I mentioned a few bento-oriented staples to keep around in my previous post about maintaining variety in your bentos. I've just done a quick look around my kitchen, and here are the things I have stocked as staples that I bought or made with future bentos in mind, besides the things I've mentioned already.

Pantry:

• Various little cans of Japanese fishy things - clams (asari), mackerel (sanma), etc.
• Inari zushi skin cans
• A couple of furikake packs
• A little bit of instant pickling mix, pictured above (need to make some more soon)

Refrigerator:

• 2 kinds of umeboshi
• Some carrot furikake
• Some cooked hijiki - now there's a recipe
• Some takuan - pickled daikon

Freezer - here I have quite a lot!

• Frozen vegetables - peas, edamame, mixed veg
• Some frozen salted salmon
• A little zip bag of about 10 mini-burgers that I made the last time we had meatloaf
• A 500g bag of sesame seeds (they keep fresh longer in the freezer)
• Frozen thin fried tofu (aburaage)
• Some packs of boiled soybeans in liquid
• Some packs of hummus
• Thinly sliced beef that's been wrapped in individual-use portions
• Half a pack of frozen shrimp shumai

What are your favorite bento staples?

[Update:] Some great ideas in the comments - be sure to check them out. One new to me that I'll have to try out - Zoe's idea of using dressing mix as furikake! It's also great to see how popular edamame has become. Just a few years ago I could only get it at Japanese groceries, and not even at all of them!