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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jun 19, 2014

Noma comes to Tokyo; Hawaiian beer garden; summer skyrockets

Noma comes to Tokyo
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jun 17, 2014

Traditional jelly noodles are cooling as well as healthy

Summertime is the season for cooling jellies, and one of the most popular kinds in Japan is kanten. Overseas, this is known as agar-agar, but here kanten and agar are confusingly considered to be two distinctly different substances.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 17, 2014

Ramen Kugatsu-do: Delicate broth and fine noodles for a slurpsome summer

Born in China and raised in Japan, ramen's hybrid heritage has evolved into a wide range of different guises. At one end of the spectrum are the alpha-male turbo-charged tonkotsu counters. At the other, you find lightness, delicacy and refinement. That's the way Kugatsu-do does it.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Jun 15, 2014

Activist yearns to return to a truly democratic Burma

From his adopted home in Tokyo, veteran democracy advocate Kyaw Kyaw Soe pushes for change in Myanmar and supports his fellow refugees in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 14, 2014

Ghostly footprints of the 'modern girl' along Kamakura's coastline

There's a scene in Junichiro Tanizaki's serialized novel "Naomi" (originally titled "A Fool's Love") from 1924 where the besotted protagonist, Joji, watches his wife, Naomi — part Lolita, part Madame Bovary, all trouble — through the pine trees. Having just emerged from a seaside villa, she is sashaying...
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 / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jun 10, 2014

What's: Fine Matsusaka beef in a restaurant as unusual as its name

Culinary epiphanies don't happen often, but when they do, they are food for thought. I had one recently dining on prime Japanese beef and it was an experience that, on reflection, recalled a childhood event. Not that I grew up eating wagyū — far from it; rather, the portion of seared beef reminded...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jun 10, 2014

Marumo Kitchen: Bowls with soul

In the DNA of almost every Japanese building there is a gene for "renewal." And so it was inevitable that Porta, the underground mall at Kyoto Station, would close earlier this year for a revamp. When it reopened it was out with the old and in with the new — and yet another Starbucks. Among the new...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 7, 2014

Kengo Kuma: 'a product of place'

Renowned architect's new book, 'My Place,' reflects an awareness of humanity's close affinity to the world around us.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 30, 2014

Tsukiji traders fish for new export markets

Businesses operating at Japan's largest fish market are increasingly trying to boost exports, sensing demand overseas for such fare as octopus, abalone and stonefish sold with the renowned Tsukiji brand.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
May 27, 2014

Shiogensui: Ramen worth its salt

The shinkansen isn't the only thing connecting Okayama to Osaka these days. You can add shio (salt) ramen to that list. I had my first bowl of Shiogensui ramen in Soja, Okayama Prefecture. It's also where I had my second bowl, on another occasion, before I finally made my way to the source, the original...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE PERSISTENT VEGETARIAN
May 27, 2014

Sansho, spice and other seasonings nice

In the hunt for vegetarian-friendly fare in Japan, it's easy to forget that what often makes the dish is not the main ingredient but the seasoning.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 26, 2014

Roll with it: Tama-chan on the art of making maki zushi

With often hilarious and shocking results, Takako Kiyota, aka Tama-chan, embeds illustrations into rice, wraps them in seaweed and presents them as both dishes and artworks.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 21, 2014

Retailers scrambling to empty fat foreign wallets

In graying Japan, retailers are waking up to a hot new demographic: foreign visitors.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / TRAVEL INSIDER
May 13, 2014

High-flying Italian food; SAS offers new meals; jet fuel goes green

High-flying Italian food
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
May 13, 2014

Café Indépendants

You don't have to be hip to enter Café Indépendants, but it helps. Located in the basement of the old Mainichi Shimbun Kyoto bureau, Indépendants is the kind of cafe frequented by the artsy set. There is a version of this cafe in every city all over the world. In Cork, where I grew up, that cafe was...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
May 13, 2014

Nanaezushi: Edo-kei sushi without the sticker shock

We need to talk about sushi. First, any discussion of sushi isn't worth its wasabi without a mention of the perspicacious octogenarian Jiro Ono, star of the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi," about his Michelin-starred restaurant in Ginza — you know, the one that Obama took Abe to, or was it the other...
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
May 9, 2014

Manga becomes a major draw at Toronto Comic Arts Festival

The 11th annual Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) kicks off May 10. As its title suggests, it's less a fan-focused pop convention than a platform for comics and graphic novels as art, and for the artists who create them. It has also emerged as a great friend to manga over the past few years.
JAPAN
May 8, 2014

Most shared Japan Times stories from April

In case you missed them, here are the most shared stories from The Japan Times for April 2014.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 5, 2014

Does it matter how we choose The World's 50 Best Restaurants?

The World's 50 Best Restaurants is a quirky list and no one claims it is definitive. Avant-garde restaurants tend to place higher than traditional establishments whose gastronomy has stood the test of time.
Events / Events In Tokyo
May 1, 2014

Meat lovers get ready for a delicious festival

Looking for a tasty way to beef up your protein needs? Try the Food Nations Meat Fes, which will be held in Tokyo's Komazawa Olympic Park from May 2 to May 6.
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 / NAGOYA RESTAURANTS
Apr 29, 2014

The Corner: Great burgers at any angle

The Corner is a tiny little nook of a place that has been running since 2011 and (although this may be contested by some) serves the best burger in town. A "New York-style bar," The Corner is keen to put the gourmet into burger making, as every patty is handmade and every bun spread with a unique secret...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 26, 2014

Aloha gozaimasu: Japan's influence on Hawaiian culture

In 1868, the first year of the Meiji Era, 148 Japanese men, mainly from the Kanto area, set sail from Yokohama on the British ship Scrito, bound for Honolulu in the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Apr 26, 2014

Spring greening in Koganei

It’s time to bask in sunshine, birdsong, and blossom-filled breezes. Koganei Park, situated at the center of the Tokyo metropolis, looks like the ideal spot for such a “spring-gasm.” The JR Chuo express train whisks me from Yotsuya to Musashi-Koganei in less than 30 minutes, and I alight with glee....
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2014

Chinese who chicken out over duck blood

No matter how weird or disgusting the food scandal in rural China, it'll almost certainly happen again if profitable. The latest involves a 'mom and pop' duck blood counterfeiting ring.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 24, 2014

Did Barack, Shinzo get down to sushi or business?

U.S. President Barack Obama had his first session with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday in Tokyo, treated at what is often touted as the best-ever sushi bar in Japan: Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo's Ginza district.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2014

Sushi legend Jiro enlisted in bid to wow president

After arriving at Haneda airport, U.S. President Barack Obama is whisked to Ginza for a “casual dinner” with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the modest yet widely revered sushi restaurant Sukibayashi Jiro.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE PERSISTENT VEGETARIAN
Apr 22, 2014

In search of the fruits of Okinawa's oceans

Seven years ago, I bit into a delicate variety of seaweed called umi-budō, or "sea grapes." I remember sampling a few dishes at Unjami, an Okinawan-style izakaya off Nakano Broadway in Tokyo (5-55-1 Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo; 03-5345-5836), but the umi-budō stood out as something special. These tiny,...

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Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.