Japanese food is wonderful... I've been incorporating our restaurant meals into their respective posts, but there are other odds and ends that deserve a mention.

First up, Japanese wine. To be honest, I had no idea that there even was Japanese wine... Wine made from grapes, that is.

But the Japanese have been cultivating vines for at least a millennium, and have had a wine industry since the 1860s. Labelling regulations now mean that "Japan wine" has to be made entirely from grapes grown in Japan.

The one we tried first was made from the Koshu grape variety. What a history that has: "The exact origins were unknown with many proposed theories -- but in 2013, DNA analysis finally revealed its roots. It is now presumed that Koshu originated in the Caucasus region on the shores of the Caspian Sea, passed along the Silk Road, and over the years crossed with Vitis davidii, a species of Chinese wild grape, before coming to Japan."

Think of that... That unexpectedly wonderful wine we drank in Azerbaijan might have influenced the stuff we're quaffing at the other end of the continent...

Anyway, we found it delicate, dry, and very pleasant:


We buy our Japanese wine from the local supermarket, which we're slowly learning to find our way around.


We also shop regularly at the ubiquitous Japanese "konbini", or convenience stores. FamilyMart, 7-Eleven, and Lawson are the big names here, and these outlets are really MUCH better than their equivalents in other countries. They're actually great for low-carbers, too, as you can pick up good-quality salad, chicken, eggs, and the like for quite a reasonable price.

At the other end of the carb spectrum, if you're in Fukuoka, you just can't ignore the delicacies pictured at the top: