Early in its history Japan developed rice agriculture and rice remains a central part of Japanese cuisine today. Popular dishes with rice include domburi and curry rice (kare raisu). Rice not only plays a role in many Japanese entrees, but it serves as an ingredient in rice crackers, rice cakes and even rice wine.
While rice is an integral part of the food culture in Japan, noodle dishes are very common too, the most common being udon, soba or ramen. Udon noodles are made from wheat flour and are boiled in a broth with ingredients added as toppings. In contrast, soba noodles are made from buckwheat, and are thinner and darker and typically served cold. Usually, soba is eaten with sliced green onions and a dipping sauce and often other toppings. Finally, ramen are thin egg noodles served hot in a flavored broth.
As a nation of islands, seafood is a standard of the Japanese diet. Although fish is grilled, fried or lightly battered, as in tempura, when most people think about Japanese fish, they think about sushi and sashimi. Sushi contains cooked vinegared rice accompanied by other ingredients such as seafood or vegetables. Makizushi is a type of sushi which is rolled and wrapped in nori, a thin seaweed wrapper. Makizushi is the type of sushi best known in the West, however, visitors to Japan may want to sample some of the other types such as Temaki, Hosomaki or Shizushi. Visitors to the country have fun ordering sushi at kaiten zushis, a type of sushi restaurant where a conveyer belt containing plates of sushi roll past customers who select items as they go by. Customers are billed at the end when the wait staff totals how many plates of which color were selected. Sashimi is thinly sliced raw seafood, served without the rice that comes with sushi, and is often dipped in soy sauce and wasabi.
Tofu, derived from soybeans, is a popular protein. Often fried, it is also regularly added to soups, such as Miso, a typical Japanese broth soup, which might be served at any of the three mealtimes. Japanese food is overall a very healthy diet which doesn't put a lot of emphasis on meat, though dishes like grilled chicken, yakitori, and deep fried pork cutlets, tonkatsu, developed in the late 19th century.