During my trip to Japan in 2018, I tried several dishes. In this article, I would like to share all the dishes I ate during my stay, whether fast food, traditional cuisine, or Western recipes. I hope you enjoy this list of dishes.
The purpose of this article is to show the gigantic variety of foods I ate in Japan, thus demonstrating that there is food for all tastes. I miss the food there a lot; I can’t find anything similar in Brazil, which saddens me.
Table of Contents
Main Highlight Dishes of Japan
We won’t talk much about noodles since I left a category just for them. Generally, besides noodles, I used to eat a lot of meat and a lot of gyudon. My friend loved hamburgers, so we went a few times to KFC and local restaurants.
Yakiniku is one of the best places to eat until you burst; I went more than three times, and one of them was in Hokkaido where I tried lamb meat. It’s a cheap all-you-can-eat meat place where you grill the meat yourself on the barbecue at your table.
In the photo below, we have one of the dishes I ate the most during my trip, soba and gyudon. One of the tastiest and cheapest dishes in Japan. There are variations with other ingredients like gyudon with cheese and mayonnaise.
Generally, I ate karaage for breakfast, konbini skewers. I loved noodles and fried things; I also went to Italian restaurants and other cultures that are common in Japan. Italy, Korea, America, Spain, and Germany.
I also tried traditional dishes like oden, shabu-shabu, gyoza, oyakudon, and many others. There were really many foods; I even got lost in how to write and show the photos for this article.
Also, check out a video I recorded of some Japanese foods:
The Ramen I Ate in Japan
The first time I went to Japan, I loved soba and udon, simple and cheap dishes that consist of noodles with some toppings like tempura flakes. I also loved the cold somen noodles and other variants.
On my first trip, I didn’t have good experiences with ramen; I believe I only ate it twice. However, on the second trip, my view changed completely; I ate several types of ramen and liked all of them, and it’s disappointing not to find them in Brazil.
In the photo above, we have one of the first ramen I ate in Japan; its sauce was quite thick, which was interesting. I don’t remember the type, but it was near Hamamatsu. Some standout ramen was this one full of chashu that I ordered in the Izu region.
The first ramen below is quite spicy; I ate it in the Sapporo region. The second is tsukemen, where you simply dip the noodles into the ramen sauce and then eat. I had this in Akihabara with Rodrigo Coelho (Coelho in Japan).
Lastly, the best, the famous Black Sapporo Ramen, from a small establishment called Isono Kazuo near Susukino, Sapporo. The place is small, opens at 10 PM, but has a huge line of people interested in trying it.
Snacks and Street Food in Japan
I took thousands of photos, so I decided to compile them into small thumbnails and briefly talk about each of the images. In the first photo starting from the left, we have the famous yakitori; I tried a wide variety, very good.
In the second image, we have a kind of corn snack covered with a layer of chocolate (I don’t remember the name). Followed by a pie and some donuts. In the second row, we have seasoned konbini karaage and then some sweets from Mr. Donuts.
The donuts and sweets in the image above I bought using a QR code from LINE that I got from some friends. In the penultimate, we have a sweet in the shape of a fish; I don’t remember the taste, but it must be fish, I bought it in the Hakone region. Finally, a traditional Onigiri.
In the other image, we have a traditional hamburger from some restaurant that I don’t remember, followed by probably Takoyaki. Then a pretzel from a German restaurant in Hokkaido, and then I think snake meat from Little World.
In the bottom row, we have some nikuman from Little World, followed by mini pretzels. Ending the row with some nuggets I don’t remember what they were, and another kind of tonkatsu or breaded, but I don’t remember if it was not pork.
Then we have a type of snack or French fries served in a cup with yuzu (Japanese lemon) flavor. A coffee drink along with chocolate-covered coffee beans and a simple ice cream. Finally, we have a delicious hamburger (I believe).
In the first of the bottom, we have Okonomiyaki, believe it or not, with noodles inside. Followed by a delicious burger (I don’t remember where from) and another hamburger I believe is from Hokkaido. Finally, I believe it is some kind of meat or smoked salami as an appetizer.
These little cakes that look like cheese bread are actually sweets and have a creamy filling; I tried them at the yakiniku, which represents the second photo in the image. Again, an image of the hamburger seen earlier, and finally Unagidon.
In the bottom row, we have a tonkatsu bought at a market, followed by a delicious konbini sausage along with aloe yogurt (tasty). A tasty chocolate called gaba and another type of chocolate that I can’t identify.
The Craziest Drinks I Had in Japan
During my first trip, I usually drank things that were generally easy to find, like peach and melon-flavored Fanta. On the second trip, a friend made me try unusual things like kiwi and aloe yogurt.
We also tried local drinks like eel-flavored Coca-Cola, water from Mount Fuji, plum soda, creamy grape soda, jasmine tea, yuzu tea (Japanese lemon), and we even came across a drink with 96% alcohol content.
In restaurants, I usually drank the free drinks, which were juice and tea. I also really liked iced coffee; I miss that in Brazil. I also overindulged in milk chocolate coffee from convenience store machines.
We spent one night going to 3 Izakaya, interestingly, they serve the drink in a kind of cup that sits inside another square wooden cup, filling both cups. It was a very fun and expensive night.
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