Here I will introduce 5 of the first few food-related things that puzzled me in this country.

Japan is a great place to be if you eat gluten-free, either by necessity or choice. Here are a few tips that I have learned along the way to maximize your culinary experiences in Japan while not breaking your diet.

If you’re a foodie, Nakano is the perfect place to explore, get some great shots for Instagram, and fill your stomach full of the best Tokyo has to offer!

For those visiting Fukuoka or Kita-Kyushu City, Munakata offers a wide variety of historical, cultural, and culinary attractions that are accessible by Rapid and Regional Rapid JR trains in about 35 minutes: the perfect day trip!

Last year in December a new attraction opened close to the Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo that is situated in the shopping center Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. It is called Pikachu Sweets and is a sweet and confection shop that sells Pokémen themed sweets.

Not far from Tokyo, Shizuoka prefecture has a lot of natural beauty to explore and unique food experiences to offer. If you are traveling to Japan, make sure to seek experiences beyond what is available in the major cities. We at runAway Japan did just that! Early on in our 50-day adventure through Japan, we traveled to Shizuoka prefecture and found a beautiful waterfall and tasted a flavor of ice cream unlike anything we had tried before!

Japan has so many amazing foods to sample, but you would be missing out if you didn’t check out the Japanese dessert world. Being a self-diagnosed chocoholic myself, I have been sampling many Japanese sweets and here are some of my favorite place in Gifu!

Here are a few prime sweets cafes you can find in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture's biggest city.

Every prefecture in Japan offers a range of packaged snacks specifically designed to be purchased as souvenirs for friends, family or co-workers when traveling. These almost always showcase local food specialties or regional delicacies.

Starting from April 29 is Golden Week, a week of national holidays in Japan which include Constitution Day, Greenery Day, and Children's Day; making May one of the busiest months of the year in Japan. They have a “Tango no Sekku” custom to pray for well-being and healthy growth of boys on 5 May, Children's Day. The types of food that come with the season are also exciting to look forward to. There are two kinds of wagashi (Japanese sweets) eaten during this “Tango no Sekku”.

To get ready for your trip, you’ll need to know what to eat, and you don’t even need to leave the capital city of Sapporo.

With shops all around selling a variety of chocolates, cookies, cakes, and bread, Kobe is the city of sweets. Few sweets in Kobe can be described as mediocre. In fact, most range between eye-opening-good to mind-blowing-excellent. The amount of care and attention that goes into what are seemingly “gimmick” products can be astonishing.