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August 15, 2024
 

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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 2, 2017
Sougo: A next-generation take on temple cooking
It's a dilemma faced by all practitioners of traditional arts and crafts. To keep their heritage alive, should they rigorously adhere to time-honored practices? Or bend a few rules and innovate? Chef Daisuke Nomura chose the second route. Sougo, his excellent restaurant in the heart of Roppongi, is the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 2, 2017
Calms: Bringing Bhutan's spicy cheese stew to Yoyogi-Uehara
What are the odds for this? Tokyo now has not one but two restaurants serving Bhutanese food. And not only are they both in the same Uehara neighborhood, they stand face to face on opposite sides of the same street.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2017
An Di: Vietnamese cuisine, Japanese sensibility
...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2017
365 Nichi: Daily bread and baked goods of superior quality
You don't need to understand Japanese to guess the meaning behind 365 Nichi's name. This excellent little bakery has been operating day in, day out, even at new year, ever since it opened in 2013. During that time it has only ever taken one holiday: last year's Leap Day.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 5, 2017
Umbilical: Linking friends with fine food and wine
Tokyo is a tough place to open any business, especially your first restaurant. Along with kitchen skills and front-of-house nous, you need the right location, good connections and a strong underlying raison d'etre. A catchy name and some funky background music can't hurt either, as the folks at Umbilical...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 5, 2017
Commune 2nd: Al fresco food, drink and community
Tokyo has never been big on outdoors dining. Save for the old-school beer gardens that mushroom in midsummer, there are too few opportunities in the inner city to drink, snack and while away the time al fresco. At least there's Commune 2nd.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 29, 2017
Latteria Bebe: Two brothers, one focus on Italian cuisine
There are lots of good reasons for visiting Kamakura. It has temples, shrines and walks in the hills. You can windsurf, laze on the beach or just enjoy that rare sensation of having escaped the megalopolis. But dining out rarely comes high on the list.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 29, 2017
Hanabi: True labor-of-love ramen
It is all too easy to overlook Hanabi. Every day streams of visitors walk past this unprepossessing noodle joint without giving it a second look as they hike between the center of Kamakura and the Hase area and its famous Great Buddha. That's their loss, as it serves some of the best ramen in town.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 15, 2017
Maruka: Shikoku-style 'udon' at its best, if you don't mind the wait
Many of Tokyo's finest restaurants are so hidden away you hardly know they're even there. But there's little chance of missing Maruka. In the unlikely event that you fail to spot the large white noren curtain across the entrance, you won't miss the long line leading up to it.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 15, 2017
Mikkeller Tokyo: Danish flair in deepest darkest Dogenzaka
Everybody likes a happy ending, especially when the story involves one of Tokyo's most popular pubs. That's why many cheered when Mikkeller Tokyo announced its return this spring.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 8, 2017
Spain meets 'washoku': Cooking along to the sizzling beat in Ibiza
There has never before been a tasting menu quite like it. The first dinner presented by wagyu beef grillmaster Kentaro Nakahara, yakitori supremo Yoshiteru Ikegawa and sushi maestro Takaaki Sugita was unprecedented in so many aspects.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 1, 2017
Spain meets 'washoku': Three top Japanese chefs take their expertise abroad
This is an era of gastronomic collaboration. Chefs fly from one continent to another, swapping kitchens, recipes and sometimes even their homes. But rarely does this restless cross-fertilization of ideas and techniques involve the world of washoku, Japan's traditional cuisine.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 1, 2017
S'accapau: Modern Italian dining bar fare with flair
Beware of basement dining bars with neon signs, dim lighting and moody music. All too often they deliver style with little substance and menus that titillate but fail to deliver. Thankfully, there are a few exceptions. In Nishi-Azabu, one of the best is S'accapau.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 1, 2017
Out: One dish, one wine, one band and an abundance of style
With its gleaming glass frontage and punchy name in purple neon beaming into the Shibuya night, you can tell straight away Out is going to be a bit special. But it's only when you're inside and ensconced at the elegant little horseshoe-shaped counter that you realize how out there it is.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 17, 2017
Pizza Studio Tamaki: A challenger for the title of Tokyo's best pie?
Tokyo's best new pizzeria is not hard to find. Just a brief stroll from Akabanebashi Station, it faces out onto a quiet open space ringed with trees. You can't miss it: the neon glowing over the door proclaims "Pizza" and, in smaller letters, the acronym "PST."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 17, 2017
Another8: Craft beer, stylish setting, top-shelf fare
Another month, another new craft beer bar throws open its doors in Tokyo. The spread of microbrewed saisons, porters and hopped-up IPAs is inexorable and highly welcome — especially when the venue is as attractive and welcoming as Another8.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 3, 2017
Ryo: Grilled eel perfectly paired with sake and relaxed style
Specialist unagi restaurants generally fall into two categories. Most follow tradition, evoking the old days when grilled freshwater eel was a humble food of the masses. Others adopt a more sophisticated, formal approach for their eel cuisine. But Ryo boasts a style very much its own.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 3, 2017
Sanagi Shinjuku: pan-Asian fare with an upbeat beer garden vibe
Time was when dining out under Tokyo's train tracks and expressways meant slumming it with dodgy yakitori and rotgut sake. These days the arches are gentrifying fast — just look at Sanagi Shinjuku.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 20, 2017
Mimosa: Taking Shanghai cuisine to the next level
When a restaurant is so popular you have to reserve as much as a month in advance, there's always a concern it may not live up to all the anticipation. But no need to worry at Mimosa, when you (eventually) get to your table there.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 20, 2017
The Good Vibes: The pastrami sandwich has a home in Taito Ward
Home-made pastrami. Espresso BBQ Pork. Crispy fried chicken. Three great reasons for making a detour — or even a special trip — to the back streets of Taito Ward.
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

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