Milk production, which was essentially nil during the Edo Period (1603-1868), did not begin in Japan until the Meiji Era (1868-1912). But by 1975, there was already one dairy cow for every 62 Japanese people, and milk had been a standard part of school lunches ...

The seasonality of fruits, vegetables, nuts and fungi growing in the fields and mountains of Japan is fairly obvious to many of us who we are familiar with such places and foods. The seasonality of the sea, however, remains relatively unknown even among the most ...

During the New Year's holidays, many Japanese eat osechi ryōri, a collection of traditional foods developed during the Heian Period (794-1185). It originally consisted of fish or vegetables simmered in soy sauce and sweet mirin but, as the years passed, other foods were incorporated ...

Reaching Rausu, a fishing village in Eastern Hokkaido, isn't easy. Public transport is almost non-existant to this small community situated halfway up Shiretoko Peninsula, which juts out from the edge of Japan's northernmost island. Though it's remote and tiny, Rausu produces some of the ...

Shodoshima, the largest island in the Seto Inland Sea, is not only covered in thousands of olive trees, it also holds half of Japan's remaining wooden soy sauce barrels. Though the island has produced olive oil for about 115 years, soy sauce has been ...

Friendly faces call out greetings as I stroll through the morning market in Wajima on the northern end of Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture. I'm a big supporter of the fish sauce and fermented foods sold here, and it seems some vendors have remembered me. ...

When I first married, I stocked the pantry with a can of affordable Spanish olive oil sourced through a friend. But as time meandered along and finances became more secure, I began to buy better quality oil, until I was using an organic variety ...

Tears well up in 88-year-old Izue Hamada's eyes as she holds up a halved nari (cycad) nut for me to see. "Nari nuts are treasures!" she says. "If not for nari, we islanders would have died during the war." Nari nuts are the staple crop of ...

Akihiro Iio, now in his late 30s, is the fifth generation of his family to run Iio Jozo, a venerable vinegar house outside of Kyoto. Using locally grown rice, the Iio family has been producing vinegar in Kyoto for more than 120 years, and ...

Goushi Iijima sits in front of the irori ( a traditional ash fireplace), his back ramrod straight yet somehow deeply relaxed. With measured, fluid movements, he pours cold-infused green tea into delicate clear glass cups set on lacquerware saucers. We balance the saucers in our ...