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Japanese food

Japanese cuisine or Washoku has recently been designated an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO, and in this Japanese teachers' blog we introduce some personal stories by professional Japanese teachers about their views of Japanese food culture.


Japanese winter cuisine Japanese cuisine or Washoku has seasonal dishes that are popular all over the country. Some dishes feature ingredients that are particular to a certain region of the country like crab dishes from Hokkaido. And yet others are ubiquitous around Japan with the ingredients changing not only from area to area, but from family to family too. Ueno sensei introduces one of these...
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Apples in Japan Apple cultivation in Japan started in the pre-war Meiji period. The fruit has become one of the most popular fruits in the country and Japan has developed some of its own varieties. Many of these are exported and eaten all over the world. In this blog, Oosawa sensei, one of the Japanese teachers at JOI online school, explains about one of the most famous of these types of apples....
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Sushi in Japan Sushi was first eaten in Southeast Asia along the area around the Mekong River. The person credited with 'inventing' the modern Japanese style sushi which is popular today was was a chef named Hanaya Yohei. Sushi is popular all over Japan, and there are many types of sushi bars ranging from the super-expensive to the reasonably priced Kaiten-Sushi places which are also called conv...
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Japanese Onigiri rice balls One of the most popular and standard Japanese cuisine is the Onigiri or rice balls. They are usually wrapped in sea-weed which is also known as nori or roasted laver. The insides can be filled with almost anything, and the most traditional filling is usually Umeboshi or Japanese plumsthere although many innovative fillings found in convenience stores recently. In thi...
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Japanese summer food Japan has four quite distinct seasons, although some claim that the rainy season would actually make it five, and Japanese people tend to eat different food during the different seasons. It is one of the favorite discussions in Japanese small talk to discuss the various foods available each season. In the convenience stores and supermarkets, you see the change of the seasons...
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