Category Food

Local cuisine, regional dishes, and everyday food culture in Japan.

What to eat · 49 regional guides

Japanese food is intensely regional, and these 49 guides map what to actually eat where — from the dish a town is known for to the small shop the tour buses skip.

We cover regional specialties, michi-no-eki road-station finds, market breakfasts, and how to order when there is no English menu, arranged so you can plan meals around your route instead of the other way around.

Location, Experience, Food, Kanto, Tokyo, Travel Tips

Imahana: A Shōwa-Era Set-Meal Diner in West Tokyo

A brick-patterned wall inside the small Imahana diner in Setagaya, Tokyo, completely covered with hand-brushed paper menu cards listing set meals in black ink above a wooden table and bench.

Imahana, a Showa-era set-meal diner in Kita-Karasuyama, west Tokyo: a wall of hand-brushed menus, ginger pork, chicken katsu and omurice, cash only.

Nobu
June 22, 2026

Location, Experience, Food, Kanto, Tokyo, Travel Tips

Nankintei Kunitachi: 24-Hour Jumbo Gyoza & Big Plates Near Tokyo

The Nankintei Kunitachi branch lit up at night, a green-roofed roadside Chinese diner with glowing red ramen and gyoza signs, a 24-hour notice and a wide car park out front in Kunitachi, Tokyo.

Nankintei's Kunitachi branch is a 24-hour roadside machi-chuka near Tokyo - hand-wrapped 550 yen jumbo gyoza, big fried rice and stamina stir-fries.

Nobu
June 22, 2026

Location, Chubu, Experience, Food, Shizuoka

Tatsumi Shokudo: A Showa Diner Near Mt Fuji

The exterior of Tatsumi Shokudo, a Showa-era diner in Susono, Shizuoka, with a faded red roof, a large sign reading Tatsumi Shokudo, clipped topiary pines out front and a blue sky behind.

Tatsumi Shokudo in Susono, at the foot of Mt Fuji: a Showa-era diner serving hearty teishoku, stewed offal and beef-with-egg, with free rice. Hours, what to order, access.

Nobu
June 20, 2026

Chubu, Experience, Food, Location, Nagano

Michi-no-Eki Hakuba: A Roadside Stop for Purple Rice

The chalet-style timber-and-plaster building of Michi-no-Eki Hakuba roadside station in Nagano under a clear blue sky, with stained-glass mountain artwork on the gable, a HAKUBA sign and a car park out front.

Michi-no-Eki Hakuba roadside station, Nagano: what a michi-no-eki is, Hakuba's purple rice as amazake and chiffon, the soba set, hours and how to get there.

Nobu
June 18, 2026

Location, Chubu, Experience, Food, Shizuoka

Kashiho Mase: An Izu Wagashi Shop in Atami (Since 1872)

The traditional storefront of Kashiho Mase wagashi shop in Izu, Shizuoka, with a large carved wooden sign reading Kashiho Mase and white noren curtains at the entrance.

Kashiho Mase, a 150-year-old wagashi shop on the Atami coast of Izu — the Izu no Odoriko sweet, seasonal citrus daifuku, its branches, and what to buy through the year.

Nobu
June 16, 2026

Tokyo, Experience, Food, Kanto, Location

Tamanoya: 100% Buckwheat Soba in Tokyo’s Temple Town of Jindaiji

A bamboo basket of dark, hand-cut juwari one-hundred-percent buckwheat soba beside a bowl of hot duck-and-leek dipping broth, with wasabi and chopped leek on a wooden tray at Tamanoya soba house in Jindaiji, Tokyo

Stone-milled juwari (100% buckwheat) soba and a hot duck dip at Tamanoya, a hearth-warmed soba house up the slope from Jindaiji temple in Chofu, Tokyo.

Nobu
June 9, 2026

Tokyo, Experience, Food, Kanto, Location

Tsubakiya Café Kichijoji: Taishō Coffee & Curry (2026)

The storefront of Tsubakiya Cafe on the 7th floor of Kirarina Keio Kichijoji, with a deep-red sign in white brush calligraphy reading Tsubakiya Cafe and camellia flowers, a cake display case and menu boards set out in front

A Taishō-roman coffee parlour on the 7th floor above Kichijoji Station — siphon coffee in Royal Copenhagen cups, beef curry, hayashi rice and the café's signature chiffon cake.

Nobu
June 7, 2026

Nagano, Chubu, Experience, Food, Location

Ringo no Ki: Apple Pie & Apricot Sweets in Chikuma (2026)

Boxed apple pies on display at Ringo no Ki patisserie in Chikuma, Nagano, beside a basket of red apples and gift bags printed with apples, price cards in front

Chikuma is one of Japan's great apricot towns. Patisserie Ringo no Ki turns local apricot and its own-orchard apples into pies, jelly and baked sweets — a short hop from the Obasute terraces.

Nobu
June 5, 2026

Yamanashi, Chubu, Experience, Food, Location

Yabu: A Beloved Set-Meal Diner in Fujiyoshida, by Mt Fuji

A ginger-pork set meal at Yabu in Fujiyoshida: glazed shogayaki pork with shredded cabbage and scrambled egg, a bowl of rice, miso soup, pickles and a small dish of fresh fruit on a black tray

A plain, generous set-meal diner running since 1971 in Fujiyoshida on the Yamanashi side of Mt Fuji — ginger pork, tonkatsu and a little dish of fruit, from around ¥1,000.

Nobu
June 2, 2026

Yamanashi, Chubu, Experience, Food, Location

Shoya: Pork Hoto by Lake Yamanaka, in the Shadow of Mt Fuji

A black iron pot of pork hoto at Shoya by Lake Yamanaka: flat, wide wheat noodles simmered with pork, pumpkin and vegetables in a thick miso broth, on a wooden tray with rice and pickles

Hoto is Yamanashi's thick miso-and-pumpkin noodle stew. At Shoya, a hoto specialist on the shore of Lake Yamanaka, the pork version comes bubbling in an iron pot.

Nobu
June 2, 2026