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10 Amazing Foods In Japan That Are A Must Try
There’s no question there’s a ton of unique attractions and sights to see while visiting Japan. It’s a truly beautiful, bustling country which never ceases to amaze me. One of the biggest draws of the country for myself is the food. To say the food in Japan is delicious would be an understatement. It’s absolutely amazing.
Here are some of the standouts that anyone visiting Japan must try!
Table of Contents
Mochi
Mochi is certainly one of the most 10 amazing foods in Japan. A traditional rice cake, mochi is chewy and has a chewy texture and can be either savory or sweet. It’s a versatile rice cake which can be filled with various fillings like red bean paste and have different types of toppings like fruit on top. The freshness, and how soft and chewy the mochi is in Japan really stands out. While mochi can be found worldwide, the mochi in Japan is on a different level!
Ramen
Ramen is easily one of the top 10 amazing foods in Japan. Everyone knows ramen, let’s be honest. Ramen is everywhere in the world but it’s something that absolutely must be tried in Japan. The number of ramen places and different types of ramen are insane. The atmosphere itself, with many ramen shops just being a counter that seats 15 or less is a pretty cool experience. The ordering process, with the ordering machines in the front of some ramen restaurants is certainly an experience as well.
Sushi / Sashimi / Chirashi
Without a doubt, sushi in all it’s variations is one of the 10 amazing foods in Japan that you must have. Japan has some of the best quaility seafood in the world and the quality of the sushi / sashimi / chirashi certainly reflects this. Whenever I go to Japan I eat as much tuna as I possibly can. It’s the best tuna I’ve ever had. The crab, scallop, uni, it’s all outstanding. Whatever your fish of choice is, you will not be disappointed by the quality.
Fruit
Speaking of high quality, the fruit in Japan is on another level from what I’ve ever had in the United States. Quality takes precedence over quanity when it comes to Japanese fruit. Farmers are very attentive and closely monitor their crops to insure their fruit meets lofty standards in association with the fruit texture, sweetness, size, and shape.
These high standards, along with the country being smaller, which leads to less time for the fruit to make it from the farm to the store, leads to some exceptionally high quality fruit.
The melons and strawberries I had were the juiciest and sweetest I’ve ever experienced. With quality comes higher prices though. The fruit is definitely more expensive, but it’s well worth it. Fruit may not be on the radar as one the 10 amazing foods in Japan, but it certainly deserves to be!
Japanese Curry
Japanese curry is a very popular food in the country and is considered a comfort food and is one of the 10 amazing foods in Japan. Japanese curry is its own unique curry and different from other types of curry found in the world. It’s a little bit thicker and is more sweet and savory. Commonly made with both a protein (beef, chicken, or with tonkatsu) and vegtables, it’s more in the vein of curry stew. Served with Japanese short grain rice which is stickier than basmati rice, the rice also really soaks up the curry.
Outside of rice curry, there’s other ways to enjoy Japanese curry as well. One of those “other” dishes is curry soup. A staple in Hokkaido, this is Japanese curry in soup form. While I’ve had curry rice many times, I’d never heard of curry soup before. If you’re a curry fan than this is a must try while traveling through Japan. I actually enjoyed it more than the curry rice. Very tasty with different vegetables and fall- off-the-bone chicken, this was one delicious dish!
Kobe Beef / Wagyu
Kobe beef is a worldwide delicacy renowned for its flavor, tenderness, and fatty, well-marbled texture which easily places it amongst 10 amazing foods in Japan. As the name implies, Kobe beef is cultivated from Japanese Black cattle which is raised in the Hyogo Prefecture region of Japan, near Kobe. It’s considered the highest quality beef that Japanese cattle can produce and is a must try! There’s various cuts of this and obviously the higher the price the better the cut and quality. So the experience can certainly vary upon how much you’re willing to spend.
But it’s an experience that must be tried!
Omurice
Omurice includes ketchup fried rice, yes ketchup fried rice, wrapped in a very thin omlette with ketchup drizzled over the egg. The egg is very crepe like, it’s a very thin layer. The ketchup fried rice is generally mixed with chicken and vegetables. It’s an all-around unique looking and tasty dish that must be tried while in Japan! It’s a very common and popular breakfast item which is why I’m including it on the list of 10 amazing foods in Japan.
Tempura
Another food on the 10 amazing foods in Japan is tempura. Tempura is very famous in Japan and you’ll be able to find it thorughout the country. Tempura, for those who haven’t had it before, consists of seafood (shrimp is a staple) and vegetables coated in a thin batter and deep fried. The quality can differ, but the outer batter should be light and crispy and not saturated in oil. It definitely makes a big difference while enjoying this classic meal.
Tonkatsu
A classic food in Japan, tonkatsu, is certainly on the list for 10 amazing foods in Japan. Tonkatsu is a breaded pork cutlet that’s deep fried in oil. The breaded exterior is nice and crunchy, while the pork, which is generally a pork fillet or tenderloin, is juicy and tender. Served with a side of cabbage and a thick Worcestershire-style sauce, this is a must have while in Japan. Certainly do your research and find a quality spot to enjoy this Japanese comfort food.
Okonomiyaki
Okonomiyaki is a popular, savory pancake dish that is found throughout Japan. Consisting of a flour batter and cooked on a teppan, common ingredients include cabbage, meat, and seafood, with toppings including a thicker worcestershire type sauce, dried seaweed flakes (aonori), bonito flakes, Japanese mayonnaise, and ginger. There’s two distinct types, one hailing from Osaka and one from Hiroshima. The Hiroshima version is layered instead of mixed and uses 3-4x more cabbage.
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Bustling Ameyoko Shopping Street Has A Little Bit Of Everything
What is the Ameyoko Shopping Street?
Ameyoko Shopping Street in the Ueno district includes more than 400 stores selling all manner of goods. You can find seafood, clothing, bags, cosmetics, dried food, sweets. You name it, you can probably find it on this bustling street. There’s A LOT of stores, shops, and restaurants crammed into this area. Prices are fairly cheap as well.
Ameyoko is located right next to Ueno Park and Ueno Station which makes for a great place to stop by before or after a day in the park to grab some food. There’s a TON of places to eat around the area, so you’ll definitely be able to find something to munch on!
Himuro Ueno Ramen
I didn’t even know Ameyoko existed. I went to Ueno with the intent on going to the park and hitting up the museums. I did want to grab some food prior to heading over though and quickly saw throngs of people located near the entrance to Ameyoko and decided to walk around a bit.
One of the restaurants that caught my eye in the area was Himuro Ueno Ramen. It’s not on one of the main streets, it’s located on one of the many side streets. Having a hankering for some ramen on this particular day I decided to give it a try.
It’s one of those ramen restaurants where you order at a machine and receive a ticket to give to the chef. They can be a little intimidating if there’s no English and a line behind you. Fortunately, although there was no English, they did do something else to help us Non-Japanese speaking folk.
There were taped numbers on the machine that correlated with the numbers of the ramen photos in the front of the restaurant. So I just had to match the number. I didn’t know what anything else on the menu was but was happy to be able to get what looked like a delicious bowl of ramen.
Himuro Uno Ramen storefront 
Himuro Uno Ramen with the ordering machine It’s a small restaurant with limited seating, much like many of the ramen places I visited. I really enjoy these types of places. Very homely with great ambience. You get a good look at how the ramen is made which is great.
The Kimuchi Ramen Medium Spicy
I ended up getting the Kimuchi Ramen Medium Spicy (980 yen, $6.68). The ramen came out piping hot about ten minutes or so after I handed them the ticket.
It came with 1 piece of pork chashu, bamboo shoots, kimchi, seaweed, bean sprouts, and green onion. Lots of goodies were in it! The broth had a nice rich flavor to it and was fairly spicy. Not sure what the base was but it was quite tasty.
The chashu was very thin and lean. It wasn’t heavily salted or seasoned but tasted great.
The noodles were thicker and curly. Defintely al dente with a nice bounce to them and they tasted very fresh as well.
There’s a good number of textures within this bowl of ramen. From the chewiness of the noodles to the crunch from the bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, kimchi and seaweed. They all delivered a different type of crunch with each bite, which is always a nice!
Overall this was a hearty bowl of ramen with a lot of goodies in it. I love kimchi so having that included in it was really nice and added to the overall flavor of the ramen broth.
Himuro Ramen
Address: 4 Chome-5-2 Ueno, Taito City, Tokyo 110-0005, Japan
Hours:
Wednesday 11 AM–3:30 AM Thursday 11 AM–3:30 AM Friday(The Emperor’s Birthday) 11 AM–3:30 AMHours might differ Saturday 11 AM–3:30 AM Sunday 11 AM–2 AM Monday 11 AM–3:30 AM Tuesday 11 AM–3:30 AM Oedo-Sho Sushi
After spending the entire day in Ueno Park I decided to cap the day off with some sushi near Ameyoko Street. I stumbled upon Oedo-Sho which is a conveyer belt sushi restaurant. It’s a cheap, affordable place to enjoy some sushi. Conveyer belt sushi is defintely an experience that should be tried while in Japan. There’s conveyer belt sushi places throughout the world, but this sushi quality and selection is likely to be far superior. There’s just a ton of different cuts of fish here.
The menu is quite large with a ton of different types of sushi. The options on the actual conveyer belt seemed to be fairly minimal though. You can order directly from the chefs to get sushi from the menu that isn’t going around the conveyer belt it seemed. I just wasn’t sure how to do that exactly. With minimal English speakers working on this particular night I just stuck with what was going around.
The Sushi
The sushi that I did know and recognize included were pretty much salmon, fatty salmon, shrimp. I ate a few others as well, what kind of fish they were, I have no idea.
Overall, the sushi was pretty decent. For my whole meal it was only (2070 yen, $14.10 USD) It wasn’t top tier but you get what you pay for and it was pretty good to boot.
Salmon 
Shrimp 
Fatty salmon 
No idea lol Service options: Cash-only · Doesn’t accept reservations
Address: 6 Chome-12-14 Ueno, Taito City, Tokyo 110-0005, Japan
Hours:
Friday(The Emperor’s Birthday) 11:30 AM–10 PMHours might differ Saturday 11:30 AM–10 PM Sunday 11:30 AM–10 PM Monday 11:30 AM–10 PM Tuesday 11:30 AM–10 PM Wednesday 11:30 AM–10 PM Thursday 11:30 AM–10 PM -
Why The Tsukiji Outer Market Is A Must Visit In Japan
The Tsukiji Market has been in existence for 80+ years. Despite the main fish market closing in Tsukiji and relocating to Toyusa the outer market still remains. The outer market is home to wholesale retail shops, produce, fish, as well as many, many restaurants / food stalls. The seafood here is some of the freshest in the city since it comes directly from the Toyusa fish market.
There are a TON of food stalls / restaurants within this vicinity so if you’re a foodie, this is a must stop.
Despite the main fish market moving to Toyusa in 2018, the outer market remains just as popular amongst both domestic and international tourists. Expect big crowds here!
One of the entrances to Tsukiji Outer Market 
Food everywhere, with lots and lots of tourists The Food Experience
There’s going to be too much food here to try it all (for most people). Budget may also play a part in what you look to purchase too. Depending on what you’re looking to eat, certain items can certainly get pricey. But that’s what’s nice with such a large and varied market, there’s something for all budgets to be found here.
Here’s what I got on my visit:
Mochi and Tanghulu
This shop near one of the entrances to the market (photo above) specialized in strawberry mochi and tanghulu. This was just too tempting. I HAD to start off the food tour with this, it looked too good!
I decided on going with the strawberry flavored mochi with strawberry (400 yen, $2.83 USD).
The mochi was incredibly soft, chewy, and very fresh. It was also filled with red bean paste and powdered sugar( the powdered sugar was a nice surprise!). The strawberry is very juicy. It wasn’t overly sweet but I really couldn’t notice due to the sweetness of the red bean paste / powederd sugar.
I couldn’t just get the mochi with all that delicious tanghulu on display. I opted for the grape and strawberry tanghulu (600 yen, $4.24 USD).
Both the grapes and the strawberries were very sweet and juicy in their own right. I don’t want to understate the juiciness of these grapes and strawberries. These fruits EXPLODE with juice when you bite into them. The sugar coating provides additional sweetness of course, as well as a hardy crunch.
Tamagoyaki
What exactly is Tamagoyaki? It’s a sweet and savory type of Japanese type of omlette. I’d never had it before but had heard of it. I saw this restuarant and figured today was the day to give it a try! The price for a block of it was only 150 yen ($1.06) too. Good deal!
The egg is super soft, fluffy, and light. It’s also very sweet though. I was expecting it to be sweet but this was much more sweet than savory.
Grilled Wagyu
Yes, this is a fish market BUT there’s also wagyu here! There’s a few stalls that sell grilled wagyu skewers within Tsukiji. The cuts of wagyu vary and the price points reflect accordingly. They also have skewers of various seafood (octupus, squid, scallop, unagi, all 1000 yen, $7.09 USD) and even have skewers of wagyu with uni (sea urchin) spread over it. There’s a lot of skewer options!
I opted for the rump wagyu, which was the cheapest cut of wagyu – for 3000 yen, $21.27 USD.
The meat is grilled medium rare. It’s lightly seasoned with just salt with a teriyaki glaze drizzled over the top. The glaze is a little sweet with a hint of spice to it. The meat just melts in your mouth. No exaggeration. You barely have to chew. The wagyu is unbelievably good!
Tuna Nigiri
No visit to Tsukiji would be complete without eating some seafood, specifically tuna. I decided to give Maguroya Kurogin a try. They specifically specialise in tuna here with various cuts served as sashimi over rice, nigiri, or sushi.
Decisions, decisions. It’s a tough choice on what to get 
Sooo much tuna!! Look at how huge these chunks are! 
The tuna gets cut right in front of you as you wait in line 
This definitely helps point out what you’re getting I went with the six pieces of nigiri that consisted of special fatty tuna, very fatty tuna, medium fatty tuna. This was 3400 yen, $24.10 USD.
I ate this at the stall. They have a little area right next to the counter where you order at that has some tables you can stand around and a counter you can enjoy your food. They give you a cup of tea as well. The food comes out and the server goes over what nigiri is what. They speak English really well here. I believe from left to right it goes: special fatty tuna, very fatty tuna, medium fatty tuna.
The speical fatty tuna 
Very fatty tuna 
Medium fatty tuna These were all very high quality pieces of tuna. I couldn’t say that one cut was better than the others. The fattier pieces may dissolve faster but ALL of the cuts essentially dissovle in your mouth when you start eating them. The sushi rice is also high quality. Overall, these are six pieces of nigiri you won’t be disapppointed with.
Conclusion
I ate a variety of food in my time at Tsukiji and barely scratched the surface of everything that’s there. There was a lot of stuff that I wanted to get but skipped over on this trip, like grilled crab legs, and grilled scallops, and a boatload of other food. Not to mention the number of sit down restaurants that all looked delicious.
I will advise that many of the places here accept ONLY CASH, so that keep that in mind if you plan on visiting. There’s also an atm on the premises if you forget to bring some cash. It’s located in the facility which also has a public restroom.
I did have a budget in mind and how much I wanted to spend here, so that took some of the food out of the equation…this time around. Some of the restaurants had very long lines which I also avoided since there was a lot I wanted to that day. Bottom line: There’s A LOT of food here.
The total for everything I ate came out to 7,550 yen / $53.53 USD. Not too shabby! It was definitely a fun time walking around and trying multiple dishes. If you’re a foodie this is must visit place.
One final tidbit of advice: Choose your stomach space wisely!
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Gurume Sushi In Irvine Offers High Quality Sushi in the OC
The Background
Found in the corner of a shopping center in Irvine, CA, Gurume Sushi offers gourmet style sushi (Gurume means “Gourmet” in Japanese after all) and other signature dishes. There’s also an Omakase menu which is a nice option to see.
The menu is pretty hefty and diverse. In addition to some inventive rolls and sashimi, there’s classic Japanese dishes like Suki Yaki, Udon, Tempura, and Japanese meal sets . There’s also fusion type offerings like Yellowtail w / Jalapeno Carpaccio, Amberjack Miso Ceviche, and Uni Pasta.
There’s so many items on the menu that sound appetizing it’s certainly tough to decide on one single item!
The Experience
I came here on a Friday with family around lunch time and got seated immedietely. The restaurant was pretty quiet on this day, which was nice. The atmosphere overall seems like a very chill vibe with a sleek modern look to it.
We ended up ordering the Shrimp Tempura ($13 for pcs) and Vegetable Tempura ($10) for appetizers. I also ordered the Rainbow Roll ($18) and shared a Spicy Tuna Roll as the main course.
Vegetable Tempura The tempura comes with a side of grated daikon (it’s a type of radish) along with a dipping sauce (tentsuyu). Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to grab any photos of the shrimp before it got devoured. But the shrimp was delicious. You’ll have to take my word about it.
The batter they use for the tempura is outstanding. Light and airy, with an incredibly satisfying crunch on the outside contrasting with the tenderness of well cooked shrimp. Best part is the lack of grease. At some places the tempura may be a tad soggy due to the excess grease. Not here!
The vegetable tempura consisted of onion, I believe shishito pepper, yam, and zuchinni. Equally as delicious as the shrimp, the batter coating the veggies really shines through again. My favorite was the shishito pepper. Definitely very tasty especially when dipped into the tentsuyu sauce.
Spicy Tuna Roll 
Rainbow Roll 
Starting with the Spicy Tuna Roll: I thought this was good. Tuna was solid with decent spice. Rice was well seasoned and tasted good.
There wasn’t really anything about it that stood out to me. It’s a solid roll and what I would expect at a restaurant like this. With Spicy Tuna rolls it’s a little more difficult to truly stand out as exceptional and unique. There’s only so much you can do with it in my opinion.
Now the Rainbow Roll on the other hand, was quite exceptional. Consisting of bluefin tuna, yellowtail, salmon, shrimp, and avocado on top of snow crab roll, the presentation was fantastic and the roll was well made. What really stood out was the freshness of the fish. This was very good quality. Some of the best I’ve eaten in Orange County. Combined with the snow crap mixture, avocado, and well-seasoned sushi rice, each individual piece was a treat to eat after a quick dip in soy sauce and wasabi.
The Verdict
Gurume Sushi offers premium sushi at fairly reasonable prices. The service was great and attentive and food came out quickly. It may be a little pricier than similiar sushi joints, but the higher prices are easily justified with the quality of the food.
Specifically talking about the fish. I really wasn’t expecting it to be as fresh as it was. Definitley the good type of surprise! And certainly not something that can be said at many sushi places in the area.
I’m looking forward to my next trip to try something else on this expansive menu!
