When one thinks of Japan one thinks of anime, Pokemon, and sushi. Although these things are heavily prevalent in Japan, that is not all they are known for- although, knowing me the first thing I would probably do is go out to eat some real Japanese sushi. There are so many types of sushi out there, so I’ll give a brief description of each type.
- Nigiri
Small rice balls with fish, shellfish, etc. on top. There are countless varieties of nigiri sushi, some of the most common ones being tuna, shrimp, eel, squid, octopus and fried egg. - Gunkan
Small cups made of sushi rice and dried seaweed filled with seafood, etc. There are countless varieties of gunkanzushi, some of the most common ones being sea urchin and various kinds of fish eggs. - Norimaki
Sushi rice and seafood, etc. rolled in dried seaweed sheets. There are countless varieties of sushi rolls differing in ingredients and thickness. Sushi rolls prepared “inside out” are very popular outside of Japan, but rarely found in Japan. - Temaki
Temakizushi (literally: hand rolls) are cones made of nori seaweed and filled with sushi rice, seafood and vegetables. - Oshizushi
Oshizushi is pressed sushi, in which the fish is pressed onto the sushi rice in a wooden box. The picture shows trout oshizushi in form of a popular ekiben (train station lunch box). - Inari
Inarizushi is a simple and inexpensive type of sushi, in which sushi rice is filled into aburaage (deep fried tofu) bags. - Chirashi
Chirashizushi is a dish in which seafood, mushroom and vegetables are spread over sushi rice. It can resemble domburi with the difference being that chirashizushi uses sushi rice while domburi uses regular, unseasoned rice.
If any of y’all have not tried sushi, I highly recommend it! It may sound nasty and scary, but trust me, once you try it you will LOVE it!
I would love to visit and hike Mt. Fuji! Mount Fuji is located on Honshu Island and it is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776.24 m. July and August are the official climbing seasons and during these two months the mountain is usually free of snow, the weather is relatively mild, and access to the mountain by public transportation is easy and the mountain huts are open. I think it would be super exciting to be able to hike this mountain and then be able to say “I did it!”- plus the scenery is so beautiful. There is literally so many things to do in Japans that I cannot even fit them all here in this blog post, so I’ll have to just end it there. Until next time!
Sushi is awesome! I was shocked coming to college and realizing that many people have never given it a chance.
I also really love the art of Japanese wood block printing. The prints include many of the scenic places that you have been describing, including Mt. Fuji (you may have seen the famous print “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa”.
From what I understand Mt. Fuji is a great climb. The biggest problem is it is the most climbed mountain in the world. Nearly 300,000 people climb it every year. This makes the summit a rather crowded space and gave rise to the saying “You’re a fool if you don’t climb it once, stupid if you do it twice.”
I recently fell in love with sushi when my friend made me try it last year. I had to ease into it, first starting with the fake sushi (california rolls, fried shrimp rolls, ext.). I then started to like the actual raw rolls, and recently have been more open to the more lean Nigiri type. The texture takes a little time to get used to, but overall I think it’s delicious!