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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
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?
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 3, 2013
Cafe 104.5: The delicious upside to urban development
Onward and upward: Tokyo's ever-changing skyline sprouts new high-rise buildings like bamboo shoots in spring.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
May 3, 2013
Custard treats are anything but square
How long does it take a business to achieve cult status in Tokyo? Years or decades in most cases. For Omotesando Koffee it was barely a matter of weeks.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 19, 2013
Abrazo a la Oaxaqueña: Mexican moles under wraps in Shimokitazawa
You never know quite what you're going to find in the busy back alleys of Shimokitazawa. It has music bars and shisha pipe dens, old-school yakitori, the latest in craft beer, tofu doughnuts and bohemian barista coffee. So why not artisan tortillas and mole sauces from the far south of Mexico?
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 5, 2013
Akasaka Kikunoi: Tastes of old Kyoto in Tokyo's bustling heart
A pair of ornamental cherry trees stand like attendants by a sturdy wooden gateway. A narrow flagstone path lined with bamboo and maples curves out of sight in the mid-distance.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Apr 5, 2013
Springtime sweets come into bloom
The petals may have dropped from the cherry trees, at least in the Tokyo area, but there are plenty of leaves to be seen — and not just on the trees. Look around any shop selling traditional wagashi sweets at this time of year and you'll find cherry leaves in evidence, wrapped around sakura-mochi....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 29, 2013
Dine with a backdrop of cherry blossom
With an ephemeral canopy of pink sweeping Japan, the JT's food writers know the perfect spots to dine with an eyeful of sakura (cherry blossom) — or just the right sake to sip as you picnic under the petals.
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.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'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.

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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