the outside if making the usual type of onigiri, or with a salty filling inside, or salty enough sprinkles.
Traditional onigiri shapes
As stated above, an onigiri does not have to be triangular. As long as it holds together, it can be any shape possible.
Above are the the traditional hand-formed onigiri shapes: triangle, flattened round, and cylinder or tawara. Tawara is the shape of the traditional straw bale that was for storing and transporting rice.
Type 1: The plain, unadorned, unfilled onigiri
This is a plain ball of rice, lightly salted on the outside. There is no filling, nor any cover. If one has excellent quality rice, such as top class shinmai (new rice from the current harvest) and wants to savor the pure flavor of the rice, this is the one to have.
A plain onigiri like this is the essence of Japanese food to me: rice, and salt. Rice was so important that the wealth of lords used to be measured in how much rice their lands produced, and salt is used extensively in Shinto rituals even now, to purify and sanctify. The onigiri as religious icon? Why not?
Type 2: The filled, nori covered onigiri
This is the most popular kind of onigiri, with a small amount of salty filling in the inside covered with plain rice, which is covered partly or fully with nori. Depending on if you like your nori crispy or a bit soft and moist, you either carry the nori separately and wrap it around the rice when eating, or put it on the rice when making (and when the rice is still warm). Since it’s like thin paper, it can be cut easily with scissors, and is used quite a lot for decorative ‘cute’ bento.
Type 3: The sprinkled onigiri
This is a filled or unfilled onigiri that is sprinkled on the outside with something. Sesame seeds, gomashio (sesame seeds mixed with salt), or furikake (mixed savory sprinkles - there are many various flavors) are commonly used. The one on the left is sprinkled with gomashio, and the one on the right with two colors of yukari (dried shiso leaf powder).
Type 4: The mixed-rice onigiri
For this type of onigiri, the rice is first mixed with something, then formed into a ball. The example above on the left is mixed with green peas, and the one on the right is mixed with homemade furikake made from radish leaves and bonito flakes (recipe ). Since the rice is flavored, this type usually doesn’t have a filling, and is often not covered to show the rice off (or just has a minimal nori strip). Anything can be mixed into the rice like this as long as it’s not too moist or oily, which will make the rice grains fall apart.
Type 5: The visible-inside onigiri
This type of onigiri shows off the inside and is only wrapped around the sides, rather than all around the ball. This one is rather more difficult to make than other types.
Type 6: Onigiri with alternate wrappings
Nori is the most common onigiri wrapping, but there are other wrappings. Here is one wrapped in salted green shiso leaves.
Other wrappings include nozawana zuke (pickled green leaves) and hakusai zuke (pickled nappa cabbage), thin dried kombu seaweed called tororo, and so on. I’ve even seen salted lettuce leaves and kimchee used as wrappers. Onigiri wrapped with alternate wrappers can be filled or unfilled, depending on how salty the wrapping is.
Type 7: Yaki Onigiri - grilled onigiri
Onigiri that is grilled on a wire grill until crispy, then brushed with soy sauce or miso. Yaki onigiri are best served hot, though they can be chewy yet tasty bento additions. Yaki onigiri usually do not have fillings, though some people like to put a little umeboshi or okaka inside (see the Filling section below).
What goes inside the onigiri
In response to my previous onigiri posts on Just Hungry, the question asked the most is about fillings. I have already written about this before, but it bears repeating here. Basically, anything that fits with rice and is not too greasy or watery can be used as filling. So, if the traditional fillings don’t appeal to you, try things that you like and see how they taste!
If you are a traditionalist as I tend to be, here are the most popular fillings.
From the top, clockwise:
Shiozake or shiojake, salted salmon which is grilled and flaked. It’s easy to make your own.
Umeboshi (salty pickled plum). A little of this goes a long way. It also has some antibacterial qualities, so it’s the ideal filling for onigiri that might be travelling at room temperature for some time. The photo shows regular soft umeboshi Not shown here is the crunchy and smooth skinned kariume.
Tarako, salty cod roe that is cooked and cut into small chunks. (While tarako is closely related to mentaiko, spicy cod roe, you don’t see mentaiko used as an onigiri filling that often for some reason, but it’s equally good as an onigiri filling.)
Okaka is bonito flakes or katsuobushi (the kind used for making dashi stock) mixed until moistened with soy sauce. (Confusingly it’s also just called katsuobushi or katsubushi.) You must take care not to mix in too much soy sauce, or it will seep through the rice and cause the onigiri to crumble.
Umekaka, bonito flakes mixed with umeboshi.
Kombu no tsukudani or shio kombu - kombu seaweed that’s been cooked in a soy sauce based sauce until tender and salty. Other types of tsukudani can be used too. How to make your own kombu no tsukudani.
Rather less traditional but widely popular:
Tempura - shrimp tempura (shrimp fried in a light batter) used either as a filling or on the outside. This type of onigiri is called tenmusu. It’s a regional speciality of the city of Nagoya.
Canned flaked tuna mixed with mayonnaise - the tuna is almost always oil-packed. This filling doesn’t keep that well - eat within a few hours.
A piece of chicken karaage (fried chicken).
Various kinds of chopped up pickles
Fun with onigiri
If you use molds you can make other shapes too, such as these above. Why not a bunny or cat onigiri? Personally I don’t use molds much since I can make them by hand a lot faster, but they can be fun if you have the time, or are making them for a party or something like that. (I actually used egg molds to make the ones in the photo.) Faces can be made with cut nori or anything you can imagine. It should all be edible though!
You can also play around with the size of the onigiri. Here’s a ‘jumbo onigiri’ side by side with a regular sized onigiri. The Jumbo has three kinds of fillings inside,has about 2 1/2 cups of rice, and comes in at around 600 calories. It’s a two-fisted onigiri!
Eater beware, or the calories in onigiri
A small to average sized onigiri has around 1/3 to 1/2 cup of rice, which is 80-110 calories. Depending on how big you make them they could be even more. If you are doing portion control, it’s best to pre-measure the amount of rice as in this method.
Freezing and keeping onigiri
Onigiri can be frozen, well wrapped and filled (except for tempura and chicken karaage type fried fillings, which can get soggy or tough if you microwave them later). I would not make onigiri with frozen rice however - it’s best to form the onigiri an then freeze it. You can then de-frost them, still wrapped, at room temperature, in the fridge or gently defrosted in the microwave. See also: Keeping onigiri fresh and more.
Combined with the previous onigiri articles linked to here, I hope that this answers most, if not all, of the onigiri questions you may have. (Except for the famous Hawaiian Spam Musubi. I still haven’t tried it. Anyone want to invite me to Hawaii? ^_^)
[Edit:] This post is Bento Of the Week on Yum Sugar. Thanks to Team Sugar!
Before asking a general question about onigiri, please check out the Onigiri FAQ page. Chances are your answer is already there!
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