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December 21, 2024
 

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Rebecca Milner
Rebecca Milner is a freelance writer living in Tokyo since 2002. She writes for A Taste of Home and Japan Pulse, and she is the co-author of Lonely Planet's travel guides to Tokyo and Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 7, 2015
Wagyu: Processing pampered cows at Tokyo's last major slaughterhouse
Wagyu literally translates as "Japanese beef," but that translation doesn't quite do it justice. It's a word that calls to mind images of rural Japanese cows being fed beer and massaged daily, and richly marbled ruby-red steaks, shot through with fine ribbons of glistening white fat.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Aug 5, 2014
Bowing out with a San Diego favorite — fish tacos
As a native of southern California, I have long lamented the dearth of good Mexican food in Japan. It's too heavy to take off here, people say. To which I have to wonder, then why not fish tacos?
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 19, 2014
Lost Tokyo ... rediscovered
People who have lived in the capital for more than a few years generally claim to know Tokyo pretty well. We discover a forgotten side to the city that suggests they may not know it quite as well as they think.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Jul 1, 2014
Gunma's 'Brazil Town' offers a carnival of cuisine
This month A Taste of Home is taking a field trip to Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture. Oizumi, an otherwise ordinary town, is home to roughly 4,000 Brazilians — about one-tenth of the local population. Most of them work in nearby factories (Subaru is a big one). But some of them are working to make life a...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 14, 2014
Ghostly footprints of the 'modern girl' along Kamakura's coastline
There's a scene in Junichiro Tanizaki's serialized novel "Naomi" (originally titled "A Fool's Love") from 1924 where the besotted protagonist, Joji, watches his wife, Naomi — part Lolita, part Madame Bovary, all trouble — through the pine trees. Having just emerged from a seaside villa, she is sashaying...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 13, 2014
Guide to Tokyo burgers returns with a new edition
When it comes to Tokyo food trends, four years is almost a lifetime. Back in 2010, when Yoshihide Matsubara wrote "The Burger Map," the definitive guide to burgers in the capital area, hamburgers were still generating a fair amount of buzz. Then came pancakes and then, in an unlikely 180-degree twist,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Jun 3, 2014
Tokyoites needn't be sheepish about New Zealand cuisine
New Zealand is famous for its lamb, pasture-fed on the country's rolling green hills. Lamb being hard to come by in Japan, a New Zealand restaurant is a good bet if you're craving lamb chops. There are two big ones in Tokyo: Wakanui (B1F, 2-23-14 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo; 03-3568-3466; www.wakanui.jp)...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 25, 2014
Bill Granger's reciprocal love affair with Tokyo eating
Over the past few years, several American-style pancake joints — Eggs n' Things and Cafe Kaila, for example — have washed up on Tokyo's shores. Now, the tide is going the other direction.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Apr 1, 2014
Pining for the communal flavor of Israeli cuisine
I thought I missed hummus. By which I mean: I missed being able to pick up a tub at the supermarket. But to hear an Israeli acquaintance talk of it is to learn that there is so much more to miss.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Mar 4, 2014
Where German-sausage fans can find the best of the wurst
"After 11 years I finally found it," a German colleague told me over lunch the other day. He wasn't talking about the perfect job. He was talking about currywurst, sliced sausage smothered in ketchup and curry powder. It's a diner or street-food dish, most popular in Berlin. To understand the popularity...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Feb 4, 2014
Eating Hawaiian in Japan, with or without the pancakes
Something newsworthy has happened (well, newsworthy if you follow dining micro-trends): A new restaurant from Hawaii has opened in Tokyo and it doesn't serve pancakes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Dec 31, 2013
Juicy Chinese dumplings will Shanghai your taste buds
People have opinions about xiao long bao. And for good reason: xiao long bao (or XLB, or soup dumplings, or shoronpo as they're called in Japanese) are enchanting: semi-translucent satchels of dough encasing balls of minced pork suspended in, curiously, soup. In that magnificent way that the Chinese...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Dec 19, 2013
Where would Santa find Finnish flavors in Japan?
Dear readers, I have made a wonderful discovery: Finnish cinnamon rolls, korvapuusti, are not just cinnamon rolls. They are cinnamon and cardamom rolls and they are delicious. Also, korvapuusti translates to "slapped ear" — perhaps because the dough is rolled rather than coiled — which is adorable....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Nov 14, 2013
Dig into 400 years of local history with a roast beef dinner
A peculiar culinary milestone took place last month: the 400th anniversary of the first English roast beef dinner served in Japan. You're forgiven for missing the fanfare; there wasn't any, save for a commemorative meal at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Sep 19, 2013
Korean treats that predate the Wave
Forget Shin-Okubo's Koreatown. When I asked Korean friends and acquaintances where to go to find authentic Korean food in Tokyo, several pointed me in the opposite direction, to Akasaka. Specifically, I was told to try the soup at Akasaka Ichiryu Bekkan (2-13-17 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo; 03-3582-7008)....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Aug 15, 2013
Barbecue like they do it in the South
"Hamburger shops are a dime a dozen in Tokyo these days, but there are very few places doing barbecue," said Lauren Shannon, owner of Bulldog Barbeque (www.bulldogbbq.jp).
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Jul 18, 2013
A delicious Caribbean vacation for your taste buds
"There are no palm trees. It looks like a typical Caribbean restaurant. Like home, not the beach," says Petra Laptiste, a Canadian of Caribbean descent, describing her favorite Caribbean restaurant in Tokyo, JamRock (1-21-15 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; 03-3478-2364; www.jamrockcafeonline.com).
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Jun 21, 2013
In search of a steamed morsel or two of Hong Kong fare
Bamboo baskets of steaming dumplings, fluffy buns stuffed with sweet-and-savory barbecued pork, crisp spring rolls and endless pots of jasmine tea ... Dim sum (or yum cha), that Hong Kong tradition, is a staple of Chinatowns the world over. Except, it seems, in Japan. However, if (like many people I...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
May 17, 2013
Where to find brunch in Tokyo, and just the way you like it
It's terrace season, and the thought of a drawn-out weekend brunch — sunglasses on, cocktail in hand — is likely to make any American go weak in the knees with homesickness. Fortunately for those in Tokyo there are several places that do a classic brunch, including both old staples and a few newcomers....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / A TASTE OF HOME
Apr 19, 2013
There's more to British food in Japan than fish and chips
Authentic British food is hard to come by in Japan, and the food at the theme-pub chains isn't often great. However, there are a handful of expat-run places that get it right — and should hit the spot for homesick Brits.
Mother hopes for reunion with daughter ensnared by Tokyo host clubs
The Kabukicho district in Tokyo, where the daughter of a woman in her 60s fell deeply into the host club culture.
A year after going private, structural reforms bearing fruit for Toshiba
Toshiba's Corporate Senior Executive Vice President Koji Ikeya speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Monday.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.
Curiosity didn’t kill the meme: Why cats still rule Japanese YouTube
A screen shot from YouTube user @lagelda shows the simplicity of going viral in Japan in 2024: A cat dancing to EDM in front of a green screen.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
By Alex K.T. Martin

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