Japanese foods, if you can figure out the menu

One of the great things of living in Japan is eating out, food here is great and there is a wide arrange of restaurants, fast foods, street snacks to cater all tastes. But, that’s if you can figure out how to order your food.
Now, after an year of living here, I have the basics covered although its pretty much impossible to me to order at some restaurants. In most cases restaurants in Japan have plastic food samples in the door, or in a shelve looking at the street like a shop window. Other have colorful menus with pictures of each dish and the most progressive ones may even have a basic, sometimes impossible to understand, English explanation.
The wonderful thing about Japan is the continuous search for perfection, and each dish represents the perfect blend of ingredients, textures, colors and tastes. Food here is not meant only to satisfy the stomach but also to please all senses.

So, traditional Japanese food goes well beyond sushi, and here is a small list:

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Street snacks:

1. たこやき Takoyaki: Octopus balls. originally from Osaka, these are octopus parts cooked in a round shape. Made with a soft flour they have a hard consistency on the outside and soft on the inside, served with takoyaki sauce, mayonnaise, dashi flakes and sometimes powdered nori.
2. おにぎり Onigiri: Rice ball. Stuffed rice ball wrapped in toasted seaweed leave. Stuffing includes cooked salmon, pickles, tuna salad and seaweeds.
3. からあげ Karaage: Japanese style fried chicken
4. おでん Oden: Hot pot normally for the winter season, with fried tofu, half boiled eggs, sausages between others.
5. 肉まんNikkuman: Steamed meat bum.
6. パン Pan. Flavored breads, normally with corn, or pizza flavor even with sausage.

Fast Food:
1. ギョウサ Gyozas: stuffed turn pies, often cooked with a process of half sautéed and half steamed. Also served deep fried. 
2. ラーメン Ramen: Chinese style noodle soup
3. そば Soba: buckwheat noodles Usually served cold and with ginger – wasabi soy sauce for dipping.
4. うどん Udon: thick wheat noodles normally served in a Dashi based broth
5. 回転すし Kaiten Sushi: Fast food sushi restaurant where the sushi is already prepared and rolling in a conveyor belt 
6. やきそば Yaki Soba: stir fry noodles
7. カレー Curry: Japanese Style curry served normally with white rice. Topping include Katsu or meat.
8. うなぎ Unagi: Broiled eel in sweet soy sauce
9. おこのみやき Okonomiyaki: shredded cabbage pancake made with special okonomi flour and topped with special sauce, mayonnaise and dashi flakes
10. どんぶり Donburi: Rice bowl with toppings, being the most popular the GyuDon, that’s thinly sliced meat, minced with onions in a sweet soy sauce mix.
11. てんぷら Tempura: deep fried food with eggs and flour mix (normally shrimp, pumpkin, potato/carrot mix, etc)

Restaurants:
1. ふぐ Fugu: balloon fish, eaten raw or cooked.
2. しゃぶ しゃぶ Shabu Shabu: Hot Pot This kind of restaurants normally serve Nabe as well (see below). Shabu Shabu is thinly cut  beef stripes that are deep into flavored boiling water, then into a sauce (sesame or soy sauce based) and eaten.
3.やきにく Yaki Nikku: Japanese style BBQ
4. やきとり Yaki Tori: Chicken only restaurant, often grilled chicken parts on a stick.
6. すし Sushi Restaurant: In sushi restaurants you may order from a huge menu of raw fishes, including whale and dolphin.
7. いざかや Izakaya: Japanese style restaurant where normally people hang out on weekends or after job. A huge menu that includes many drinks and a lot of small dishes, ranging from Pizzas, gyozas, and French fries to raw fish and salads.
8. すき焼き Sukiyaki: One pot grilled meat dish, boiled after with mushrooms, tofu, etc.
9. かに Kani: Crab eateries easily recognized for a huge mechanic crab on the entrance.
10. Traditional Japanese restaurants: this small places abound in smaller towns and villages, normally with a few or no tables at all and a bar they specialize in home based foods. Customers are regulars and the owner are the same for generations.

Forgein Food Restaurants:
1. Family restaurants: Western style restaurant serving a wide arrange of foods.
2. Western Fast foods: including Mcd’s, KFC, the burger king, etc .
3. Hambaga: Japanized Hamburger restaurant, normally the meat is served without a bum and with a gravy sauce, sided with potatoes and of course rice.
4. Italian Restaurants: normally serving expensive pasta, and dishes with prosciutto ham.
5. Chinese: Normally inexpensive eateries with traditional Chinese dishes.
6. Asian restaurants: Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, and Korean restaurants are very popular in Japan. 

Home Food:
1. なべ Nabe: Hot pot, served also in Shabu Shabu restaurants but a popular dish at home since gathers the family together around a hot plate. Normally flavored with Combu seaweed, inside the hot pot are mix: chicken, meat, sausages, tofu, mushrooms, onions, carrots…
2. あとう Natto: Fermented beans.
3. 肉じゃが NikkuJaga: delicious stew with potato, meat and noodles.
4. みっそMisso soup: bean based soup
5. コロケト Kroketto: Potato and minced beef croquets.
6. つけもの Tsukemono: Japanese Pickles
7. そめんSo men: Noodles.
8. やき座かな Yakizakana: Grilled fish. different fishes are normally cooked this way.
9. なべやき NabeYaki: Normally served in a Iron pot, same as cooked this Udon based soup comes with Ebi tempura and  vegetables
10.おべんとう Bento : Japanese lunchbox. Traditionally a bento will have rice, pickles, eggs, some meat and vegetables. These way there are all arranges of textures, colors and tastes.

Special Foods:
おえち Osechi: New Year’s Special Food

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