Pickles. I love them, and Japan has some of the best pickles in the world (as well as some damn good kim chee borrowed from Korea). Better still, they serve you pickles at every meal, including breakfast. Different pickles for different meals or dishes, and always just a small amount – just enough to help with digestion. Even better, all of the markets have tons of different pickles for sale with samples of them all; you could have a small pickle meal just walking through the markets. Radishes, carrots, burdock, cucumbers, things I can’t identify but that look like sea monkeys. And they all taste so good, fermented in miso, sake and other exotic brine ingredients.