Seasonal Food in Japan
The Best Dish for Every Season

Freshwater eel grilled and glazed in a sweet-savoury sauce, laid over hot rice — tender, smoky, and aromatic. The Japanese believe eating unagi in summer helps you recharge against the heat thanks to its rich vitamins. The annual eel-eating day (Doyo no Ushi no Hi) in 2026 falls on 26 July.

Very thin wheat noodles, boiled and then iced until perfectly cold, dipped in chilled mentsuyu sauce — they slide right down on the hottest days. Some places serve them as "nagashi somen," where the noodles flow down a bamboo flume for you to catch — one of the most fun summer activities around.

Summer is the season of juicy fruit — white peaches (especially from Okayama) are so silky and sweet that people happily pay a premium. The signature summer dessert is kakigori, shaved ice as fluffy as snow, topped with fruit syrups or concentrated matcha. It dates back to the Heian era and is an icon of the Japanese summer.

Once the sun dips, big cities open rooftop beer gardens on department stores and hotels — eating and drinking in the cool breeze under the city lights, paired with edamame, yakitori, and fried snacks. It's a summer ritual that Japanese office workers look forward to all year; some venues run all-you-can-eat-and-drink with a time limit.

The heart of a winter meal — a simmering pot in the middle of the table filled with vegetables, tofu, mushrooms, meat, and seafood, cooked fresh as you go. There are many styles: shabu-shabu (swish-and-dip), sukiyaki (simmered in a sweet-savoury sauce), and miso- or seafood-based nabe. It warms you through and through, and it's the dish Japanese families eat together.

The ultimate luxury of a Japanese winter — zuwai (snow crab) from the Sea of Japan coast, known by different names depending on where it's caught: matsuba crab (Tottori/Shimane) and echizen crab (Fukui). The meat is sweet and juicy, eaten as sashimi, boiled, grilled, or in a hot pot. The season opens precisely on 6 November every year.

The pufferfish famous for its poison — but in the hands of a licensed chef it's perfectly safe. It's served as sashimi sliced so thin you can see the plate through it (tessa), as fugu hot pot, and deep-fried. The flesh is firm and springy with a delicate flavour, and winter is when fugu is at its fattest and finest.

A pot of clear dashi broth slowly simmering fish cakes, boiled eggs, daikon, tofu, and konnyaku until they soak up all the flavour — the easiest winter food to find, from convenience stores (ladled yourself from the counter) to specialist oden shops. It warms both body and soul, and it's wonderfully wallet-friendly.