• BENTO: Boxed meal of rice, pickles and other foodstuffs.
• DAIKON: Giant white radish that is dried, grated or boiled in stock.
• DAIZU: Soybean.
• DASHI: A clear stock made of freshly shaved katsuobushi (dried, smoked mold-cured bonito) and knobu, a type of kelp. Dashi-no-moto is instant dashi, similar to cubed or powdered bouillon.
• GOBO: Burdock, eaten as a vegetable in Japan. In China it is used as a medicine. A good source of dietary fiber and nutrients. Often combined with carrot to make kinpira gobo.
• GOHAN: Rice.
• KAISEKI RYORI: A full course meal at a meeting, social gathering or ceremony. Typically each dish is served on individual trays and includes foods that are simmered, steamed, roasted, fried, seasoned with vinegar and pickled. Appetizer, soup, fruit for dessert, and rice are also part of the presentation.
• KAMABOKO: Fish cake made of a paste of fish, thickened with starch, colored, molded and steamed.
• KANTEN: Agar agar, a jelly-like substance made from tengusa, a seaweed. It is a vegetable product used as a gelling agent or thickener.
• KONBU: Kelp or dried seaweed.
• KONNYAKU: Devil's tongue or elephant foot. A gelatinous paste made from the root of this plant and formed into bricks or strings, eaten for its chewy texture rather than its bland flavor. Shirataki are thin strings of konnyaku, often used in sukiyaki.
• MIRIN: A sweet liquid flavoring made from distilled spirits and glutinous rice on which a mold has developed. used for its sweetness, not for its alcoholic content though genuine mirin is found in the liquor department. Mirin masks strong fish and meat odors and imparts a sheen to food.
• NAMASU: Vinegared dish of raw meat or fish and vegetables.
• NISHIME: A dish of vegetables, meat and fish simmered with soy, mirin and ginger.
• OKAZU: Another name for sozai or any dish that accompanies rice, miso soup and pickles.
• PANKO: Bread crumbs.
• PONZU: Juice of citrus fruits.
• RAMEN: Chinese-style wheat noodles often called chuka-soba, served in a stock of bones and vegetables flavored with soy.
• SAKE: Rice wine. This brewed beverage of rice, yeast and water ranges from dry to sweet with a wide variety of flavors. It is served warm or chilled and is important in cooking.
• SHABU SHABU: Nabemono (one-pot dish) of thin slices of beef with vegetables cooked in stock, derived from the Mongolian hotpot of Chinese cookery.
• SHOYU: Soy sauce, a basic flavoring, made from soybeans, wheat and salt.
• SOBA: Buckwheat from which is made a wide variety of noodles.
• SOMEN: Thin wheat noodles.
• SUKIYAKI: Abemono (one-pot dish) of beef and vegetables, concocted in the Meiji era (1868-1912). Thin slices of beef are cooked in a shallow pan with various vegetables, tofu and shirataki, seasoned with soy and mirin. As the foods are cooked, they are dipped in raw egg and eaten.
• TEMPURA OR TENPURA: Seafood and vegetables deep-fried in batter. This technique of cooking was introduced to Japan in the 16th century by the Portuguese.
• TEPPAN: An iron hot plate used for grilling slices of meat and vegetables (teppenyaki) or for making savory pancakes (okonomiyaki).
• TOGARISHI: Red chili pepper.
• TONKATSU: Sliced port, coated with egg and bread crumbs and deep fried. Traditionally served on a bed of shredded raw cabbage with a thick Worcestershire-style sauce.
• TSUKEMONO: Pickles. There are a variety of pickles made with salt, vinegar, rice bran, rice from sake-making, miso, rice mold and soy with mirin.
• UMEBOSHI: Pickled plum.
• WASABI: Japanese green horseradish. The rood is grated and mixed with soy to dip sashimi. Fresh wasabi is sometimes available but it's more readily found in paste or powdered form.
• YAKI: Prefix meaning grilled as in yakiniku, grilled meat; yakidofu, grilled tofu; and yakitori, bite-sized pieces of chicken grilled on a skewer.

Among the sources for this glossary: "A Dictionary of Japanese Food" by Richard Hosking (Charles E. Tuttle Company).