Food

Standard food for Japan on Christmas Eve is chicken and cake, maybe washed down with some wine. At the station tonight after getting back from some shopping the area was buzzing with people buying their chicken and cake to take home.…

Most of us will know Meiji Chocolate from the chocolate bars you can buy in the convenience stores. Meiji have chocolate makers for a long time, but recently opened a chocolate cafe and started a range of boutique chocolates. They call…

Suica, JR's electronic payment card, and Matsuya, a popular teishoku eating place, have a promotion for customers who use their Suica card to pay for a meal at Matsuya between 5 November and 23rd November, 2009. Here is another…

The Akita Komachi brand of rice is 25 years old. Although its sometimes hard to distinguish between the different brands of rice, the Akita Komachi and Koshi Hikari brands stand out as two of the most well known and best loved rice.…

Rilakkuma and Lawson have got together again to bring out some Rilakkuma corn potage and chocolate marshmallow snacks, just in time for Halloween. Since I have had so many great entries to the giveaway contest, I have decided to add…

I tried this new Dora Pudding どらぷりん today that I picked up at the Family Mart. This is a mix between a dorayaki, azuki bean filled pancake, and purin, custard pudding. I was expecting pudding and azuki inside the pancake but was…

Time for a quick brekky, sitting down with Rilakkuma eating some pancakes. I bought this pancake shaper/maker on the net. Now that I have my Rilakkuma inside me, its time to get some work done. What do you like to have for…

If you like your Japanese rice, then check out this Shibuya Rice. From the series where they took some Shibuya Gals out into the countryside and did some reality TV show style farming, you can now buy the rice on Rakuten. One bag of…

Okonomiyaki is a classic Japanese dish. It is made out of batter and contains anything you want to add like vegetables, meat, seafood, and then topped with sauce and mayo, sprnkled with green nori and sometimes bonito flakes. I was…

I am in Australia this week to promote a golf training club that Advance Partners has been involved with. I was in rush to get to the airport yesterday and was due to ride on the new Narita Express E259 train. Unfortunately, spending…

The 23rd annual Giant Pumpkin Contest was held on the weekend in Kagawa-ken. This years winner is shown in the video. the pumpkin weighed 508.4 kilograms. That's a lot of pumpkin. I wonder what they were feeding the soil to make one…

Has anyone seen this cute looking niku-man (肉まん) at your local convenience store? Imura-ya will be selling these niku-man with the face of a bear from the 15th of this month. All of the face parts are supposedly edible. The meat inside…

This is a guest post by Nicolas Soergel, the Managing Director of Chinriu Honten Limited, a company that has been producing and retailing traditional Japanese food since 1871. Nicolas explains some interesting information about Umeshu in…

Ochazuke is a great Japanese meal to have when you are not feeling well. Trying to keep the meals light and health while I get rid of this kidney stone, I decided to walk to Shibuya station and eat at the dashi chazuke restaurant in the…

Yatsuhashi is a Japanese desert sweet. It is particularly well known as a product of Kyoto and can be bought at many of the tourist stores around the Temples. Yatsuhashi is made from rice flour and sugar and has a soft, mochi-like…

Visiting restaurants in Japan that serve Western style foods, particularly Italian, you tend to see a lot of doria (ドリア) and gratin （グラタン） on the menu along with pizza and pasta. You can also find doria on the menu at many local Japanese…

Advertising outside Shibuya station. Guess what I am having for lunch after seeing this? What's your favorite Japanese lunch? Let me know in the comments below and we can compare notes.

I decided to get a bento lunch today from the corner store, rather than mingling with the crowds around the station. This is a delivery bento place but since I live so close by I dropped down to pick up a quick TeriMayo Chicken (照りマヨチキン).…

Its a slow day in Tokyo, but the pace of change at the convenience stores is fast. Every time I visit there are new products on the shelf and the old ones seem to disappear before you have a chance to try them. Today's selection is a…

I found these two packages at the convenience store when I was in Sendai. They are both gumi (グミ) candy from Senjaku. What makes them interesting is that they both display prominently the prefecture where they source the fruit from. The…

Many countries are looking at ways they can help reduce the harm we cause on the environment through consumption of resources and how we dispose of them after use. In Japan, for a few years, there has been a big "eco" campaign by many…

Seven Eleven, convenience store, has a wide variety of bento lunches you can buy in store. They have also launched a home delivery bento service which operates 365 days a year and can easily be ordered for many people or just yourself.…

Recently in the convenience stores the shelf area for candy seems to be seeing packages that have more variety than before. The most recent range of Pure Gummy candy now comes in four flavors, Orange, Grape, Lemon and Sakura. Each package…

Nagatani-en (永谷園) have released their first range of "function orientated" miso soups. A number of makers have been selling miso soup products with vitamins included, but Nagatani-en claim they are the first to successfully mix the amino…

There are a number of chocolate and other flavored power bars on sale at the moment. making me think a niche has been identified in the market that manufacturers are now competing for. Morinaga has released a ChocoFlake Bar and a Milk…

Meiji have launched 2 new flavors under their Fran line of chocolate sticks. They are Mix Berry and Apricot. It might not seem like they go too well with chocolate, but I can assure you the taste is good. The basic Fran product is a cocoa…