About
With the term Japanese cusine (in japanese, nihon ryori or washoku) we usually refer not only to traditional Japanese food, but also to dishes and ingredient imported from abroad that were developed into an unique Japanese way.
Suhi, sashimi and dishes from kaiseiki ryori (meals usually ate after the tea cerimony) can be considered traditional food, while highly popular dishes as ramen or omurice find their origin into Chinese or Western cusine.
Japanese cusine is well-know for the emphasis on ingredient quality, dishes presentation and seasonality of food.
The importance japanese give to nature explain attention to seasonal food. In Japan, you can find not only seasonal home-made dishes, but also preconfetioned snack or drinks like Pocky or Fanta have seasonal flavour.
Dishes presentation is important because eating has to be an experience for our eyes too. An example of this attention can be the bentō (a typical lunch-box): at school-time, moms fight to prepare the cutest bento-box for their children. And table setting has its own rules.
Japanese cusine is based on a combination of carboidrate staple food (usually rice or noodles) with a soup and a series of okazu - meal, fish, tofu or the like dishes, designed to give taste to staple food. The most common meal consist of a staple food and three okazu. There are many different cooking techniques, and cookbook are usually arranged by cooking technique more than ingredient like Western cookbook.
Since Japan is an Island nation, fish is much more common than meat, wich is much expensive. However, it's difficult to find completely vegetarian food, because most dishes are flavoured with dashi or miso, that contain dry fish.
Here is an incomplete list of common Japanese dishes
Rice dishes
Curry rice
Ochazuke: hot tea or dashi poured over cooked rice, often with others ingredient
Onigiri: rice balls with some filling
Omurice: an omelette filled with rice
Sushi
Nigirizushi: a block of rice with the ingredient on the top
Makizushi: rice and others ingredient rolled into a cilindrical shape and wrapped with a seagrass paper
Temakizushi: nori seagrass is rolled into cone-shape form, with rice and other ingredients in the inside
Chirashizushi: a bow of rice with fish and other ingredients on the top
Sashimi
Thin sliced fish served with various sauces
Donburi
A large bowl of rice with various ingredient on the top; there are different type of donburi, such as
Katsudon: with a deep fried pork cutlet
Tekkadon: with tuna sashimi
Oyakodon: with chiken and egg, or with salmon and salmon egg
Tendon: with tempura
Noodles
Ramen: thin light yellow noodles served with broth and various toppings
Soda: thin brown buckwheat noodles
Udon: thick wheat noodles served with various toppings
Yakisoba: fried Chinese noodles
Grilled dishes
Gyoza: Chinese dumplings
Okonomiyaki: a sort of pancake with various toppings
Takoyaki: a spherical, fried dumpling of batter with a piece of octopus inside
Yakitori: grilled chiken
Sweets
Anpan: bread with sweet bean paste in the center
Dango: rice dumpling
Mochi: steamed sweet rice with an azuki-bean filling
Taiyaki: a fried, fish-shaped cake, with a sweet filling