I don’t need to tell you that Japanese food is famous, and you have plenty of different options to suit your tastes. As I mentioned a few times on this blog, none of us are gourmets or experts on food. We are just normal people enjoying new food experiences, but not always. I put together things we really enjoyed in Japan to share with you.
Convenience Stores – Konbini
First of all, when talking about food, I can’t avoid mentioning the excellent convenience stores. They are basically at every corner. They are great value and have easy options, if you are on a strict budget. We were usually using the most common options – 7/11, Family Mart or Lawsons. In Konbini you can get prepared food which needs to be microwaved, sandwiches, ramen, sweets, etc. Their selection of drinks is also always great.
Some food and drinks options many people rave about:
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- Egg and other sandwiches – while it’s very strange to even mention sandwiches, Japanese konbini ones are certainly good. I actually really liked egg sandwiches in 7/11, as well as Lawsons. However simple, most people who mention them are right, they do taste great.
- Souffles – you find these mostly in FamilyMart. I personally didn’t like them much and preferred Lawson sweets, especially the tiramisu. But many people love these soufles, so you definitely should check them out once.
- Sweet fruit sandwiches from either of the convenience stores – these are actually not my thing, as I am not a fan of sweet and savoury combination, but they are extremely popular.
- Onigiri – a rice ball with salmon or something else inside. I have opted for this option several times. While not my favourite, it’s nice enough.
- Ramen of course – there are dozens of types and flavours in any given shop. The convenience stores provide hot water on the spot, so you can actually eat there easily.
- Steamed buns and other hot options – while we were not fans, they aren’t bad for convenience store food.
- Karaage – this boneless fried chicken called Famichiki in FamilyMart is very popular. Hubby got it quite often on our trips.
- Ice cream – absolutely amazing. You have the option to buy a non-melt ice-cream. You read it right – it doesn’t melt. At least it didn’t for a couple of hours, while I carried it.
- Tiramisu, coffee jelly and other sweets – my favourite are those from Lawson, but other konbinis also have great sweets. I personally was buying coffee jelly every day, since I discovered it, it’s delicious.
Note: Please, don’t take this overview, as if the konbini food is the best, it certainly isn’t, if you compare to food in izakayas, restaurants, etc. However, people rave about konbinis, because the food there is good, which is surprising for supermarkets. 7/11s or other similar stores in other countries certainly don’t have such good food. We ate convenience store food often and were very happy about it, but if you love Japanese food and are not on a budget, there certainly are far better options for food.
The konbinis are also great for a break, if you need to cool down or warm up, use toilet (many of them do have toilets), get rid of the trash (they have bins), use ATM, print out ticket reservations, send a package. Normally, you shouldn’t use trash bins or toilets, unless you are a customer, but we always bought something.
Vending Machines
You find the vending machines basically at every corner. They are mostly for drinks, but you find sandwiches, ice cream, sweets, some small necessities, etc. A couple of times we even noticed meat – although I doubt it’s a great idea to buy meat from there. Most of the drinks cost 100-150 yen, while other items might be more, depending on what it is.
Murat was actually looking at each one and getting a few different drinks every day. I think he tried most things on offer there. I do think coffee from the vending machines wasn’t good – mostly sweet and pretty strange. Some drinks were particularly sweet for my taste, but others were nice.
Bento Boxes
Bento boxes or Ekiben (bento means packed lunch, while eki – railway station) – are the food boxes you can find at train stations, which you can carry with you and eat on the train. These have been becoming more and more popular and people were not buying food or drinks on the trains any more. As a result, most shinkansens discontinued the train food service. For instance, the Tokaido railway Tokyo-Osaka route discontinued this in 2023.
You will find the bento shops at the major train stations, mainly nearby Shinkansen stations. One of the biggest ones at Tokyo train station is Ekibenya Matsuri. There are also a few others around the station. You will similarly find them at the train stations in Osaka, Kyoto, Kanazawa, etc.
The boxes come in a variety of sizes offering very diverse food. You can find options with beef, pork, different types of fish, vegetarian options, etc. Their costs averages 1000 yen, while cuter and fancier ones can be far more than that.
For those, who like kawaii items, they have different themed bento boxes, like Hello kitty. I actually did buy it once, honestly just to keep the box 😛
There are also self-heating ekiben – yes, they have an interesting contraption underneath with a chemical heating pad, which allows the food to heat up, once you pull a string. It’s ingenious, don’t you agree?
Restaurants and Cafes
Japan certainly offers numerous culinary delights at its restaurants, cafes, street vendors, Izakayas, etc. Most of the popular restaurants and cafes in bigger cities in Japan usually have queues or need reservation. So if you want to check out a specific place you absolutely don’t want to miss, do try to book it in advance. I however didn’t want to commit to a particular time, as you never know when travelling – you may arrive to the place an hour early or late, it’s never that easy to aim for a particular time everywhere you go. So I only booked one café once. Otherwise, we would just try our luck and if the queue was over 10 mins long, we would usually skip that place.
We didn’t try the most popular restaurants, like Tsuta or Tatsunomya Ramen in Tokyo, Kichi Kichi Omurice in Kyoto or Izakaya Toyo in Osaka, where people queue 1-2 hours. They might be great, but the hassle and wait weren’t worth it for us. We had limited time in the country and didn’t want to lose that much time on queueing, unless we absolutely had to.
On the other hand, you find a lot of no-frills budget restaurants and eateries all around Japan, which are just as good and probably even better than those places people rave about and, more importantly, don’t require long queues or reservation way in advance.
There are also Izakayas – serving food and alcohol at relatively reasonable prices. I can easily compare them to British pubs with the difference that you don’t order food at the counter, they come to you. Keep in mind, that if you do go to Izakaya and order alcohol, you will have to pay an additional per person charge. Even if some people at the table don’t drink, they still pay that surcharge.
We didn’t really try too many places on our two trips. I am not listing those we were not fans of, but here are a few we liked:
Tokyo
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- Harajuku Gyozaro – this small dumpling place serves gyozas and soups only. You basically have only 3 items on the menu to choose from. It was very reasonably priced and we did like it. We came here at a busy time, afternoon on a Saturday. We had to queue for about 10 mins, but the turnaround was very fast and it was no problem. Plus, we got our food within 5 minutes after ordering. Overall, I do definitely suggest this place.
Osaka
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- Gyu-Kaku Dotonbori Ebisubashi – we tried the Kobe beef from here. It was decent, a bit more chewy than would have liked, but a great option for such a touristy location.
Takayama
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- Hidagyu Maruaki – if you want to try the famous Hida beef in Takayama, we definitely recommend this place. It isn’t cheap, but the wagyu beef isn’t cheap anywhere. We did enjoy trying the different cuts of the A5 wagyu. As most beef restaurants, they bring you raw cuts and you fry them yourself on the stove in the middle. The place is huge and has great ventilation, so it wasn’t smoked at all.
- Hida Takayama Gyoza Sohonzan – we didn’t manage to try this place because it’s only open three days a week. But it was recommended and definitely was on my list.
Fukuoka
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- Ramen Unari Nakasu – this small place is great and very popular. It’s also very decently priced, compared to the extremely popular Ichiran ramen. They serve ramen and gyoza, that’s about it. You actually order and pay at the machine outside the door. It took us a bit of time to figure it out, but it had photos, so that made things easier. It’s a very small place with only a few tables. We were the only non-Japanese there. The ramen was definitely very tasty.
Unlike with food, I do know my way around cafes and we did check out quite a few amazing ones. Café culture in Japan is actually great. Here are the posts about the café culture in Japan and the lists of great cafes by cities and areas.
See also:
A Guide to Japanese Business Hotels: Perfect option for budget conscious travelers.
Hello I am Ket.