Japanese Food
The Only Reliably Vegan Meal in Japan
Shojin ryori is more than Japanese vegan food. Learn what temple cuisine excludes, how its courses work, where to eat it, and what a Koyasan stay with dinner costs.
Japan Know How archive
Japanese Food
What is on the menu and how to order it without guessing: sushi versus sashimi, the umami question, regional ramen, convenience store food worth eating, and the dishes Americans think they know. Includes what to do about allergies and vegetarian eating in Japan.
Japanese Food
Eating by Religious Rules in a Pork-Dashi Country
Finding a restaurant is only the first step. Learn how to check halal certification, ask about mirin, dashi, and pork broth, and arrange kosher meals before traveling.
Japanese Food
Egg, Milk, Wheat, Buckwheat, Peanut, Shrimp, Crab, Walnut
Japan requires packaged foods to identify nine specified allergens, including cashews added in 2026, while twenty more remain recommended. Restaurants are outside the mandatory system, so a menu or staff answer cannot provide the same level of information as a packaged-food label.
Japanese Food
Gyudon to Kaiseki: the Real Price Ladder
Beef bowl, ramen, set lunch, izakaya night, sushi counter. Six price tiers in yen and dollars, plus what rice and labor costs recently did to them.
Japanese Food
Why a Small Plate Arrives Before You Order
The unexplained dish served at an izakaya usually is not free. Learn how an otoshi works, where its per-person price appears, when you can decline it, and how to calculate the real cost before sitting down.
Japanese Food
Six Things That Read as a Funeral
Standing them upright in rice and passing food tip to tip both copy funeral rites. The taboos that genuinely matter, the ones that do not, and rests.
Japanese Food
The Price Gap Between Tokyo and New York
A Ginza counter runs 15,000 to 40,000 yen, and the same format in the US often costs more. Booking rules, no-show fees, and what omakase does not mean.
Japanese Food
Touch Panel, Plate Colors and the Camera
Plate color sets the price, most orders now go through a touch panel, and cameras watch the lane after the 2023 tampering videos. How a meal runs.
Japanese Food
Paying Before You Sit Down
Buy the ticket, hand it over, sit and wait. Where the topping buttons hide, what kaedama costs, and why the machine wants cash far more often than cards.
Japanese Food
The Small Dish You Never Ordered and Must Pay For
Otoshi is a seat charge served as food, usually 300 to 500 yen a head. Why it is not a scam, how nomihodai timing works, and ordering in rounds.