Japan Travel Guide

Japan's greatest gift to the world — wheat noodles in a broth that can take 18 hours to make, topped with chashu pork, soft-boiled egg, nori and bamboo shoots. Tonkotsu (Fukuoka), Sapporo miso, Tokyo shoyu and Kyoto shio are four completely different experiences.

Japan's sushi is incomparably different from the global version — rice temperature, fish freshness and the chef's skill create something that barely resembles what you find elsewhere. The early-morning breakfast sushi at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo is a rite of passage.

Marbled to a degree that looks artificial, Japanese wagyu melts on contact with body heat and delivers a depth of flavour that makes all other beef seem unambitious. A proper wagyu meal in Kobe or Tokyo is a restaurant experience worth planning a trip around.

Osaka street food royalty: takoyaki (octopus-filled batter balls, topped with mayo, bonito flakes and sauce) and okonomiyaki (a savoury pancake packed with cabbage, pork and seafood, also dressed with mayo and sauce) are the city's most soulful comfort foods.

Japan's ultimate dining experience — a seasonal tasting menu of eight to fifteen exquisitely presented courses, each ingredient at its peak, each flavour considered. The best kaiseki in Kyoto rivals any fine dining experience on earth, and the setting (often a 200-year-old machiya townhouse) is half the meal.