Category: Foods & Drinks

There are probably far more dishes in Japan than the Philippines. This is because Japanese landscape is vertically elongated, there are areas of subtropical, temperate and subarctic zones, plentiful of mountains and oceans and regions of various climates mixed. Agricultural products and seafood collected in the northern Hokkaido and Tohoku districts are different from Okinawa and Kyushu in the south. And the prey picked is different in the Pacific and the Sea of Japan. Moreover, nowadays the distribution network has developed, other regional ingredients are now readily available.

In addition, the Japanese adopts overseas dishes and ingredients inconsistently and arranges them independently. Typical Japanese food such as ramen and tempura was originally foreign food.

Therefore, in Japan, there are many variations of dishes originally, and it continues to increase even now. That’s why there are a lot of introductions of food to this blog.

If you come to Japan, I recommend you try some of the classic dishes where you can eat anywhere, as well as trying unique dishes that can only be eaten in that place.

Ginkgo tree bear nuts called “Ginnan (ぎんなん)”.

Ripening ginnan emits intense smell. But we can eat it deliciously after  remove the pulp.

Ginnan’s typical dish is “Chawan mushi”. It steamed a pudding-style egg containing a ginnan. Besides, we bake and eat the ginnan stuck in the skewer.

By the way, Ginnan resembles a pistachio, but they are trees of another species.

Unfortunately, there are no  Jollibee stores  in Japan. There was a rumor that earlier this year “Jolybee is considering opening stores in Japan.” However, it did not come true. It is reasonable. In Japan, the hamburger chain competition is intense.

Of course, the biggest player in Japan is McDonald’s. And Mos Burger, Lotteria, Freshness Burger follow. These shops are originating in Japan. Also, First Kitchen Wendy’s, Burger King etc. There are also many small chain stores and independent shops.

By the way, I have seen Wendy’s at the aquarium in Manila. I also used Burger King at Manila Airport Terminal 3. Needless to say, I frequently used Jollibee.

Oh, McDonald’s in the Philippines has a rice menu, but it is not in a Japanese hamburger shop. Exceptionally, Mos Burger has a rice burger that replacing the buns with rice.

In the Philippines, Jolyby occupies the majority of sales of the restaurant industry, but Japan has a wide variety of restaurants. Therefore Japanese go to other shops when they want to eat rice dishes.

When we go to the restaurant in the Philippines, sometimes a cup with ice are served with beer. That is a unique culture of the Philippines.

In Japan, many people like well chilled beer. Also, there are restaurants that serve beer in a glass mug cooled in a freezer.

Perhaps the common tea in the Philippines is sweet iced tea. But in Japan, oolong tea, green tea, barley tea, etc. without sugar are common.

But, since sweet tea is sold a little, please try looking for drinking.

When you want to eat cheaply or quickly while you are out, beef bowl is the best. I recommend it to Filipinos because it is rice dish. Beef bowl is ‘Gyudon (牛丼)’ in Japanese.

Beef bowl is easy to cook, just put on simmered onion and beef on rice. So, it will be served as soon as you place an order. And a simple dish is about 400 yen. Even if you additional order a salad with consideration for health, it fits at 500 yen.

Yoshinoya, Matsuya, Sukiya, Nakau are famous as beef bowl chain store. There are shops in the city center and major railway station.

In Japan, you can drink tap water directly because there are advanced water purification systems.

By the way, only Okinawa Prefecture supplies hard water, but others are is soft water.

In the Philippines’ 7-Eleven, we operate the machine ourself and drip coffee into the cup prepared, then pay at the cash register. But it is different in Japanese convenience store. In Seven Eleven and Family Mart, we buy an empty cup at the cash register, then operate the machine ourself and drip coffee into it. At Lawson, when we order coffee at the cash register, a clerk drip coffee into the cup and offer us.

Incidentally, it is the same for shao pao. In the Philippines, We put it on a wrapping paper by ourself and bring it to a cash register. But in Japan, a clerk will offer it after putting it in wrapping paper.