Explore everyday life in Japan
When you think of simple meals, what comes to mind?
Before coming to Japan, there was nothing I liked better, and nothing I thought simpler, than a heavily buttered, straightforward grilled cheese sandwich made with Swiss cheese and wheat bread and served with a basic, three-ingredient tomato soup (fresh tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil, then seasoned to taste).
Since coming to Japan, though, I have found a new favorite meal, one that I find to be robustly flavored, deeply satisfying, and incredibly simple: quality rice that has been lightly salted, perfectly steamed, and shaped into triangles, and served alongside of tonjiru, a miso based soup that has been seasoned with a variety of vegetables, thin strips of pork, sesame oil, and sometimes ginger.
I happen to be lucky in that I live in a part of Japan that is known for having possibly the best rice in the country (maybe even the world). Every year, I receive small gifts of this rice from my friends and my students. Often, it has been grown by them or someone else in their family.
There is no better way to enjoy the flavor and the texture of this rice than to eat it mostly plain, occasionally accompanied by nothing more than a single pickled plum (umeboshi), or lightly coated with sesame seeds.
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting regular updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.
Your photos are amazing. Love Japanese food, it’s really about eating with your eyes first. Quality, not quantity.
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It’s nice when the presentation makes you pause for a second to appreciate the food before you begin eating. And it’s the best when the taste of the food matches or goes beyond its appearance;)
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Thats why most of the people in Japan are healthy and good in shape. I really like their culture.
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I think it has to do with how much they walk and work as well. Plus, in their school years, the majority of students get a ton of exercise from walking to school and playing sports everyday.
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I absolutely love Japanese cuisine. So many wonderful flavours and creative ideas. Your meal looks amazing. Love that bento platter:)
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You can buy wooden plates like those at quite a few stores here. They have a variety of shapes, sizes, bowls, and even silverware too. I really like them.
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Might be harder to come by in Canada:)
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Possibly. Do you know if there is a mujirushi store anywhere near you? Or, you could try amazon.jp.
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There is a Muji store ... it might be the same thing. I will go in and take a look:)
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That’s it. I think they have these plates too. I haven’t been to one in a while though, so I can’t say for sure.
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Looks delicious! @boxcarblue Have a wonderful day.
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Thanks, Benedict, you too!
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Simple things are very innocents in nature. To live happily and healthy, we should leave the bad habit of taking higher quality food according to our age. Your food habits is very good friend, enjoy your day with your simple food.
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Thanks. Honestly, I wish this were my dinner every night. It would be perfect.
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Sometimes the healthiest things are the simplest. Your pictures of the rice is looking very tasty! drool
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That strikes as funny because growing up, I never thought of rice as something that could be eaten on its own and taste good. But it can, and it can make people drool;) I’m glad to have learned this.
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I love Japanese food, mosty Sushi. Everything is nice, delicious and healthy. I love the way they add a lot of vegetables to their dishes and not cook it for a long time.
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The food here really is amazing! And it’s prepared very carefully. Anywhere you go, you can eat well.
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I want to visit Japan maybe this year or early next year. I am already excited :)
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Looks good. As it is not paradoxical, but often the simplest food is the most delicious and desirable. Thousands of chefs of the world are trying to come up with incredible combinations and combinations. But sometimes the best option is the one that is simple. Pure taste, no extra additions.
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I agree. I worked in restaurants for a long time and found that a lot of people just buried pure, simple flavors with spices and seasonings. I’ve always liked the idea of using good ingredients and finding ways to draw out their natural flavors, or accent them.
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I have been on a big ham kick since Christmas, a nice slice of ham, perhaps rolled with a slice of swiss and I am good to go.
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I do miss nice slices of roasted ham. Making sandwiches with ham leftovers and a healthy (or unhealthy) dollop of mayonnaise, cracked pepper, and crisp lettuce is great. Even just a cheese roll, as you suggested, is a perfect snack. Now my mouth is watering.
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I was never into it but then I made a smoked ham for Christmas and now I can't get enough.
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Now you’re talking about smoked ham. You just stepped it up a notch.
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I like to fry up a slice and put it on my egg sandwich
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seriously beautiful pictures of food! Food porn I would say LOL.
Curious though how much you paid for the meals you showed us here?
Thanks!
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This meal was a lunch at home. Onigiri (rice balls) and tonjiru are things you usually eat at home, on a picnic, or after a day of volunteer work, etc. This isn’t a meal that you would buy at a restaurant, per se, though I think you could.
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Awesome I consider leaving everything behind and going to Japan to teach English on a regular basis
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It’s a great experience for a year or two, and depending on you and your circumstances, it can be a good thing to do for much longer as well. Give it a try.
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Where is the rice from? I'm on genmai rice exclusively at the moment with lots of goma shio. I'd love to get my hands on the best rice in Japan. What's the town?
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Goma shio is great, isn’t it? This rice is from Uonuma. It was grown by the relatives of someone my wife goes to school with. I believe it was the Koshi Hikari variety, but I’m not positive.
Lately, there is a new rice in Niigata called Shunosuke. It’s really expensive, but arguably less flavorful than Koshi Hikari. What many people like about Shunosuke is the size of the rice grains and the texture it has because of the grain size.
My favorite rice so far has been a Koshi Hikari that was grown on Sano Island, also in Niigata.
Where are you living?
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It's unfortunate that my wife is a vegan and also follows the macrobiotic diet, so I don't get any pork or any white rice. Ah well, such is life. In general, though, the simple food culture here is wonderful. I love your first photo. That is art!
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It was just a beautiful plating. All the credit goes to my wife.
No white rice in Japan. That must put you in the 1% here, or even less. I’ve never tried to doing a vegan diet before. I can’t imagine it’s very easy to do over, at least not when it comes to eating out.
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It's actually more common than you might think. The macrobiotic is still relatively popular here, though less so than it's peak in the 70s when the founder was still alive. It was created here and so that helps the popularity I think. There are several other diets that tell brown rice is more desirable and healthier than white rice. Most rice stores sell a sizable selection of brown rices, targeting the more health-concerned crowd. You know now that I've been eating brown rice for 15 years, when I do have white rice it tastes incredibly sweet. And convenience store nigiri... man, you can really taste all the sugar and sweeteners they add to it.
The vegan diet is tougher, yeah. Older Japanese can't seem to understand that no meat products means no meat. We have had many similar exchanges like this: "Does this soup contain meat" "No, only chicken" "Chicken is meat, please take it out" "No it's not, it's healthy for you" "I am vegan; I don't eat any meat, please remove it" (takes it away, brings it back) "I thought you said you took away the chicken; what is this?" "Oh, it is beef" "Beef is a meat" "But if you don't have beef, you will die". haha and round and round. You know whenever we go out to eat, I think I get more enjoyment out of these exchanges between my wife and the staff than I do from the food itself.
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I’m going to have to brush up on what the macrobiotic diet is. Just by its name, I thought I knew something about it but now I’m guessing that I have it confused with something else.
I always thought those convenience store onigiri had some kind of magic taste. I never gave it much thought though. My wife is big into mixing barley into our rice, but we never have brown rice. I can’t even remember the last time I ate it. I’ll have to give it a try.
That’s hilarious about the restaurants. I can imagine those conversations perfectly. Is your wife fussy about dashi as well when eating out? Finding food without any kind of animal product in it here, unless it is a store that specializes in that area, I just can’t imagine being easy to do.
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That rice with some salt and black sesame sprinkled on, looks good... I'm not really adventurous when it comes to food, and not a seafood fan either... But that rice, I can do! :)
Happy Saturday and have a great weekend, my friend! :))
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Thanks! You too!
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😊🌼
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