Kinokuniya Bookstore, right next to Uwajimaya Supermarket, has the best collection of books on Japanese cuisine in the city.  Everything from practical guides to beautiful, high-end works of art are stocked here. Sort through the cookbooks, choose your favorite, then walking through the Kinokuniya bookstore doors to Uwajimaya and start shopping for your ingredients.

The Just Bento Cookbook: Everyday Lunches to Go

By Makiko Itoh, Photographs by Makiko Doi,  $19.95

Itoh’s popular postings about bento preparation on her justbento.com blog have grown into a book, out this winter from Kodansha International. The book features simple, healthy and clever twists on the Japanese boxed lunches. The soft-cover book features lots of new recipes from Ms. Itoh that have not appeared on her blog. Itoh includes both Japanese and non-Japanese bentos, and says she has made a point of using ingredients easily found outside of Japan whenever possible. 
Flipping through the color pages, it’s easy to get inspired to create a special someone a very special lunch. Itoh covers every aspect of bento-making, from basic recpies to a list of necessary equipment to an easy-to-understand glossary of terms.

Photographs by Makiko Doi

Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes

By Christopher D. Salyers, $14.95

Bumblebee-shaped rice balls, mice fashioned from hardboiled eggs and ham, and Pikachu lovingly rendered in seaweed. It’s hard to ignore mom’s rule never to play with your food when such kawaii characters look up from your lunchbox. Face Food Recipe welcomes one to the world of charaben, character bento boxes whose enormous popularity continues to skyrocket thanks to enthusiasts from Japan and around the world. Author and charaben connoisseur Christopher D. Salyers follows up Face Food, his lovesong to the cute, healthy and homemade lunches, with even more photographs of the creations of Japan’s top charaben artists as well as diagrams and practical tips for making and designing your own. An easy-to-follow section on kitchen tools to create your charaben will surprise you at how easy and inexpensive it is to start sculpting Super Mario from scratch, and an extensive glossary filled with everything from recipes for the staples to the lowdown on the best ways to work with Japanese foodstuffs ensures you’ll never be lost at the cutting board.

Read  More:

Thinking Inside the Box : http://www.ibukimagazine.com/food-and-drink/japanese-cuisine/526

Deluxe bentos feature an array of colors, tastes and textures. See recipes	Cute bentos brighten up a child’s lunchtime. See recipes.
Many local restaurants serve mouthwatering bentos, and a precious few offer them for takeout or delivery. Read Chef's Bento article.	The Chef Kenzo bento at Uwajimaya in Seattle is a lunchtime favorite. Read Chef's Bento article.