Washoku as a cultural heritage

I found this article on Japan Times.

UNESCO is going to have a vote to choose washoku as an Intangible Cultural Heritage in next December. If washoku win, it would be 22^nd ICH in Japan. Also, that news will promote Tokyo Olympic in 2020, and safety of Japanese food after nuclear incident in Fukushima.

I have not known that Japan already has 21 Intangible Cultural Heritages. I searched other Japanese ICHs. Most of them are performances like music and play, and some others are festivals, dances and so on. These things did not seem to be familiar for the public because we usually do not have any opportunities to watch those programs or events. However, food is directly related to our daily lives, so I though washoku is really appropriate to be the heritage. Therefore, I hope washoku will become the ICH, and more and more people all over the world will be interested in it.

Of course I like washoku because it’s good for our health, and I know that each local area has different traditions, so I’d like to ask you:

What are good points of washoku?

Do you know any interesting or unique feature of Japanese local food?