Favorite Japanese Foods? I want to find new ones to try!

[robopanda]

I tried Mitarashi dango in Kyoto last november and absolutely loved them!
The lady at the stall laughed when I said " ６本お願いします！"

I also love taiyaki and want to get a taiyaki-ki to make my own, but haven't had much luck finding one yet. Does anyone know where to get one online?

[takonoma]

Mochi! I'm a mochi-holic!
My favourite (okay, one of my many favourites) is sakura-mochi, wrapped in a lightly salted cherry leaf.

What I'd like to know is: who eats the leaf?? I do! My Japanese friends seem divided on the issue. Fellow leaf-eaters out there?

[Psy]

Seconded. I'm totally a leaf-eater.

[zakojanai]

Yeah, I'm a leaf eater too. But then again, I also "push the button". (If you've used a washlet, you know what I'm talking about.)

I've also eaten whale a couple times in the school lunch. The first time was in a Chinese style dish that I thought was sweet and sour pork( 酢豚) but turned out to be sweet and sour whale (酢鯨!?). It was actually one of the best school lunches I've had.

I'm also a big fan of the chukamans. The ones you get at most places in Japan are similar to what I've had in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but still distinctly Japanese. However, I have seen the more authentic chukamans in Chinese restaurants in Japan.

A couple of things I haven't seen written about here yet are hayashi rice and nabe. Hayashi rice is a western style Japanese dish that uses a tomato based sauce and often includes beef and onions. It looks kind of similar to curry rice but is not spicy at all. One of my regular places makes excellent hayashi rice which includes kabocha. The rice is also different from the normal short-grained Japanese rice.
Nabe is a kind of hot pot dish with lots of vegetables and meat. The popular kind around here is motsu nabe, but I prefer kimchi or kamo (duck) nabe.

And though I rarely eat it, chicken nanban　(チキン南蛮 - barabarian chicken?) is pretty great. My prefecture's specialty tori-ten (a type of fried chicken) is also awesome.

[Taurus]

I can't believe that nobody's mentioned カレーパン yet. Surely the greatest foodstuff ever devised.