This definitely inclines towards the "look at pictures, read a bit" end of the book market (I'm more naturally drawn to "read a book, view occasional illustration" books), but they did a nice job of it. You certainly learned something about food in Japan, and it was always evocative (so hard to read this while Japan is currently closed to tourists ... in the pre-Meiji Era they pulled that stunt for about 400 years, so one worries one might never get to go!)
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)