Japanese Cuisine - Itadakimasu!

Japanese Cuisine (日本料理) also known as Nihon Ryori or Washoku is popular not only in Japan itself but internationally. Their dishes are usually made up of seafood and vegetables and their drinks are usually unsweetened green tea. Seafood is very much popular in Japanese menu than any other countries, an average Japanese eat almost an amount of seafood equal to their own body weight in a year. Almost 10% of all the fishes in the world end up in Japan, their overwhelming passion for seefood range from seaweeds (nori) to the highly priced blue-finned tuna for dishes like sushi and sashimi.

Here are some popular Japanese dishes:

Tuna Nigiri:
Classic hand rolls, with pickled ginger flakes on the side. Best if dipped with a special Japanese soy sauce called Kikkoman (soy sauce company) with wasabi (Japanese horseradish) to spice it up a little. . . =)







Tuna Sashimi:
Sashimi is the classy, special cut of raw fish! All the flavour is enhanced solely by the cutting.








Miso Soup:
Miso is a delicious paste made of fermented soy beans and rice, then boiled with water to make this awesome soup. Big lumps of tofu and some vegetables are may be added later for sturdiness.




Uramaki:
This maki roll is very fun as it has the rice on the outside and the black nori seaweed inside around the filling. It's more popular in the West than in Japan. It's like sushi but it has rice on its outer side.








Tamagoyaki (Japanese Omelete):
The egg and cream and just a bit of sugar make the delicious, slightly sweet omelet, fried in layers on a square pan, rolled and sliced in squares. Drool it's so good! Can be eaten as is, or on top of nigiri hand rolls, or inside maki rolls or chopped in salads etc.





Well, I know you're a bit hungry. . . I just wanna share some useful words I think you might need in eating in a Japanese restaurant or eating with a Japanese business partner. . . =)

Itadakimasu! - "I'll recieve" in English , commonly said before eating which is like thanking to the Gods for the blessings(what you're eating) . . .

Gochiosama - "Thanks for the food" , commonly said after eating to the host thanking him for his generousity, it is also a sign of respect to him.

Hope you enjoy. . . =)

Yokoso Japan! ( Welcome to Japan )

Japan ( 日本 ) , Nihon or Nippon as what its citizens call their country, is a archipelagic country composed of more than 6800 islands. It is located in East Asia, lying to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North and South Korea and Russia. It's very name "Nihon or Nippon" means "origin of the sun" which is why it is also called as the"Land of the Rising Sun".

Japan has four main islands - Honshu, Hokkaido , Kyushu and Shikoku which makes about 97% of the country's land mass. Most of the country is mountainous, making most of its citizens live in coastal areas. Tokyo , the capital, is the largest metropolitan area in the world with over 30 million residents, a quarter of the whole population of Japan. With about 130 million citizens, it has the tenth-largest population in the world.





A major economic power and the only Asian country member of G8, Japan has the worlds second largest economy by nominal GDP and third largest in purchasing power parity ( PPP ) . Now, Japan is very famous in their booming electronics industry and anime/manga.