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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.
COMMUNITY
Jan 13, 2002
Tsukiji fish market: As fresh as it gets
As you would expect, there are plenty of fish restaurants in Tsukiji, both inside the wholesale market and also in the narrow streets that surround it. The rows of simple, hole-in-the-wall eateries in the very heart of the market cater primarily to the early-rising market workers who are already finishing...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 13, 2002
Matsugen: Noodles at the cutting edge of Azabu
To call Matsugen a new-wave soba shop would be misleading, since the noodles it rolls, cuts, cooks and serves are entirely traditional. But judge it on looks and attitude alone, and it belongs without question to the present century, not the last.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 6, 2002
Oh, what will they think of next?
It's never a good idea to start a new year by looking over your shoulder. But there's no harm in saluting the trends that have emerged over the past 12 months, especially if they represent a significant slippage in the gourmet zeitgeist. After all, yesterday's dabblings by the food fashionistas become...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 30, 2001
Delicious plum choices from 2001
In a city the size of Tokyo, it is simply impossible to visit every single new restaurant or to keep track of changes at all the established places. For that reason, the Food File does not presume to assign year-end rankings or pronounce its best-of lists for the year, especially since, in the end, it...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 23, 2001
A gift from the South of France
At this time of year, the frigid streets of Tokyo feel a very long way from the sun-baked hills and turquoise seas of the South of France. But they have cold weather down there too. And for that we should be thankful -- because if they didn't have winter, the local fisher-folk might never have developed...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 16, 2001
Caffe Aromatica: The sweet smell of distinction
There's nothing new under the sun -- at least it often seems that way at Italian restaurants in Tokyo. This is not to deny that we are blessed with plenty of excellent cucina, just that too many of the places serving it look and feel like clones.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 9, 2001
Mardi Gras: Ample reason to celebrate
Over the last couple of years, one of our favorite watering holes in Ginza has been the curiously named (and hard to find) Grape Gumbo, a down-to-earth wine bar with a no-frills, izakaya ambience and Euro-bistro trencherman fare to match. So when we heard that the head chef there, Touru Wachi, had left...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 2, 2001
Restaurant J: Food that gladdens the heart of man
Restaurant J has been open for more than a year, so there's absolutely no reason for the Food File to wait any longer to bestow its seal of approval. But we're still reluctant to give it the unconditional thumbs-up it so richly deserves. Why so? It's the same old story: We're always loath to spread the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 18, 2001
Good Moon: Fusion that waxes and wanes
There's a whole generation out there who have come of age with laid-back, low-priced, modern izakaya, where they feel just as comfortable washing down the oden with wine as they do quaffing shochu with pasta. So when these kids grow up a bit and want to hang out somewhere less boisterous and more adult,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 11, 2001
Kanetanaka-So: Modern kaiseki set on the right course
These are not the best of times for Tokyo's ryotei, those rarefied houses of inconspicuous consumption, whose prime purpose is as venues for wining and dining, mutual back-scratching and political intrigue. With captains of industry cutting back on expense accounts, and Nagata-cho's mandarins under increasing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 4, 2001
Sushi that fits the bill in attitude and price
Shinbotchi's take on the ancient art of sushi is much the same approach that the rag trade of back-street Harajuku adopts toward the world of fashion.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 28, 2001
Isola blu: The upper crust of Ginza
Our appreciation of Isola's superb pizza is already a matter of record: "A work of art . . . As close to perfection as you will ever need to get," we said -- and we have no reason to revise our opinion. When it comes to the location, though, the Food File is far less effusive. Isola is such a long haul...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 21, 2001
Autumn's harvest among the bamboo
Autumn is here, the season of antipasti misti and fruitful mellowness. It's also the time of year, of course, for bountiful supplies of mushrooms and other miscellaneous fungi known collectively as kinoko -- like the excellent assortment we enjoyed the other day at Aburiya, an atmospheric dining bar...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 14, 2001
The bistro jazzed up to perfection
It's a hard job, as they say -- not that we're complaining. But if there is a down side, it's that the Food File's constant, restless search for new foraging grounds makes it nigh on impossible for us to revisit any of our great new discoveries, let alone keep tabs on all those tried-and-true, all-time...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 7, 2001
Rinkaen: Those were the days . . .
There are several excellent reasons why we can recommend a visit to Rinkaen. Unfortunately -- and this is exceptional for the Food File -- few of them concern the act of eating. Nevertheless, this wonderful old place still qualifies (conditionally) as a classic of its kind.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 30, 2001
Oh, to spoon under the silvery moon
The harvest moon is upon us, and where better for viewing it (God and the elements willing) than the terrace at Tsuki no Niwa, the aptly named "Garden of the Moon." Not only is it a marvelous setting, it's hard to believe it's in the heart of Minato Ward.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 23, 2001
Arossa: Best cellars Down Under
When a recent cover feature in a heavyweight U.S. weekly magazine assures us that New World vintages -- especially those from Down Under -- are giving the French (and Californians) a run for their money, then it's safe to say that Australian wine has arrived. But we in Tokyo have known that for a long...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 16, 2001
Give my compliments to the chef
There are many -- the Food File included -- who believe that Kazuhiko Kinoshita produces the finest, value-for-money French food in all of Tokyo, and probably the whole of Japan. So how can it be that he and his bistro-style restaurant remain so little spoken about by the general populace, or at least...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 9, 2001
Adan: A hidden tropical paradise
The chances of discovering Adan by accident are about as great as seeing snow in Okinawa -- in summer. It lies in anonymous residential territory in an unprepossessing quadrant of darkest Mita, well away from the regular foraging trails of mainstream Minato Ward. But even if you were to stumble unaided...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2001
Kao Tai: Getting down to the Thai essentials
You don't have to go far in Tokyo for good Thai restaurants these days. But when it comes to tracking down no-frills, down-home cooking -- the kind of simple snacks prepared by countless market stalls and sidewalk eateries in Bangkok -- then it pays to dig deep. Some of the best Thai street food is served...
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.
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.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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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