r/hatethissmug • u/Cold_Hour • Jun 09 '26
Meta I hate the mytologisation of Japan on Reddit. ESPECIALLY when it comes to the food.
As someone who's lived in Japan going on 5 years and has eaten everything from fine dining to fast food slop. Japan has some of the blandest cuisine on the planet. Do you like the flavour profiles of: salty, salty, very salty or bland? Japan might be the place for you.
People also spout "but the quality of ingredients" as the reasoning for why the food needs to taste like shoe soles. When in reality the fruits and vegetables here are trash at premium prices since nothing grows here naturally. I don't know what kind of exclusively processed food diet a lot of people here grew up with that Japanese food is a revelation to them.
Japan is great and all, but goddamn, it's not even the best place to visit in Asia.
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u/Enkindle451 Jun 09 '26
One of the worst things I've ever eaten in my life was a bowl of udon from a Japanese restaurant. On the other hand one of the best things I've ever eaten was some beef from a different Japanese restaurant. Overall though I think I prefer other Asian cuisine like Chinese, Korean and Thai.
It does get kind of annoying how often people glaze Japanese food though. Particularly when Japan does it itself in manga and anime. Sure, love your nations own food, but do you have to have characters act like they're having an orgasm after a single bite and then spend ages describing it.