During my trip to Japan in 2018 I tried several dishes, in this article I would like to share all these dishes that I ate during my stay, whether fast food, traditional cuisine or western recipes. Hope you like this list of dishes.
The purpose of this article is to show the huge variety of foods I ate in Japan, thus showing that there is food for all tastes. I really miss the food there, I can't find anything similar in Brazil, which makes me sad.
Table of Contents
Top Japanese Dishes
Let's not talk much about pasta since I left a category just for them. Generally, besides pasta, I used to eat a lot of meat and a lot of gyudon. My friend really liked burgers, so we went to KFC and local restaurants a few times.
Yakiniku It's one of the best places to eat until you're stuffed, I went more than three times and one of them was in Hokkaido where I tried lamb. It's an inexpensive meat all-you-can-eat barbecue 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 such as gyudon with cheese and mayonnaise.
I usually ate karaage for breakfast, konbini skewers. I loved noodles and fried foods, and I also went to Italian restaurants and other cultures that are common in Japan. Italy, Korea, America, Spain, and .
I also tried traditional dishes like gyoza, oyakudon, and many others. There were really many foods, I even got lost in how to write and show the pictures for this article.
See also 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 noodles somen and other variants.
On my first trip, I didn't have good experiences with ramen, I believe I only ate it twice. However, on my second trip, my view changed completely; I ate several dishes of ramen and liked all of them. 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, it was interesting, I don't the type but it was close to Hamamatsu. Some standout ramen was this one full of chashu that I ordered in the Izu region.
The first ramen below is very spicy, I had it in the area of Sapporo. The second is tsukemen, where you simply dip the noodles into the ramen sauce and then eat it. I had this in Akihabara with Rodrigo Coelho (Coelho no Japão).
Lastly, the best, the famous Black Sapporo Ramen, from a small establishment called Isono Kazuo near Susukino, Sapporo. The place is small, opens at 22:00, but has a gigantic 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 chips covered with a layer of chocolate (I don't the name). Followed by a pie and some donuts. In the second line we have karaage of seasoned konbini and then some sweets from the Mr.Donuts store.
The donuts and sweets in the picture above were bought using a LINE QR code I received from some friends. In the second to last one, we have a candy shaped like a fish; I don't the taste, but it must be fish; I bought it in the Hakone area. Lastly, a traditional Onigiri.
In the other image, we have a traditional hamburger dish from some restaurant I don't recall, followed by probably Little World.
On the bottom row we have some nikuman from Little World, followed by mini pretzels. Finishing the line with some nugets, I don't what, and more a kind of tonkatsu or breaded, but I don't that it's not pork.
Then we have a type of snack or potato stick served in a yuzu flavored glass (Japanese lemon). 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 one below we have Okonomiyaki, surprisingly, with noodles inside. Followed by a delicious burger (I don't where from) and another burger I believe to be from Hokkaido. Finally, I think it is some kind of smoked meat or salami as an appetizer.
These little cakes that look like Pão de queijo are actually sweet and have a creamy filling, I tried them at yakiniku, which represents the second photo in the image. Again, an image of a hamburger seen earlier and finally Unagidon.
In the line below we have a tonkatsu bought at the 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 took the generally easy to find things like Fanta of peach and melon flavors. On Monday, a friend made me try unusual things like Kiwi and Aloe yogurt.
We also tried local drinks like eel-flavored coca cola, Mt Fuji water, plum soda, creamy grape soda, jasmine tea, yuzu (Japanese lemon) tea, and even came across a drink with an alcohol content of 96%.
In restaurants I usually had the free drinks which were juice and tea. I also really liked the iced coffee, I miss that in Brazil. I also overdone the milk chocolate coffee from the convenience machines.
We spent a night going to 3 Izakaya, interestingly they serve the drink in a kind of glass that sits inside another square wooden glass, filling both glasses. It was a very fun and expensive night.
