Resource for local cuisines and specialties across Japan

Question

I'm wondering if there's some website that's like a "Foodie's Guide to Japan", or maybe a "Foodie Wiki" covering the whole world including Japan, etc.

I know there are lots of special local dishes all over Japan, many of them are seasonal, only on one mountain or island, etc.

Usually I've found out about these by chance if they happened to be mentioned in a Wikivoyage or Wikipedia article on a prefecture or town, or if I'm somewhere in Japan and a friend says "This dish is very famous from here", or sometimes from looking at what's being sold at Service Areas and Michi-no-ekis along expressways and large rural roads.

But now when I try Googling for local food/cuisine/specialties along with a place name, I'm not finding a lot so I'm wondering if there's some dedicated specialized resource I don't know about.

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An example, I just found some evidence that Hasaki in Ibaraki grows the most of at least some kind of chilies / peppers in Japan, but when I try to track down more details, Google is proving to be insufficient. Where else can I turn to?

Answer 1

The keyword is 郷土料理 kyōdo-ryōri "hometown food", and the Japanese Wikipedia has a very comprehensive list:

日本の郷土料理一覧

Unfortunately it's only in Japanese and Google Translate doesn't do a great job ("swine juice", anyone?). The place names do make it through reasonably well, and most all dishes have links to pages with pictures, so with a bit of effort you can make sense of it.

For a more lightweight version in English, check out JNTO's illustrated Local Cuisine pages. Virtually every prefecture/city/village tourist office/homepage will also have information about the local specialities, eg. this PDF for Kagoshima, although the English versions tend to omit the weirder stuff (what, no torizashi raw chicken sashimi?!).