Japanese Food

Natto-Fermented Soybeans (B2F)

Natto is a food that has been eaten by Japanese people for hundreds of years. It is made by taking newly harvested soybeans, wrapping them together and leaving them in a warm place.
Natto is very sticky and it is this stickness that is the most nutritious part of natto. Also, according to what some people say, if you eat natto it will help you to diet since it supposedly burns fat.
One way to eat natto is to put soy sauce or hot mustard on it. You can also put Aojiso (blue beefsteak plant), Umeboshi (a pickled Japanese plum), negi (a long soft onion), or a variety of other things in natto and eat it. People who like a more spicy flavor usually use a lot of hot mustard in their natto.
Natto does not smell very good so people who want to get rid of the smell put mayonnaise in their natto and eat it.

Sushi (B3F)

The main sushi ingredients used in Japan are tuna, egg, octopus and squid as well as many others. Recently hamburger, eel and quail eggs are also sometimes used as well.
These are the most popular kinds of sushi in our class:
1) tuna 2) shrimp 3) egg 4) squid 5) other various types
These days people of many different countries are eating sushi.

Rice, The Principal Japanese Food (B6M)

We mainly eat rice in Japan. Rice tastes very good.
One of the reason for this is that there are a lot of kinds to choose from. Most Japanese people eat nonglutinous rice called 'Uruchi Mai'. The next most typical rice eaten by Japanese is rice for making rice cakes called 'Mochi Gome,' which is sticky when you cook it.
Next, we can make seasoning rice which tastes better than normal rice.
Rice is a food which has a lot of carbohydrates in it. Carbohydrates supply us with both body heat and power.
Rice is an important, principal food for Japanese people.

Oden (C2F)

Oden is a delicious Japanese food.
It is a mixture of well-cooked gammo, radish, eggs, konnyaku, chikuwa, hanpen, seaweed, thread konnyaku, satsuma-age, and so on.
The ingredients which you can use are many so you can mix and match them to suit your taste.
We can buy it at the following shops, 'yatai' and convenience stores, though we can cook it at home easily as well.
A 'yatai' is a store which sells warm food and can be moved at night.
Though it is small, a convenience store is the store which sells many kinds of goods, and is open for 24 hours.

Wanko-Soba (C2M)

In Iwate Prefecture there is a very famous kind of food called wanko soba (buckwheat noodles). You eat wanko soba by small amounts, about a mouthful, that are placed in a bowl with a little bit of sauce. An average person can eat about 60 bowls. Every year there is national wanko soba eating contest in Iwate in which people come from all over the country to see who can eat the most soba in a limited amount of time. In the summer wanko soba is eaten cold and in the winter hot. If you ever come to Japan please be sure to try some wanko soba.

Wagashi, Japanese Confections (C5F)

Traditional Japanese confections are made mainly of rice and wheat and often contain items that are abundent in the region in which they are made. Many types of Japanese sweets are made sweet to compliment the bitter taste of green tea. They are also characterized by many beautiful shapes and colors that often represent the different seasons.

Oshogatsu-Ryori, Knot cooking (C6F)

Knot cooking began in the Heian Period which began more than 1,200 years ago in Japan.
The people in those days set up the special days of January 1, March 3, May 5, July 7 and September 9, and had a special dinner to take a break, and eat well.
In the Edo Period it became the New Year.
Knot cooking consists of a three-tiered set of boxes.
Black beans, smashed chestnut, Date-maki egg, herring roe, red and white kamaboko are in in the first step.
In the second step, noshidori, teriyaki yellowtail, teriyaki chicken, and thinly cut radish.
Rolled sea tangle and iridori are in in the third step.

Toppings of Sushi (C6M)

Sushi is one of Japanese traditional cusine. We would like to introduce the most famous 'Nigiri-sushi.'
Nigiri-sushi is a sushi made with hand-rolled rice in a square shape to which added vinegar has been added with raw fish on top of it. Usually we dip it into soy sauce and eat it. Very often Wasabi, horseradish is added to the soy sauce.
Here are some kinds of toppings used for Nigiri-sushi.
a) Maguro is sliced raw tuna which is usually reddish.
b) Ika is sliced raw squid which is white.
c) Ikura is egg of salmon tasted with soy sauce, and rolled with laver.
d) Natto-maki is rolled rice and natto which is sticky.
e) Hotate is raw scallop which is white.
f) Tamago is cooked and rolled egg which is yellowish.
There are much more other kinds.
Sushi tastes so nice, so if you ever come to Japan, please try sushi.

Nori and Mochi (D2F)

Nori and Mochi are two very Japanese foods which you probobly have never had the chance to try before. Nori is a kind of seaweed harvested from the ocean. Asakusa nori is one type of nori that is dry and thin, sort of like a piece of Japanese paper. This type of nori is used to roll sushi in and has many other uses as well. Asakusa nori is black and is crispy when you chew it.
Mochi is another traditional Japanese food. Mochi is a rice cake made by pounding cooked mochi rice until it all melds together. Mochi can be made into a type of sweet by putting various things in the middle of it. Also, during the New Year season many Japanese place a large, round two-tiered mochi called kagami mochi in their homes as an offering to kami-san, roughly it means God but not in the Western sense. After the New Year season is over Japanese people eat the kagami mochi.