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November 22, 2024
 

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J.J. O'Donoghue
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Nov 13, 2015
Hashinaga: Delicious and relaxed kaiseki cooked by a formidable chef
I am almost certain that I wouldn't survive a day working under chef Noriyuki Hashinaga. I am, however, certain that I could eat his food every day.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Nov 13, 2015
Sept Bistro: Japan-style hamburgers in a French-style restaurant
Japan does adaptive innovation well: just look at the nation's cars, video games and, yes, hamburgers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Nov 11, 2015
Mr. Cherry, Japan's No. 1 record-breaker, is 'officially amazing'
Cherry Yoshitake has broken more world records than any other Japanese person, but there's every chance you've never heard of him.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 28, 2015
Imagining a Japan that thinks beyond blood and binary distinctions
Could the Brave Blossoms serve as a model for a multicultural Japan of the future?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 24, 2015
Hotel Iris: Sexual obsession in a drab island resort
"The Housekeeper and the Professor" may be Yoko Ogawa's most critically acclaimed and well-known work, but her 1996 novel "Hotel Iris" is a more beguiling tale that evinces the mystery and violence of love.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Oct 23, 2015
Kaishoku Shimizu: Slow kaiseki dining, watched over by Van Gogh
Across from Osaka's Van Gogh museum is Kaishoku Shimizu, a Japanese multicourse restaurant with a facade that looks small enough to squeeze onto a canvas. Between the counter and the two tables it can accommodate 15 diners, which may be a decent amount for restaurants of this kind but good luck trying...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Oct 23, 2015
A La Campagne: A patisserie lacking a little 'je ne sais quoi'
A La Campagne, or "in the countryside" is a loosely French-themed chain of patisseries and cafes. The first shop opened in the sweet-toothed city of Kobe in 1984 and since then they have been sprouting up all over Japan. On a recent sojourn to Osaka, I popped into the branch in the city's Shinsaibashi...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Oct 10, 2015
Soren Bisgaard: 'There is more to chadō than meets the eye'
Danish tea master on philosophy, tranquility and leaving everything behind
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Oct 9, 2015
Sobaya Nicolas: Michelin-starred soba that belongs in your memory, not your camera's
If taking pictures of a meal is one of highest forms of flattery in the modern age, then what to make of the restaurants in Japan that forbid photographing what you are about to eat? The best answer I can come up with is that I'm not sure — nor do I have enough space in this review to decipher the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Oct 9, 2015
Totoya: Fresh seafood donburi beside Kyoto's fish market
While Kyoto's main fish market is off limits to the public most of the year, Totoya, a little seafood restaurant just yards from the market's main entrance, gives you a taste of what's available inside.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Sep 25, 2015
Kagaman makes lunch a personal experience
Although I frequently dine alone while reviewing, I'm rarely alone, in the true sense. Especially at kappō, or counter-style restaurants, where there's a miscellany of worthwhile distractions and on occasion small talk.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Sep 25, 2015
Expect an open-air courtyard and some wine when you pull up to the garage
Even though it's called Garage, this eatery is probably better described as a shack. On weekdays, during lunch and after work, the clientele is mostly drawn from the surrounding offices, but on weekends the crowd is not as uniform.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Sep 11, 2015
Kyokabutoya: Informal Japanese cuisine in an old wooden townhouse
Yasumasu Ikeda, chef and owner of Kyokabutoya, moved to the Kansai region from Hokkaido more than 15 years ago. After almost a decade of cutting his teeth in the kitchens of Osaka and Kyoto, he opened a Japanese restaurant around 2010. Kyokabutoya is housed in a machiya (traditional wooden townhouse),...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Sep 11, 2015
Sasaya Iori: Kyoto's 300-year-old sweets shop
The area around Kyoto Station seems to lack the cultural and culinary charms found elsewhere in the city, but this might be changing. A massive restoration of the nearby Higashi Honganji Temple complex will soon be completed and Umekoji Locomotive Museum will be combined into the new Kyoto Railway Museum,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Aug 21, 2015
Takama: Affordably luxurious soba lunches
It would be easy to breeze past the understated exterior of soba restaurant Takama without ever realizing what's inside, but that would be unfortunate — especially if you like soba. Michelin-starred Takama is located on the same street that leads into Tenjinbashisuji Shotengai, one of Japan's — if...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Aug 21, 2015
Olivier le Francois: Kitsch French interiors saved by unpretentious home cooking
There's no mistaking where Olivier le Francois takes its inspiration from. One step inside will transport you to what feels like a bistro beside the Seine, replete with tables covered by checkered tablecloths, posters of European movie stars on the walls, wine glasses hanging in rows over the bar and,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Aug 7, 2015
Gion Sasaki: Where eel is served in tiny shrines and speaking on phones is banned
On the wall at Gion Sasaki there are two signs depicting mobile phones with lines through them. Bringing your phone with you is allowed, but speaking on it is a no-no. When I visited for lunch, an Asian tourist dining on his own nearby barely put his phone down during the entire nine-course kaiseki meal....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Aug 7, 2015
Kiln: Incredible burgers for wagyu lovers and vegetarians
Kiln takes its name from the oven at the center of its open kitchen, which is surrounded by communal wooden slabs that seat around 10 diners.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 25, 2015
Will 'neurotic' Japan go postcapitalist?
Is Japan on the threshold of postcapitalism? If it is, as Morris Berman suggests in "Neurotic Beauty: An Outsiders Look at Japan," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe doesn't seem to have received the memo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Jul 24, 2015
Difference: Small but intense challenges served on big plates
Certain foods are like certain songs: they transport you to another time and place. Foie gras always reminds me of Belgium — specifically a wedding I once attended outside Brussels. It was the bride's wish (and command) that all 200-plus guests would eat foie gras, and from that time I've always associated...
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.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
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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