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Typical Food in Japan?

Kaitou

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From what I've seen, most Japanese people eat traditional Japanese dishes all the time, which is heavily based on seafood, right? I plan to go to Japan in a few years, and I'd like to try all the different kinds of food there. However, I admit I'm not all that enthusiastic when it comes to eating seafood. Would I be able to survive with only eating seafood as little as possible? As well, would it be easy to find Western-style restaurants, or maybe just some Western-style food at supermarkets?
 
Oh thats eaaaasy. There are tons of different kinds of restaurants in japan, Chinese, Korean, Italian, lots of French restaurants, etc. While the "traditional" japanese restaurants have a lot of seafood, a lot of the Japanized or non-traditional japanese foods arent seafood. Example, Ramen and Gyoza shops, Yakitori (Grilled Chicken), nabe (beef and vegetable soup type stuff) tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet), onigiri (rice balls with all kinds of fillings), yaki-niku (grilled meat, usually all different kinds) there are a few vegetarian/vegan restaurants, yakisoba, soba noodles, udon noodles... anyways suffice to say you won't have any problem finding non-seafood japanese food, and also if you are having trouble japan has KFC, McDonalds, Wendys, Pizza Hut, etc.
 
Not all Japanese food has seafood in it, it's just natural that it permeates their dishes since they're an island nation. There are a lot of entées you can easily find such as: donburi (a variety of which use meat), soba and zaru soba, udon, tenpura usually has shrimp or squid, but it doesn't have a very seafood-like taste, niku jaga, curry, ramen, etc.

You'll have a hard time finding lamb, though ☝ I don't think you'll have any trouble finding things to eat, if all else fails the conbini has a large selection of foods. There are also a lot of Western chains, as well as nihon-fuu western chains like mos burger, first kitchen, and lotteria. The general quality of the ingredients used in Japanese food are more fresh and of higher quality, which translates into better food (I'd avoid McDonalds though, they suck no matter where you go). Real Japanese seafood is also quite good, I'd recommend trying everything to see what you like. Maguro (tuna), Unagi (eel, mmm), Ika (squid), Hamachi (yellowtail), Hotate (scallops), and Tako (octopus) are all very well integrated into japanese cuisine, I suggest giving them a shot!

edit// also, I recall there being a completely western-style supermarket run by kinokuniya where everything was actually imported from the states; might be a bit hard to find though, and likely more expensive than your typical supermarket.
 
Oh man, you guys are making me hungry.
nice gaijin said:
also, I recall there being a completely western-style supermarket run by kinokuniya where everything was actually imported from the states; might be a bit hard to find though, and likely more expensive than your typical supermarket.
Yeah, those supermarkets like "kinokuniya" or "meijiya" have a quite nice selection of groceries that are hard to get at a regular Japanese grocery store. For example, if you want to get red or orange pepper, you would want to go to one of those places.
 
Try to learn to like seafood. It's just lame to go all the way to Japan and eat at Makudonaldo (McDonald's) all the time. :123: :131:
 
Lol, I'm not much of a fan of McDonald's in Canada, either. Thanks for the info though, guys. It's a relief to know that I'll be able to eat dishes that have nothing to do with seafood. It's kind of strange, though. Even though I don't really like seafood in general, I happen to have a love of squid. Maybe I might actually be able to learn to like seafood...
 
There's always Sony Plaza if you want to load up on candy, chips and general junk ;-)

Actually I also don't eat a lot of seafood due to my father having a fish allergy. So, for the first 18 years of my life until leaving home, we never had fish in the house. Believe me, there's a wealth of stuff out there to enjoy. I hope you do learn to enjoy the seafood though. Raw fish may not sound that appetising, but it would be a shame to miss out on something so... well... "Japanese"!
 
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