In a large ungreased frying pan, add the sesame seeds and toast the sesame seeds until you smell the toasted sesame seeds.
Transfer to the Japanese mortar and pestle (suribachi and surikogi). Grind the sesame seeds until 90% of sesame seeds are crushed, keep 10% uncrushed.
Cut the napa cabbage into smaller bites. Once you cut all the ingredients, you can place them on a large plate.
Cut the green onions, mizuna, and garlic chives into 2-inch (5-cm) pieces.
To remove excess oil in the aburaage, put it in the boiling water for 15 seconds, flipping once. Drain water and let cool. Cut the aburaage into 1 inch strips. Also, cut the medium-firm tofu into 9 pieces.
Discard the bottom of shimeji mushrooms and maitake mushrooms.
Peel and discard the outer skin of the carrot. Then using the same vegetable peeler, thinly peel the carrot into thin strips.
Using the back of the knife, scrape off the skin of the gobo. The flavor of gobo is right below the skin, so you do not want to peel off using a peeler. Then just like carrot, peel the gobo into strips with the peeler.
Soak the gobo in water to prevent from browning and to remove the bitter taste.