I don't check the Amazon.com page for The Just Bento Cookbook too often, but I was taking a look yesterday and saw that it has reached 150 reviews! Most are 5-star reviews, with a few 4 and 3 star reviews (hey, you can't please everyone). I didn't ask people to review the book at all, so seeing that so many people have taken the time to post one is very gratifying. If you posted one on Amazon.com, or any of the other Amazons - thank you!

Also, with the exception of a few weeks here and there the book has been the no. 1 seller in the Japanese Cooking category on Amazon .com for the last 2 years, and in the top 5 of the Asian category for a lot of that time too. I don't know what to say about that really, except...I'm amazed and honored and very proud of my baby for being such an over achiever.

The Just Bento Cookbook reached another milestone recently too: it is now in its 7th printing overall - quite an accomplishment I think a first time author's cookbook. I am so grateful that the book has continued to sell so well, despite my extended absences from this site and Just Hungry over the past couple of years as I dealt with some health issues and so on.

I've been asked periodically if I'm working on another book. At the moment the answer is no. I was actually starting to gather the material together for another book proposal just after The Just Bento Cookbook came out in early 2011 -- but then a whole lot of things happened: my original publisher suddenly closed shop (it's now published by another subsidiary of the same company); the Japan earthquake on March 11, 2011 happened...and then I got sick and had to concentrate on getting better. I'm now a whole lot better physically of course - my cancer is in full remission, knock wood - and back to regular writing for my blogs as well as for <a href="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/author/int-makiko_itoh/>The Japan Times and other places. So I'm almost ready to get back into the fray of book writing...I'm just a bit undecided, and unsure even as to how to go about it. (If you want to offer me any advice, I'm all ears!)

Anyway, I just wanted to say: if you've bought a copy of The Just Bento Cookbook, thank you. I hope that it's been useful for you. ^_^