Although fluffy, white tasteless bread is becoming more and more popular in Japan, it will never replace the ever-present bowl of rice as the staple food. Rice also forms the basis of both the alcoholic drink sake and mochi , a chewy dough made from pounded glutinous rice, usually prepared and eaten during festivals such as New Year.

A traditional meal isn't considered finished until a bowl of rice has been eaten, and the grain is an integral part of several cheap snack-type dishes. Onigiri are palm-sized triangles of rice with a filling of soy, tuna, salmon roe, or sour umeboshi (pickled plum), all wrapped up in a sheet of crisp nori (seaweed). They can be bought at convenience stores for around ¥150 each and are ingeniously packaged so that the nori stays crisp until the onigiri is unwrapped. Donburi is a bowl of rice with various toppings, such as chicken and egg ( oyako-don , literally "parent and child"), strips of stewed beef ( gyu-don ) or katsu-don , which come with a tonkatsu pork cutlet.

Finally, the Japanese equivalent of beans on toast is curry rice , which bears little relation to the Indian dish. What goes into the sludgy brown sauce that makes up the curry is a mystery and you'll probably search in vain for evidence of any beef or chicken in the so-called bifu kare and chikin kare . However, the dish most definitely qualifies as a top comfort food and cheap snack.