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Food in Rural Japan 

Shopping at the Convenience Store 

In my experience while in rural Japan most places where you will be able to find food are in convenience stores or small mom and pop general stores. While it has become more commonplace for the bigger stores to accept credit cards. I would not depend on this as Japan is still a cash based society.  Convenience Stores are called Konbini in Japanese(コンビニ). In America there is stigma about convenience stores being dirty, and not having  appealing food. Japanese convenience stores are always clean, well stocked and very welcoming. The food you can buy is safe and delicious to eat, while I would not eat convenience store sushi in America I would in Japan. The majority of convenience stores have photocopying, printing, ATMs and limited Japan Post services. Seven Eleven convenience stores have free wi-fi, and you can use the ATM to pull money out with your cash cards issued overseas.  

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 • Seven Eleven (セブンイレブン)

• Lawson (ローソン)

• Family Mart (ファミリーマート。)

• Circle K Sunkus (サークルKサンクス)

• Daily Yamazaki (デイリーヤマザキ)

• Mini Stop (ミニストップ)

Common convenience food

CalorieMate (カロリーメイト) 

CalorieMate is a brand of nutritional energy bar that comes in five flavors:

  • Cheese (チーズ味)

  • Chocolate (チョコレート味)

  • Fruit (フルーツ味)

  • Maple (メープル味)

  • Plain (プレーン)

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I think Fruit and Maple taste like awful, and I would avoid them. Yes, that is just my personal opinion. I thought the cheese was going to be quite gross but really it tasted about the same as the plain. You can find similar off brands that are bit cheaper in pharmacies or supermarkets if you are in a big town. I don’t think that one brand is much better than the others.  

 

Ramen (ラーメン)

Ramen is a lightweight and high in calories, but I hate ramen. I would always keep two packs of it in my bag as a back up for a days worth of food. You will always be able to find some ramen packs at any convenience store. I have listed a few of the most popular ramen flavors in Japanese. 

 

  • Shio Ramen (塩 ラーメン)- A salt based ramen

  • Shoyu Ramen (醤油 ラーメン)-A soy sauce based ramen.

  • Miso Ramen (味噌 ラーメン)-A soybean based ramen.

  • Tonkotsu Ramen (豚骨ラーメン)-A pork bone based ramen.

  • Karai (辛い)-This word means spicy, and is often seen on ramen.

 

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Bread and Jam

After hiking for a while I found that I was going through my power bars quite quickly. I found that having a pack of bread and a small plastic container of jam made a great snack on the trail. Most convenience stores sell jams and peanut cream in small plastic containers that are trail friendly. Note that Japanese peanut butter is vastly different than American peanut butter. It is more of a sweet peanut flavored cream, sometimes you can find American like peanut butter in some large supermarkets or the import store Kaldi (カルディ). Most large shopping areas in Japan will have a Kaldi (カルディ), the products do tend to be a bit more expensive .

 

 

Curry (カレー ) 

Curry Packs are slightly heavier than other options you could pick up, but it does give you a nice change of food while on the trail. They come in many different flavors and include a few vegetables and pieces of meat in the pack. I would heat the pack up in the pot and then mix it with my dehydrated rice. I wouldn’t eat these by themselves because they are mainly just sauce.　

 

Onigiri (お握り)

Onigiri are rice balls with some type of filling. Below I have given a list of the common types of filling that are in them and the Japanese equivalent. There are many onagri flavors but I have listed the most common ones you will encounter. Included in this guide is a basic Japanese guide about topic, it is not meant to be a complete Japanese guide but rather a few pointers based on specific things that I encountered on the trail that might help people who do not speak Japanese while hiking.

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This information is taken from tokainaturetrail.com and Hiking the Tokai Nature Trail: A complete guide.

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