Japan – A Culinary Travel Diary by Anna Shoji

A gastronomic journey through Japan — blending cultural storytelling, regional identity, and authentic recipes to chronicle the myriad flavours, ingredients, and traditions that make up one of the world's most extraordinary food cultures.

Japan's cuisine is inseparable from its geography, its history, and its profound respect for nature and seasonality. This beautifully produced book travels through five of Japan's most emblematic regions — Tokyo, Kansai, Kyushu, Hokkaido, and Okinawa — each with its own distinct culinary identity, its own ingredients, its own rituals, and its own relationship with the land and sea.

Each chapter immerses the reader in a region's food culture through essays, features, and recipes — from the symbolism of the bento box and the street food marvels of Osaka, to Kyoto's legendary Nishiki Market, the art of Japanese sweets (wagashi), a deep dive into the foundations of dashi, and an introduction to the Ainu people of Hokkaido and their remarkable culinary heritage.

Sixty recipes adapt Japanese home cooking for Western kitchens, using ingredients readily available in Europe and the United States — making the flavours of Japan genuinely accessible without compromising their authenticity.

Produced in the Japanese style on uncoated fine art paper with a cardboard cover and paper dustjacket, and richly illustrated with photographs and original artwork, this is a book to read, to cook from, and to return to again and again.

• Author: Anna Shoji
• Publisher: Prestel Publishing
• Regions covered: Tokyo, Kansai, Kyushu, Hokkaido, Okinawa
• Recipes: 60, adapted for Western kitchens
• Format: Fine art paper, cardboard cover, paper dustjacket