Food + Drink

We have highly entertaining welcome and farewell dinners where Japanese delights will be on your menus.

Sushi is probably the most recognisable Japanese food and has exploded in popularity around the world. While the dish is synonymous with raw fish now, there is much more to the story. Sushi is the combination of the words “su” and “meshi”. In English this means vinegar and rice. Sushi refers to the slightly sweet, vinegared rice, sometimes called shari, paired with a garnish—or neta—of seafood, egg or vegetables either raw or cooked. 

The history of sushi starts in the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta. Farmers would ferment fish with salt and rice and then discard the rice. This practice of making what is now called narezushi is said to have arrived in Japan at the same time as the introduction of rice cultivation. Until around the Muromachi period, the rice was discarded after fermentation, then people came up with the idea of eating the precious rice together with the fish.

Three hundred years later, Edo, now Tokyo, had become a booming city with over a million inhabitants. Entrepreneurial chefs of this time developed hayazushi, literally, fast sushi. They would place various garnishes such as egg or raw fish onto vinegared rice balls that could be eaten together. This style of sushi took Japan by storm and spread across the entire country. As it spread across the country, chefs would integrate the best of local produce and seafood to create entirely new varieties of sushi. The rapid expansion of the dish combined with the regional dining styles of Japan gave rise to the ever-expanding variety of dishes the world now knows as sushi.

Chopsticks are the preferred utensil for eating sushi most of the time, but hands are perfectly acceptable as well, especially at higher-end restaurants. If ginger is provided, eat it between orders as a palate cleanser; it is not a topping. If you're eating kaitenzushi, you may take plates freely off the conveyor belt but never put a plate back. If seated at the counter of a conveyor belt restaurant with a chef in front of you, you can order directly from them as opposed to selecting something from the belt. Green tea is usually self-service at kaitenzushi.

Sake is an excellent pairing with your sushi. Speak with your server to ask for assistance in choosing a sake for your meal. In the hot summer months a chilled, less dry sake is best. In the colder winter months, a heated, dry sake will go down a treat. White wines, sparkling wines and champagnes are also an excellent choice. Most sushi restaurants will often have a variety of drinks to choose from. However, kaitenzushi restaurants typically only stock green tea (which is often self-service at your table or counter), domestic draft beers and inexpensive sake.

Tuna fish will become a natural part of your Japan diet. It's gorgeous once you understand it better. And we will dine at crazy snack places that are our friendly and favourite izakaya (classical Japanese tapas-style drinking and dining) restaurants. Going to an izakaya is one of Japan’s quintessential experiences. If this is your first trip to Japan or you’ve been here for a lifetime, it’s hard not to enjoy a beer and yarn with friends over some salted fried food at this Japanese institution. Most guides and dictionaries translate the Japanese word izakaya as ‘pub’ or ‘tavern’, but it doesn’t really fit neatly into either of these definitions. The literal meaning from the characters 居酒屋 is ‘stay saké shop’, meaning a place where you can stay and enjoy a drink.

Most izakaya tend to serve a general mix of drinks, snacks and food, but there are quite a few that have their own specialty. With a few exceptions, izakaya are not the place to be a wine connoisseur or a craft beer enthusiast. The drink menu typically consists of Japanese pilsner-style draft beers (almost always one of Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo or Suntory), various ‘sours’ (for example lemon mixed with shōchū and soda water), chuhai, an extensive menu of cold and warm saké (more correctly known as nihonshu in Japanese), and shōchū. Since shōchū is a spirit, it will be served with still water or soda water and ice. If you’re not interested in alcohol, most izakaya have a range of cold alcohol-free drinks available. This typically includes oolong tea, green tea, zero-alcohol beer and soft drinks, but not coffee. 

Whether they have a specialty or not, almost all izakaya have a handful of staple snacks, such as edamame (beans), but it can vary from there. Whether they’ve gone a bit modern with fries or like to keep things traditional with agedashi-tofu and sashimi, there are plenty of great options, even for vegetarians.

Here is a typical Japanese izakaya menu.

• Edamame – salted beans eaten as a snack with beer

• Karaage – Japanese-style fried chicken

• Kushiyaki – chicken (yakitori), meat, fish roasted on skewers

• Korokke – potato croquettes filled with ham, crab or cheese 

• Grilled fish – often seasonal and extra delicious for it

• Agedashi-tofu – fried tofu in a light dipping sauce

• Ebi-mayo – fried shrimp with mayonnaise

• Gyoza – steamed or fried dumplings, often with pork

• Agemono – deep-fried squid, fish, prawns

• Sashimi – raw fish (sushi without the rice)

• Makizushi – rolled sushi 

• Tamagoyaki – a simple rolled omelette 

• Pizza and french fries – fries are safe, avoid the pizza

• Salads – often topped with ham or fish (vegetarians beware)

• Japanese hotpot

We hope that you will thoroughly enjoy your dining experiences in Japan. Our guides will be there to assist as needed.