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April 04, 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
Sep 18, 2009
Awamori : Keeping up high spirits with Okinawa's signature drink
Awamori, the signature spirit of Okinawa, is often lumped together with shochu, the clear liquor produced in the rest of Japan. However, its production is significantly different and its history — like that of the islands themselves — is quite distinct.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 18, 2009
Awamori: Keeping up high spirits with Okinawa's signature drink
Awamori, the signature spirit of Okinawa, is often lumped together with shochu, the clear liquor produced in the rest of Japan. However, its production is significantly different and its history — like that of the islands themselves — is quite distinct.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 18, 2009
Taketomijima: Southern comfort Okinawan style
Everybody loves Okinawa. Japan's southernmost prefecture boasts sun-kissed beaches, coral reefs, an easy-going lifestyle and a culture unlike anywhere else in the country. These days, the islands and their distinctive cuisine enjoy a certain hip cachet; this has not always been the case.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 4, 2009
Tharros: Sardinian flavors in taberna style
Tokyo's love affair with Italian food and drink shows no sign of abating. In the bad old days — and they weren't that long ago — finding a ristorante that was even half good might entail a trip across town and considerable expense. Now we're spoiled rotten for choice.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 21, 2009
The new Harajuku Taproom brews up a storm with craft beer and yakitori
Another American who has been carving out an impressive niche for himself in Japan is brewmaster Bryan Baird. Over nine years has passed since he first began producing craft beers, which he sold in his own brewpub, the Fishmarket Taproom in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 21, 2009
Ivan Ramen: Artisan ramen with NY accent
"Eat ramen here." It's the kind of illuminated sign you might expect to see outside a restaurant in central London or New York. To find it over the door of a one-counter noodle joint on an old-fashioned shopping arcade in the western suburbs of Tokyo is, however, little short of bizarre.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 7, 2009
Surf Kamakura's spicy Asian turf
A chilled bottle of Singha beer forms a ring of condensation on the table. The heady aromas of fried garlic, lemongrass and curry spices waft from the kitchen in the corner of the wooden hut. Two waitresses gossip in Thai.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 17, 2009
Piazza pizza and sidewalk crepes
It took us more than six months to get around to checking out Eataly in Daikanyama. With a name like that, we still couldn't believe it was anything other than a gimmicky Italian food theme park. We're still not convinced, but it certainly boasts one of the most pleasant al fresco eating spots in the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 17, 2009
Cool out at Two Rooms in the sky
The good news: The rainy season is over. The bad news: The Great Heat is now upon us, blanketing the city. The only recourse: eat lightly, eat late and eat outside. Here are a few places where you are likely to find the Food File enjoying the night sky, cradling a glass in the cool of the evening with...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 3, 2009
Enoteca inspiration brings wine and food for Italophiles
Blink and you're likely to miss Enoteca Cricca as you walk past. It's one of those diminutive hole-in-the-wall restaurants that Tokyo does so well. With a low-budget, rustic interior — whitewashed walls, exposed brick and lots of simple, hand-finished woodwork — it's clearly a labor of love and enthusiasm....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 3, 2009
Coolie's Creek: Up in the Paradise down by the creek
Coolie's Creek: What a great name for a Chinese restaurant. OK, it may not be the most politically correct moniker, but when you get there you know it feels absolutely right.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 19, 2009
Simple seafood and a fish shack
"Meet you at the fish shack in Meguro!" It was a suggestion, a rendezvous, an invitation to check out a new restaurant. But more than anything, in these days of straitened economics, it was an offer we couldn't refuse.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 5, 2009
Basque in great flavors at Txoko
It's no secret: Spain has some of the best food in Europe. But Tokyo is only starting to realize there's much more to it than just paella and sangria. That's why we were so pleased to hear about Txoko, the city's first restaurant specializing in the outstanding cuisine of the Basque Country.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 1, 2009
Two more treats along the waterfront
Good things so often come in threes. Between the waterfront and Bashamichi Station are a couple of other Yokohama eateries that are well worth discovering.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 1, 2009
Araiya: Celebrating beef by the Yokohama bayside
Down in Yokohama they're partying like it's 1859. It's been exactly 150 years since Japan's largest port — indeed the country itself — was fully opened to foreign trade. Earlier this month we went down to the old Red Brick Warehouses to marvel at massive mechanical spiders, France's contributions...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 17, 2009
Cafe Hai: MOT goes Vietnamese
It's always a pleasure to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT) out in Koto Ward. The surrounding park is calm, the architecture of the museum exemplary, and the exhibitions invariably well curated.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 17, 2009
Kemuri: Smoking up in Kanda-Sudacho
There are half a dozen compelling reasons for heading to Kanda-Sudacho. The small pocket of back streets that survived the firebombs of World War II and — so far — the ravages of high-rise development is home to some of the city's most venerable restaurants.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 3, 2009
Fleeting beauty, timeless dining
Impatient to see the first sakura of the season, we followed the crowds into Ueno Park. It's been a good while since we last joined in the revelry at Tokyo's largest, most boisterous cherry blossom-viewing party — and never before have we done it in such gourmet style.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 3, 2009
Innsyoutei: Fleeting beauty, timeless dining
Impatient to see the first sakura of the season, we followed the crowds into Ueno Park. It's been a good while since we last joined in the revelry at Tokyo's largest, most boisterous cherry blossom-viewing party — and never before have we done it in such gourmet style.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 20, 2009
Bruschetta, beer — this must be northern Italy
Great news. Stefano Fastro, owner-patron- chef of one of our favorite Italian restaurants, Kagurazaka's inimitable Ristorante Stefano, has just opened a new place. Better news yet, it's not a spinoff or an attempt to duplicate his original operation. In fact, it's completely different in feel, although...
As ‘Buy Canadian’ grows, more U.S. firms say retailers turning away products
Empty shelves with "Buy Canadian Instead" signs are seen in the American Whiskey section of the BC Liquor in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 10.
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.
Trump unveils 10% global tariff, with Japan levy set at 24%
Trump tosses a MAGA hat to the crowd during an event in which he unveiled new tariffs in the White House on Wednesday.
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.
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.
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.
On defense, Japan may avoid Trump's worst impulses — for now
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth chat after reviewing an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Sunday.

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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