Food, have I mentioned it? The food in Japan is not to be ignored. The Titans: Sushi, Ramen, Tonkatsu, Soba. It really comes down to personal opinion after that. Sushi and Ramen are worldwide titans as well. Anyone who believes otherwise is unhinged and doesn’t know a thing about food. In Japan food is treated as a craft. There are many rules in Japan and food does not escape that control. A simple rule for sushi: never dip the rice in soy sauce, for each piece you turn it upside down and dip the fish gently in the sauce. I mention this rule simply because it’s easy to follow and does improve the flavour. Following this rule also helps you discover low quality sushi. You turn the piece of sushi upside down and the fish falls off, you’ve found yourself a low quality sushi craftsman. There are of course a host of other rules but i’m not qualified to get into them. Ramen is a different animal all together. All to often when purchasing ramen outside of Japan you find yourself eating from a small bowl, this is blasphemy. You should rarely find yourself hungry after a bowl of Ramen nor should you have confidence that you’ll finish your bowl upon seeing its size. These two rules will help you identify a con artist or two should you happen to care about that kind of thing.
Yes rice is a staple. Yes rice is eaten with almost every meal and yes everyone loves it. Japan is a carb country, here you find all your simple carbs. Protein is expensive, so is fruit. Vegetables will change depending on season, actually most stores will change drastically as the seasons shift. Variety is not something most Japanese people include in a regular diet but it is something you will find if you’re after treats and snacks. New sweet and salty snacks go in and out of style year round. Most people will eat a breakfast lunch and dinner that will remain the same for long periods of time, on top of this they have convince store snacks. The care makers of food put into their work is second to none in the land of the rising sun. You’ll find not only quality of ingredients, you will also find quality of preparation. It is not hard to find a fast food hamburger that looks much like the commercial. Appearance means a lot not only when preparing food, grocery stores will waste hundreds of pounds of produce each year simply because the food does not look pretty enough to sit on the shelves. As you can see the care, occasionally comes at a price. Most would say for beautiful and delicious food the price is small, what would you say?