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September 01, 2025
 

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Melinda Joe

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Melinda Joe
Melinda Joe is an American journalist in Tokyo. A certified wine and sake professional, she writes about Japanese drinks in her Kanpai Culture column for The Japan Times and blogs at tokyodrinkingglass.blogspot.com.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 30, 2011
Sake circle raises a glass for Tohoku victims
A buzzy atmosphere of excitement hung in the air as sake fans lined up for the Wa ni Naro Nihonshu charity sake tasting last Friday afternoon. As attendees streamed through the front doors of Tokyo Dome City's vast Prism Hall, gasps of astonishment mingled with the spirited rhythms of live taiko drumming...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 29, 2011
Food fest organizers aim to 'cheer up' Japan
Shady groves of fragrant trees, crisp alpine breezes and charming European-style villas — heat-addled Tokyoites hardly need more reasons to visit Karuizawa in the summer; this quiet town in Nagano Prefecture has long been a popular holiday destination for those looking for an escape from the intensity...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 29, 2011
Sake sisters are brewing it for themselves
For most of its thousand-year history, sake has been a man's world. Even as recently as 30 years ago, women were forbidden to enter some breweries, but today's pioneering lady brewers and brewery heads are teaching the industry to embrace its feminine side.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 14, 2011
Top chefs keep taste of Tohoku alive
Some of the country's most highly esteemed chefs are working together to ensure that the people of the Tohoku region are not forgotten three months after being hit by the March 11 disasters.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 29, 2011
Sake fights fallout of Japan's triple disaster
After surviving the double disaster of the magnitude 9 earthquake and towering tsunami that damaged more than 100 sake breweries in northeastern Japan on March 11, sake producers in Tohoku thought that the situation could hardly get worse. But when the media reported that the stricken reactors at Fukushima's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 29, 2011
Sake lovers congregate at international event
A healthy buzz characterized the atmosphere at the International Wine Challenge's Sake Discovery Tasting on April 19.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 8, 2011
Tohoku brewers: 'Drink without restraint!'
Last weekend, fifth-generation sake brewery owner Kosuke Kuji of Nanbu Bijin delivered an earnest plea to the public on behalf of sake producers in the Tohoku region: "We'd be sincerely grateful if people would continue to have hanami parties (this year)."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 1, 2011
Second Harvest rallies support for Tohoku
By 9 a.m. on Thursday morning, March 24, several delivery trucks have deposited boxes of emergency supplies in front of the Taito Ward, Tokyo warehouse of Second Harvest Japan, a charity-based food bank.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 17, 2011
Kanto area works on energy conservation
On Monday evening, customers at a Starbucks cafe in Tokyo's Nakano ward sipped their lattes in the glow of a single row of lamps and a handful of small, battery-powered tea lights. Such scenes have become common in Tokyo as people across the Kanto region strive to conserve energy after Friday's devastating...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 16, 2010
Escaping the city to get much more down to earth
Outside of Tokyo, at the tiny organic farm Nahual Garden in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, a group of young professionals swap packets of seeds and horticultural advice over cups of freshly brewed lemongrass tea.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 18, 2010
Worlds of Flavor conference adds Japan to its menu
Japan's ailing economy may lack the impact it once had on global finance, but there's one area of influence where the country's significance is on the rise: the world of gastronomy. Earlier this month, a team of 39 top-tier Japanese chefs wowed an international audience with dazzling displays of technique...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 22, 2010
Pairing tips from the sake experts
What kinds of foods pair well with sake? The obvious answer is Japanese, but, as sake continues to expand abroad, industry professionals and consumers alike are discovering a whole new world of pairing possibilities for the brew.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 7, 2010
World's top chefs forage locally for inspiration
Earlier this September, chef Yoshihiro Narisawa of the Michelin-starred restaurant Les Creations de Narisawa, in the Aoyama district of Tokyo, joined 15 of the world's top chefs to make dinner in Levi, Lapland, 170 km above the Arctic Circle.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 27, 2010
U.S. sake lovers spread some joy
For the first time ever, The Joy of Sake, the biggest sake tasting soiree outside of Japan, will bring its American brand of culture-crossing conviviality to Japan. On Nov. 2, the event, which originated in Hawaii, will be celebrating its anniversary in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 29, 2010
Fresh vegetables in heart of the city
O n Saturdays and Sundays, a small group of vendors sets up stalls filled with fresh vegetables and fruit outside the Kotsu Kaikan Building, a shopping complex in front of Yurakucho Station, in central Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. The Kotsu Kaikan Marche, which started in April, is the latest of a growing number...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 23, 2010
Events spur on a new generation of sake drinkers
At 5:30 p.m. on a recent Saturday evening, the line of people at the entrance to the Smile Nihonshu sake event was six deep. Inside the bar, groups of young people in their 20s and 30s clinked glasses and nodded along to a bouncy rendition of Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier" under a green-lit disco ball....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 28, 2010
Something new brewing for sake
When Kenji Ichishima, the sixth-generation head of Ichishima Shuzo in Niigata Prefecture, took over his family's sake brewery eight years ago at the age of 34, he immediately started making changes. First, he drastically reduced the number of products. Next, he revamped the brand to project a more artisanal...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 15, 2010
Why do English teachers have to be native speakers?
In Japan, non-native English-language instructors from South Asian countries are challenging cultural stereotypes and putting a new face on the industry. And it hasn't been any easy task.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 21, 2010
Seeking out fine sake at its Saijo source
As we walked out of the station, the sleepy town of Saijo stretched before us like a cat in the late-afternoon sun.The streets were quiet. Pockets of snow lay in the chilly shadows and melting frost dripped from the telephone wires.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 29, 2009
Deer problem growing fast
This winter, naturalist and woodland conservationist C.W. Nicol will be busy cooking up delicious meals using wild deer meat — slow-cooked keema curry, hearty shepherd's pie and soy-simmered nikudango meatballs, to name a few.
Top Japan trade negotiator canceled U.S. trip over rice, report says
Ryosei Akazawa
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
The Nobel Prize and a testy phone call: How the Trump-Modi relationship unraveled
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greet one another at the start of a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington in February.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Japan is warming up to tattoos — just not permanent ones
Tattoos have a complex history in Japan, but new types of temporary ink are letting locals curious about body art experiment without the commitment.
YouTube Music Weekend is where Japan’s internet-born performers go global
Headlining the second day of YouTube Music Weekend is Vocaloid artist Kikuo, who, with 1.46 million YouTube subscribers, is one of the most popular artists in the genre.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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Longform

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From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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