Travel Options

Flights Hotels Vacation Rentals Cars

Meals
Breakfast is generally served early (from around 7am to 9am) at most hotels, ryokan and minshuku, with a traditional meal consisting of a gut-busting combination of miso soup, fish, pickles and rice. Western-style breakfasts, when available, seldom...
read more >>

Bento: The packed lunch
Every day millions of Japanese trot off to school or their workplace with a bento stashed in their satchel or briefcase. Bento are boxed lunches which can be made at home or bought from shops all over Japan. Traditional bento...
read more >>

Where to eat and drink
One of the most common types of Japanese restaurant is the shokudo (eating place), which serves a range of traditional and generally inexpensive dishes. Usually found near train and subway stations and in busy shopping districts, ...
read more >>

Ordering and etiquette
On walking into most restaurants in Japan you'll be greeted by the word Irasshaimase (Welcome), often shouted out with brio by the entire staff. In response, you should indicate with your fingers how many places are needed. After being seated...
read more >>

Kiseki-Ryvri: Japanese haute cuisine
At the top end of the eating spectrum is Japan's finest and most expensive style of cooking, kaiseki-ryori , comprising a series of small, carefully balanced and expertly presented dishes. It began as an accompaniment to the tea ceremony and...
read more >>

Sushi, sashimi and seafood
Many gaijin falsely assume that all sushi is fish, but the name actually refers to the way the rice is prepared with vinegar, and you can also get sushi dishes with egg or vegetables. Fish and seafood are, of course, essential and...
read more >>

Food and drink language lesson
To begin, select a topic in the navigation bar to the left
read more >>

Noodles
One of Japan's most popular and best-value meals is a bowl of noodles , the three main types being soba, udon and ramen. Soba are thin noodles made of brown buckwheat flour and are particularly ubiquitous in the central Honshu...
read more >>

Rice dishes
Although fluffy, white tasteless bread is becoming more and more popular in Japan, it will never replace the ever-present bowl of rice as the staple food. Rice also forms the basis of both the alcoholic drink sake and mochi , a...
read more >>

Meat dishes
Meat is alien to traditional Japanese cuisine, but in the last century dishes using beef, pork and chicken have become a major part of the national diet. Beefburger and fried chicken ( kara-age ) fast-food outlets are just as common these days...
read more >>

Vegetarian dishes
Despite being the home of macrobiotic cooking, vegetarianism isn't a widely practised or fully understood concept in Japan. You might ask for a vegetarian ( saishoku ) dish in a restaurant and still be served something with meat or...
read more >>

Other cuisines
Said to have to been introduced to Japan in the sixteenth century by Portuguese traders, tempura are lightly battered pieces of seafood and vegetables. Best eaten piping hot from the fryer, tempura are dipped in a bowl of light sauce ( ...
read more >>

Drinks
The Japanese are enthusiastic social drinkers, several shared bottles of beer or flasks of sake being the preferred way for salarymen and -women to wind down after work. It's not uncommon to see totally inebriated people slumped in the street, though on...
read more >>