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July 28, 2024
 

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Melinda Joe

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Melinda Joe
Melinda Joe is an American journalist in Tokyo. A certified wine and sake professional, she writes about Japanese drinks in her Kanpai Culture column for The Japan Times and blogs at tokyodrinkingglass.blogspot.com.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Feb 10, 2012
New to sake? Here's where to start
"Is it always this crowded?" I ask a happi-coat-clad clerk at the Meishu Center sake shop in Hamamatsucho, as she pours me three glasses of sake from hefty, 1.5-liter isshōbin bottles.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jan 13, 2012
Raise a sake cup to Chinese New Year
I've already started planning my dinner menu for the Chinese New Year on Jan. 23. Like many Chinese people around the world, I look forward to the lunar New Year with great excitement. My love of this holiday has nothing to do with dragon parades and red envelopes stuffed with lucky money; for me, Chinese...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Dec 9, 2011
Why I finally warmed up to hot sake
The first time I tried sake, it was served piping hot, as was the custom in North American sushi restaurants at the turn of the 21st century. My friends and I clinked our tiny sake cups as we nibbled on pieces of tuna and salmon nigiri. Secretly, however, we wished that we'd stuck with beer.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Nov 11, 2011
Local brewery brings sake to Toronto
Toronto's Distillery District, located on the site of the now defunct Gooderham & Worts Distillery (which was once the largest whisky producer in the world), is a charming enclave of restored brick buildings housing upscale boutiques, cafes and galleries. When Ontario Spring Water Sake Co. opened...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 30, 2011
Foreign volunteer group helps brewers to rebuild
Earlier this month, a group of 18 international volunteers participating in a cultural exchange program got a crash course in sake production at breweries in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures. The program, organized by Britain-based student organizations Action for Japan UK and the Japan Affairs Forum, ran...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 30, 2011
Sake circle raises a glass for Tohoku victims
A buzzy atmosphere of excitement hung in the air as sake fans lined up for the Wa ni Naro Nihonshu charity sake tasting last Friday afternoon. As attendees streamed through the front doors of Tokyo Dome City's vast Prism Hall, gasps of astonishment mingled with the spirited rhythms of live taiko drumming...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 29, 2011
Food fest organizers aim to 'cheer up' Japan
Shady groves of fragrant trees, crisp alpine breezes and charming European-style villas — heat-addled Tokyoites hardly need more reasons to visit Karuizawa in the summer; this quiet town in Nagano Prefecture has long been a popular holiday destination for those looking for an escape from the intensity...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 29, 2011
Sake sisters are brewing it for themselves
For most of its thousand-year history, sake has been a man's world. Even as recently as 30 years ago, women were forbidden to enter some breweries, but today's pioneering lady brewers and brewery heads are teaching the industry to embrace its feminine side.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 14, 2011
Top chefs keep taste of Tohoku alive
Some of the country's most highly esteemed chefs are working together to ensure that the people of the Tohoku region are not forgotten three months after being hit by the March 11 disasters.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 29, 2011
Sake fights fallout of Japan's triple disaster
After surviving the double disaster of the magnitude 9 earthquake and towering tsunami that damaged more than 100 sake breweries in northeastern Japan on March 11, sake producers in Tohoku thought that the situation could hardly get worse. But when the media reported that the stricken reactors at Fukushima's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 29, 2011
Sake lovers congregate at international event
A healthy buzz characterized the atmosphere at the International Wine Challenge's Sake Discovery Tasting on April 19.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 8, 2011
Tohoku brewers: 'Drink without restraint!'
Last weekend, fifth-generation sake brewery owner Kosuke Kuji of Nanbu Bijin delivered an earnest plea to the public on behalf of sake producers in the Tohoku region: "We'd be sincerely grateful if people would continue to have hanami parties (this year)."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 1, 2011
Second Harvest rallies support for Tohoku
By 9 a.m. on Thursday morning, March 24, several delivery trucks have deposited boxes of emergency supplies in front of the Taito Ward, Tokyo warehouse of Second Harvest Japan, a charity-based food bank.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 17, 2011
Kanto area works on energy conservation
On Monday evening, customers at a Starbucks cafe in Tokyo's Nakano ward sipped their lattes in the glow of a single row of lamps and a handful of small, battery-powered tea lights. Such scenes have become common in Tokyo as people across the Kanto region strive to conserve energy after Friday's devastating...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 16, 2010
Escaping the city to get much more down to earth
Outside of Tokyo, at the tiny organic farm Nahual Garden in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, a group of young professionals swap packets of seeds and horticultural advice over cups of freshly brewed lemongrass tea.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 18, 2010
Worlds of Flavor conference adds Japan to its menu
Japan's ailing economy may lack the impact it once had on global finance, but there's one area of influence where the country's significance is on the rise: the world of gastronomy. Earlier this month, a team of 39 top-tier Japanese chefs wowed an international audience with dazzling displays of technique...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 22, 2010
Pairing tips from the sake experts
What kinds of foods pair well with sake? The obvious answer is Japanese, but, as sake continues to expand abroad, industry professionals and consumers alike are discovering a whole new world of pairing possibilities for the brew.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 7, 2010
World's top chefs forage locally for inspiration
Earlier this September, chef Yoshihiro Narisawa of the Michelin-starred restaurant Les Creations de Narisawa, in the Aoyama district of Tokyo, joined 15 of the world's top chefs to make dinner in Levi, Lapland, 170 km above the Arctic Circle.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 27, 2010
U.S. sake lovers spread some joy
For the first time ever, The Joy of Sake, the biggest sake tasting soiree outside of Japan, will bring its American brand of culture-crossing conviviality to Japan. On Nov. 2, the event, which originated in Hawaii, will be celebrating its anniversary in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 29, 2010
Fresh vegetables in heart of the city
O n Saturdays and Sundays, a small group of vendors sets up stalls filled with fresh vegetables and fruit outside the Kotsu Kaikan Building, a shopping complex in front of Yurakucho Station, in central Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. The Kotsu Kaikan Marche, which started in April, is the latest of a growing number...
Japan's population continues to fall even as foreign resident count rises
The number of residents in Tokyo as of Jan. 1 rose by 0.03% from a year before, data shows, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time in three years, while the country's other 46 prefectures saw their populations continue to decline.
Ahead of the Olympics, Japan is still talking about the gymnast who won't be there
Japan's Shoko Miyata withdrew from the gymnastics team herself over her drinking and smoking, although it had already appeared as though the association was prepared to send her home from the team’s training camp in Monaco.
Yen melt-up nudges Japanese stocks into correction territory
Japanese stocks are down 10% from their July peak as the yen strengthens.
‘Crazy’ yen rally is at risk of shattering as soon as Wednesday
Some investors are warning that a yen rally is fragile, as was on show this week when the yen rapidly retraced an advance after Thursday’s stronger-than-expected U.S. economic growth figures.
Japan's average life expectancy rises for first time in three years
A decline in COVID-19-caused deaths likely helped boost the average life expectancy for Japanese men and women to rise for the first time in three years in 2023.
The Japanese Olympians looking to shine in Paris
Rim Nakamura, who is attempting to win Japan's first Olympic gold medal in cycling, will be one of the top Japanese athletes to watch at the Paris Games.
Japan’s minimum wage set for record ¥50 hike in major boost
Demonstrators rally to demand a big hike in minimum wages in Tokyo last week.
Japan loses top spot on strongest passport list to Singapore
Japan had the strongest passport for six years running from 2018, before being dethroned by Singapore on the 2024 list.
Why Japan's mysterious stash of classified funds escapes scrutiny
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (right) during a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan eyes gold — and the future — as Olympic men's soccer campaign begins
Japan midfielder Yu Hirakawa controls the ball during a match against the United States in Kansas City, Kansas, on June 11.

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