Japanese cuisine reflects the rich culture of the country itself, with recipes and culinary traditions preserved through the centuries while international influences and cutting-edge techniques are constantly flooding the market with new ideas. Regional and seasonal dishes can be found as you travel from one part of this island nation to the next, and there's always something to delight. Whether you find yourself in a hole-in-the-wall ten-don shop or a gourmet restaurant featuring the finest Wagyu beef, a mobile taiyaki cart or a themed cafe where the servers are dressed like storybook characters, you'll never get bored while on the hunt for good eats in Japan. 

Tokyo is not only the capital of Japan but one of the gourmet food capitals of the world, with its restaurants earning more Michelin stars than Paris and New York combined. Hungry visitors will find everything here, from traditional arrangements to futuristic molecular gastronomy, and finding your favorites is as easy as keeping an open mind and an eager stomach. Some of the most commonly found dishes include:

• Nigiri Sushi Slices of seafood, egg, or vegetables on top of riceballs. The most popular type of sushi today, and the one you'll find most often in Japanese restaurants abroad. 
• Tempura A type of cooking where seafood and vegetables are fried in batter. 
• Donburi Any type of protein eaten over a bed of rice, eggs, and onions. Ten-don is short for tempura donburi, and there are many shops specializing in variations of this dish.
• Soba Buckwheat noodles that can be eaten hot in soup or cold, dipped in sauce. It's considered bad luck to cut the long noodles, as they represent long life
• Chankonabe Nabe refers to hotpot, and chankonabe is usually made with fish or chicken and vegetables. A popular diet for sumo wrestlers, the best place to try chankonabe is at one of the specialty restaurants around the Kokugikan Sumo Stadium in Ryogoku, many of which are run by ex-sumo wrestlers.
• Monjayaki & Okonomiyaki Monja is a type of runny pancake made of flour and water mixed with ingredients like sliced cabbage and small pieces of seafood and meat, which are then cooked on a hot grill. Okonomiyaki is a similar dish, but the base is eggs rather than flour. A small spatula is used to scrape some of the cooked pancake and eat it off the grill. 
• Tsukudani Tsukudani are small pieces of food that were simmered in a mixture of soy sauce and sweet sake to preserve them. They are commonly enjoyed as an accompaniment to a bowl of cooked rice. Tsukudani has its roots on Tsukudajima Island near Tsukishima where Tokugawa Ieyasu relocated fishermen skilled in making tsukudani.
• Curry While there is a significant Indian population in Japan, and authentic Indian restaurants are a common sight, Japanese curry is actually much different than the Indian or Thai versions. The emphasis in Japanese curry is on sweet rather than spicy, and it is often thicker; katsu (pork) curry is one of the most popular kinds, and you can even find child-sized individual packets in any grocery store.
• Tokyo Sweets Tokyo is home to various types of traditional Japanese sweets (wagashi). These include sweets such as ningyoyaki, small red bean paste filled cakes shaped like dolls or other forms; dorayaki, a pastry made of sweet pancakes with a layer of red bean paste sandwiched in between; and anmitsu, a dessert typically consisting of agar jelly, a scoop of red bean paste, small mochi balls and seasonal fruits topped with sweet black sugar syrup.