Japan Food Tips
Food,  Japan,  Travel Tips,  Travel Tips

Japan Food Tips, Ling?

 

TIP 2 – Morning/Seafood Markets and Shopping Streets

Morning markets and seafood markets are good places to try a selection of food and an interesting stop for tourists. Depending on where you’re at, do note that snacking around such markets, especially on seafood, can get quite expensive if you forget to watch your spending.

Another place where you can find food is at Shopping Streets. In less metropolitian locations, there is usually a main shopping street where the locals go for their shopping. There should be some individual shops, Chain Fast Food or Kombini available.

 

TIP 3 – Train Stations

Another good place to check for food is at train stations. At urban cities or major train stations, there are many shops around to get bentos, desserts or a quick hot Ramen. You could even buy Omiyage (souvenirs) or do a spot of shopping. Most major train stations are attached to shopping malls as well. For less urbanised locations or smaller train stations, there might be a small shop that sells an assortment of snacks, drinks and if you’re lucky some simple bentos. Unmanned train stations would not have any food options available.

 

TIP 4 – Different types of dining places in Japan

Rather than reproducing similar information, here’s a very good article on the different types of dining places. Japan-Guide.com is a website that I frequently use for my trip plannings.

 

TIP 5 – Food Search Platforms

If you want something fancier, where do one look?

Tabelog – I like to use this platform to search for food recommendations in Japan. I trust this platform better because the reviews are mainly by the local Japanese. Tabelog provides information such price ranges, number of seats, whether the place has non-smoking section, address and location map. Very useful information to decide if the dining place is where you want to try and how to get there. There have been talks about paid reviews on Tabelog, but I don’t think it is much of an issue so far in my search. I try to look for places with at least 3.5 rating and above. My understanding is that a rating of 3 is already considered quite good.

Tabelog also have a yearly Gold, Silver and Bronze award restaurant listing. This is a good list to check for recommendations as well.

Trip Advisor – I used to use this platform for food search but have reduced my reliance on it to a trickle. Most of the reviews are by foreigners and a lot of these reviews aren’t very accurate in my opinion. The only ones that I may pay more attention to are the reviews by my fellow countrymen. So, you may want to pay more attention to reviews by others from your country as the taste buds may be more similar. Places on this platform tend to be frequent more by foreigners than local Japanese.

Google Map – I once found a very good river fish restaurant in Shirakawago just by using Google Map to show food places by proximity. Google map also show the restaurant’s reviews, giving you an idea of what is served and if it’s worth your time and money.

 

TIP 6 – Vegetarian Food Search

HappyCow – I came across this website when I was planning for a trip to Japan with my Vegetarian friend. It is not easy to look for a place in Japan that serves Vegetarian food without this. When I told some of my Japanese friends about finding food for my Vegetarian friend, all of them told me it would be difficult. Most of the time, fish dashi (soup stock) is used in making a lot of the dishes.

With HappyCow, I was surprised to see there are many choices for Vegetarians especially in the bigger cities and tourist spots. Places with Vegetarian, Vegan or Veg-Options are listed and covered food choices from bakery to main meals to desserts. HappyCow has an app to make food search on the go easier and it is a good search to use as they cover many cities in the world.

 

TIP 7 – Check reviews

If you’re searching through the above suggested platforms, read the reviews especially if you’re not one for surprises. Do take note the reviewers as well. Some reviewers are not open to new cuisines and food different from what they are used to, and their reviews tend to reflect that. Best to check for local reviews as they should be more accurate, unless your taste buds are limited.

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