Making rice with a rice cooker is very easy. I have heard that people in the United States often make rice in a sauce pan. However here in Japan that looks very strange to us. Rice cookers are as popular here as kettles are in the US Everybody has one! This is because rice is the staple food of Japan and we eat it every day. Many Japanese eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
So we need a good way to cook such large quantities of rice, quickly and efficiently. That is where having a convenient kitchen appliance, in this case, a rice cooking appliance is necessary. In Japan the most popular maker of these items is a company called Zojirushi. I myself have a Zojirushi rice cooker. I have heard that this company controls more than 50% of the market for these types of household appliances.
I grow up eating rice all the time and it is now easy for me to make it for my family. All I have to do is, measure the amount of rice I want to make then wash it by hand. I do this using the non-stick bowl that is used for actually cooking the rice. Next I add in the appropriate amount of water and then simply put the bowl back inside the rice cooker before turning it on.
When I went to live in the United States myself I was glad to see that I could find a rice cooker there. It meant I could live a Japanese lifestyle overseas. I love traveling but it is nice to have things that remind me of home.