Eating with the calendar
In Japan, food is the most everyday way of marking the seasons. The idea of shun — the short window when an ingredient is at its absolute best — shapes menus at home and in restaurants alike, and every festival has dishes that belong to it and no other day.
Spring tastes
Sakura mochi
Pink rice cake with sweet bean paste, wrapped in a salted cherry leaf — eat the leaf or not, both camps are passionate.
Hanami bento
A picnic box of spring colors: tamagoyaki omelet, blossom-shaped vegetables, rice balls and the first bamboo shoots.
Chirashizushi
"Scattered sushi" — a bowl of vinegared rice strewn with egg, salmon and snow peas, the Doll Festival centerpiece.
Kashiwa mochi
Rice cake wrapped in an oak leaf; the oak drops old leaves only when new ones sprout — a wish for unbroken family lines.
Summer tastes
Yatai classics
Takoyaki octopus balls, yakisoba noodles, grilled corn and candied apples — the taste of every festival night.
Kakigori
A mountain of shaved ice under bright syrup — strawberry, melon or matcha with condensed milk.
Somen & hiyashi chuka
Ice-cold thin noodles dipped in tsuyu, or chilled ramen under ribbons of ham, cucumber and egg.
Unagi
Grilled eel on the midsummer Day of the Ox — the traditional defense against summer fatigue.
Autumn tastes
Tsukimi dango
Fifteen round rice dumplings stacked in a pyramid for the harvest moon — round like the moon itself.
Kuri gohan
Rice steamed with sweet chestnuts and a pinch of salt — autumn in one bowl.
Sanma
Pacific saury grilled whole with salt, served with grated daikon — the signature fish of the season.
Yaki-imo
Roasted sweet potatoes sold from slow-driving trucks with a famous singsong call — winter's herald.
Winter tastes
Toshikoshi soba
"Year-crossing" buckwheat noodles eaten on December 31 — long noodles for a long life, bitten through to cut away the old year's troubles.
Osechi ryori
The lacquered New Year box where every dish is a pun on good fortune: black beans for health, herring roe for children, kombu for joy.
Ozoni
New Year soup with mochi rice cake — miso-based in the west, clear broth in the east; every family insists theirs is correct.
Nabe hotpot
A bubbling pot shared at the table — and mikan oranges eaten under the kotatsu blanket while the snow news plays.