Did you know?: Fermented foods in Japan

(Illustration by Yukiyo Oda/Stripes Okinawa)

Many Japanese foods are considered superfoods. Fermented foods include natto, miso, shoyu (Japanese soy-sauce) and amazake; teas – matcha, green tea, bancha (course tea); seaweeds – konbu (kemp), nori, hijiki, kanten; and traditional natural foods -umeboshi (pickled plum), genmai (unmilled rice), tofu, soba, and azuki are all low in calories and contain many superb minerals.

Neko/byo [cat] (Image by Stripes Okinawa)