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April 01, 2025
 

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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
Jul 11, 2013
Japan's new generation of bartenders
Under his fitted black vest, the man beside me on the train wore a white shirt, with long lapels and cuffs trimmed with black piping. A purple silk cravat billowed beneath his chin. Judging from his attire, I'd surmised (correctly) that we were both headed to the same place: the Diageo World Class Japan...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jun 14, 2013
Hard-won battles produce great wine grapes
On an overcast morning high in the hills of the Priorat region in northern Spain, I found myself faced with a dilemma: I had to decide which shoots to prune from the gnarled arms of a 60-year-old Garnacha grape vine. It was mid-May, and several young grape clusters — tiny, green beads that fitted neatly...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 14, 2013
Book finds lessons in Japanese cuisine
In 2008, British food writer Michael Booth embarked on a journey deep into the heart of Japanese food culture. The outcome of his three-month sojourn, a memoir titled "Sushi & Beyond," follows Booth and his young family from Hokkaido to Kyushu as they seek out gastronomic experiences that range from...
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 31, 2013
Why it matters where our food comes from
The latest trend in fine dining has nothing to do with molecular gastronomy or pan-Latin fusion: Sustainability is the new order of the day. At the influential World's 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony in London last month, the organizers presented their first Sustainable Restaurant Award to Narisawa,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
May 10, 2013
You don't need to be a pro to enjoy tasting and pairing sake
For those new to sake, learning to distinguish the subtle nuances in the flavor of various brews can feel like a daunting task. When evaluating sake, professionals consider the balance of sweetness and acidity, the body and the finish, in addition to the drink's specific aromas and flavors. Having judged...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Apr 12, 2013
Cocktails with a fresh twist (literally)
Dressed in a crisp white jacket, white shirt and black tie, bartender Gen Yamamoto looks as though he has just emerged from a casino in a James Bond film.
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.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 19, 2013
Top chefs explore international accents to sushi
On March 6, in a banquet room of the Hotel The Manhattan in Chiba a group of television camera crews surrounded American chef Jeff Ramsey as he carefully spooned a layer of black rice onto a slice of omelet.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Mar 8, 2013
Singapore's taste for Japanese drinks
On my recent trip to Singapore, Japanese drinks seemed to follow me everywhere. At Jigger & Pony, a stylish new cocktail bar in an old part of Chinatown, the first thing I noticed was the selection of around 20 Suntory and Nikka whiskies that lined the backlit shelves, along with Coedo beer. Perhaps...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Feb 8, 2013
Whisky distillery plays a winning hand
Inside the visitors' center at Chichibu Distillery, high in the hills of Saitama Prefecture, a hint of sawdust mingled with the aromas of vanilla, dried fruits and honey that filled the air.
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2013
Jan 23, 2013
Looking to bring Japan's tastes to new markets through sake
As people across the globe toasted the New Year this month, Japan's sake brewers had another reason to celebrate. The industry saw modest increases in sake sales, offering a glimmer of hope to producers who have watched consumption decline since the late 1970s. According to the Japanese Sake and Shochu...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jan 11, 2013
Japan's latest wine trend is only natural
It's official: Natural wines are entering mainstream consciousness in Japan. I know this not simply because sections devoted to organic, "bio" (biodynamic), or shizen-ha (natural) wines have become fixtures in many retail shops, or even because sales of natural wines have risen around the world. The...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Dec 14, 2012
Sake-making mission: the last step
The thermometer inside the brewing facility at Shimazaki Shuzo registered a chilly 8 degrees. Like everyone else who had signed up to take part in the final sake-making session of the Karasuyama Taiken (www.karasuyama-taiken.jp), I was dressed for work — in a thin white jacket that resembled a lab...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 30, 2012
Where Tokyo's top chefs wine and dine
Chef Shinobu Namae rarely eats at the same restaurant twice. Like a lot of chefs, he spends most of his time in his own kitchen, overseeing lunch and dinner service at L'Effervescence, his Michelin-starred French restaurant in Tokyo's Aoyama. When he does venture out, he chooses his destinations carefully....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Nov 9, 2012
Japanese wine: not as bad as you think
On the morning of Nov. 3, the line leading to the entrance of Hibiya Park snaked along the sidewalk and coiled around the corner, several meters from the gate. I was there for the Yamanashi Nouveau wine festival but had assumed that the throngs had come for some other purpose. It was a moment of cognitive...
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Oct 12, 2012
Sake-making mission, part two: the harvest
The instrument I was given to harvest sake rice was a small sickle, about 20 cm in length, with a thin, curved blade and a serrated edge. It was, essentially, the agricultural equivalent of a pair of children's scissors: If used improperly, you could nick yourself badly but were unlikely to do great...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 12, 2012
Hunting for Tokyo's real bagel heads
By now, everyone has likely heard of — and been baffled by — the recent "bagel head" phenomenon. Last month, a video clip that showed three people in Tokyo undergoing a beauty treatment that involved saline injections into their foreheads went viral on the Internet. The clip, taken from the program...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 25, 2012
It's not all about the mid-life crisis
Finding the solution to a difficult problem lies in asking the right questions. On the afternoon of Sept. 1, in a stylish office building in Aoyama, a gathering of Japanese life coaches practiced this Socratic skill in groups of four. It was a role-playing exercise, in which one person played the role...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 21, 2012
Sake tastings mark the arrival of fall
Sake lovers eagerly await the coming of autumn, when spring's brash young brews begin to mellow and develop complexity. Unsurprisingly, this season is prime time for tastings, and October means sake events all over Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Sep 14, 2012
Sake brewers turn their hand to beer
Taro Ishikawa, president of Ishikawa Shuzo in Fussa City, Tokyo, knows a thing or two about brewing beer. This comes as no surprise: In addition to producing Tamajiman sake, his company has been making Japanese jibīru (craft beer) for 14 years. The Ishikawa family's history of beer brewing, however,...
Japan's biggest beef bowl chain Sukiya to shut nearly 2,000 stores after rat and bug contamination
Zensho Holdings, operator of fast-food chain Sukiya, said it will close all of its stores in Japan, except for a small number in shopping centers, between Monday and Friday following recent contamination incidents.
Alert raised for volcano in southwestern Japan
Shinmoedake, a volcano located between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, in November 2019
Japan considers all possible options as Trump threatens new auto tariffs
Subaru cars awaiting export at a port in Yokohama on Thursday.
Nankai Trough earthquake could kill 298,000 people, government says
Residents participate in an evacuation drill held with West Japan Railway in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, in January 2024 to prepare for a Nankai Trough earthquake and a possible tsunami following the quake.
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.
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.
Tokyo tech failures lean into misfortune, mistakes and missteps
Tsuyoshi Domoto in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on March 28. As an entrepreneur, Domoto experienced plenty of setbacks but maintains a positive attitude and continues to pursue his dreams.
Who among the opposition would join the ruling coalition?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Friday.
Traveling the Three-Star Road, the tourist route made from thin air
Scenes like this snow-covered bridge leading to the village of Shirakawa-go are what make the Three-Star Road worth traveling — its name notwithstanding.
Recent spate of wildfires in Japan and South Korea linked to climate change
Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire in Andong, South Korea, on Tuesday.

Podcast

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

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The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
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