I had a decision to make – where to go on a two week solo trip in October? As I sat in an airport in June waiting for a delayed flight home, I started piecing together possible trips and scouting airfares. While I kept looking at a wide variety of locations – Chile, Ireland, Spain, Belgium – I kept coming back to Japan. Although those other locations strongly appealed to me, I ended up selecting Japan for two main reasons. First, it scared me a bit (in a good way). And secondly, and most importantly, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the food I could try. When I finally bought my airline ticket, this trip was already on its way to being a two-week long foodie adventure in the making.

Over the trip, I ate ridiculously well. Some I’ve written about already, like a higher-end sushi experience in Tokyo. For as much as I enjoy a fancy meal, I’m also a sucker for a more approachable feast, and on my first full day in Tokyo I made a beeline to a recommended conveyor belt sushi place. The idea of delicious sushi passing before me was perfect as I was jetlagged and starving, and over the course of an hour I put away a hefty amount of delicious sushi. It was a good start to my eating adventures.

Very high on my list in Tokyo was to have lunch at the Michelin-starred restaurant Nakajima. Lucky for me, it was located only a few blocks from my Shinjuku hotel. I waited in line for about 20 minutes before the restaurant opened for lunch to ensure I wouldn’t miss out on this experience. For the ridiculously low price of about $12 Canadian, I had this amazing sardine sashimi lunch complete with miso soup, rice, pickles and green tea. Easily the best value per Michelin star meal I have ever had.

Taking advantage of better value pricing for lunches in Tokyo, I stopped in at Saka no Ana for its highly recommended set lunch and for their amazing selection of sake. Catering to local business people, I encountered a bit of a language barrier here, but the staff was super helpful in guiding me through my order with a lot of pointing at the lunches of others. I liked the looks of the lunch the person next to me had and ordered the same thing – a selection of sushi, rice, miso, pickles, fermented tofu… all of which was delicious. I loved how generous they were with their sake. As I mimicked my desire for a glass of sake, I was offered ample tastes of two “dry” offerings and selected one. In customary fashion, they filled my glass to overflowing in its wooden box.

During my time in Japan, I fell in love with the variety of bento boxes available for a quick meal. Before boarding my bullet train to Osaka, I picked up this delicious lunch of fried chicken, some fried salad rolls, pickles and an inexplicably delicious rice dish in the train station. I enjoyed this in a state of bliss as the country-side whipped past my window.

My primary reason for deciding to spend a few days in Osaka was its reputation as a unique culinary destination in Japan. One dish I was particularly looking forward to trying was okonomiyaki, a savoury pancake type concoction, grilled on a flat-top then topped with a variety of sauces and condiments. My first Osaka okonomiyaki experience was at Mizuno, and it was delicious.

After walking off my okonomiyaki by wandering around the city, I headed to a stall of Osaka-famous Takoyaki Wanaka. Takoyaki was another “delicacy” high up on my list to try and it did not disappoint. It is essentially deep fried balls of batter with a piece of octopus tucked inside and covered in a Worcestershire-like sauce, then further topped with mayo, bonito flakes and green onions. Served piping hot, this was a delicious way to cap off my first evening in Osaka.

My second day in Osaka was during a typhoon, but luckily for me the Kuromon Market was located right across the street from my hotel so that gave me ample chance to continue my eating adventures. Pulling up a stool next to two guys from Kansas City, they watched in horror as I dug into this – a baby octopus on a stick, stuffed with a quail’s egg. Not sure I’d ever order one of these again, but it was tasty enough.

On my Japanese eating bingo card was at least one feed of ramen, and a small joint in an alley off of one of Osaka’s shopping streets fit the bill. I ordered from the machine outside, gave my ticket to the person behind the counter and within a few minutes I had a steaming bowl of pork ramen, some fried rice and an ice cold Asahi beer. Not the ideal meal for an almost 30C evening outside, but it was delicious nonetheless.

On one of my last days in Osaka, I was wandering around a decidedly not tourist neighbourhood when I felt the need for a late lunch. I picked a small restaurant by looking for a credit card logo on their door as I was running low on Yen in my pocket. I sat down to confused and humourous looks from the restaurant staff. A waitress sheepishly put a Japanese-only menu in front of me and offered a polite apologetic look. I had learned the Japanese word for beer, so ordered that verbally, then just pointed randomly at the menu. She smiled, and I did too when this arrived. Delicious sushi, a lovely miso, and some form of what I think was an eggy/bean dish made for a great lunch.

On what was Canadian Thanksgiving back home, I ventured out for my own Japanese form of a holiday meal. Wanting another okonomiyaki experience, I visited Chibo, renowned for their version. This okonomiyaki was one of the top things I ate over the entire trip. While the food itself was delicious, I enjoyed sitting at the bar and watching many orders of okonomiyaki be prepared while I felt thankful for the ability to travel and have these kinds of experiences.

On what I thought would be my last night in Japan (a mechanical issue on the plane that was to take me home gave me an extra Osaka night spend in a high end hotel near the airport), I elected to have a feed of yakitori. Ordering from a touch screen at my table, I selected all sorts of interesting grilled meats on a stick. This one, chicken tail, had a crunch confusingly similar to crisp celery. On the skewer in the background was my favourite of the evening – chicken heart.

Two weeks wasn’t long enough to eat my way through everything I wanted to try, but it did give me the foodie vacation I was looking for and ample reason to get back for more culinary explorations of Japan in the future.