Happy New Year! We got a Toraya box for New Year's too and inhaled the Monaka :-) The yokan didn't last long either. When we first moved to Tokyo I purchased a bag of black beans thinking they were Mexican black beans and treated them as such - soaking overnight, etc and then preparing them the next day whereupon it became very clear they were NOT Mexican black beans (and why would they be?) I buy kuromame fairly regularly at the grocery store but haven't tried to make it at home - I'll give it another try thanks to your post!
Happy New Year! We got a Toraya box for New Year's too and inhaled the Monaka :-) The yokan didn't last long either. When we first moved to Tokyo I purchased a bag of black beans thinking they were Mexican black beans and treated them as such - soaking overnight, etc and then preparing them the next day whereupon it became very clear they were NOT Mexican black beans (and why would they be?) I buy kuromame fairly regularly at the grocery store but haven't tried to make it at home - I'll give it another try thanks to your post!