Umm... Rice

In Japan they eat some pretty sexy food. Lets get straight into it. First off we have...rice! And they don't eat rice just because they're Asians ya racists. Over there, it is pretty easy to grow rice in their environment, so that take advantage of that.

The Japanese have;

Gohan: Which is cooked rice. (Might be served with pickles...)

Rice Cakes: Don't be fooled. These aren't sweet. Think of biscuits. Although they're traditionally a seasonal new years treat (Like some good old watermelon...), they can be served alongside dishes throughout the year.

Rice Balls: These are not just... BALLS of rice. They are wrapped in seaweed, seasoned, and have a yum-yum filling (I made up the word yum-yum. Relax.)

Tamago Kake Gohan: Basically, this is rice, raw egg, and soy sauce. Not gonna lie... this sounds kinda nasty.

Sushi: The great sushi. Whats in it. Well, RICE (generally cooked with vinegar), along with raw fish, sometimes wrapped in seaweed. You can pick up sushi at like any grocery store. Duh, its Japan.

Fried rice: Ok, we ALL saw this coming. Fried rice along with anything that tastes good in a pot. Onions, vegetables, meat. (Can easily be made from leftover rice.)

*On a side note, rice flour is commonly used in Japan (just like we use wheat flour).

So if you ever go to Japan, my advice to you is get used to rice, because its in hella food over there. Next week... all that other food I missed.

JPop?

Ever wonder what it would be like to be a crazy ass pop culture fan in Japan. Well… you probably haven't so let me enlighten you. In Japan, they listen to music. But their pop music has its own name, JPop. Creative, I know. But the fact is that Japan has the second largest music market in the world. To me, I just find the Japanese language so epic sounding. Could that be the key to its musical success?

Something unique about Japanese pop culture is that it has also incorporated in factors of the past to shape itself. Unlike here, where pop culture is “one day you’re in and the next day, you’re out”. Everything from current and popular Japanese food, movies, manga, and music all have roots in the past. In the case of JPop, it started off as typically a combination of 1970’s style rock mixed with the Japanese music at the time to give it a western feel. If you ever go to japan some day, don’t be surprised to see this stuff flooding the TVs because I warned you.  Now it has grown to become a vivacious, electronic, kick ass genre that you should totally listen to some day when you’re bored at work and are sneaking in breaks on your phone even though you aren't supposed to.