Hello♡

Hello everyone. Today I would like to properly introduce myself. If I don’t, you all will feel uneasy, won’t you? Who is the person writing this article? I know.

My name is Kiku-chan, which was my nickname when I was a student. I am Japanese. I am a 41 year old woman, born and raised in Japan, and I have one child (a 2 year old girl).
In this blog, I hope to write about Japan as it is generally known in the world, but I also hope to share information that only Japanese people know.
I speak very little English, so I use a translator to translate sentences written in Japanese and post them here. Therefore, there may be some incorrect expressions or sentences mixed in, but please bear with me. Please forgive me for that.

I hope this article will be useful for you, especially since there are many foreigners who are looking forward to traveling to Japan these days.

So, let’s get down to the main topic of today’s article, shall we?

Japanese food（2）

Many Japanese people think they eat sushi every day. Of course, this is not true. Japanese cuisine is very rich in variations.
And we also like to adapt foreign cuisines to our own tastes and styles to make them unique. A typical example is ramen. Originally, ramen originated in China, but it was gradually adapted to the Japanese taste and style, and we now have Japanese-style ramen. It is not that we dislike Chinese ramen (I also like Chinese ramen), but we take the best parts and make it more to our taste.
Therefore, in addition to traditional dishes, there are many dishes that have been developed from foreign cuisines in our own way.

多くの日本人は毎日寿司を食べていると思っている。もちろん、そんなことはない。日本料理はバリエーションに富んでいます。
また、私たちは外国の料理を自分たちの好みやスタイルにアレンジして、ユニークなものにするのも好きです。典型的な例がラーメン。もともとは中国発祥のラーメンだが、次第に日本人の味覚やスタイルに合わせられ、現在の日本式ラーメンがあります。中国のラーメンが嫌いなわけではなく（私も中国のラーメンは好きだ）、良いところを取り入れてより自分好みに仕上げています。
ですから、伝統的な料理だけでなく、外国の料理を日本流にアレンジした料理もたくさんあります。

In recent years, I have often heard people from overseas travel to Japan and tell me that Japanese food is delicious. That makes me very happy. Isn’t it wonderful that people from overseas also think that what we think is delicious is delicious? It makes me very happy to know that we share the same sense of taste.
I used to think that only Japanese people find Japanese food delicious, and that it might not suit the taste buds of people from overseas.
But now I know that it is different. So I want you to eat a variety of foods. The Japanese food that people overseas know is just the tip of the iceberg. It is not only sushi and tempura.
Rather, famous Japanese foods are high-class for us Japanese, and many of them we do not usually eat.
So, once you have tried some famous Japanese food, I would like you to try the next meal that Japanese people often eat.

近年、日本に海外の方が旅行に来てくださり、日本の料理はおいしいと言ってくださるのをよく耳にします。それはとてもうれしいことです。だって、私たちがおいしいと思うものを海外の方もおいしいと思ってくれるなんて素敵じゃないですか？味覚が同じなんだとわかってとてもうれしい。
今までは日本の料理は日本人だけがおいしいと感じるんだな、海外の方の舌には合わないのかなと思っていました。
けど、違うんだと知った。だからいろんなものを食べてほしい。海外の方が知っている日本食は氷山の一角です。寿司や天ぷらだけじゃないです。
むしろ有名な日本食はわれわれ日本人にとっては高級なもので、普段は食べないものも多いです。
だから、ひと通り有名な日本食を食べたら次は日本人がよく食べるような食事も食べてほしいと思います。

I will list the ones I can think of now.

1. fried chicken
2. onigiri (rice ball)
3. omelet (interesting because the seasoning differs depending on the region, the family, and the restaurant)
4. yakisoba
5. Udon noodles
6. soba
7. ginger yaki
8. omelette with rice
9. miso soup
10. pork cutlet
11. beef bowl
12. oyakodon
13. Katsu-don
14. Tendon
15. Kaisendon
16. Chinese rice bowl
17. Unaju (eel served on top of rice in a bowl)
18. Chikuzen-don
19. Yakitori
20. Yakiniku (especially beef tongue)
21. Meat and potatoes
22. hamburger steak
23. pork miso soup
24. takoyaki
25. Taiyaki
26. fried shrimp
27. croquette
28. menchikatsu
29. crab cream croquette
30. fried horse mackerel
31. oden
32. shabu-shabu
33. sukiyaki
34. kamameshi
35. steamed egg custard
36. Ochazuke
37. Neapolitan (a kind of spaghetti)
38. Spaghetti with cod roe
39. rice with egg
40. chirashi-sushi
41. kinpira gobo
42. deep-fried tofu
43. chanpon
44. rice cake
45. mizutaki (rice cooked in a pot with water)
46. simmered vegetables

There are many, many more dishes, but for now I have listed the most famous ones for Japanese people. Are there any of these dishes that you know or have eaten before?

If you are interested, I encourage you to try it.