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September 27, 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
Mar 15, 2013
Wana: Pay like a pauper, eat like a lord
"It's still gibier season," proclaims the sign on the street corner outside Wana. And who could argue with that? There's no reason why game meats and wildfowl should only be eaten in winter. If they're readily available, why shouldn't we enjoy them all year round?
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 1, 2013
Den: Modern Japanese with a wry twist
Japanese cuisine at its loftiest is elegant and profound. It can be taut as a tea ceremony or exquisite as a furisode kimono. But inventive, irreverent? Only at Den.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Mar 1, 2013
Tea and cakes, the British way
'I am not very fond of sugar and sweet things, and yet I became a pastry chef.' The story of British pu00e2tissiu00e8re Rose Carrarini, whose quote adorns the wall in the growing number of cafe-bakeries that bear her name, is an eye-opener on many levels.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 15, 2013
Teuchisoba Narutomi: Soba and tempura make for a classic combination
Tempura and soba: Separately, they're two essential elements of traditional Japanese food culture. Put them together side by side on the table and they add up to one of the all-time classic dishes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Feb 1, 2013
An experimental approach to afters
Japan's prodigious ability to assimilate, reproduce and then develop homegrown adaptations of products from other cultures is legendary. Why should it be any different when it comes to patisseries?
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 1, 2013
Le Verre Vole a Tokyo: Say bonjour to Tokyo's own taste of Paris
The red-framed doors and purple canopy that mark the front of Le Verre Vole a Tokyo are a cheerful sight at any time of year. In the chill dark dead of winter, their glow is even more welcoming, especially if you're arriving on foot.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 17, 2013
Convivio: Shinjuku's latest Italian proves itself on the plate
First impressions are everything — and at Convivio they are distinctly underwhelming. The elevator entrance, just off a busy main street in brash Shinjuku, is right by the service counter of a KFC outlet, the stern glare of the Colonel seeming to reproach you for aspiring to loftier sustenance than...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 4, 2013
Misogura Tamayura: Welcome the new year with a taste of tradition
Tradition rules at this time of year, and few parts of Tokyo are more traditional than the grid of narrow streets to the south of Ueno's Shinobazu Pond. Although many of the buildings in this former geisha district have seen much better days, there are still gems to be found — and Misogura Tamayura...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 28, 2012
2012: Another year of good Tokyo eating
Before we usher out the Dragon and ring in the Snake, it's time to pause, look back and appreciate all the fine eating that Tokyo has provided this year. Gongs and rankings are meaningless in a city the size of Tokyo: How can anyone visit and compare more than a fraction of even the best restaurants?...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 7, 2012
Monna Lisa: Michelin-starred food you can afford
As the dust settles from the annual pronouncement of Michelin stars — and, yes, Tokyo remains the tire company's gastronomic capital of the world — it's timely to remember that stellar dining does not have to mean stratospheric prices, even in the most rarefied of surroundings. A case in point: Monna...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Dec 7, 2012
Candy made fresh at Tokyo stores
If Christmas is the time when adults pander to their inner child, then it is holiday season all year round at Papabubble. Tokyo's premier purveyor of artisan candies is no ordinary sweet shop: it's more like a Santa's grotto — complete with happy toiling elves.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / FOOD MATTERS
Nov 30, 2012
Japan can learn from the Nordic kitchen
Food production in Japan is not in great shape. For decades, rural populations have dwindled and local farmers have been undercut by imports, at both the cheap and luxury ends of the market. Current plans to open up Japan's famously closed farming market through free-trade pacts sound like a death knell...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 16, 2012
Flatiron: Flavor and flair combine in miraculous chemistry
Whenever an exciting new restaurant is launched in Tokyo, usually it's all over the foodie magazines within days. Not so with Flatiron. Though it's been up and running since September, it's been flying well under the radar.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 2, 2012
Kamachiku: Redbrick storehouse as classic as the noodles
For a food with such a long and venerable history, udon gets surprisingly short shrift in Tokyo. Sure, it's not hard to find these long, chunky, white wheat noodles.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Nov 2, 2012
Exhibition charts the rise of chocolate
Attention all chocoholics! Here's a way to satiate your sweet tooth without gaining a single gram. In fact you're likely to work off plenty of calories as you explore "Chocolate: The Exhibition."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 19, 2012
Ginza Okuda: Kaiseki master invites you to his second home
Autumn is the golden season. Fruit and hearty root vegetables; mushrooms, nuts and new-season rice; plentiful fish and seafood, too: This abundance is the palette from which Japan's top kaiseki chefs draw in creating their intricate, elegant multicourse meals. Few are as accomplished at the art as Toru...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 5, 2012
A Ta Gueule: French fare born of a one-track mind
The golden age of luxury long-distance train travel is over. The days when overnight journeys were made in exclusive style — complete with Pullman sleeping cars, lounge bar and restaurant on wheels — have gone the way of the steam locomotive.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Oct 5, 2012
Tasty twists on tradition at Tokyo Station
Great fanfare accompanied the reopening of Tokyo Station's redbrick building in Marunouchi this week. And, just like any major new (or in this case 98-year-old) landmark, it's a bonanza for tie-in marketing, including plenty of sweets — all limited-edition items that can only be bought inside the station...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 21, 2012
Yorozuya Okagesan: Michelin-starred food tastes better by the bottle
The entrance to Yorozuya Okagesan is, to put it mildly, discreet. The modest sign is set back so far from the sidewalk you'd never spot the steps unless you knew to look. And you'd never go down them anyway unless you had a reservation since, politely but inevitably, you would be turned away.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 7, 2012
Beard: Foodies will grow to love this brilliant brunch
Beard. What sort of name is that for a restaurant, least of all one serving French-inflected food?
China fires long-range missile into Pacific Ocean in rare test
Chinese military vehicles carrying DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles travel past Beijing's Tiananmen Square during a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, on Oct. 1, 2019.
Russia has a secret war drones project in China, intel sources say
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits a drone production facility of the the Special Technology Center in St. Petersburg on Sept. 19.
As Onosato dominates the spotlight, former sumo stars exit the stage
Takakeisho during a one-day tournament at Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020
Does Sanae Takaichi have a real shot at becoming Japan's first female leader?
Economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, a candidate in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election, speaks during a debate in Tokyo on Sept. 14.
How Taro Kono lost his mojo
Digital minister Taro Kono, who is contesting the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, shows a board saying "accomplishment of reformation" during a debate in Tokyo on Sept. 14.
Does Sanae Takaichi have a real shot at becoming Japan's first female leader?
Economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, a candidate in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election, speaks during a debate in Tokyo on Sept. 14.
China fires long-range missile into Pacific Ocean in rare test
Chinese military vehicles carrying DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles travel past Beijing's Tiananmen Square during a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, on Oct. 1, 2019.
A first look inside the new Nintendo Museum
The Nintendo Museum opens to the public on Oct. 2, but unlike the company's all-ages games, the new attraction may be geared more toward older rather than younger gamers.
People of all ages and sizes scale new heights amid climbing boom in Japan
A climbing wall at a kindergarten in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture. The sport has been on the rise in Japan, mainly due to the popularity it gained from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and new climbing walls are popping all over the place.
Why is Shigeru Ishiba so unpopular among his LDP peers?
Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba reacts during a news conference ahead of the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election in Tokyo on Sept. 6.

Podcast

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

Longform

A woman passes an "akichi" (vacant lot) in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo. The capital is littered with such small lots in part because of Japan's aging and shrinking population.
Dealing with rising land vacancies as Japan shrinks
By Alex K.T. Martin

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