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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 / CULINARY TOOLBOX
Apr 29, 2014
How to sharpen your homemade sushi skills
"Why don't you come around to the other side of the counter?" sushi chef Junichi Onuki chirped from behind the bar. He laid down the sharp yanagi-ba knife he'd been using to slice fillets of sea bream and beckoned in a gesture of welcome.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Apr 8, 2014
Koenji brewpub takes an experimental approach
Growing up, I'd always thought that drinking before dusk was considered something of a no-no. When my friend suggested on a recent Sunday that we stop by Koenji Bakushu Kobo to try some jikasei (homemade) beer at 3 p.m., I pushed it to the more respectable hour of 5. By the time we arrived, though, the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Mar 11, 2014
Catalan cuisine, sake's international pairing pal
"Please, just one bite," cajoled Derrick Lim, patting my shoulder like a solicitous Asian grandmother. "You have to try this dish." A certified sake professional, Lim had been explaining the concept behind his latest venture — a sake-and-tapas bar called Bam, located on Singapore's trendy Tras...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 6, 2014
Japan's top chefs grapple with sustainable eating
After the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony in Singapore last month, chef Yoshihiro Narisawa was in high spirits, despite the late hour and the tropical February heat. His Tokyo restaurant, the eponymous Narisawa in the Aoyama district, had been named Best Restaurant in Japan for the second...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 13, 2014
Feed desire with our seductive Valentine's pairings
When I was a student at the University of California at Berkeley, I taught a class called Female Sexuality with some of my fellow schoolmates (yes, everything you've heard about Berkeley is true). As my work with food and drinks seldom crosses into the realm of sex education, few people know this about...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Feb 11, 2014
All-female wine award targets girls of the grape
Before the tasting commenced at the inaugural Sakura Japan Women's Wine Awards in Tokyo, the judges were reminded to remove their lipstick. The competition, organized by the Wine and Spirits Culture Association (WSCA), is the first in Japan to feature an all-female panel of assessors. Over the course...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jan 7, 2014
Fresh pressings from Norway's sake brewery
Nu00f8gne u00d8 Brewery in Norway is best known for its line of award-winning craft beers, but the company is quickly gaining a reputation for another brewed beverage: sake.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Dec 12, 2013
Umami: an ideal sake pairing
On a recent September morning in Napa Valley, a sake-pairing session at the Culinary Institute of America's annual Worlds of Flavor conference began with a lesson in organic chemistry. The theme of the seminar was "sake and umami," a topic tantalizing enough to fill the room with food and beverage professionals...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Nov 7, 2013
Unique sake from father-son team
Kumpai Shuzo stands along a quiet stretch of the Kyu-Tokaido Road, across the Abe River in an old part of Shizuoka City. Run by father-and-son team Seiji and Hidetoshi Ichikawa, the brewery has remained in the same location since the family's ancestors began making sake in the Edo Period.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Oct 10, 2013
Fall for the flavor of autumn sake
The seasons in Japan can turn on a dime. When I'd left Tokyo for Sweden, at the end of September, summer had shown no sign of abating: The city was still sweating in 32-degree heat and 60 percent humidity. When I returned five days later, the air was lighter and the evenings pleasantly crisp. Fall had...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Sep 12, 2013
Tasting Kirin's beer of many colors
Morbid curiosity had prompted me to order a Two-Tone beer cocktail at the branch of Kirin Ichiban Shibori Garden in Tokyo's Akasaka district. I had read, with no small measure of disbelief, that Tokyo's latest summer beer fad was lager mixed with fruit juice or sweet syrup, and I had to see it with my...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 29, 2013
Tokyo chef who likes a good breakdown
Kamose, a private cooking studio run by fermentation specialist Nobuaki Fushiki, is hidden among the backstreets of Tokyo's Gakugei Daigaku district. Fushiki's special dinner events, which feature an array of fermented ingredients, have a clandestine quality that brings to mind the speakeasies of the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Aug 8, 2013
Supporting Tohoku one glass at a time
On a Saturday evening in late July, Wine Aid for East Japan began, appropriately, with a toast. Now in its third year, the event, organized by professionals in the wine industry to raise money for charities in the Tohoku region, featured over 100 premium wines and a buffet showcasing ingredients from...
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...
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...
Japan Times
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'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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JNTO promotes sustainable tourism initiatives
JNTO promotes sustainable tourism initiatives

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