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The consumption tax increase next April will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people's financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the impact of the hike, experts say.
Every parent is all too familiar with The Tantrum. The screaming, the flailing arms, the angry head butting — and the timing (normally in the most inconvenient public place possible).
International events undermine Japan's democracy. Shame on the International Olympic Committee for being a party to it.
Tucked away behind the main museums in Ueno, the Tokyo University Art Museum may not be on most people’s radar, but it is definitely one of the city’s top museums in terms of curatorial quality. Whenever I go there, I am always delighted by ...
Francisco Liriano showed up at PNC Park on Tuesday afternoon in a suit with his suitcase packed for a trip St. Louis. The message reverberated through the Pittsburgh Pirates clubhouse. After 21 years away from the playoffs, it was time for the best story ...
Robbie Swinnerton has been living, eating and writing about food in Tokyo for over 30 years. His column, Tokyo Food File, has run in The Japan Times since 1998.
For Robbie Swinnerton's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
The moon is magical in any phase, but it's never more beautiful than the first full moon of autumn. Some people go out to gaze at temples or teahouses; others from hillsides or seashores. But few would think of heading into central Tokyo ...
It’s not easy for a new restaurant to stand out, or to even gain a foothold, in a city of the scale and sophistication of Tokyo. Bépocah manages that feat with ease — and in two very different ways. Firstly, it is one of ...
Portugal has plenty to answer for when it comes to the way Japan eats. Tempura, castella sponge cake and even bread — paõ in Portuguese, pan in Japanese — were all assimilated following the arrival of the first trading ships in the mid-16th century. ...
First sushi, then noodles; next sake and wagyū beef: The world’s fascination with Japanese cuisine shows no sign of abating. More and more people are writing about it, too, from travel buffs and visiting cooking experts to untold legions of foodie bloggers. Rarely, though, ...
Tokyo has seen more and more restaurants recently open with the express purpose of offering casual, light bites, rather than elaborate full-course meals. Close to home is fine, as long as we can nibble and graze, ordering a dish or two at a time, ...
It’s summer: You’re not supposed to have an appetite. All you feel like is eating noodles? Welcome to the club. Here’s one place where I’ve been finding nourishment in this most difficult of seasons. In the muggy heat of a Tokyo evening, six or ...
Who eats chocolate in summer? Very few people who I know. It’s not just that chocolate bars melt in seconds: The taste can seem too heavy and the texture too cloying. It simply doesn’t seem to suit Japan’s muggy heat. But there’s one exception ...
Okinawan food is — for me at least — the food of summer. When the days are short and chill, I have little interest in the flavors of Japan’s southwestern isles. But when the heat and humidity build like a thunderhead, that is the ...
A breeze ruffles the surface of the pool next to my table. A canvas parasol stirs above my head. I sink back into my rattan throne, a cool microbrew in my hand. On a hot summer evening in the center of Tokyo, it really ...
Sweetshops don’t get much more traditional than Takemura; inside and out it is a classic. Founded in 1930, this handsome two-story wooden building has stood untouched in the backstreets of Kanda-Sudacho, with its stone lantern, shrubs, the little palisade of bamboo and verge of ...
It’s always exciting when a favorite restaurant sprouts an offshoot, especially if that restaurant is among the best of its kind in the city. And even more so when it’s such a hot table that reservations are nigh-on impossible. But will the new spinoff ...
Food, flowers and tranquility: Eatrip is not just a restaurant, it’s an unlikely oasis in the busy shopping district of Harajuku. Call it a Garden of Eating. Turning off a side street, up a short flight of steps and through a narrow gap between ...