Shoyu, or soy sauce, is another household staple. The red-capped cruet is something I remember from childhood. At one point I had a container like this labeled all in Japanese, but the glass broke and it was replaced with a regular bilingual bottle from the supermarket.
Liz,
Do you speak/write Japanese? I studied it in college and I think I have an old "learn to write Japanese" instruction book if you're interested. It teaches kanji, katakana and hiragana. It might be fun for inspiration.
Renae
Renae,
I only speak a tiny bit - not enough to say anything interesting. We lived in Japan off and on when I was growing up. Studied Japanese for a year in college as well... it didn't come rushing back, but what I learned "made sense" if you know what I mean.
Liz