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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
Mar 26, 2015
Bottura brings Italian 'culinary stories' to Tokyo
Massimo Bottura's enthusiasm is infectious. The Italian chef has a way of speaking that brings you in on his schemes and sends you chasing multiple trains of thought.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Mar 10, 2015
G10 Sake Night washes down well at Tokyo's Bar Shampoo
It's Saturday night at Bar Shampoo, one of the roughly 200 tiny watering holes crammed into the Golden Gai district of Shinjuku, and Takashi Goto is setting up for G10 Sake Night, the popup event he's hosted every weekend since June.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Feb 10, 2015
Danish cherry wine leaves no sour taste at Cella Masumi
It's difficult to leave Cella Masumi, the tasting room and specialty shop adjacent to Miyasaka Brewing Company in Nagano Prefecture, without a bag full of treats.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jan 13, 2015
Research institute makes sake a little easier to understand
For the past few years, I've harbored a secret dream — an extremely nerdy ambition unlikely to be shared by anyone other than the hardest of hard-core sake and wine geeks. That dream is to become a master taster.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 30, 2014
Insects crawl onto our dinner plates — that's a good thing
I am a fairly fearless eater. I've dined on boiled goose blood and fish bladders in Hong Kong, llama pate in Chile, and fermented whale meat on the Faroe Islands — although I draw the line at Greenland's seal-and-blubber soup. Upon hearing that the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo had recently started offering...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Dec 27, 2014
20 Questions: best answers of 2014
Japan Times On Sunday contributors select the responses that made them laugh loudest over the past 12 months
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Dec 9, 2014
Sake specialists give a lesson in culture
In Saijo, Hiroshima Prefecture, the largest room in the home of Hisao Maegaki, president of the sake brewery Kamoizumi Shuzo, is set for a feast.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 27, 2014
Get an early start when hunting for Georgian wines
Waltz, a tiny standing bar that specializes in natural wines, is nearly impossible to find the first time you try looking for it. On a recent Saturday evening, the bar's obscure location — on a dimly lit backstreet between Tokyo's Ebisu and Shirokane neighborhoods — confounded me and two...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 27, 2014
Get a taste of Georgian wine at Festivin
In the four years since it started, Festivin has grown from an intimate gathering of natural wine enthusiasts to one of the most eagerly anticipated wine celebrations in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Nov 11, 2014
Japan denied a dram of its winning whisky
Of the many things that Scotland has bequeathed to the world — golf, kilts and the baffling culinary phenomenon of fried Mars bars — my favorite by far is whisky. I have an enduring fondness for peaty and powerful Scotch whiskies from Islay and the Islands (as anyone foolish enough to leave me alone...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / CULINARY TOOLBOX
Oct 28, 2014
'Nukadoko': The kitchen helper with a mind of its own
For years, I'd resisted the urge to start my own nuka-pickle pot.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Oct 7, 2014
Selling the Italians on sake, 'the wine of Japan'
At 4:30 p.m. on a Sunday in Milan — the height of the aperitivo hour — the courtyard of the stately Chiostri dell'Umanitaria building was filled with people sipping drinks.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Sep 27, 2014
Jean-Georges Vongerichten: 'What you eat as a child forms your palate'
My dream 25 years ago was to start one restaurant, and now I have a whole empire.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Sep 9, 2014
Green fairy leads to Tokyo absinthe bar
Five years ago, Hiroyasu Kayama developed a fascination with absinthe. Shortly before opening his bar Ben Fiddich in July 2013, he took a pilgrimage to the famous absinthe-producing town of Pontarlier, which lies on the French border with Switzerland. Now, the 30-year-old mixologist wants to start an...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Aug 12, 2014
Spreading the gospel of natural winemaking
Should you ever be lucky enough to get your hands on a bottle of wine from Beau Paysage — the cult producer in Yamanashi Prefecture, whose coveted cuvees sell out within hours of release — look at the back label. On it, you'll find a message from winemaker Eishi Okamoto, earnestly delivered in Japanese...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / CULINARY TOOLBOX
Jul 29, 2014
Expo shows industrial-kitchen tech to fuel any foodie’s product lust
On a rainy day in June, the exhibition halls inside Tokyo Big Sight were brightly lit, accentuating the metallic gleam of the high-tech equipment on display at the Japan Food Machinery Manufacturers' Association expo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 19, 2014
Umami: the taste we love but can't describe
The word "umami" is, in many ways, literally a mouthful. First coined in 1909 by Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda, the term translates roughly as "deliciousness." With its satisfying, round consonants and open vowel sounds, the word approaches onomatopoeia — a phonetic approximation of the gustatory...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jul 8, 2014
What to drink when you're eating oysters
Shucking an oyster is harder than it sounds. A fair amount of dexterity is required to pry open the mollusk's tight-lipped shell and liberate the flesh. The one time I tried to open an oyster with a shucking knife, I ended up smashing it with a hammer instead.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jun 10, 2014
Meet the Willy Wonka of extraordinary cocktails
Contrary to expectation, the Blue Cheese Martini at the Akasaka branch of Code Name Mixology is a subtle concoction. The cocktail is clear, served in a delicate crystal glass, with three olives on the side. The cheese aroma hovers faintly on the nose, but the first sip is mildly sweet and fruity. The...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
May 13, 2014
Let's not forget the sake at world food events
On the afternoon of April 28, at an intimate gathering in London's Ametsa restaurant, a cluster of admirers with champagne flutes in hand fluttered around chef Helena Rizzo. The Brazilian Rizzo, who helms the acclaimed restaurant Mani in Sao Paulo, had recently been named the World's Best Female Chef,...
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.

Podcast

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

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals
By Alex K.T. Martin

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