What we ate in Japan

As we weren't travelling in our car but using public transport instead, we weren't cooking as much as we usually do. Our accommodations ranged from AirBnB apartments to guesthouses, hostels and hotels, but even if we had access to a kitchen we usually spent so much time exploring that there was no energy left to cook. Additionally, we changed locations fairly often and didn't want to carry around too much food along the way. And last but not least, almost every vegetable is wrapped in plastic! Hence, apart from breakfast (I'm just no fan of having a miso soup and rice at 8am), we ate out a lot. Here's a list to give you an impression of our culinary experiences:

Ramen is a cheap and easily accessible option for lunch or dinner. Finding a vegetarian option is almost impossible though. And choosing your toppings from a vending machine with only Japanese signs can be quite difficult. Nevertheless, it's always going to be a satisfying and filling meal. My favourite was the tomato version we ate in Kagoshima. Lighter than the pork style, fresh and full of flavour.

Soba is quite similar to ramen, but the style of noodles is a bit different (they're made out of buckwheat) and the broth isn't as heavy. We had a wonderful lunch in Arashiyama, Kyoto's western district, that was made with love. Here I learned that "yasai" is the word for vegetables, very helpful!

Sashimi and sushi - probably the west's favourite Japanese dishes. We ate not as much of it as I thought we would to be honest. Sashimi (just raw fish) was tasty but could be overwhelming quite quickly. Sushi was great of course, but I was always a bit worried of which fish we were eating and how sustainable our choice was. The language barrier often didn't allow to ask detailed questions and I relied on the help of blog posts such as https://tokyocheapo.com/food-and-drink/sustaina… to choose right.

Pickles - Japan seems to be the place for fermented food. Miso soup is quite well known but the variety of pastes and pickled veggies is amazing! I liked daikon (radish) and ginger the most. And we were quite amused by the pickled cucumbers on a stick that were offered as roadside snack. (I don't think our guts have ever been healthier :-))

Sweets - Japanese make great sweets. Funnily enough, my sweet tooth kept unusually quiet on this trip, or maybe it was simply satisfied by the bits and pieces it got from free tastings usually offered in the Omiyage shops around important sights. The rice flour sheets we tasted in Kyoto, a byproduct of sake manufacturing, was my favourite, at least the matcha and cinnamon flavours. In Yakushima, there are lots of sweets featuring the local tankan citrus as well as cookies using some byproduct from the cedar industry (no idea how that works). In the Japanese Alps, sweets with cream cheese and apples are a thing. Lots of snacks and sweets also feature fish though. Definitely something to be aware of.

Yakitori or Shabu Shabu - BBQ or hotpot. Grilling meat on your own grill at the table or simmering it in a broth seemed to be super popular. We tried some steak once and it was super tasty, but since we're both not big meat eaters and I also had the feeling it would help if you had a local actually showing you how to order and prepare your meal properly, we didn't try again.

Matcha- the green tea powder is omnipresent in Japan. The most popular use seemed to be matcha lattes and soft serve ice cream. Not only tasty but also quite photogenic.

Shochu, also called "Japanese vodka". Depending on the region, it is made out of rice, sweet potato or buckwheat. It can be served hot (to bring out its flavours) or cold, mixed with soda, green tea or softdrinks, lots of time with fresh fruit juice as well. Super tasty and hence a bit dangerous. We even had it with beer once.

I think my favourite meal was a lunch set featuring a bowl of rice sprinkled with smoked salmon and seaweed, served with green tea to turn it into a soup. Definitely worth trying!Read more