learning to cook japanese food

I got a book for christmas... on how to prepare a lot of stuff, and recipes, and lots of stuff, and i can prepare ramen, but i can't find any of the ingredients for anything... like... shoyu... or miso... or anything... all i could find was rice vinager... and all i made with the ramen... was more ramen! it was just noodles... and more noodles!

Im learning too... but luckily the city Im living in has a excellent asian market. I can find most anything now I think. I've even began to learn to read Hiragana so I can read the labels on some of the stuff. Some of it is just way beyond me tho...LOL.
Have you tried online shopping? There are some descent online food stores you might try!
Have Fun!
Smiles!
Heather

I've never been satisfied with the way I make dashi (soup stock) so I've developed a "western" version. Instead of bonito shavings, I use monkfish (anko/ankou/anglerfish). It makes a nice light soup.