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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
Nov 14, 2013
Misotetsu Kagiroi: Meat, miso and veg, from hot plate to platter
Hidden away on a narrow backstreet in Ogawamachi, one of Tokyo's old-school carousing districts, Misotetsu Kagiroi is far from your typical izakaya tavern. Unlike most of its neighbors, it does not sport a large red lantern outside to grab your attention. Nor are you greeted by raucous revelry as you...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 31, 2013
Smokehouse: Harajuku lures foodies to the smoked BBQ pit
Low and slow: The much-loved mantra of American barbecue culture is more than just a slogan. It's an attitude, a badge of pride in a way of cooking and eating that's still little known to people here in Japan. If Smokehouse has anything to do with it, that situation looks set to change in a big way....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Oct 31, 2013
Sweet new fad pops up in Omohara
Want to know what's new and hot in the sweets world? Just head to "Omohara," the district where the youth fashion of Harajuku intersects with the high-end consumer culture of Omotesando. You can spot the trends from a block away: Just look for the lines.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 3, 2013
Anis: Chef brings kitchen flair from Lyon to Hatsudai
Hatsudai has a lot going for it. This quiet low-rise residential neighborhood just minutes west of Shinjuku boasts a friendly traditional shōtengai (shopping street) and a lively annual Awa Odori dance festival. Now add to that a really outstanding restaurant.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Oct 3, 2013
A modern twist to traditional snacks
Nowhere is the intersection of Japanese food culture and style more obvious than in the genteel, refined world of wagashi. For centuries, Japanese confectioners, especially those associated with Kyoto and the rituals of the tea ceremony, have produced sweets of astounding intricacy and beauty.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 19, 2013
Shakunage: Moongazing over kaiseki in the heart of Ginza
The moon is magical in any phase, but it's never more beautiful than the first full moon of autumn. Some people go out to gaze at temples or teahouses; others from hillsides or seashores. But few would think of heading into central Tokyo ...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 5, 2013
Bépocah: Just like they cook it in Peru — but in Tokyo
It's not easy for a new restaurant to stand out, or to even gain a foothold, in a city of the scale and sophistication of Tokyo. Bépocah manages that feat with ease — and in two very different ways.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Sep 5, 2013
Take a little bite of Portugal's egg tart
Portugal has plenty to answer for when it comes to the way Japan eats. Tempura, castella sponge cake and even bread — paõ in Portuguese, pan in Japanese — were all assimilated following the arrival of the first trading ships in the mid-16th century.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / FOOD MATTERS
Aug 29, 2013
Indie food mags develop a taste for Japan
First sushi, then noodles; next sake and wagyū beef: The world's fascination with Japanese cuisine shows no sign of abating. More and more people are writing about it, too, from travel buffs and visiting cooking experts to untold legions of foodie bloggers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 15, 2013
Light bites of every flavor in Tokyo
Tokyo has seen more and more restaurants recently open with the express purpose of offering casual, light bites, rather than elaborate full-course meals. Close to home is fine, as long as we can nibble and graze, ordering a dish or two at a time, and interspersing food with drink and conversation till...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 1, 2013
Marusen Seimen: Chicken ramen to bowl you over
It's summer: You're not supposed to have an appetite. All you feel like is eating noodles? Welcome to the club. Here's one place where I've been finding nourishment in this most difficult of seasons.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Aug 1, 2013
Chocolate gelato at its most intense
Who eats chocolate in summer? Very few people who I know. It's not just that chocolate bars melt in seconds: The taste can seem too heavy and the texture too cloying. It simply doesn't seem to suit Japan's muggy heat. But there's one exception to that rule I'll gladly and frequently make — when the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 18, 2013
Akasaka Tantei: A taste of Kyoto-style Okinawa in Tokyo
Okinawan food is — for me at least — the food of summer. When the days are short and chill, I have little interest in the flavors of Japan's southwestern isles. But when the heat and humidity build like a thunderhead, that is the time the cravings arise.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 4, 2013
Cicada: The buzz continues, and it's better than ever
A breeze ruffles the surface of the pool next to my table. A canvas parasol stirs above my head. I sink back into my rattan throne, a cool microbrew in my hand. On a hot summer evening in the center of Tokyo, it really doesn't get much better than an outside table at Cicada.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Jul 4, 2013
Takemura: as traditional as it gets
Sweetshops don't get much more traditional than Takemura; inside and out it is a classic. Founded in 1930, this handsome two-story wooden building has stood untouched in the backstreets of Kanda-Sudacho, with its stone lantern, shrubs, the little palisade of bamboo and verge of greenery.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 21, 2013
Gallus: Torishiki spinoff is a chick of the same feather
It's always exciting when a favorite restaurant sprouts an offshoot, especially if that restaurant is among the best of its kind in the city. And even more so when it's such a hot table that reservations are nigh-on impossible.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 7, 2013
Eatrip: A healthy diet of peace and quiet
Food, flowers and tranquility: Eatrip is not just a restaurant, it's an unlikely oasis in the busy shopping district of Harajuku. Call it a Garden of Eating.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Jun 7, 2013
Japanese desserts with an alcohol kick
"There are two types of people," my dear old landlady used to say, handing me a bowl of frothing matcha tea: "Those who like alcohol, and those who like sweets."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / FOOD MATTERS
May 31, 2013
Gourmet food for cheap, if you can stand for it
Here's a scenario few restaurants would dare to dream of: All tables fully booked a month ahead, all year round; lines outside an hour before opening time; a prompt turnover of satisfied customers, with as many as three rotations per evening. And a bulging bottom line.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 17, 2013
Katsuzen: Ginza offers tonkatsu that's a cutlet above
Tonkatsu is comfort food, gourmand grub — not a gourmet delicacy. So what are those hearty, unpretentious deep-fried breaded pork cutlets doing in an elegant little bar-style restaurant above one of Ginza's temples to high-end consumption?
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.
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.
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.

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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