Oimachi is an important transit hub town in the south side of Tokyo’s city center on the way to Haneda, Odaiba and Ariake.

Chinpin is an Okinawan sweet often described as a pancake or crepe flavored with brown sugar.

I can’t live without soy sauce. I can’t help but sprinkle it on virtually anything. From sushi, tempura and other Japanese dishes to rib steak, cutlet, pasta and even, salads, soy sauce is a must regardless of what I’m eating.

Where to go for an authentic steep.

My first trip to Japan was during a work assignment at Stars and Stripes, which led me to the Pacific Headquarters in Tokyo.

One of the great joys of living in Japan is experiencing the wide range of traditional Japanese pickles, or tsukemono, that are served with every meal.

Growing up on Okinawa, I enjoyed papaya more often as a vegetable than as a fruit. Every once in a while, I would have some of the ripe orange fleshy fruit, but mostly it was ao papaya (blue papaya in Japanese) or green papaya we’d have at home.

At the end of a long hike to the top of Enoshima Island, Uomitei offers gorgeous scenery and amazingly fresh shirasu fit for a great lunch high above the sea.

According to Showa Sangyo, a major flour manufacturer/supplier in Japan, it was in the Edo Era (1603 – 1868) when tempura became of part of Japanese cuisine publicly.

My introduction to sushi was at my university canteen. Every week I would buy a small sushi lunch box filled with salmon, tuna, and other such exoticisms.