Breakfast is generally served early (from around 7am to 9am) at most hotels, ryokan and minshuku, with a traditional meal consisting of a gut-busting combination of miso soup, fish, pickles and rice. Western-style breakfasts, when available, seldom resemble what you might eat at home, and usually involve wedges of thick white tasteless bread, and some form of eggs and salad. Away from home and hotels, many Japanese prefer a quick kohii and tosuto (coffee and toast) to start the day, which is served at most cafés on the "morning-service" menu.

Restaurants generally open for lunch around 11.30am and finish serving at 2pm. Try to avoid the rush hour from noon to 1pm, when most office workers eat. Lacklustre sandwiches are best passed over in favour of a full meal at a restaurant, all of which offer set menus (called teishoku ), usually around ¥1000 for a couple of courses, plus a drink, and rarely topping ¥2000 per person. At any time of day you can snack in stand-up noodle bars - often found around train stations - and beside the revolving conveyor belts at cheap sushi shops.

Dinner , the main meal of the day, can be eaten as early as 6pm, with many places taking last orders around 9pm. The major cities are about the only option for late-night dining. In a traditional Japanese meal , you'll usually be served all your courses at the same time, but at more formal places, rice and soup are always served last. Heavy puddings are almost unheard of in traditional Japanese restaurants, and you are most likely to finish your meal with a piece of seasonal fruit , such as melon, orange, persimmon or nashi (a crisp type of pear), or an or ice cream (if it's green, it will be flavoured with matcha tea).

At tea ceremonies , small intensely sweet wagashi cakes are served, which are prettily decorated sweetmeats, usually made of pounded rice, red azuki beans or chestnuts. Wagashi can also be bought from specialist shops and department stores and make lovely gifts. Western-style cakes available in kissaten are often disappointingly synthetic, although there are pastry shops across Japan that specialize in tasty nibbles (not to mention the fab doughnut cafés, Mister Donuts ).