Climate

Paddy landscapes called tanada (rice terraces) still remain in Japan. Rice terraces are said to have played a vital role in the flood control of the mountains. Furthermore, people used to process rice stems and leaves that remained after harvesting into straws, which have been used as a material for various things, such as containers to keep rice and eggs, mino (straw coats) to protect people from snow and rain, waraji (straw sandals) to protect people’s feet, and shimekazari (straw decorations) and shimenawa (straw festoons).

Short grain rice

Rice is the major grain in East Asia. The Japanese chose a sticky short grain variety. When cooked up, it gets glossy and sticky. When you bring a steamy lump to your mouth with chopsticks, a chewy mouthfeel of rice that contains a lot of moisture fill your oral cavity. The sweetness will also increase slightly enough when you chew the rice. The Japanese have believed that there are seven gods in a grain of rice.

Rice Cooking

Polished rice (white rice) becomes meshi, cooked rice, when boiled with water. Cooked white rice was a luxury food and called ginshari (lit. silver-white rice) in the past when the yield of rice was not stable. Rice was cooked in a kamado (furnace) in the past. Nowadays, a rice cooker is used to cook rice. There are various recipes for polished rice, including sekihan (glutinous rice steamed with adzuki beans) and kuri okowa (glutinous rice steamed with chestnuts).

Donmono

Normally you fill a bowl with rice, hold the bowl with your left hand, and eat the rice and side dishes alternately. Donburimono is a dish of rice in a bowl bigger than a typical rice bowl topped with cooked ingredients. There are various kinds of rice bowl dishes, such as ikura-don (a bowl of rice topped with salmon roe), una-don (a bowl of rice topped with an eel fillet grilled in a style known as kabayaki, similar to teriyaki), katsu-don (a bowl of rice topped with deep-fried pork and egg cooked in a sweet and salty broth), ten-don (tempura rice bowl), uni-don (a bowl of rice topped with fresh sea urchin), and gyu-don (beef bowl).

Mochi

A rice cake, which is made by steaming highly sticky glutinous rice, is a food indispensable for sacred occasions, such as Shinto festivals and events. Zoni is a Japanese soup containing rice cakes and served in a lacquer ware on New Year’s holidays. Rice cakes are made from steamed glutinous rice pounded with a wooden mallet (kine) in a mortar (usu). Rice cake varieties include maru mochi (round rice cake), kaku mochi (square rice cake), and mame mochi (bean rice cake). Kagami mochi is a traditional Japanese New Year decoration usually consists of two round rice cakes, the smaller placed atop the larger.

Sushi

Nigirizushi (hand-pressed sushi), which consists of a bite-sized, oval-shaped sushi rice ball with a neta (ingredient) topped on it, has gained worldwide popularity. The price of nigirizushi varies according to the choice and preparation of neta and the chef’s technique. Besides nigirizushi, various types of sushi are eaten, which include chirashizushi (sushi rice in a bowl topped with slices of fresh raw fish and vegetable garnishes), makizushi (sushi rice and ingredients wrapped in nori seaweed), inarizushi (a pouch of fried tofu filled with sushi rice), and oshizushi (a block-shaped piece of sushi rice and a slice of fresh raw fish marinated in vinegar in a wooden mold).