Japan tourist information

Japanese cuisine is based on combining staple foods, typically rice or noodles, with a soup, and okazu (seasoned side dish, often fish) - dishes made from fish, meat, vegetable, tofu and the like, designed to add flavor to the staple food. These are typically flavored with dashi, miso, and soy sauce and are usually low in fat and high in salt.

A standard Japanese meal generally consists of several different okazu accompanying a bowl of cooked white Japanese rice, a bowl of soup and some tsukemono (pickles). The most standard meal comprises three okazu and is termed ichiju-sansai ("one soup, three dishes"). Different cooking techniques are applied to each of the three okazu; they may be raw (sashimi), grilled, simmered (sometimes called boiled), steamed, deep-fried, vinegared, or dressed.

This Japanese view of a meal is reflected in the organization of Japanese cookbooks, organized into chapters according to cooking techniques as opposed to particular ingredients (e.g. meat, seafood). There may also be chapters devoted to soups, sushi, rice, noodles, and sweets. This is also why a Japanese menu is never divided into appetizers, entrees, main dishes and desserts. Japanese menus are instead divided according to the cooking method.

As Japan is an island nation its people eat much seafood. Eating meat except wild animals, which is proper for eating in mountain areas, has been rare until fairly recently, especially Meiji era, due to protection of farming stocks, thoughts of Shinto and Buddhism, and mixture of these factors. However, strictly vegetarian food is rare since even vegetable dishes are flavored with the ubiquitous dashi stock, usually made with katsuobushi (dried skipjack tuna flakes). An exception is shojin ryori, vegetarian dishes developed by Buddhist monks. However, the advertised shojin ryori usually available at public eating places includes some non-vegetarian elements.

Noodles are an essential part of Japanese cuisine usually as an alternative to a rice-based meal. Soba (thin, grayish-brown noodles containing buckwheat flour) and udon (thick wheat noodles) are the main traditional noodles and are served hot or cold with soy-dashi flavorings. Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat stock broth known as ramen have become extremely popular over the last century.

Traditional table settings
The traditional Japanese table setting has varied considerably over the centuries, depending primarily on the type of table common during a given era. Before the 19th century, small individual box tables or flat floor trays were set before each diner. Larger low tables that accommodated entire families were becoming popular by the beginning of the 20th century, but these gave way to western style dining tables and chairs by the end of the 20th century.

Traditionally, the rice bowl is placed on the left and the soup bowl on the right. Behind these, each okazu is served on its own individual plate. Based on the standard three okazu formula, behind the rice and soup are three flat plates to hold the three okazu; one to far back left, one at far back right, and one in the center. Pickled vegetables are often served on the side but are not counted as part of the three okazu.

Dining etiquette

• It is customary to say itadakimasu (lit. "I shall receive") before starting to eat a meal, and gochisosama deshita, (lit. "That was a feast") to the host after the meal and the restaurant staff when leaving.
• Before eating, most dining places will provide either a hot towel or a plastic wrapped wet napkin. This is for cleaning of the hands prior to eating and not after. It is rude to use them to wash the face or any part of the body other than the hands.
• The rice or the soup is eaten by picking the relevant bowl up with the left hand and using chopsticks with the right. Bowls of soup, noodle soup, donburi or ochazuke may be lifted to the mouth but not white rice. Soy sauce is not usually poured over most foods at the table; a dipping dish is usually provided. Soy sauce is, however, meant to be poured directly onto tofu and grated daikon dishes. In particular, soy sauce should never be poured onto rice or soup. Noodles are slurped.
• Blowing one's nose at the table is considered extremely offensive.
• Chopsticks are never left sticking vertically into rice, as this resembles incense sticks (which are usually placed vertically in sand) during offerings to the dead. Using chopsticks to spear food, to point, or especially to pass food into someone else's chopsticks is also frowned upon. It is also very bad manners to bite on your chopsticks.
• When taking food from a communal dish, unless they are family or very close friends, turn the chopsticks around to grab the food; it is considered more sanitary. If sharing with someone else, move it directly from one plate to another; passing food from one pair of chopsticks to another is a funeral rite.
• It is customary to eat rice to the last grain. Being a fussy eater is frowned upon, and it is not customary to ask for special requests or substitutions at restaurants. It is considered ungrateful to make these requests especially in circumstances where you are being hosted, as in a business dinner environment. Good manners dictate that you respect the selections of the host. This is a common mistake that visiting business people make.
• Even in informal situations, drinking alcohol starts with a toast (kanpai) when everyone is ready. It is not customary to pour oneself a drink; but rather, people are expected to keep each other's drinks topped up. When someone moves to pour your drink you should hold your glass with both hands and thank them.

Sake and shochu
Sake is a rice wine that typically contains 12~20% alcohol and is made by multiple fermentation of rice. At traditional meals, it is considered an equivalent to rice and is not simultaneously taken with other rice-based dishes. Side dishes for sake is particularly called sakana or otsumami. Shochu is a distilled spirit, most commonly distilled from barley, sweet potato, or rice.

Weather  ^*

The climate of Japan is predominantly temperate but varies greatly from north to south. Japan's geographical features divide it into six principal climatic zones:

• Hokkaido: The northernmost zone has a temperate climate with long, cold winters and cool summers. Precipitation is not heavy, but the islands usually develop deep snow banks in the winter.
• Sea of Japan: On Honshu's west coast, the northwest wind in the wintertime brings heavy snowfall. In the summer, the region is cooler than the Pacific area, though it sometimes experiences extremely hot temperatures, due to the Föhn wind phenomenon.
• Central Highlands: A typical inland climate, with large temperature differences between summer and winter, and between day and night. Precipitation is light.
• Seto Inland Sea: The mountains of the Chugoku and Shikoku regions shelter the region from the seasonal winds, bringing mild weather throughout the year.
• Pacific Ocean: The east coast experiences cold winters with little snowfall and hot, humid summers due to the southeast seasonal wind.
• Southwest Islands: The Ryukyu Islands have a subtropical climate, with warm winters and hot summers. Precipitation is very heavy, especially during the rainy season. Typhoons are common.

The main rainy season begins in early May in Okinawa, and the stationary rain front responsible for this gradually works its way north until it dissipates in northern Japan before reaching Hokkaido in late July. In most of Honshu, the rainy season begins before the middle of June and lasts about six weeks. In late summer and early autumn, typhoons often bring heavy rain.

Japan is home to nine forest ecoregions which reflect the climate and geography of the islands. They range from subtropical moist broadleaf forests in the Ryukyu and Bonin islands, to temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in the mild climate regions of the main islands, to temperate coniferous forests in the cold, winter portions of the northern islands.