There is more to Eat than just Sushi in Japan

While there remain plenty of cheap travel optionsto Japan, including cheapairplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, discounttravel deals, and cheap vacation packages, sometravelers are hesitant to even visit Japan out of fear of eating sushi, whichmany assume means eating raw fish.

Japan offers many non-fish delicious dishes according to SiaLing Xin:

• Japaneseramen noodles taste nothing like the air dried pre-packed noodles that Americanstudents are known to consume excessively. There are many different soup bases (such as miso, shio, shoya) forthese noodles. A bowl of ramen usuallycomes with chicken or pork chasu (a type of marinated and sliced meat), an egg(which should have a gooey yolk and savory white) and assorted garnishes suchas spring onions, leek, and sesame seeds.

• Tonkatsuis a Japanese version of a fried pork chop cut into thin strips and served withrice, a salad of shredded lettuce, and miso soup. For many foreigners this is their mostpopular meal when it comes to Japanese cuisine. The Japanese have perfected the art of deep frying so that this dishdoes not come out as either tough or greasy.

• Tempurais one of Japans most popular deep frying techniques. Prawns, sliced pumpkin, eggplant, wholesoft-shell crab, and/or assorted over vegetables (mind you, you can selectwhether you only want vegetables or fish or a mixture of both) are dipped intoa starchy batter and deep fried. Tempurais always light, grease free, and a delicious snack or finger food.

  Tempuras work well with Japanese coldnoodles, or soba, since the hot and cold contrast nicely. Dips of savory broth similar to a thin wateryversion of soya sauce topped with grated daikon and ginger often come withtempura.

• Okonomiyaki(which translates to grill as you like) often comes with anything fromcabbage to sliced octopus, or bacon and shrimp, and may be wrapped inside afloury batter and grilled until it becomes a thick, fluffy pancake. It is then topped with various sauces, suchas Japanese mayonnaise and ketchup. Parmesan, thin slices of dried, fermented tuna and seaweed may also beadded to the mix.

• Gyu-donappeals to beef lovers. This dish comeswith fluffy rice and is topped with thinly sliced beef and onion simmered in aflavorful broth. The beef and onionoften taste mildly sweet, almost as though caramelized, and chili flakes aresometimes added to give this dish a spicy kick. Some like to add a raw egg on top of the rice bowl to give the rice arich and slick dimension. For those whowant something other than rice, try beef udon that often comes with a halfcooked egg in a steaming soupy hot dish.