With its marvelous landscapes and vigorous cultural diversity, Japan is a must-visit destination owning many deliciously fresh cuisines. Japanese cuisine culture is well-known for its traditional cuisine, and unique culinary art. Eye-catching, subtle blend of color and taste are what people say after enjoying Japanese food on shore excursions. We've selected 6 most famous traditional dishes at cherry blossom kingdom.
1. Sushi
Sushi is the most famous Japanese dishes and is usually tasted on special occasions, such as a celebration in Japan. Sushi is a mixture of tangy, plump and juicy flavors with raw fish served on rice seasoned with vinegar. It’s made with fresh fish combined with vinegar rice and presented in various ways and shapes nowadays. There are many different types of sushi, but here are some more popular:
Nigiri: sushi is served with small rice balls and fish or shellfish.
Norimaki: sushi is rolled with rice and seafood in dried seaweed sheets.
Oshizushi: sushi rice with the fish is pressed onto and put in a wooden box.
Inari: sushi rice is filled into tofu bags.
Chirashi: spread seafood, mushrooms, and vegetables over sushi rice.
The best place to sample sushi is in Tsukiji Market – the largest fish market in the world – included in many Tokyo shore trips.
2. Ramen
Ramen is Japanese most favorite late night meal. Although its origin is from China, the Japanese have brought their own delicious flavor into the dish. Soup and noodles are main ingredients of ramen. You’ll feel the complete taste of tonkotsu ramen through Fukuoka shore excursions and miso ramen is very famous in Hokkaido. 
There are lots of ramen types in Japan such as Shoyu ramen soup (chicken broth flavored with soy sauce), Shio ramen soup (chicken or pork broth seasoned with salt), Miso ramen soup (soybean) and Tonkotsu (pork bones boiled and creamy soup flavored with chicken broth and pork fat).
The second important aspect of ramen is the noodles made of wheat. Typical Ramen noodles are long and elastic, but there are various types from thin and straight to thick and wavy.
Ramen is eaten with chopsticks and often served together with small toppings such as slices of roasted or braised pork, shredded leeks or green onions, cooked bean sprouts add sweetness and crunch, soft boiled, raw and marinated eggs, corn and butter. Ramen noodles get soggy quickly and should be eaten immediately after they are served. A slurping sound when eating ramen makes the meal more interesting. You can lift up the bowl to drink the soup, but it is alright to leave some unfinished soup in the bowl.
3. Tempura
Come to Japan, there is a dish that appears in everywhere you go from luxury restaurants to street vendors. Tempura is a dish of fried fish, seafood or vegetables and in the 16th century is introduced to Japan by the Portuguese. Over the years, with Japanese culinary art, tempura’s developed and become one of the best Japanese dishes. 
To make every piece is crisply fried perfection, special care with cut ingredients as well as to the temperature of the batter (ice cold) and oil (very hot) for deep-frying is very important in cooking tempura. Tempura is often eaten with a dipping sauce, however experiencing Kyoto and Osaka shore trips, you’ll enjoy the dish dipped in flavored salt.
Before tasting tempura, you’ll be served lighter flavored items like shrimp and fish, and then stronger flavored items like root vegetables. Tempura pieces are usually individually seasoned with salt or dipped into a dipping sauce to have more delicious flavor. Also, toppings in noodle soups are useful help to make tempura much more savory.
4. Kaiseki
One of most well-known premium Japanese dish is kaiseki, which is the amazing combination of culinary art, precision and meticulousness decoration and savors. Certainly, you are all attracted and mesmerized every time you’ll see kaiseki. If you have enough condition to sample this dish, it will definitely highlight your Japan shore excursion.
Kaiseki dish was born from the traditional tea ceremony, later it became an elaborate dining style popular among aristocratic circles. However, today kaiseki is served in specialized restaurants or can be enjoyed by staying at a ryokan called Japanese style inn.
A kaiseki meal appears a variety of course starters, appetizers, main courses, and dessert. The meal may be started off with a small glass of alcohol like a sweet wine or local alcohol. Then start with a selection of beautifully prepared, bite-sized appetizers served on a long dish known as a hassun. 
After that, you’ll enjoy main courses shown high cooking and decorating method through each dish representing one different method. Kaiseki main courses include soup (Suimono) garnished with vegetables, tofu or seafood; Sashimi (Otsukuri) is thinly sliced, raw fish, usually served on a bed of shredded daikon and accompanied by soya sauce and wasabi; boiled dish (Nimono) made by boiling, simmering or stewing vegetables and meat or seafood in a mixture of soya sauce, sweet cooking sake, and sugar. Moreover, you’ll feast on grilled dish (Yakimono) - grilled fish or meat; deep fried dish (Agemono) commonly tempura; steamed dish (Mushimono) with a savory egg custard flavored with fish stock, chicken, gingko nuts and seafood; vinegared dish (Sunomono); shokuji consisting of rice, miso soup and pickles; rice; miso soup and pickles (Tsukemono) - a small assortment of pickled vegetables.
Lastly, you’ll come to the sweet dessert with fresh fruit, sorbet or other light dessert and finish a kaiseki meal.
5. Okonomiyaki
Literally “grilled as you like” or sometimes Okonomiyaki is translated into English as "As-you-like-it Pancake". Okonomiyaki is extremely the most comfort food and it may break people’s thought of Japanese cuisine. This food is pan-fried food that consists of batter and cabbage and you can select your favorite toppings and ingredients. The dish is most popular in the west of Japan, particularly you can fall in love with it when you take a visit to Osaka and Hiroshima by shore trips.
6. Yakitori
Yakitori is grilled chicken skewers made from bite-sized pieces of chicken. This food is usually cooked over charcoal and enjoyed together with a glass of beer. You can choose a sweet and savory yakitori sauce (tare) or salt (shio) to make yakitori much more delicious and suitable for your taste. You can eat yakitori with your hands or use chopsticks to remove the meat from the skewer.
