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April 03, 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
Jun 16, 2018
A new wave of chefs redefining Tokyo
In 'Tokyo New Wave,' Andrea Fazzari has picked out 31 chefs she feels are defining Japan's contemporary restaurant scene.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 16, 2018
Bricolage Bread & Co.: Sourdough bread and tartines on the terrace
It’s the smell that greets you first as you walk through the door at Bricolage Bread & Co.; the warm aroma of baking intermingled with the heady whiff of good coffee. It could hardly feel more alluring — that is, until you see the array of baked goods.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 16, 2018
Nori-Temaki: A bold attempt to steal the onigiri crown
Think of the nori-temaki (nori roll) as a cousin of the humble onigiri rice "ball" — but served in a cylindrical shape, rather than the flattened pyramids of soft white grain found at every convenience store. Expect to hear much more about this elongated take on the genre if the folks at Global-Dining...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 2, 2018
Juban Ukyo: Alfresco dining to match the environs
It's that short but magical time of year when restaurants throw open their doors, tables proliferate along sidewalks and diners take advantage of the balmy evenings. Quick, now, before the muggy midsummer conditions set in for real: This is prime alfresco season and it's time to book yourself in at Juban...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 2, 2018
BBQPit: All the party without the worry
So you're in the mood for a nice little barbecue evening with a few pals.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 19, 2018
La Maison du Isshovin: Energetic, eclectic fare
La Maison du Isshovin is unlike any other restaurant in the Asakusa area. It's not just the name, improbable as it sounds. Nor is it the eclectic — some might say eccentric — menu, or even the contemporary architecture that can't help but catch the eye in this old-school part of town.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 19, 2018
Bees Bar by Narisawa: Restaurant’s side project is a more casual affair
After 15 years, chef Yoshihiro Narisawa's eponymous high-end restaurant in Aoyama needs no introduction or further plaudits, and nor does his innovative, superlative cuisine. But there was always one area that needed addressing: the lack of a bar inside his compact premises.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 5, 2018
Sobagami: Soba noodles served with quiet formality
Sobagami is a soba noodle specialist — this you can guess from the name — but it is also an offshoot of the very genteel Ginza Kamiya, a high-end kappu014d that takes pride in doing things the right way.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 5, 2018
Test Kitchen H: Reliving the glory days of glam Italian cucina
There's nothing self-effacing about Test Kitchen H. Occupying a considerable swath of real estate just off Kotto-dori, this low-slung, newly built, free-standing Italian restaurant exudes the kind of suave swagger most of us thought had faded along with stone-washed denim, Dragon Ball manga and memories...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 28, 2018
Ribatei: No pretension here, just satisfying yakitori
Ribatei might be located in a grittier part of Yokohama, but the yakitori third-generation owner-chef Tomotsugu Sakakibara serves is nothing to scoff at.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 28, 2018
Sparta: All the Greek classics, with Mediterranean charm
Yokohama's Sparta has been around a while and has the Greek food chops to prove it.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 26, 2018
Nordic cooking, Japanese bounty: Strong Noma current runs through new Tokyo restaurant Inua
The culinary thread running from Greenland to Copenhagen and thence to Hokkaido and the rest of Japan may not be immediately obvious. But those are some of the key points on the line of inspiration behind a new restaurant that will open in Tokyo in late June.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 14, 2018
Kagawa Ippuku: Udon to rival Shikoku's very best
Sometimes you want simple. Sometimes you feel like hunkering down with no-frills, no-fuss food that fills and comforts. Sometimes you need a quick, restorative visit to Kagawa Ippuku in Kanda.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 14, 2018
The Oak Door: A fiery rebirth for a Tokyo heavyweight
The Oak Door is back in action. For the past 15 years, the Grand Hyatt's flagship restaurant has been a Tokyo fixture, a monument to man-sized steaks, heavyweight wines and power dining. That was until a chimney fire in early 2017 necessitated a year-long hiatus. Now, like a phoenix from the ashes, it's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 31, 2018
Know by Moto: Sake finds a chic haven below Shinjuku
So you've rendezvoused beneath the huge video screen at Studio Alta. You've explored Shinjuku, maybe caught a movie or trawled for treats in the gleaming depachika (basement food floor) of the Isetan department store. Now you're ready for sustenance. Somewhere cool, with good food and premium sake. No...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 31, 2018
Otafuku: Temporary home preserves 100-year tradition
April in Japan isn't cruel so much as capricious. It brings unexpected chills and sudden rain as readily as it does blossom and sunshine. There's still plenty of need for warming, restorative fare — and nothing fits that description better than oden.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 31, 2018
A new generation of Japanese chefs comes to the fore at Asia's Best 50
Just as surely as spring brings blossom and fresh foliage, it also heralds the announcement of the annual Asia's 50 Best Restaurants rankings. And this year there was intense celebration by many of Japan's top chefs to match the festivities going on underneath the billowing sakura (cherry trees) back...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 24, 2018
Lessons from the forefront of the global fight for food security
Where does our food come from? Who grows it? What is its impact on the environment? How can we feed the world's growing population? What effect will global warming have on food security?
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 17, 2018
The Blind Donkey: Serving up nature in the inner city
Among the brash drinking holes and boisterous old-school izakaya taverns clustered in the narrow alleys that surround Kanda Station, The Blind Donkey is an unexpected, understated anomaly.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 17, 2018
OnJapan Cafe&: Reimagining the fermenting tradition
Shibuya's Kamiyamacho district continues to bubble up with worthy new dining venues. One of the most intriguing new arrivals on its increasingly popular shopping street — the long, straight artery connecting Tokyu Department Store with Yoyogi-Koen — is OnJapan Cafe&.
As ‘Buy Canadian’ grows, more U.S. firms say retailers turning away products
Empty shelves with "Buy Canadian Instead" signs are seen in the American Whiskey section of the BC Liquor in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 10.
Trump unveils 10% global tariff, with Japan levy set at 24%
Trump tosses a MAGA hat to the crowd during an event in which he unveiled new tariffs in the White House on Wednesday.
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.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
Japan, South Korea and China vow to strengthen trade ties amid looming U.S. tariffs
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoji Muto (left), South Korean Trade Industry and Energy Minister Ahn Duk-geun (center) and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao during a trilateral meeting in Seoul on Sunday
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).
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.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
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.
On defense, Japan may avoid Trump's worst impulses — for now
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth chat after reviewing an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Sunday.

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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