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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.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 12, 1999
Morocco: Moroccan fare to make the belly dance
The inquiry, from a regular reader, sounded more plaintive than optimistic. Is there anywhere in town that serves real, authentic Moroccan food?
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 22, 1999
The new alfresco hits the pavement
It was not so long ago that alfresco dining here meant choosing between a raucous, roof-top beer garden or the cosy, elbow-rubbing confines of a funky pavement yatai. And if oden or ramen and a glass of cheap sake was not quite what you had in mind for a romantic evening out, too bad.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 8, 1999
'Wabi-sabi' with a modern edge
Wasabiya epitomizes the very 1990s genre that has come to be known in Japanese as "dining bars." That means you can treat it as a restaurant, as an izakaya or even as a kind of designer drinking hold; it just depends on how hungry or thirsty you are.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 8, 1999
An old street favorite makes good
Okonomiyaki: It's the ultimate street food, stomach-filling, easy to prepare and just as fast to consume. Born amid the rubble of postwar Osaka (according to one version of the legend) but rapidly embraced by the entire nation, no other style of Japanese cooking comes close in terms of being so cheap,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 25, 1999
Kokotei: Kamakura cuisine with a view
For most city folk, the best thing about Kamakura is the reassurance that it actually exists. We don't need to go there so often: It's enough to know that, less than an hour away down the JR tracks, there really are quiet backstreets to wander in, temples and monuments exuding a whiff of history, brine...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 25, 1999
Matsuya: The heart of Tokyo's little Seoul
Despite the considerable demographic surges in recent years from Southeast Asia (and much further afield), the few square blocks that lie between the north side of Kabukicho and Shin-Okubo still justify keeping the title of Tokyo's Little Seoul district. And this is where we head for whenever those cravings...

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