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November 21, 2024
 

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Makiko Itoh

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Makiko Itoh
Makiko Itoh writes the Japanese Kitchen column, and is the author of the bestselling "The Just Bento Cookbook" and its sequel, "The Just Bento Cookbook 2." A Tokyo native, she runs two Japanese cooking blogs, JustHungry.com and JustBento.com.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Aug 22, 2013
Translating Japan's top cooking site
The Internet isn't all kitten videos and saucy stuff, you know. In Japan, food and cooking makes up a large part of the Net — and recipe-sharing site Cookpad is its biggest juggernaut. With 20 million users — including an astonishing 80 to 90 percent of all Japanese women in their 20s and 30s —...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jul 25, 2013
Okinawans know how to beat the heat
Now that most of Japan is in the midst of a hot, sweltering summer, it's a good time to take a look at the traditional cuisine of a part of the country that lives with warm weather throughout the year: Okinawa.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jun 28, 2013
Watch your summer food pairings
I'll never forget that day during the summer when I was 14. I'd been away in the Yatsugatake Mountains of Honshu with my schoolmates for a rinkan gakkō (a multi-day school trip to the countryside), and on the way back we'd stopped for lunch at a large roadside diner. On the menu was tempura, followed...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
May 24, 2013
Springtime beans aim for the sky
Throughout most of Japan, June is the rainy season. While all that rainfall is great for rice paddies so that we can have delicious new harvest rice in the fall, it makes it a rather dull month for seasonal produce: The summer's bounty of cucumbers, eggplants and so on comes a bit later. What are in...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Apr 26, 2013
Katsuo, Japan's ubiquitous tuna
In the world of sushi and sashimi, maguro (tuna, especially bluefin tuna) currently reigns supreme. It's so popular that large specimens of the fish fetch ridiculous, headline-grabbing prices at the Tsukiji wholesale market in Tokyo, and the species is in danger of extinction due to overfishing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Mar 22, 2013
Why not just add a dollop of mayonnaise?
Newcomers to Japan are often a little taken aback by the many decidedly non-Japanese condiments, such as ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, that are used in everyday cooking. And in particular mayonnaise: Usually reserved for sandwiches, salad dressing and dipping sauces for chilled seafood in the West,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Feb 22, 2013
Ready for spring's fresh bounty
After an unusually cold winter, the sight of spring produce is particularly welcome, especially the bright yellow-green of nanohana.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jan 24, 2013
Fish dish that predates your fridge
Before refrigeration became widespread in the late 1950s, fresh, unprocessed fish was only available to the well-to-do or people living on the coasts.
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Dec 28, 2012
Savor the symbolism at New Year's
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Nov 23, 2012
Fresh soba flour is fall's precious prize
The obsession with fresh, seasonal food in Japan extends to things that you may not even think of as having seasons, such as dried flour. Shin-soba-ko (new fall-harvest buckwheat flour, used in soba noodles) is eagerly anticipated every year by Japanese gourmets. While soba flour has two harvests, one...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Oct 26, 2012
Bang your gong for dorayaki, Doraemon's favorite snack
Traditional Japanese confections, or wagashi, can take a little getting used to for Western palates: The sticky-gooey texture of mochi (pounded rice) and the sweet an (bean paste) filling that are often used are quite different from most European-style cakes and cookies. But one snack that may suit the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Sep 28, 2012
Fall harvest means it's time for new rice
Fall is in the air! With the return of cooler weather, your appetite may be making a comeback too. Luckily, fall is a great time for gourmets to indulge in Japan. There's an abundance of fresh produce in season, and some of the tastiest fish are returning to the colder waters up north. Most of all, it's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 27, 2012
The bittersweet taste of Japanese words
A little while ago a friend of mine who's been living in Japan for few weeks texted me in a bit of a dither, saying, "This guy I barely know said I was sweet! Is he coming on to me?" It turns out the word he used was amai (甘い), which nominally means sweet as in sugar. In English if you call someone...
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jul 27, 2012
Shaved ice: the traditional antidote to summer swelter
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 25, 2012
Umeboshi: Perfect in any culinary pickle
Japanese cuisine has more than its share of acquired tastes, and umeboshi are near the top of the list. Intensely sour and salty, these traditional tsukemono (pickles) are prepared over several weeks, starting in June when the fruits of the ume tree are ripe, and finishing up in July under the hot midsummer...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 27, 2012
What to eat when you can't stand the heat
As the weather gets warmer, foods that are served cold and require little to no cooking become more appealing. In Japan the choice of such dishes goes way beyond a plain green salad. One of these is sashimi, a food that defines Japanese cuisine. While it's eaten year round along with its first cousin...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 23, 2012
Cherry blossom captures the flavor of spring
The Japanese love affair with the cherry tree and its pink, fragile sakura blossoms is world renowned. Every spring, the nation eagerly awaits for the first pink buds to appear on bare branches. The sakura zensen, or cherry-blossom opening front tracked by Japan's meteorological agency, shows where sakura...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 24, 2012
Kōji — Japan's vital hidden ingredient
The development of Japanese cuisine owes much to the humble kōji or kōji-kin. A type of fungus or mold, it is used in all kinds of foods and beverages. It's as important in Japan as the fungi, bacteria and yeast that give character to cheese, yogurt, wine, beer and bread are in the West. The difference...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 30, 2011
Rice takes prized, symbolic yearend form
Shōgatsu (New Year's) is the most important holiday on the Japanese calendar, and the dishes associated with it are laden with symbolic meaning. While the colorful foods of osechi, packed attractively in jūbako (stacking bento boxes), are the flamboyant attention-catchers of the New Year's feast, the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 25, 2011
Sweet dreams of a childhood winter warmer
The mournful chant of the ishi-yakiimo-ya or stone-roasted sweet-potato seller advertising his wares is a cherished part of the late fall and winter landscape in Japan. The sing-song chant is often accompanied by the thin, penetrating tone of a whistle, which seems to echo the sound of the wind. Braving...
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
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.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
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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