A traditional Japanese breakfast is likely different from any other kind of breakfast you'll ever experience. It consists of foods that make up a complete meal that one could conceivably enjoy at lunch or dinner. Typically, a traditional Japanese breakfast consists of steamed rice, miso soup, a protein such as grilled fish and various side dishes. Familiar side dishes may include tsukemono (Japanese pickles), nori (dried seasoned seaweed), natto (fermented soy beans), kobachi (small side dishes which usually consist of vegetables), and green salad. Although a Japanese breakfast comprises what Westerners might view as a complete meal appropriate for lunch or dinner, it is not intended to be heavy or too filling. Portion sizes for breakfast are adjusted to meet one's appetite, and dishes tend to lighter, for example, they tend not to be greasy, deep fried, or rich. How Do You Prepare a Traditional Japanese Breakfast? Although there seems to be a number of components to creating a traditional Japanese breakfast, try to keep it simple by incorporating one item from each of the following: 1) rice dish; 2) soup; 3) protein (fish, egg, or fermented soybeans); and 4) side dish (pickles or other vegetable dish). Complete your meal with a cup of hot green tea. To save time, Japanese families often have leftover steamed rice warming in a rice cooker or porridge that is cooked using the timer feature in a rice cooker. Leftover miso soup from the night before may also be reheated. Other shortcuts include pre-made pickles (tsukemono) or preserved kelp (tsukudani), as well as individual portions of pre-packaged fermented soy beans (natto) or other rice seasonings (furikake or dried seaweed) available for sale at the grocery store. What Dishes are Included In a Traditional Japanese Breakfast? Steamed Rice (Gohan) Plain steamed rice, either white rice (hakumai) or brown rice (genmai), is an essential dish that accompanies the proteins and side dishes of breakfast, and should definitely be included. Miso Soup (Miso Shiru) Miso soup is a traditional Japanese soup made from fermented soybean paste (miso), and a dashi broth. Familiar ingredients include tofu, chopped green onion, wakame seaweed, aburaage (deep-fried tofu), Japanese mushrooms, clams, or other seasonal ingredients. Miso soup made from scratch (paste and dashi broth) is common in Japanese households, but pre-seasoned dashi infused miso paste (just add water), as well as instant miso soup packets (available in both dried and wet packs) for individual use, are also readily available for sale. Fermented Soy Beans (Natto) Natto is served over steamed rice and this dish of natto rice is considered a high protein Japanese breakfast staple. It is a rustic dish of fermented soybeans characterized with a strong aroma and slimy texture. It is seasoned with soy sauce, along with optional ingredients such as dried bonito shavings (katsuobushi), chopped green onions, spicy mustard (?karashi), sliced dried and seasoned seaweed (kizaminori), or other flavor add-ins. Packaged natto is available in the refrigerated section of Japanese and Asian grocery stores. Grilled Fish (Yakizakana) Fish is a very popular breakfast protein and is either broiled in the oven or quickly cooked in a pan. It is often seasoned simply with salt, and salmon is a favorite for Japanese breakfasts. Another popular fish is dried horse mackerel (aji), but any favorite type of fish may be enjoyed for breakfast. Pickled Vegetables (Tsukemono) Tsukemono is a staple side dish in Japanese cuisine as it is meant to accompany any type of rice dish. One well-known type of tsukemono is pickled plum, known as umeboshi. It goes well with both plain steamed rice and rice porridge. A wide assortment of pickles is available in the refrigerated section of Japanese and Asian grocery stores. Seasoned Dried Seaweed (Nori) Dried and seasoned seaweed (ajitsuke nori) is also a staple in Japanese cuisine as it is meant to be eaten with steamed rice. Because it is seasoned, it can be enjoyed as is, with rice, but it can also be dipped in a small plate of soy sauce and then wrapped with rice. Seaweed with rice is often commonly enjoyed for breakfast. Individually Vegetable Side Dishes (Kobachi) Vegetables are also common in Japanese breakfasts. These are usually small portions, and these types of small dishes (not limited to strictly vegetables) are known as kobachi. Aside from pickles and seaweed, both cooked vegetables, as well as fresh salads may be included in a traditional Japanese breakfast. ============ Like most countries around the world, Japan has quite a few delicious foods, like sushi, tempura and sukiyaki, that really stand out. But as delicious as they are, these wonderful dishes are usually only enjoyed every once in a while and are by no means what a regular Japanese person enjoys for their meals on a daily basis. Of all the meals, a typical Japanese breakfast is perhaps what people are most curious about since it’s the least talked about (it’s not like breakfast is usually served at your local Japanese restaurant, after all!). Are Japanese people still scarfing down traditional Japanese foods each morning, or have they switched to a simpler, more Western style of breakfast? Let’s find out! We asked a group of Japanese men and women from all over the country to share a photo of their breakfast on one particular day and list its ingredients. Although two told us that this was impossible since they didn’t bother with a morning meal, 20 were more than happy to oblige. Here are their responses. Warning: these pictures may make you seriously hungry. 1. Man in his 20s, Tokyo – Japanese tea – banana – natto (fermented soybeans) – white rice – raw eggs breakfast 2 ?He says, “I really love natto, so I often eat it together with raw eggs and rice!” breakfast 3 ?”First I mix the eggs with the rice.” breakfast 4 ?”Then I add the natto and mix that.” breakfast 5 ?”It’s highly nutritious and really delicious!” breakfast 6 Wow. So far, so Japanese! We doubt natto would be at the top of the list for everyone, though. What else is on the menu? 2. Man in his 20s,Tokyo – fried pork with ginger – miso soup – white rice breakfast 7 Fried pork for breakfast! Very nice. 3. Man in his 30s, Fukuoka – white rice – natto – vegetable soup breakfast 8 4. Man in his 30s, Tokyo Apparently, our fourth respondent has three different breakfasts that he often eats: 1) Natto and a fried egg on rice with miso soup. breakfast 9 breakfast 10 2) Oyakodon (literally meaning “parent child bowl”, this is chicken and eggs on rice) with miso soup breakfast 11 3) Healthy Japanese-style full course breakfast (white rice, natto, fried egg, cold tofu and miso soup) breakfast 12 These guys don’t do things by halves, do they? Certainly beats our wedge of toast and a spoonful of peanut butter while trying to find a matching pair of socks… 5. Man in his 30s, Tokyo – white rice – miso soup (with burdock root, carrots, and other leftover vegetables) – sardines – rolled scramble egg – bacon – sausage breakfast 13 breakfast 14 OK, now we’re really hungry! 6. Man in his 30s, Tokyo – rice with salted wakame (a type of seaweed) – miso soup (sardine broth with Japanese yams, carrots, and cabbage) – boiled fish (usually a threadsail filefish) with soy sauce breakfast 15 7. Man in his 40s, Tokyo – convenience store bread – convenience store coffee ?”I usually have bread and coffee from the convenience store.” breakfast 16 OK. now we’re on familiar ground. It does look awfully lonely, though… 8. Woman in her 20s, Tokyo – toast (homemade bread) – marmalade (homemade) – mandarin orange – yogurt (Activia) – coffee breakfast 17 Extra points for the homemade bread! 9. Woman in her 30s, Osaka – coffee with lots of sugar and milk – yogurt with a banana in it – mandarin orange ?“I can’t start my mornings without coffee. And I usually have yogurt and a banana but if there are other cheap fruits at the store, like apples or persimmons, I will sometimes have those. My breakfast is really simple.” breakfast 18 10. Woman in her 30s, Kanagawa – buttered toast – tuna salad – yogurt (with blueberry jam) – corn soup breakfast 19 11. Woman in her 30s, Tokyo – vegetable juice (Japanese mustard spinach, celery, carrot, banana, pineapple, ginger) breakfast 20 ?“Every morning, I only drink vegetable juice. This morning I made it with the fruits and vegetables mentioned above, but I make it with whatever I have in the fridge.” breakfast 21 breakfast 22 OK, now we feel unhealthy. 12. Woman in her 30s, Tokyo – white rice – tofu, fried tofu and wakame miso soup – chicken fried with curry spices – Japanese mustard spinach, egg and daikon with soy and vinegar breakfast 23 Yup, that’d get us out of bed too. 13. Woman in her 30s, Kanagawa – ozoni (soup with mochi) – iyokan (type of Japanese citrus fruit) – green tea breakfast 24 breakfast 25 14. Woman in her 30s, Tokyo – soy milk ?“Among Japanese woman, there is a popular diet where you drink soy milk in the morning or evening for 1-2 weeks before your cycle starts, and you will lose weight after it finishes.” breakfast 26 15. Woman in her 30s, Hiroshima – fried fish – avocado and natto – double daikon miso soup (daikon, thinly sliced and dried daikon, fried tofu) – white rice breakfast 27 Simple and classic, but with an unusual twist on the natto. 16. Woman in her 30s, Tokyo – hydrogen water and enzymes (the pink bottle is the enzymes) breakfast 28 Hopefully she’s having a big lunch… 17. Woman in her 30s, Tokyo – English muffin with butter – strawberry yogurt – coffee – arugula – pickled peppers – scrambled eggs breakfast 29 breakfast 30 18. Woman in her 40s, Tokyo – toast – cabbage cooked in butter – sausage – fried egg – yogurt – coffee breakfast 31 19. Woman in her 40s, Tokyo – tanuki udon (udon with flakes of deep-fried tempura batter) breakfast 32 Yup, noodles for breakfast! 20. Woman in her 40s, Ishikawa – bread with cream cheese – omelet with spinach – mandarin orange – black tea breakfast 33 After looking at so many delicious breakfasts, there are a couple of things that become clear: miso soup and natto are still very popular in the morning in Japan, and the Japanese have done a seriously impressive job of incorporating other cultures’ foods into their regular Japanese-style diet. Some of these breakfasts look seriously tasty. If you had to choose one of the above breakfasts to eat, which would it be? Are there any foods here you have tried, or want to try? Could you face natto first thing in the morning? Let us know in the comments section! Photos © RocketNews24 ==== Japanese Food: What is typically eaten for breakfast in Japan? I'm traveling there shortly and don't know what to expect in terms of breakfast options. What does a typical Japanese breakfast consist of? Promoted by PlateJoy Healthy Meal Planning Simplified Imagine if a fairy godmother created meal plans and shopping lists tailored to you. That's PlateJoy. Free Trial at platejoy.com 14 Answers Jay Wacker Jay Wacker, good amateur cook Updated Jul 26, 2012 · Upvoted by Garrick Saito, the Katsu King, a highly accomplished student of Japanese food and cooking. I'm usually there for work (about 1 week per year) staying in hotels in the centers of smaller cities (e.g. Tsukuba, Sapporo, Kashiwa). What I've see is a lot of people picking up the prepackaged cooked sushi at 7-11s or Sunkus along with cans of coffee. I really enjoy it -- they're quite filling and the cans of coffee just tickle me. I also see a lot of people getting pastries at Starbucks or local bakeries. I doubt this is a traditional breakfast, but it certainly seems like a common breakfast. 20k Views · 20 Upvotes Erik Painter Erik Painter, Was AFS high school year exchange student in Japan 1979-80. Answered Oct 27, 2016 · Upvoted by Garrick Saito, the Katsu King, a highly accomplished student of Japanese food and cooking. A traditional Japanese breakfast is what I had almost everyday for a year. It usually was: rice; pickled daikon and or other pickles; sometimes a raw egg broken on top of the rice; sometimes natto (a brown fermented whole soy bean dish- strange slimy taste); ume boshi (salt pickled sour plum); miso soup; and maybe some leftover fish or chicken from the night before or fresh grilled fish, and nori. Sometimes a small amount of veggies. Hot green tea or coffee. Sometimes the natto has dried bonito shavings (katsuobushi), chopped green onions, spicy mustard (karashi), or sliced dried and seasoned seaweed (kizaminori) on it. O ften we dipped the nori in a little soy sauce and using chopsticks wrapped it around a bite of rice. Natto ume boshi (there is a pit in it- don’t bite hard) Sometimes in winter we had toasted mochi (kakumochi) with soy sauce on it or rolled in a sweet roasted soybean powder (kinako). Sometimes we had mochi made soft in a stew-like soup (zoni). If we were in a hurry sometimes we had tea or coffee and toast. In those days the bread the toast was made from was like bad American white bread. I would never ever order an American breakfast in Japan. It is often inedible. Sunny side up eggs, cold on top and rubbery on the bottom with soy sauce is typical. My host brother had been an exchange student in Norway and he like hot toast with a brown thin sliced Norwegian cheese called Gjetost or Brunost (Ski Queen brand). 13.1k Views · 29 Upvotes Promoted by Clearbit You can find nearly anyone’s email with Clearbit for Salesforce. Our free Chrome extension crawls the web and updates Salesforce with new data automatically. Download at chrome.google.com Eric Dykstra Eric Dykstra, Living in Japan since 2015 Answered Jul 24, 2012 Depending on who you're eating with, you might have a western style breakfast, or you might have a Japanese style breakfast. A Western style breakfast can include things such as bread, jam, eggs, and bacon or sausage. Although it's not uncommon for bread to be substituted with rice, and you end up with something like bacon, eggs, and rice. If it's Western style, you're pretty much used to it, although some things may be a little different (Japanese style bacon is different, bread is more thickly sliced, etc). A Japanese style breakfast will usually have rice and miso soup. The rice may be topped with natto, a raw egg, both, umeboshi, fish roe, or just by itself. A more extravagant breakfast may include some grilled fish. I see Makiko is writing an answer that will undoubtedly blow mine out of the water, but this is my impression as a foreigner, so hopefully it will add something, however small, to her answer. 9.9k Views · 12 Upvotes Eric Barnes Eric Barnes, USMC 5 years, Lives in Tokyo, Former Bodyguard, ProKickboxer Answered Apr 15 Typically it’s rice or bread. That’s it. All this other stuff people are going on about is “traditional”, not typical. Throw in some natto and miso soup maybe, but generally, breakfast here is pretty bleak, hurried and depressing. One comment someone else said which I agree with: don’t even bother ordering a western breakfast. 780 Views Ryota Hira Ryota Hira, works at Home Make Hira Updated Dec 26, 2014 Typical Japanese usually have one or more of the followings as a breakfast: Toast (including pastries, French toast, etc.), coffee & fruits (bananas, apples, oranges, etc.) Pancakes A bowl of rice and miso soup (sometimes accompanied with broiled fish, egg, natto, salad, pickles, egg rolls, sausages etc) Just Rice balls Cereal Drink would be Coffee/tea/green tea/milk/water etc. 8.6k Views · 13 Upvotes · Answer requested by Janelle Alicia Monroy Brandon Holmes Brandon Holmes, Currently live in Tokyo, lived off and on in Japan past 20 years Answered Oct 1, 2015 If you are staying at a western hotel, you will of course have mainly western options. If you are staying at a Japanese hotel in a major city, they will most likely have Western, Japanese and possibly even Chinese food thrown in the mix. If you would like to know what a typical Japanese family's breakfast is, my family usually has a small bowl of rice, miso soup, some pickles (Japanese style, not dill), a few pieces of seaweed, coffee/tea for a light breakfast. On the weekend, we will add eggs, toast and Japanese sausage or grilled salmon. This is very typical, not just in a hybrid family like mine. 5.4k Views · 2 Upvotes Gee Daigo, Japanese, with a little touch of murican libertarianism Updated Sep 26, 2015 Typical breakfast Japanese people eat includes: Breads with butter or margarine, jam/chocolate spead Pastries Pancakes Cereal (cornflakes, granola) Eggs Dairy (Milk, Yogurt) Juice as I love grapefruit juice. Fruits (Grapefruits, apples, Bananas) Then traditional Japanese breakfast, which is rare nowadays unless you have a family. If you aren't married, the list above is the best bet. The homely traditional breakfast includes Rice Miso soup Raw egg Natto Grilled fish Pickles Nori, wet or dry Additional kobachi But I'd never do that. Too much work for one person in the morning. 4.2k Views · 3 Upvotes Chris Schlipalius Chris Schlipalius, Australian Updated Jan 4 The types of daily breakfasts I ate were: Cold rice with pickles or preserved small fish (dried, or with a sticky soy-based sauce) or umeboshi, sometimes with spicy roe (Kawanishi and Gifu and Nagano), Cold rice with cold lightly battered fried fish, and natto with mustard and seaweed (Okinawa), Hot (in winter), cold (in summer) “bottle coffee” (Kawanishi), sometimes Illy drip-filtered coffee. Slices of ham with sliced tomato and lettuce, with Kewpie mayo or with sesame mayo dressing, thick pan - white bread toast with jam (both in Kawanishi and the latter in Nara), Hot green tea. Kobe patisserie baked items like viennoiserie - ie danishes (Takarazuka, Kawanishi). Japanese business hotels usually only have the cold rice option, but the more expensive Ryokan attached to Onsen usually have a full spread of either Japanese traditional or Western breakfast (i.e. continental style usually, sometimes a full English style with bacon, sausages), but you usually have to specify in advance otherwise you get the default - Japanese. 1.1k Views · 1 Upvote Clementine Malvarosa Clementine Malvarosa, works at Try The World Answered Oct 10, 2014 In Japan, Nori (dried seaweed) is typically eaten for breakfast: they dip it in soy sauce and roll some rice with it. You can taste Nori from the Try The World Tokyo Box: 30% off to celebrate Taiiku no Hi! 5.3k Views · 5 Upvotes · Answer requested by Vincent Bourzeix Misako Fukuda Misako Fukuda, lived in Japan Answered Nov 20, 2015 traditional way of BF: rice, miso soup, broiled fish(salmon or horse mackerel), seasoned seaweed, pickled vegetables * toast and coffee or tea * toast, egge(omelette or fried eggs, etc), coffee or tea * cornflakes with milk 3.6k Views · 4 Upvotes Shyamala Sathiaseelan Shyamala Sathiaseelan, works at EDS Corporation Answered Sep 22, 2015 Life: Daily Life According to this site, they eat rice, grilled fish and miso soup and pickles. They also eat western style breakfast of cereal, toast and eggs. 3k Views · Answer requested by Ker Nin OH Nick Tantra Nick Tantra Answered Mar 29, 2016 I've travelled a bit. And I'll widely generalize it for you - Western breakfasts are exactly what you get in a normal western styled buffet breakfasts. Eggs usually scrambled or sunny side, sausages like chipolatas, bread or toast - more often the thick cut ones with jam, simple salads, cornflakes, etc. Never seen pancakes (hotcakes) or waffles - but I'm pretty sure they serve those somewhere somehow as well. I find that breakfast is a new concept for Japan in general, a japnese breakfast is very similar to say a Japanese lunch or dinner. The portions are usually smaller, you won't get as much fried stuff for breakfast, and I would rarely see sashimi, beef or pork served for breakfast. It's usually a lot simpler.... And in my experience it generally consists of miso soup, rice, fish - usually grilled or lightly fried, seaweed strips, egg - usually poached or lightly cooked, and two or three side dishes consisting of preserved veg, fish or tofu.... Sometimes you'd get a small serving of fruit as well. Peter Campbell, Lives in Japan and has frioends in many places there. Answered Jan 27, 2016 Go to any coffee shop. They will have a menu on display and have the word service. This is toast & coffee. The toast is very thick and extremely good tasting. They will have various breakfast offerings too often centering around eggs. Or go to a convenience store and look at the array of foods from bentos- lunches to bread rolls. The bentos are rice plus various foods and quite filling. If you are staying at a hotel you will get a western breakfast. 1.8k Views Makoto Watanabe Makoto Watanabe, otaku,Japanese in Japan, programmer. Answered Jul 25, 2012 rice and nattou and miso soup! :) ========== Any traveler who visited Japan may have encountered a "traditional" Japanese breakfast at a hotel. It may have a piece of grilled fish, miso soup, rice, onsen tamago, nori, and Japanese pickles. But an everyday breakfast is more like this: A fluffy, thick toast with butter, ham and eggs and a green salad. The other day, I was talking to a Japanese guy who recently came to the U.S., and he told me that, "My American coworkers think it's weird to eat a lettuce salad for breakfast." (Um, yeah, I don't do that either.) Indeed, it's pretty common to eat a salad in the morning in Japan. Or anything, really. A typical Japanese breakfast is savory. Bread or rice, eggs, a meat product (ham, bacon or sausage), and some sort of vegetables. There are super-organized mothers who can make breakfast while making bento for their kids; although maybe not this fast. And sometimes you eat the same stuff for breakfast and lunch. A survey done by Macromill.com shows that about 50 percent of people they surveyed (in their 20s to 60s) eat bread for breakfast, while only less than 40 percent eat rice. A typical rice-based breakfast can still be ham and eggs and vegetables, though some people eat natto or tamago-gohan* for breakfast. I don't like eating natto for breakfast because of the smell and potential slime residue, but nowadays they have less-smelly natto available and it's marketed for breakfast (which still does not solve the slime problem). House (you know, the company that sells tofu) came out with Morning curry, and Wikipedia says Morning ramen is becoming popular. I actually liked eating leftover curry for breakfast. Of course, "typical" depends where in Japan you live. In Nagoya and surrounding areas, breakfast at a coffee shop is their big thing; it's called Morning (or morning set, or morning service. No, it's about breakfast, not church). Their unique item is sweet azuki paste on buttered toast. But it doesn't end there. 20100921-ca-japan-breakfast-02.jpg [Photograph: Wikipedia] In this picture, you have udon, ten-musu(tempura omusubi/onigiri), warabi-mochi with kinako, and coffee. And then there's this: 20100921-ca-japan-breakfast-03.jpg [Photograph: jetalone on Flickr] Who said you can't have a hot dog for breakfast? * Tamago gohan is a bowl of steaming-hot white rice, raw egg, and soy sauce. Stir vigorously. Slurp. —hmw0029 ==== Please close your eyes for a second and think about your idea of the perfect, most delectable breakfast you could have. Think about every nuance. Are you eating it at a restaurant that really makes your tummy smile every time you go? Perhaps it’s at your Mom’s house or another family memeber. What breakfast foods are running through your mind? Please feel free to leave your ideas in the comments section. The American Style Breakfast When I think about the perfect breakfast, it’s gotta be one thing for me…pancakes. I think about a piping hot, short-shortstack of fluffy, buttermilk pancakes with whipped butter on top and just the perfect complement of maple syrupy goodness streamed on top. Throw in a serving of scrambled eggs and a class of chilled orange juice, and there we have it…breakfast heaven! You could just as easily replace the pancakes with a hearty plate of waffles, or french toast, and I’d still be a happy dude. There is just something about those syrup-based breakfast dishes that reminds of home. It reminds me of waking up at 6:00 am on an early fall Saturday mornings, where my brother Derrick and I would sit and watch the morning cartoon lineup together. Mom (or one my sisters) would wake up a bit later and sometimes ask the magic question. “Boys! Y’all want some pancakes?” Umm…YEAH!! They’d cook up a batch of slamming pancakes (sometimes with eggs if we were lucky) with turkey sausage. AHHHHHhhh…I think I feel a bout of homesickness coming on. In my head, pancakes, eggs, sausage, and orange juice are the quintessential elements of a perfect, American-style breakfast. But if you ask somebody else, like maybe my Dad, you may get a different answer. *I’m pretty sure Dad would say grits (like a cornmeal porridge) are a part of an ideal breakfast. Now if we’re not talking ideal, but just your run of the meal weekday…it was always a heaping bowl of cereal with lowfat milk (Mom always bought 2% milk, and now I’m hooked on the stuff! Thanks Mommy!!). Cereals…I used to eat so many different kinds. As a kid I was more partial to the sugary cereals: The Original Cap’N Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, Lucky Charms, Apple Jacks, Count Chocula (General Mills), Boo Berry (General Mills), Cocoa Puffs, Golden Grahams …pant…pant…Reese’s Peanut Butter Puffs, Crunch Berries (a type of Cap’N Crunch), Trix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Berry Kix, Cookie Crisp… I could keep going, but I’ll stop there. During the teenage years, I started to enjoy cereals like Clusters, Wheat Chex, Cracklin’ Oat Bran, Bran Flakes, and even started to get more into oatmeal. I won’t lie to you, though, I’m still a huge fan of the kids cereals, it’s one of my unabashed pleasures. Though I know it’s not big for everybody, in the Ash family, breakfast was always a big deal. The Japanese-Style Breakfast? I'm not the best cook mind you, but miso soup, yakizakana (grilled fish), rice and natto are balance part of your Japanese breakfast ?? Even in America breakfast can vary from place to place and region. Breakfast menus can sometimes be a product of where you come from. Nowhere have I gotten to experience this more than in Japan. When I came to Japan, it was so cool to hear some of the other things that people had for breakfast. Everybody had such different breakfast menu ideas. I don’t remember exactly what was common in England or Australia, but it was different from the American style. The Japanese-style breakfast, though, was nothing at all like the American style I was used to. What exactly does a Japanese breakfast consist of? Well, much like back home, it depends on who you ask, but the standard breakfast that I’ve heard Japanese friends and co-workers mention consists of the following: miso soup (???), natto(??), steamed rice (?? or gohan), and grilled fish (??? or yakizakana). I remember, when I first got here, thinking “Huh? Fish for breakfast??” It’s quite different from my Georgia-ideal breakfast, but it has really grown on me. Once you’ve gotten used to it, this can be quite a hearty, tasty breakfast, too. I have heard other people mention eating fruit for breakfast here in Japan and, in rare cases, even cereal or pancakes**. ** Why the freak is maple syrup so expensive in Japan…and soooo thin. I’m not saying I want my syrup to be cane syrup thick, but if it’s going to be that expensive, I want it to really get the job done Having tried both styles, I have to say that both have their benefits. I think the Japanese style breakfast is FAR healthier and far lighter than the American-style that I like. After eating this type of meal, I feel like I had my fill, but I don’t fell heavy…if that makes sense. After my ideal American-style breakfast, I feel like unbuckling my belt and unleashing my mighty stomach. On the other hand, when you talk about straight up deliciousness, I have to say the American style all day. Which type of breakfast do you prefer? The American-Style Breakfast? or the Japanese Style Breakfast?