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Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 27, 2010

The long-range vision of Monocle

For a jet-setting, award-winning media, design and branding entrepreneur, Tyler Brûlé is pretty accessible. When he called last week, a few days before the opening of his highly anticipated Monocle Shop Tokyo within the new Francfranc Village building in Aoyama, he was at the site making last-minute...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Oct 15, 2006

Top trimmer styles two leaders in a row

Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has declared he will continue his predecessor's reform policies. That's hardly a surprise, as Abe was Chief Cabinet Secretary under former leader Junichiro Koizumi, and before that was secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party when Koizumi was its president....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2003

Smaller electronics stores use personal touch to keep retail giants at bay

Hiroshi Fujita was shocked two years ago to learn that a large electronics chain store would open across the street from his small shop in Tokyo's Meguro Ward.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 23, 2001

Shitamachi survivors

Although the shitamachi areas of Tokyo may have lost some of their bygone ambience, a few shops dating back to the Meiji or early Showa eras still remain. Sticking to tried-and-tested favorites, they are loved by customers old and new. Some have even appeared in the works of great writers and poets such...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 1999

A confectioner for all seasons

Japanese tea and wagashi (Japanese-style confections) are inseparable in the tea ceremony. Wagashi, served before the tea itself, are said to draw out the essence of the tea.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 1997

Old-style shopping areas fight to survive

Staff writer
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 10, 2021

A ‘new wind is blowing’ for Japan’s coffee culture

Japan's kissaten and coffee shops are no strangers to social change. COVID-19 is pushing both shops and their customers into digital-driven habits.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 11, 2020

Readers’ choice: Tokyo’s best burger restaurants

The Japan Times' readers weigh in with five more recommendations for where to get your burger fix in the capital.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 22, 2019

Frau Krumm: Redefining German bread in Tokyo

A longtime love of bread inspired former professional tennis player Kimiko Date to open Frau Krumm, a German bread bakery in Tokyo's chic Ebisu neighborhood.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 30, 2018

Taking a perch with the hip birds of Uguisudanicho

One of two places in Tokyo named after valleys favored by the melodious uguisu (Japanese bush warbler), Uguisudanicho is a small neighborhood wedged between Daikanyama, Ebisu and Shibuya straddling the line between old-school businesses and gentrification.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 2, 2018

Playing cat and mouse in the alleyways of Harajuku

Although most people familiar with Tokyo's Harajuku area have explored — or at least heard of — the uber-trendy and fashion-focused Cat Street, the smaller and quieter road that runs above it is full of its own unique mishmash of history, food and fashion.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 13, 2018

Shōtengai: Examining the evolution of Tokyo's venerable shopping districts

Jesse McFaddin strolls around Togoshi Ginza shōtengai (shopping district) on a recent chilly December afternoon.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
May 10, 2017

Skills forged in Kyushu, blades forged in Oregon

After failing to win respect for his craft in Japan, 17th-generation bladesmith Murray Carter brought the Yoshimoto name to Portland.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
May 28, 2016

Backstage drama on Ginza's Konparu-dori

A temperate breeze swings through the surrounding willow trees as I pass jewel-encrusted ball gowns in the display windows of Ginza Takaraya, near Shinbashi Station in Tokyo. I'm scouting out Konparu-dori, a street named for the eponymous noh troupe that was gifted land here by the Tokugawa shoganate...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Apr 23, 2016

You don't know what you've got (till it's gone) in Tokyo's nagaya

After hearing rumors that one of my favorite hideaways in Tokyo, the Sanuki Club, is slated for demolition, I stand outside the hotel's front gates with apprehension. Aside from offering some of the cheapest lodgings available in Minato Ward, the property's beer and barbecue terrace — tucked under...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Sep 26, 2015

Circumnavigating joys in Kaminoge

Decades ago, I strolled around the quiet neighborhood of Kaminoge in Setagaya Ward with professor Shuichi Kato, the scholar who convinced me to come study in Tokyo. I vividly recollect, on my first day in Japan, encountering the fragrance of tiny orange kinmokusei (fragrant olive) blossoms as Kato spoke...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jul 25, 2015

The 'other' Jizo-dori: culture set in stone

Mention Jizo-dori in Tokyo and everyone will think you mean the street in Sugamo, Toshima Ward, where the silver set combines bargain hunting with visits to the famous stone jizō (bodhisattva statue) there. Walking near Edogawabashi Station on the Yurakucho Line, I pass a less well-known Jizo-dori,...
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 5, 2014

China probes two Canadians for alleged theft of state secrets

China is investigating a Canadian couple who ran a coffee shop on the Chinese border with North Korea for the suspected theft of military and intelligence information and for threatening national security, China's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
May 8, 2012

Issey Miyake's innovations beat the Brits to win the Design Museum of London fashion award

Colloquially called "The Oscars of Design," the Design Museum of London Design Awards are prestigious accolades given in six categories to the most innovative and inspiring designs of the year — and this year's top honors in the fashion category went to Japan's own Issey Miyake and his team of boundary-pushing...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 19, 2012

Surfing the silent waves

As a young documentary filmmaker, Ayako Imamura had been wrestling with feelings of emptiness. Deaf since birth, the 32-year-old Nagoya native has shot about 30 short films documenting the lives of deaf people in Japan since 2000. But at one point in her career, she realized that her creative energy...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 5, 2010

British pie man to pass on pastry prowess to new owner

We've all heard the tale of a pie man selling his wares to a certain Simple Simon. But this time, the pie man is selling the whole shop.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
May 31, 2009

Where whimsy meets wonder

Antiques tell tales of values, past and present. It's a good guess that whatever survives for a century or so in the tight confines of a Japanese home is either a work of art, a tool of cunning design, or an item of great sentimental value.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Mar 22, 2009

A rose among roots on Awajishima

I'm bent over double, throwing up water I've just drunk. I can't keep anything down.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Mar 12, 2009

ASCIS sprints stylishly, Van Noten opens in Aoyama, British gems sparkle and Galliano diffuses

MISHA JANETTE and PAUL McINNES A Beast on the run in Harajuku If you thought the pace of Tokyo's Harajuku was already dizzying, just see what happens now that ASICS has opened its megastore for runners in the area's heart.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 27, 2009

Ivan Ramen, ready in an instant

The success of Ivan Ramen, a noodle shop founded in 2007 by U.S.-born chef Ivan Orkin, has been well documented in the press over the past year. Indeed, it is not unusual for the 10-seat restaurant in Minami Karasuyama, Setagaya Ward, to have dozens of people waiting outside its doors to try the handmade...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 21, 2008

'Tis a gift to be simple

The best holiday presents wrap themselves — in your arms, that is. The rest of your gift-list responsibilities, whether for Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or Japanese oseibo (yearend gifts), can be taken care of near Asakusabashi Station. I'm usually way behind schedule getting presents together, but...

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?