LET’S LEARN JAPANESE FOODS! 
Dango
These are like balls of sweetened rice flour, often served on a stick. Dango could be referred to as dumplings. They are covered in a syrupy sauce.
Edamame
The pods of soybeans are boiled and then the insides are eaten. It’s kind of a snack food.
Green Tea Icecream
I’m not the biggest fan of matcha, due to its bitterness, but I can stand it. In addition to green tea icecream, there is also unique flavours like black sesame icecream, soy milk icecream, azuki icecream, blue salt icecream, and tomatoe icecream. The black sesame wasn’t bad, really.
Gyudon
This is a sort of rice and beef stew. It’s like sweet beef and onions in broth served over top of a bowl of hot rice.
Hayashi Rice
This is rather like a beef stew served alongside rice. Yummy.
Kakigori
Like a snocone, it consists of shaved ice and flavouring, but you can also buy it in strange new flavours (melon, Calpis, ramune, etc.) and with sweetened condensed milk poured overtop.
Katsu
This is my favourite Japanese food. It is basically pork or chicken or beef fried with panko breadcrumbs (different from North American style crumbs). My host mother sometimes fills the katsu with cheese – yum!
Korokke
Basically, a croquette. Pretty much the same as the Western counterpart. I love to eat korokke-pan, which is a bun with cheese and lettuce and korokke inside. Yum!
Meron Pan
Any sort of bun that resembles a melon. These buns are extremely popular here and come in a variety of colors and tastes (not really melon flavoured ever).
Miso Soup
Yuck, I am not a fan of this fermented soybean paste soup.
Nikujaga
Nikujaga is like the Japanese mac n’ cheese. It’s the ultimate comfort food. It consists of meat, potatoes, and onions that are stewed in a sweet broth.
Okonomiyaki
I have no idea what to even compare this too. A lot of people say it’s like a pancake or a pizza, but I don’t think it’s really like either. It’s basically a concoction of batter, cabbage, egg, and other ingredients. You can choose what you like to be on it. Then the batter is grilled in a pancake-like form and topped with mayonnaise and sauce. This food is really well-known in Osaka area.
Omurice
What do an omelet and rice make? Well, omurice of course!
This is basically fried rice inside a thin layer of egg and topped with ketchup or a demiglace sauce. Yummy.
Pocky
Pocky seems to be really popular with Japanophiles outside of Japan…However, it’s not such a big deal here. I occasionally see people eating it, but not that often. Pretz, a type of stick-like pretzel, seems to be more popular. I guess it’s one of those things like how Japanese people prefer salty to sweet.
Ramen
Many people think “ramen” when they think Japanese food.
Oddly enough, ramen is a dish “imported” from China.
Rice.
Most people are under the impression that Japanese people eat only fish and rice. While this is simply an incorrect stereotype, I do usually eat rice with at least two of my meals.
Japanese rice is different than North American rices, because it is very short and sticky, which makes it easy to pick up with chopsticks!
Soba
In the summer, it gets very hot in Japan, so naturally you eat food cold. Soba are noodles made from buckwheat flour. You can eat them cold (in sauce) or hot (in broth).
Tempura
It’s basically a very light batter on well, basically any food from shrimp to chicken to sweet potatoes to eggplant.
Tsukemono
Probably the foulest things ever.
I really don’t like Japanese-style pickles. They kind of taste like chemicals to me. The only thing I can actually stand is gari, sushi ginger.
Udon
Udon is a fat slippery noodle made from wheat.
Yakiniku
Yakiniku means grilled meat, and is more a cooking technique, really.
You order plates of sliced meat and vegetables and “cook it yourself” on a grill in the center of the table. Cow tongue is a popular yakiniku meat.
