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September 03, 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
Feb 18, 2016
Chef Rodolfo Guzman rediscovers his roots
On a cloudless afternoon a little over a year ago, chef Rodolfo Guzman contemplated a plant he had discovered while wandering up to the Salar de Tara salt flats, which lie 4,860 meters above sea level, in the middle of northern Chile's Atacama Desert.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 18, 2016
Would you like a Chilean wine with your meal? Many Japanese do
Chilean wine is big in Japan. Last month, the Finance Ministry announced that the country's wine is now No. 1 in terms of imports. Import volumes have been growing rapidly since 2005 — reaching a high of 51.59 million liters in 2015 — thanks in large part to the 2007 Economic Partnership between...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Feb 12, 2016
For the goodness of sake: international sommeliers test their senses
Early one morning in Japan last month, Taipei sake educator Michael Ou took a deep breath as he prepared to deliver a presentation about the stages of fermentation before a panel of experts from the U.K.'s Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET). It was the last day of an elite sake instructors' training...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jan 15, 2016
Sake workshops in Tokyo spotlight Japan's lesser known regional breweries
On a recent chilly evening, I found myself in the heart of Tokyo's touristy Asakusa district for the first time in many years. I came to visit Kurand Sake Market, a popular standing bar that specializes in the offerings of local brewers, where Chris Hughes, a U.K. sake expert who is helping Kurand reach...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 11, 2015
Sushi is evolving but Japan still wears the crown
"A sushi chef's hands are always clean," Kazutoshi Endo, the head sushi chef of London's Zuma, once told me during dinner at an izakaya (pub). This comment came after he suddenly used his fingers to place a piece of fishcake on my plate, in lieu of chopsticks. It elicited a round of guffaws at our table,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Dec 11, 2015
The art of pairing wild game and sake
My friend Kanako is an ambitious home chef, the kind of person who frequently cooks using clay pots heated over charcoal embers — she would roast a whole pig in a pit if she had the space. On a recent evening, she prepared an astounding feast that included delicacies such as boar, fresh oysters and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Nov 13, 2015
Desserts and paired sake at Tokyo's Tirpse
Last month, I surprised myself by polishing off a six-course lunch consisting entirely of desserts. As anyone who knows me can attest, I was born without a sweet tooth. However, when Naotaka Ohashi, owner of the contemporary French restaurant Tirpse, told me that he had started offering dessert-focused...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 30, 2015
Testing the culinary limits of Arita Pottery
For a few weeks in August and September, Yoshiyasu Harada hardly slept a wink. The young master potter of Kichiemon Porcelain Co. Ltd., in Saga Prefecture, had been immersed in making dozens of intricate ceramic plates.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Oct 9, 2015
The future for aged Japanese whisky and traditional kaiseki
'This will surprise you," says chef Kenichi Hashimoto as he hands me a glass of what appears to be beer. This serious-faced chef — who leads the kitchen at Kyoto's Ryozanpaku, a two-Michelin-starred kaiseki (Japanese haute cuisine) restaurant — waits for me to take a sip. He then explains that this...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Sep 11, 2015
Denmark's Mikkeller hits Tokyo, leaves strange brews
Mikkel Borg Bjergso, co-founder of the Danish microbrewery Mikkeller, is a man who likes a challenge. At the opening of the new Mikkeller bar in Shibuya, Bjergso tells me that his next goal is to finish the Berlin Marathon next September in two hours and 45 minutes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Aug 7, 2015
Experts assess the future of sake at Milan conference
On a sweltering summer afternoon in Milan, Japanese food enthusiasts meandered through the marble-lined halls of the Palazzo delle Stelline, a 17th-century landmark that faces the church that houses Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper." Inside, a group of Italians dressed in yukata (summer kimono) stopped...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jun 12, 2015
Tasting the many shades of Japan's regional sake
At the risk of sounding like a killjoy, I have to confess that drinks festivals rarely excite me. These events are often promoted as learning opportunities that can help you improve your tasting skills and discover new brands. While the lure of convenience (the chance to sample hundreds of varieties...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 29, 2015
Shōjin ryōri chefs offer vegetarian cooking classes in English
I had to do a double take when I arrived for my lesson with Tokyo Cook, a company offering Japanese cooking classes in English that launched in March. Although the website mentions that the kitchen studio is "hidden inside the newly opened restaurant Sougo" — the less-formal sibling of Daigo, Daisuke...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
May 8, 2015
Californian flavor conference explores green tea's versatility
Making the perfect cup of matcha — the frothy green tea served during Japanese tea ceremonies — requires skill. The trick is to use a bamboo whisk to whip the brew swiftly with a smooth back-and-forth motion of the wrist.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Apr 10, 2015
Jimbocho Den brings hot sake and hanami to Shizuoka
On an evening in late March, a group of well-heeled guests arrive at the Nippondaira Hotel, on a high plateau in the center of Shizuoka City, for the fifth edition of Dining Out, a series of creative pop-up dinners held at various locations around the country. The theme this time was hanami — the tradition...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 26, 2015
Bottura brings Italian 'culinary stories' to Tokyo
Massimo Bottura's enthusiasm is infectious. The Italian chef has a way of speaking that brings you in on his schemes and sends you chasing multiple trains of thought.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Mar 10, 2015
G10 Sake Night washes down well at Tokyo's Bar Shampoo
It's Saturday night at Bar Shampoo, one of the roughly 200 tiny watering holes crammed into the Golden Gai district of Shinjuku, and Takashi Goto is setting up for G10 Sake Night, the popup event he's hosted every weekend since June.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Feb 10, 2015
Danish cherry wine leaves no sour taste at Cella Masumi
It's difficult to leave Cella Masumi, the tasting room and specialty shop adjacent to Miyasaka Brewing Company in Nagano Prefecture, without a bag full of treats.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jan 13, 2015
Research institute makes sake a little easier to understand
For the past few years, I've harbored a secret dream — an extremely nerdy ambition unlikely to be shared by anyone other than the hardest of hard-core sake and wine geeks. That dream is to become a master taster.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 30, 2014
Insects crawl onto our dinner plates — that's a good thing
I am a fairly fearless eater. I've dined on boiled goose blood and fish bladders in Hong Kong, llama pate in Chile, and fermented whale meat on the Faroe Islands — although I draw the line at Greenland's seal-and-blubber soup. Upon hearing that the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo had recently started offering...
More sweltering days forecast for September after hottest summer on record
By the end of August, 8,341 people had been transported by ambulance for heatstroke in Tokyo alone.
‘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.
Surrounded by Chinese bases, a tiny Philippine island stands firm
A Philippine Navy sailor looks at a China Coast Guard vessel just off the coast of Pag-asa Island in the disputed South China Sea last month.
Woman dies after possible knife attack in Setagaya
Police investigate the scene where a woman was found bleeding on a street in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Monday.
Suntory CEO Takeshi Niinami resigns over alleged possession of illegal drugs
Takeshi Niinami, then-chief executive officer of Suntory Holdings, in May 2024
Xi — joined by Kim and Putin — delivers stark warning at military parade
Chinese leader Xi Jinping walks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing on Wednesday.
Tamagotchi hatches 100 million shipments worldwide thanks to ’90s nostalgia
The latest version of Tamagotchi, called Tamagotchi Paradise, is awarded the best digital toy at Tokyo Toy Show on Aug. 28.
Why Stalin didn’t invade Hokkaido still largely unknown, 80 years after WWII
During a survey to collect the remains of victims from the Taito Maru, one of the vessels involved in the Three Ships Incident, a metal helmet was found near the stern of the vessel on Aug. 5, 1984, at Rumoi Port. No human remains were discovered.
More sweltering days forecast for September after hottest summer on record
By the end of August, 8,341 people had been transported by ambulance for heatstroke in Tokyo alone.
Surrounded by Chinese bases, a tiny Philippine island stands firm
A Philippine Navy sailor looks at a China Coast Guard vessel just off the coast of Pag-asa Island in the disputed South China Sea last month.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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