The most important ingredient of Japanese cuisine is rice. Japanese rice are of the japonica style, they are round and firm. Outside Japan, you can get some sushi rice, or Italian arborio that are of japanica cultivar too. Sticky rice is a different type, it’s called mochigome in Japanese. Rice has different names in Japanese. Kome, okome, the plant. Gohan, meshi when it’s cooked…
The bowl of unsalted, unflavored but perfectly cooked hot white rice is often present on the the table.
But, you have many variations.
Rice bowls : fill half of a big bowl with hot rice, add some toppings.
Flavored rice dishes. Ingredients are added in the rice-cooker. There are millions of possibilities. A few classics :
Stir-fry your rice leftover :
More elaborated dishes :
Rice porridge, often a breakfast.