Eating is a great way to find out more about the signature foods and flavours of each prefecture in Japan.

北海道 (Hokkaido) is famous for its delectable potatoes and butter, a fact that potato chip manufacturers have capitalised.

In fact, butter is so synonymous with Hokkaido that Tokyo ramen sellers routinely put it in their Sapporo miso ramen. However, Sapporo natives don’t put butter in their ramen!

When in Kyushu, tuck into Kyushu shoyu (soy sauce) chips. Soy sauce is typically salty but Kyushu soy sauce is sweeter than other variants. This gives the potato chips a layered taste.

For health-conscious travellers, you can even scrutinise the salt content for certain Calbee brands. This lightly salted potato chips flavour contains two kinds of salt to enhance the taste.

I haven’t had the chance to eat these chips yet, but I’m looking forward to a novel experience. Calbee apparently worked together with an agricultural high school in Fukuoka to develop sour plum and seaweed chips.

The sour plums are grown in Dazaifu City in Fukuoka. Dazaifu City is home to Dazaifu Shrine, where the God of Learning resides. Thousands of high school and college applicants visit this shrine every December to pray for success in their upcoming entrance exams. That’s why 合格する梅 (gou kaku suru bai) is printed on the front of the chips.

梅 (bai) is the word for sour plums. When people speak Fukuoka dialect, they typically end their sentences with -bai, so I was quite impressed with this word play. Because the sound -bai has two different meanings here.

I hope you enjoyed this slice of Japan through potato chips!