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April 05, 2025
 

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Robbie Swinnerton
Robbie Swinnerton has been living, eating and writing about food in Tokyo for over 30 years. His column, Tokyo Food File, has run in The Japan Times since 1998.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 16, 2014
Pignon: Bistro dining by different rules
Guacamole and merguez sausages on the menu, salsa and bossa nova on the sound system and not a check tablecloth in sight: Pignon is a far cry from the average bistro. But then again, owner-chef Rimpei Yoshikawa is anything but a typical Tokyo French chef.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 16, 2014
Afuri: Classic noodles with a twist of citrus
Can it really be 10 years since the original Afuri opened, bringing its trademark yuzu ramen, stylish black uniforms and hip, post-industrial decor to the backstreets of Ebisu? A decade on, the lines outside are still just as long. But the good news is there are now half a dozen other branches around...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 2, 2014
Toriki: Yakitori made with care but no frills
Yakitori is comfort food. No matter how high-end or low-rent the location, it's all about the simple pleasures of chewing on grilled chicken and kicking back with a drink or a few. That's the tried-and-true formula at Toriki.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 2, 2014
Faro Slow Time: Take your time over the food, not the line
The distinctive orange-clad Shiseido Building in Ginza is more than just a showroom for the company's cosmetics: Its swish 10th-floor restaurant, Faro, serves some of the best Italian food in the area. It's also one of the most popular, meaning tables are booked up well in advance.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2014
Nanakura: A lighter take on udon noodles
Is it possible to become a noodle addict? Technically no, but at this time of year it's not hard to build up a fierce dependence on food that is light, quick and easy on the digestion. And it always pays to know where to find a good fix. Around Shinbashi, it's hard to do better than Nanakura.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2014
Bakka: Neapolitan-style pizza al fresco in the heart of Shibuya
Al fresco pizza and beer. It doesn't get much better than this in the middle of Shibuya. Who cares if your seat is a hard, narrow trestle, the view is an inner-city abandoned lot and the pies are served on flimsy paper plates from the back of a converted delivery van? You don't come to Bakka for home...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 5, 2014
Sushi Iwa: High-end Michelin-starred sushi at a medium price
High-end sushi in Tokyo can be memorable and uplifting, even revelatory for those trying it for the first time. But it can also be intense and uncomfortable sometimes, what with the formality and etiquette, the inevitable language barrier and the hefty price tag.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 5, 2014
Aji no Nakamura: Comforting food and sake with ambience to match
Twenty years have passed since Teiji Nakamura announced himself to Tokyo with his first bar and, shortly thereafter, his eponymous upscale izakaya tavern — and five since he moved that distinctive, appealing combination of quality cooking, premium sake and buzzy ambience to Namikibashi, in Shibuya....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 15, 2014
Sakana no Nakasei: One of three great Tokyo restaurants for aged beef
Tokyo's taste for high-end meat is maturing fast. For the cognoscenti, breed, provenance and fat content have long been critical. Now add one more key factor: aging. That's the focus at several new venues.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 15, 2014
Kazahana: 28th-floor restaurant offers fine food with a view to match
Very few Japanese restaurants in Tokyo can boast a view to rival that from Kazahana. Sitting 28 floors up in the Conrad Hotel, you gaze out over the centuries-old Hamarikyu garden on the waterfront and across to the Rainbow Bridge and the malls of Odaiba in the mid-distance.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 1, 2014
Kaiseki Ikku: Stave off the unagi eel crash with this fine alternative
It looks like the end of the line for one of Japan's best-loved summer dining rituals. Unagi (eels) are on the endangered list, with catches plummeting and prices heading skyward. The annual "unagi day" summer feeding frenzy has an uncertain future, and so too the wonderful grill-houses that serve them....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 1, 2014
Jean-Georges Tokyo: New York super-chef adds Japan to his list of global outlets
France-born, New York-based super-chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten has some two dozen restaurants, spread over six countries on three continents. Now he's added Japan to that impressive list.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 17, 2014
Ata: A Tokyo seafood bistro that does so much more than seafood
Bouillabaisse, fish and chips, beef Parmentier, foie gras dengaku. For a self-proclaimed seafood bistro, Ata certainly covers a lot of territory — much like its dynamic owner-chef has done in his short career.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 17, 2014
Ramen Kugatsu-do: Delicate broth and fine noodles for a slurpsome summer
Born in China and raised in Japan, ramen's hybrid heritage has evolved into a wide range of different guises. At one end of the spectrum are the alpha-male turbo-charged tonkotsu counters. At the other, you find lightness, delicacy and refinement. That's the way Kugatsu-do does it.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 3, 2014
Kagura: Refined traditional dining minus the airs and graces
Akasaka's restaurants are an eclectic mix. Cheek-by-jowl with the raucous pubs, ramen counters and Korean kimchee kitchens, you find inscrutable anonymous facades, many of them exclusive ryōtei (traditional restaurants) reserved for politicians and captains of industry.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 3, 2014
Patinastella: French cuisine by way of California in Shibuya
From the hubbub of central Shibuya, the walk to Patinastella takes only five minutes, but it feels like jumping several time zones. This spacious, glass-enclosed dining room could have been beamed from an affluent neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 20, 2014
La Bonne Table: French cuisine between informal and upscale
This spring brought more than cherry blossoms to Nihonbashi. It also saw the wraps removed from the two new Coredo Muromachi Buildings. Both have multiple floors of restaurants, bars and food stores. The pick of the lot is without a doubt La Bonne Table.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 20, 2014
Nihonbashi Dashi Bar Hanare: Take stock of the best broth
Next January, the eyes of the gastronomic world will be fixed on Nihonbashi as Denmark's Noma restaurant, recently voted top again in the World 50 Best list, opens for an extended pop-up inside the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. No need to wait that long to discover this rapidly reviving neighborhood, though:...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 1, 2014
A golden time to dine outdoors
Now is the golden season in Tokyo: balmy days, mellow temperatures, low humidity and no mosquitoes. There's nothing better than a nice, leisurely (and maybe even boozy) lunch outside — dinner, too, as long as you bring a warm jacket or throw.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 15, 2014
Butagumi Dining: Quality tonkatsu pork cutlets to eat and go
What's not to like about the original Butagumi? Tokyo's temple to high-end tonkatsu (deep-fried pork cutlets) really is the finest in town. Where else serves such beautiful cuts of premium pork — from hand-reared breeds of "heritage" pigs — and in such a classic setting?
U.S. tourist arrested after bringing a handgun into Japan
Hyogo police believe the handgun a U.S. tourist inadvertently brought into Japan slipped through security procedures at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture.
3D printer used to construct train station building in Japan
A train station building (front) is assembled from parts printed using 3D printer technology, in Arida, Wakayama Prefecture, on Wednesday.
Japan’s leader didn’t read the job description
Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Shigeru Ishiba is facing a political funding scandal that has damaged his reputation and sparked speculation that internal efforts to remove him are underway.
Japan promises 'bold and speedy' response to Trump’s surprise 24% tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump unveils new U.S. tariffs at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
Tokyo’s KK Line to close for decadelong overhaul as public greenway
People enjoy running and yoga on Tokyo Expressway’s KK Line, a 2-kilometer elevated expressway cutting through the capital’s commercial Ginza district, when it was opened as a pedestrian space in May last year.
Tottori takes a bold leap forward in the arts
The city of Kurayoshi in Tottori Prefecture celebrated the opening of its public art museum with festivities such as a parade that drew 1,000 revelers.
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.

Podcast

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

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

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