Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
food (Page 273)
We’re all familiar with M&M’s, the colorful candy-coated chocolates, but did you know that you could create your very own M&M’s? Okay, perhaps some of you lucky people have visited M&M’s World and already know about this, but for the rest of us who don’t, YOU CAN CUSTOMIZE M&M’s! You can even print your Twitter ID on it! If you don’t have a Twitter account, that’s perhaps the best reason to get one.
Our reporter Kuzo takes us through the customization process!
Visitors to Tokyo may be aware of a popular local sweet called Tokyo Banana sold here in the city. They’re cute, yellow, banana-shaped sponge cakes with banana custard cream filling inside. And yes, they’re as good as the description sounds, which is why the cakes are a well-loved treat in Japan, and seemingly in other parts of the world as well, as I’ve actually heard people from Singapore and Malaysia mention that they’re fans of the cake.
One of the reporters at our sister site Pouch is also apparently a big fan, so when a new version of Tokyo Banana came out this month, she naturally had to get her hands on some! And what’s so special about the new Tokyo Banana cakes? Well, to start with, they’re only sold at one location — Tokyo Station to be exact — and not only do they come in a different flavor from the regular cakes, they come in beautiful, colorful prints!
If you are hungry, Japanese convenience stores are beautiful places that have pretty much everything your heart could desire, from a quick on-the-go snack to a yummy summertime ice cream treat. And some of the best things they offer are ready-made meals like curry and rice, pasta or ramen. These ready-made meals can be like a gift from heaven on a busy day when you don’t have time to cook and need to take a break from frozen food.
But did you know that many convenience stores in Japan put out a new ready-made meal every Tuesday? Since you may find it hard to stake out every convenience store, we sent our reporters to try out some new meals. Click below to see the six that they recommended!
With New Year’s just around the corner supermarkets and department stores all over Japan are displaying kagami mochi. These are mounds of the popular Japanese food mochi which is made from rice and has a gummy consistency.
They can serve as household decorations up until 1 January when they may then be happily, and hopefully safely, devoured. However, mochi has a subtle sweetness that some might find rather bland. If that’s the case for you then Baskin Robbins is hoping you’ll enjoy their Kagami Mochi Ice Cream Cakes.
So, let’s say you wake up one morning, unlock your smartphone, and find yourself bombarded with all caps texts from friends about some “zombie apocalypse.” And probably a few Instagram selfies, too, just to mark the occasion.
You look out the window and, sure enough, there go a few zombies shuffling down the street, moaning about brains.
What would you do??
Utsunomiya City in Tochigi Prefecture is famous nation-wide for its Chinese fried dumplings known as gyoza in Japan. The capital city boasts over 200 gyoza shops many of which are densely located near Utsunomiya Station in what is known as “Gyoza Town.”
Our reporter, Usagi, braved the imminent threat of deliciousness and boarded a Tochigi-bound train. Next stop: Gyoza Town!
Airline meals once had a pretty bad rap, but in-flight food has improved quite a bit since Seinfeld was wondering what its deal was. And really, isn’t it kind of amazing that you can get a hot meal at all when you are barreling through the sky at 600 miles per hour in a small metal tube?
For everyone that has ever wondered how that perfectly portioned food turns up on your tray, we’ve gone behind that scenes at the in-flight meal production center for Japan Airlines (JAL) to get the scoop.
I recently went to a cake shop, but when the time came to order, I said, “I’ll have the soy sauce ramen with a side of fried dumplings.” Don’t worry, I haven’t lost my mind. I was just at a hot new sweets shop in Shinjuku called, Maplise, where the specialty of the house is a decadent dessert that looks like a hot bowl of noodles.
Last month, the outspoken Japanese blogger Madame Riri gave us all a lesson in how to tell whether or not a restaurant abroad serves authentic Japanese food. But let’s be honest, it takes more than tradition to make a dish delicious, and there’s something to be said for adjusting the menu to match local preferences. We’ve certainly experienced this phenomenon in the wide world of sushi!
And so, to celebrate the creation of successful Japanese eateries across the globe, here are the top 10 restaurants that serve Japanese food in foreign countries!
A lot can be learned about a culture by investigating what it eats. Japanese cuisine is full of tradition in terms of preparation and presentation, thoughtfulness in regards to portion sizes, and an overall sense of resourcefulness. There are many things on the menu that may not sound appetizing to people with a Western palate when given a detailed description, but with good visual presentation, even the most obscure sounding dishes can become mouth-watering morsels.
The video From Japan with Love (and Dashi) produced by foodie and filmmaker Daniel Klein gives us all an amazing glance at some of Japan’s most iconic dishes. It gives a fine glimpse into the soul of Japan and is guaranteed to leave you hungry for Japanese cuisine!
As much as we at RocketNews24 love talking about Japanese food and introducing our readers to new places to eat or our own crazy culinary creations, we appreciate that for many, popping over to Tokyo or Osaka for a week of washoku dining bliss simply isn’t on the cards. But thankfully, great Japanese food can be found all over the world – if you know where to look!
For those of you to whom New York is a heck of a lot closer than Tokyo, Susan Miyagi Hamaker, one of our friends from JapanCulture•NYC, has prepared a fantastic list of 12 authentic Japanese foods that are available within the city, even sharing some tips on which restaurants to check out if you’re in town. Yup, the real just got that little bit closer!
While Tsukiji in Tokyo gets the majority of the international attention, the Sakai Fish Market in Osaka is no slouch either, supplying seafood to diners in and around Japan’s second-largest city.
Unfortunately, much like at its counterpart in Tokyo, most of the sushi restaurants in and around the Sakai market open at the crack of dawn, and close for the day shortly after noon. So if you decided to sleep in, or don’t happen to work close enough to make a sushi run during your lunch break, you’re out of luck.
Unless you do like we did, and visit Osaka’s famous late-night sushi restaurant.
McDonald’s Japan, oh how we love you! You give us so many delicious, heart-clogging treats like the Idaho burger with a hashbrown nestled in the middle or the Mega Potato stuffed with well over half a pound of fries. Now the world’s most recognized burger chain brings us little fried clusters of potato and cheese to get us through the cold Japanese winter.
Aside from software development, Japanese video game maker Nitroplus has worked on novelization and illustration work for popular anime franchises such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Psycho-Pass, and Guilty Crown.
Yes, Nitroplus has its fingers in a lot of pies, including, surprisingly enough, pizza.
If you’ve noticed, many of our writers here at Rocketnews24 have crossed the seas to make Japan their second home. Sure, we love the local flavor, but sometimes we just crave a solid meal that smells of our hometown. The same goes for Japanese nationals living abroad.
Even though Japanese cuisine has more or less infiltrated most of the major cities worldwide, domestic foodstuffs and condiments still remain mostly inaccessible and rare in most countries. Japanese blogger Madame Riri shares a list of 10 Japanese foods that can be made at home, no matter where that may be! We’d like to call it the lifesaver list for Japanese abroad, or the inspiration list for non-Japanese who would love an authentic taste of Japan in their own kitchen!
Have you taken a look in your freezer lately? Has that carton of ice cream from last summer grown into an ice fortress yet? What about that mean-looking freezer burn on that mystery meat? Maybe it is time to clean out the chiller and fill it up with some surprisingly yummy frozen foods from your local Japanese grocery store.
While this is far from world-class gourmet dining, the following six foods will definitely make your stomach happy on a night when pushing the microwave’s “start” button is all the cooking you want to do. Click below to find out which Japanese frozen foods are worth your hard-earned yen!
Before March 11 2011, Fukushima Prefecture was pretty much unknown outside of Japan. Within the country, however, Japan’s third-largest prefecture was known for much more than its nuclear power plant. Along with being a producer of delicious, mouthwatering peaches and home to areas of stunning natural beauty, Fukushima was also known as a hotspot for incredible ramen noodles.
Now, some of the more prominent ramen restaurants in the area have banded together to remind us all that the real heart of Fukushima has always been fuelled by ramen power. And they’ve even got shiny, new anime characters to prove it!
Yesterday, we wrote about Mister Donut’s new Pon de Umaimon series, which are basically savory varieties of the doughnut ring leader’s signature product, the Pon de Ring. Speaking of savory doughnuts, some genius in the office thought, why not go all the way with it! So we attempted the ironic stunt of making a monjayaki with a monjayaki flavored doughnut to see if it blends in with the real deal.
Monjayaki is a Kanto dish, so we had our very own Tokyo native, Mr. Hatori, work the monja magic for us!
A couple of months ago, we shared an article on “pet bird” flavored ice creams produced by the bird-loving folks at Torimi Cafe. Now we get to enjoy the bird-inspired frozen treats in the form of Doraemon’s favorite snack!
Recently, Meg, one of our RocketNews24 colleagues from our Japanese-language sister site, came to us raving about a great dessert she’d just tried. Since we’re always thinking about food, we were happy to listen as she gushed. “It’s called yakigori,” she informed us, “and people have been making it in Japan for over 100 years!”
“Oh, you mean, kakigori, right?” we responded, mentioning the Japanese word for shaved ice. “Yeah, we have that overseas, too. By the way, you should really take some medicine for that cold.”
“No, not kakigori, yakigori,” Meg insisted. To help us understand, she even wrote it down in Japanese. We read the kanji characters, 焼き氷, once, then double checked it. There was no mistake, though. Meg was talking about a dessert named “roasted ice.”
Japan releases first official sakura cherry blossom forecast for 2026
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Majority of Japanese women in survey regret marrying their husband, but that’s only half the story
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Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
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Disillusionment at Tsukiji’s tourist-target prices led us to a great ramen restaurant in Tokyo
Ramen restaurant’s English menu prices are nearly double its Japanese ones, denies discriminating
Japan may add Japanese language proficiency, lifestyle classes to permanent foreign resident requirements
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Japanese beef bowl chain Sukiya’s 2026 Smile Box lucky bag basically pays for itself
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Japan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in Tokyo
We deeply regret going into this tunnel on our walk in the mountains of JapanStarbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
Studio Ghibli releases Kodama forest spirits from Princess Mononoke to light up your home
Major Japanese hotel chain says reservations via overseas booking sites may not be valid
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No more using real katana for tourism activities, Japan’s National Police Agency says
Starbucks Japan reveals new sakura drinkware collection, inspired by evening cherry blossoms
Updated cherry blossom forecast shows extra-long sakura season for Japan this year
Umamusume anime cosplayers make news in U.S. for their pro football fandom【Video】
Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
Japanese public toilet in Tokyo has windows that change colour when you use it
One Piece devil fruit ice cream coming back to Baskin-Robbins Japan
Studio Ghibli unveils new fluffy purses from films like My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away
Neo Shinjuku Atsushi: New cyberpunk restaurant bar serves post-apocalyptic food in Tokyo
Eat at a kotatsu while enjoying the view from Osaka’s Harukas 300 Observatory this winter
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Godzilla-shaped ice cream on sale in Tokyo near the sight his most adorable rampage
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