Food & Drink– category –

Japan's tourism agency tells restaurants that bonito stock must be excluded for vegetarians even when fish isn't an ingredient — which is why so much apparently vegetable food here isn't. Here's the dashi problem, the places that state their ingredients in writing, and the chains you can rely on.

The barrier to Tokyo's best eating isn't money or language — it's not knowing how the room works. The seating charge nobody warns you about, how to order, what to get at a yakitori counter, and which alleys are worth the walk.

Kyoto is matcha's home ground — but 'ceremonial grade' isn't a legal standard, thin and thick tea are different drinks, and the best souvenir isn't the one in the fanciest tin. What to drink, where, and what to actually carry home.

Ten ramen shops in one basement corridor at Tokyo Station — including Rokurinsha, the tsukemen shop that made the whole street famous. The current lineup, how to order, and the queue strategy.

Tokyo sushi runs from ¥115 conveyor plates to ¥30,000+ omakase counters — and the middle tiers are where most visitors should actually eat. Every format explained, what each roughly costs, and how to book the ones that need booking.

Japan has incredible street food — it just doesn't live on the street the way it does in Bangkok. Markets, festival stalls, shopping streets and food halls are where it hides. What to eat, where to go, and the eating-while-walking rule most visitors get wrong.

Kura Sushi's famous ¥115 plate is real, but almost none of the stores tourists actually walk into charge it — Asakusa, Shibuya, Ginza, Dotonbori and Kyoto are all a higher tier. Here's the price by store, the booking that needs no Japanese phone number, and what five plates in the slot actually wins you.

Seven Shibuya ramen shops with every hour and rule checked against official pages: 24-hour Ichiran, cashless-only AFURI with real vegan ramen, a 3AM tsukemen bar, and the lunch-only counter locals guard.

Kaiten sushi in Tokyo runs from ¥110 plates to premium chef-made belts. The chains compared — Sushiro, Kura, Hama, Uobei, Katsumidori, Nemuro Hanamaru — with the app-queue systems and payment traps explained.

The Kirby Café in Japan is reservation-only and books out in minutes on a Japanese-language site. Here's how the monthly reservation battle works, how foreign visitors book it (and the passport rule that gets people turned away), which branch is easiest, the 85-minute rules, and the food. Compiled from Japanese visitor reports.

Hatena Burger is the Nintendo Museum's only café — build your own burger from 270,000+ combinations by QR code. Here's how ordering works, what to order (the Mokumoku soft-serve!), when to dodge the lunch queue, and the details fans love.

Tokyo's Pokémon Cafe reopened on June 17, 2026 with shorter hours, a new menu and a new arrival rule — and the booking works nothing like the English guides describe. Reservations drop one whole month at a time, the cap is six people, and paid booking agents will get you turned away at the door.