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November 22, 2024
 

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Jude Brand
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 23, 2004
Fuji Rock's nightlife takes it off the scale
A good three-point formula to apply when reviewing a bar is to consider 1) the setting, 2) the people and 3) the music. These are the main ingredients that best sum it up and measure its potential. Some places score higher on some counts than they do on others, but the nightlife at the Fuji Rock Festival...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 25, 2004
Putting a bit of Color into the Meguro scene
Like Nakameguro 10 years ago, Meguro proper is one of those areas that has been quietly amassing bars and nightlife options over the last few years. When I first heard that Color, a multilevel restaurant and bar complex, had opened just down the hill from Meguro Station, I wasn't surprised. I was, however,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIGHT SPY NEWS
Jun 25, 2004
Reasons to be happy
From last month, The Pink Cow in Shibuya has been entertaining the late-night crowd by staying open till 5 a.m. on both Friday and Saturday nights. As extra incentive to rope more mad cows into the corral, they're offering special Happy Hour prices with Sapporo Kuro draft beer, all basic mixed drinks...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 28, 2004
Rockin' till dawn in the heart of suburbia
Kichijoji is a good 20 minutes west of Shibuya on an express train, which places it smack dab in the middle of Tokyo's suburban belt. As such, it's the last place one would think of finding a bar dedicated to rock culture -- let alone one with a pedigree spanning a quarter of a century and with a provocative...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Apr 23, 2004
Jazz retreat for night and day
Volontaire is a soothing retreat for jazz lovers that has stood its ground for the last three decades in Harajuku -- a neighborhood where bars change like the season's fashions. In Yuri Sakanoue's 27 years behind the counter, she has seen them all come and go. Unmoved, she has steadfastly maintained...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Mar 26, 2004
Meet the Office manager
Everybody knows about Office in Kita-Aoyama -- the funky little fifth-floor, no-elevator hangout with a photocopier next to the DJ booth. But few people have had the pleasure of meeting Sadahiro Nakamura. Then again, you may have met him and just not realized that he was the man behind the scene and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Feb 27, 2004
Hanging heavy in the sumo heartland
For Tokyoites, Ryogoku is synonymous with sumo. And, until a few months ago, that was all it meant to me. Ryogoku is two stops east of Akihabara on the JR Sobu line and is also accessible via Asakusabashi-Ryogoku Station on the Oedo subway line.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jan 23, 2004
Spinning funky music on Naeba's Snodeck
Let me say right up front that I don't much care for snow. While Tokyo constantly disappoints by failing to deliver a white Christmas, that's about as far as my interest goes. And though I have enjoyed the thrills and spills of skiing a few times (before the advent of the snowboard, I admit), the experience...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Dec 26, 2003
Round 'bout midnight
It's that time of the year again, when everybody is steadily moving into party mode as the big countdown approaches. Some punters will simply be dancing in the streets to celebrate. Others will take to the expressways: Reportedly over 6,000 bosozoku (hot-rodders and hot-doggers on motorcycles) choked...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Nov 28, 2003
Happy Jack is right on target
In all my years in Tokyo, I have never before found a cool bar in Gotanda. Sure, I've happened on a few in and around Osaki and Meguro, the stops on either side on the Yamanote Line loop -- but never one in Gotanda itself.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Oct 24, 2003
A chill double-bill in the heart of Shibuya
When Matt Nieman and Greg Natali were kids growing up in Philadelphia, neither one of them could have imagined that they would end up living and running nightclubs in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Sep 5, 2003
Pastures new for The Pink Cow
Many of you may have been sad to hear that The Pink Cow was closing. Even though it only closed to relocate, the original Harajuku space had a quirky, living-room feeling that many will miss.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 10, 2003
Up-tempo hangout just down the hill
Azabu Juban is a short stroll down the hill from both the new Roppongi Hills complex and Roppongi crossing. But whereas the new Mori complex has given Roppongi a bump up in the sophistication stakes, it merely adds to what is already on offer in Azabu Juban, which has long been the neighborhood of choice...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 27, 2003
Yet another reason to head to Roppongi
Home is where the heart is, as they say. Well, the hottest new home for the after-office crowd in Roppongi, it would seem, is Heartland bar in the Roppongi Hills complex. This is where, as every evening unfolds, you will find a steady flow of both foreign and Japanese coworkers and friends dropping by...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 13, 2003
Out of the way, but never too far
After S'ayak has the disadvantage of being somewhat difficult to find. It is tucked away in a dark alley off a relatively well-patronized neighborhood shopping street lined with many cool little sake bars and eateries. You have to know it's there to find it.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 27, 2003
Prepare for lift-off: destination, the stars
Having spent the best part of two decades prowling Roppongi at street level, my first visit to the Roppongi Hills Club felt like an out-of-body experience. Hovering an awesome 51 floors above the network of increasingly seedy bars below, my spirit could not help but feel elevated. The club is so far...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 1, 2003
Cool just around the corner
I held out no great hope for a positive outcome to a recent visit to the Ginza. Dante, the chef who some of you may remember from Tokyo Salon in the Vision Network complex in Omotesando, wanted me to come and taste his new Italian set dinner, which he has added to the menu at NB Club, a restaurant featuring...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 18, 2003
Palms Lounge -- they're coming to getcha
Sometimes life's a beach. And sometimes it's a lounge. Such is life for Seiji Endo, the twentysomething surfer who runs Palms Lounge.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 4, 2003
Diving into some deep blue soul
Eight years ago, there used to be a tiny but dead-cool soul bar called Gonbe in Todoroki, in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. This area is better known as an upmarket residential neighborhood than as a place to find a hot little bar. Nevertheless, Gonbe was packed every night, but then, in a place that felt crowded...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Apr 20, 2003
An aroma of l'amour at Le Faubourg
Le Faubourg is a stylish lounge bar in the fashionable Aoyama district of Tokyo. The area is to Tokyo what Madison Avenue is to New York. This is where you'll find showcase boutiques for famous Japanese designers, like Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto, as well as internationally renowned brands such as...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.

Podcast

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

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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