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November 21, 2024
 

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Rick Lapointe
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jul 22, 2001
Gently add mom's miso, while stirring in humility
Last week while the kami-san was ringing up a customer's bill, I happened to glance down at the scrawled notepad where she keeps track of a table's order — a list of all the food and drink consumed.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jul 15, 2001
A journey back to old 'new Japanese cuisine'
This week I saw a program on television that showcased shin-washoku, or "new Japanese cuisine," as the latest restaurant trend. The show visited several eateries where the chef/owners had gone abroad, mostly to America, to work in Japanese restaurants and since come back to Japan with a new twist on...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jul 8, 2001
The buckwheat starts here
Some of the most enjoyable, satisfying and memorable meals I have had in Japan involve soba (buckwheat). I can still smell the broth of a hot bowl of kake soba I had the winter after the Olympics in Nagano.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jul 1, 2001
I love you, I knead you
Lounging in a cool tatami room with a gentle breeze carrying the billows of mosquito incense and dreaming of downing several plates of freshly handmade udon noodles, one could easily waste away the sixth and seventh moons of summer. The Japanese east of Nagoya have their soba (buckwheat noodles), but...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jun 24, 2001
Hiyashi somen: the cool slurp of summer
On a hot summer day nothing refreshes like cold, wet noodles. Japan eats a rice-based diet most of the year, but in the summertime, to lighten the hot-weather menu and relieve pressure on dwindling rice storage from the previous fall, the population turns to cold noodles.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jun 17, 2001
Savoring rewards of slow food
In addition to just eating a plump one with a bowl of hot rice to improve digestion and settle your stomach, there are four basic condiment staples made with dried salt-preserved Japanese apricots (umeboshi). If you were ahead of the game and pickled your umeboshi this time last year, now is the time...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jun 3, 2001
Ume, back in the pink
Get out the salt and pop open the white liqueur — the season for ume is upon us. The diminutive Prunus mume — referred to erroneously as a plum but technically an apricot — has hit the shelves and is available in its preferred unripe form for the next month and a half. Farmers growing these apricots...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
May 20, 2001
A good reason to hit the sauce
When a friend of mine dragged two other friends from the States to Osaka to eat at the first restaurant I apprenticed at in Japan, they were prepared to pay 10,000 yen for the pleasure of eating the omakase, a several-course menu selected by the chef. What they were not ready for was the main dish: a...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
May 6, 2001
A flavor-enhancer to be handled with care
For a younger, less taste-aware version of myself, coal-black briny-sweet Chung King brand soy sauce was all I needed to accompany the corner Chinese restaurant's ubiquitous white rice. As I got closer to the bottom of the bowl the poor rice would become salty enough to render the last bites inedible....
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Apr 22, 2001
Taking stock of basics
All great food begins with perfect dashi (stock).
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Apr 8, 2001
Rice grains of wisdom
I spent five years cooking in fine dining restaurants in the U.S., and yet I was not quite prepared for life as an apprentice in a Japanese kitchen.
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
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.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
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.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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