“The worst thing about our band is that if one of us says something another one doesn’t agree with, she’ll come right out with it, straight to the other’s face. We get into fights quickly,” says bass player Azu. Drummer Moe chimes in: “Yeah, ...

Proving they’re far from burned out, indie rockers Ash return to Japan next week to promote the release of “A-Z Vol. 2,” the culmination of an ambitious project that saw the band releasing a single every fortnight via digital download. Not being bound to ...

A few weeks ago a decadent dinner held at the American Club in Tokyo showcased some top-notch wines from two Australian family-owned wineries. Though the tablecloths were stiff and well starched, the staff — who served up some cracking fusion cuisine that brought out ...

‘Abstinence is bad for you,” trumpeted the press in August, while reporting on a new study published in the journal “Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.” The findings showed that during the 20-year study of a group of 1,824 participants between the ages 55 and ...

Floating on my back in the azure blue of Sawajiri Bay, I found myself falling under the spell of this tiny volcanic island — a little piece of paradise that bubbled up from the depths of the Pacific Ocean many millennia ago. Swirls of ...

A bit like having a water pistol shot straight in the face, a cool glass of Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand can slap you right out of your late-summer stupor. Combining refreshing characteristics of tight acidity and zingy citrus fruit, the wine’s sharp flavors ...

Taking Nintendo’s Game Boy to places it was never meant to go, a lineup of international chiptune artists will be converging on Koenji High this weekend for Japan’s first ever Blip Festival. The roster includes acts such as Nullsleep from New York, who takes ...

Matching wine with Japanese food can be fraught with difficulty. A refined, oak-aged Bordeaux paired with a cool plate of sashimi, for example, can come across as brash and overbearing, completely drowning out the subtle spectrum of seafood flavors. But that’s not to say ...

A neon image of a naked Edo Period prostitute flickers on the screen in time to the blips and beeps of a chiptune track, over which snakes the synthesized voice of a Japanese folk singer; this is Omodaka, aka Soichi Terada, an artist who ...