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November 22, 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
Oct 14, 2016
Siam Shokudo: Honest Thai flavors on a busy downtown crossing
You can't miss Siam Shokudo. It's right above Yushima subway station looking out over a busy crossroad, with its front entirely open to the street whenever the weather is warm. From outside you might take it for just another bar in this old-school carousing district. But it's not only bigger than you...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 7, 2016
Luca Fantin: Italian creativity blooms in the heart of Ginza
Chef Luca Fantin's cooking is far from most people's idea of typical Italian fare. The softly spoken 37-year-old native of Treviso serves elaborate multicourse tasting menus that are as creative, contemporary and cutting edge as anywhere else in Tokyo. This has won him plaudits, a Michelin star — he's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 30, 2016
Celaravird: Edible works of art from an adventurous chef
Dinner at Celaravird runs to a strict schedule. At 6:30 p.m., guests start to converge on the restaurant. Some climb out of taxis; others make the uphill hike from the nearby train station. By 6:45 they are expected to be at their tables, the buzz of anticipation growing as preprandial drinks are served....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 30, 2016
Meating at Anis: Monthly gatherings for carnivore connoisseurs
Nobody in Tokyo cooks meat like Susumu Shimizu. Whether it's beef, pork, lamb or poultry, he prepares it all over a plancha — basically a hot plate with super-sensitive controls — in his chic little restaurant, Anis, on the western edge of Shinjuku.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 16, 2016
Yakitori Ogawa: Traditional 'yakitori' served like high-end sushi
There's no mistaking the kind of cuisine offered at Yakitori Ogawa. All 15 seats in this compact, one-counter grill look directly onto the open kitchen where skewers of premium poultry are slowly, carefully tended to over glowing charcoal.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 16, 2016
Tempu: A cluttered hole-in-the-wall with incredible 'takoyaki'
Tempu is in no way a destination restaurant. It's a six-minute schlep beside the tracks from JR Shibuya Station, and when you arrive all you'll find is a cluttered hole-in-the-wall that fits eight at a pinch, all standing. But it's this funky setting that makes it such a favorite with the locals —...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 2, 2016
Falo: An Italian take on the 'izakaya'
Arriving at Falo, prepare for a few surprises of the most pleasant kind. The first is that this sleek-looking new Italian restaurant, which opened in May in Daikanyama, feels and functions like a traditional izakaya tavern.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 2, 2016
Cam On Pho: No-frills pho and banh mi done right
Spring rolls, pho noodles, and banh mi sandwiches: the menu at Cam On Pho is anything but extensive. But those are the classics of Vietnamese street food. And if they're done well, like they're done in their homeland, what more do you need?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Aug 27, 2016
Italian chef Massimo Bottura: 'Never forget where you came from'
Owner of the world's best restaurant on the influence of culture in cuisine
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2016
Tinsagu nu Hana serves up a melodic mix of Okinawan cuisine
It's a long way from Tokyo to the balmy, subtropical Ryukyu Islands — approximately 1,500 kilometers as the crow (or plane) flies. But Japan's southernmost prefecture feels a whole lot closer when you're out in the residential suburbs of Suginami Ward. At least it does when you're sitting in Tinsagu...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 19, 2016
Chef Massimo Bottura's Kyoto menu is both colorful and daring
When Italian chef Massimo Bottura arrived in Japan in late July to present a series of meals at the elegant Ritz-Carlton Kyoto, it represented quite a coup for the hotel in only its second year of existence. Just six weeks earlier, Bottura's restaurant, Osteria Francescana in Modena, had been voted into...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2016
Handels Vagen's frozen treats will have you singing Handel's 'Messiah'
Premium ice cream is never out of season. But the timing could hardly have been better for the arrival of Handels Vagen at the start of this summer. Located in the basement of the new Tokyu Plaza in Ginza, it boasts a modest footprint that seems appropriate to the artisan production scale of very superior...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 5, 2016
Yoji Tokuyoshi's 'contaminated' take on Italian cuisine
Most Japanese chefs who go to Italy stay just long enough to learn new skills before returning home. Very few stay and set up their own restaurants. Yoji Tokuyoshi not only did that, he became the first to win a Michelin star there.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 5, 2016
Kazami: A noodle joint that's hard to find but worth the hunt
It takes considerable confidence to open a new restaurant at the hottest time of the year, when people's appetites are at their lowest ebb. To locate it down a narrow alley hidden from sight of Ginza's passing foot traffic seems even more foolhardy. But ramen shops work according to different rules —...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 5, 2016
Tabela: A touch of North Africa in central Tokyo
When eclectic indie film distributor Uplink moved across Shibuya to its current location, it did more than add extra screening rooms. It created a cultural hot spot, a meeting place for people looking beyond the mainstream. From the start, the focus for that was its restaurant, Tabela.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 29, 2016
The American chef bringing Kyoto 'kaiseki' to Tokyo
Culinary collaborations are commonplace these days, with chefs flying halfway around the world for one-off events far from their home kitchens. This exciting cross-fertilization of ideas and flavors is also starting to happen in Japan — but rarely, until now, in the field of traditional Japanese cuisine....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 15, 2016
Narikura: 'Tonkatsu' that should be on every foodie's radar
There's nothing gourmet about tonkatsu. Those deep-fried cutlets with their crisp, appetizing exteriors concealing juicy chunks of rich, fatty pork are, for many, the ultimate expression of Japanese comfort food. But, as with other types of downhome cooking, the best purveyors often become the object...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 15, 2016
Mikkeller Beer Garden: Denmark's rich, fruity and dangerously alcoholic brews are back
One of the disappointments of spring was the demise of the brilliant, buzzy Mikkeller Tokyo craft beer bar in Shibuya, a mere nine months after it was launched. The problem was administrative, and certainly not due to a lack of customers or problems with the beer. So it's cause for celebration to see...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 1, 2016
For summer dining, escape to the sunny Shonan coast
The Shonan coast in Kanagawa Prefecture, about an hour south of Tokyo by train, has something for just about everyone. Some head to Chigasaki to ride the waves or to Enoshima to luxuriate in its spa. Others explore the hills and temples of Kamakura or just get away from it all in sleepy Hayama. Few make...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 1, 2016
Unagi Fujita: The lowly eel comes up in the world
Not so many years ago, unagi, the humble freshwater eel, was considered a plebeian pleasure — a delicacy fit for Tokyo's townsfolk rather than rarefied levels of society. Much has changed. This once-lowly fish now commands high-end prices worthy of even the most upscale parts of town. This meant that...
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.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
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.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
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.

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

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