My Japan is a tiny village in the middle of mountains where my house is surrounded by rice fields and bamboo forest, nothing to do with the big city life I had envisioned before getting here.

This is view from my kitchen on a foggy morning.

My daily foodie life in the Japanese countryside became and still is a very unique challenge.   Here is a few reason why:

• There is pretty much no restaurant in the immediate vicinity of my house.

• There is only a tiny supermarket in the area, none near my house.

• My first kitchen was tiny, old,  dirty and ill equipped

Yet, my foodie determination was unshaken, I would find and cook my way through this less than perfect situation.

So this blog is all about how I am learning to cook Japanese food and my restaurant experiences far and wide.  I spend most of my time in the prefecture of Hiroshima and Okayama, but I often travel around Japan and my foodie interested often expend beyond Japan  since I am trying to visit as many countries in Asia I possibly can.

You will find very few Tokyo-centric references in my post, it’s all about local food and local taste. I got nothing against Tokyo, I just live too darn far to partake in Michelin guide 4 stars dinning

The lack of proper supermarkets lead me to try to to cook with only what I could find in my area. I am surrounded by farmlands and some amazing seasonal vegetables and fruits are available at the farmers market.

I will try to post some of the stuff I cook in my tiny kitchen and see if it’s possible to keep it local.

Enjoy and don’t hesitate to post comments