The previous times I have lived here I have just made my own in bulk and kept it in the fridge. Right now I'm using the granules because I needed dashi before I was able to find tupperware of the right size at a reasonable price, but I intend to switch back to the real thing once I've used up all the granules.

And I agree; the kombu stock is dirt easy, of course, but having to mess with the fish flakes in cheesecloth and the other stuff is somewhat more complicated. I have a bilingual cookbook, and it's quite good, but occasionally it says to do things like grate the yam for the okonomiyaki rather than just buy the mix like everyone does, and I just say, "Cookbook, life is too short."