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Kimberly Hughes
Cucina Salve's wild herb salad is a example of chef Hiroshi Tsubouchi's commitment to creating dishes with as little artificial additives as possible.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 29, 2024
Neither allergies nor ADHD could stop chef Hiroshi Tsubouchi
A childhood of hardships led this Chichibu-based chef to embrace an organic philosophy for all his dishes.
Founded in the early 2000s, Ichiro's Malt has since become a third pole in Japan's whisky world dominated by beverage giants.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 4, 2024
In sleepy Chichibu, Japan's whisky landscape is quietly shifting
Ichiro’s signature flavor profile of rich, woodsy flavors complemented by a clear fruitiness owes in large part to the tempermental 'mizunara' Japanese oak.
Hedwig Schreck is a third-generation Tokyoite whose grandfather first arrived in Japan from Germany in 1920 as a submarine engineer.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jul 24, 2024
Hedwig Schreck: ‘Art has always been part of my life’
A third-generation Tokyoite, the former TV producer has pivoted to teaching others about Japanese culture in her retirement.
Ryosuke Kunisawa hopes his "concept brewpub" serves as a focal point to an image change for the salaryman epicenter that is the Shimbashi neighborhood.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2024
Craft beer, craftsmanship and a family of reinvention
On the first two floors of his family’s slender eight-story building, Kunisawa launched the Kunisawa Brewing Company, Shimbashi's first beer brewery, in May 2022.
Specializing in gastronomy-themed tours, Arigato Travel, founded and directed by Anne Kyle, was once a one-woman operation. Today, it counts more than 100 employees.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Apr 26, 2024
Anne Kyle: 'People want to know what life actually is like here’
The founder and CEO of Arigato Travel grew her business from a one-woman operation to a national outfit of more than 100 employees in a matter of years.
After stints working in New Zealand and Germany, Yoshitada Katsuki opened his winery in his home prefecture of Miyazaki in order to work with grapes his own way.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 24, 2024
Despite ‘inhospitable’ Miyazaki, Katsuki Wines stays au naturel
For pest control, Yoshitada Katsuki applies to vines a solution of vinegar, sugar and local shōchū that he jokes “lets bugs get drunk before dying.”
Kazuyuki and Yuki Shimamoto are the executive chef and head patissier chef at Mimi’s Restaurant and Bar in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Feb 10, 2024
Kazuyuki and Yuki Shimamoto: 'When you make things you love, you naturally just get better at it'
A culinary couple share their thoughts on a career in the kitchen and how they approach life in one of Japan's major tourist towns.
The “myahk,” a community currency implemented on Okinawa Prefecture’s Miyako Island in 2018, is intimately tied to local efforts for environmental preservation.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Feb 10, 2024
Japanese communities are creating currencies to educate and empower citizens
The yen will do when paying for things throughout the country. In some places, though, you may try paying with a coin that also helps reduce plastic waste.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Dec 29, 2023
20 Questions: The best answers of 2023
Our interviewees this year gave a lot of advice for living a good life and paying attention to the things that matter most.
As a young man, preserving the 400-year-old Ueda Soko Ryu tea ceremony school, which had survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, was always on Soko Ueda's mind.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Nov 11, 2023
‘Life is for being who I am — not who others expect me to be’
A soon-to-be 17th-generation tea ceremony grandmaster shares the journey he took in embracing his family heritage and preserving a Hiroshima tradition.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Environment
Jun 17, 2023
Want to ‘live like a human’? Escape to a Seto island
Tourists might know the Seto Inland Sea as one of Japan’s unsung travel gems, but more and more people are considering it a place to start life anew.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 5, 2023
At Kyoto's mystical L'Escamoteur, cocktails akin to 'remedies for the soul'
More than one Kyoto drinker has fallen under Cristophe Rossi's beguiling spell.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 21, 2023
Half-farming, half-anything: Japan’s rural lifestyle revolution
Leaving Japan's suffocating metropolises behind is as simple as a passion, a modest profit and plot of land.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 17, 2022
On Chiba's coast, a secret herb garden thrives
Hiromi Sasaki left her life in Osaka and Tokyo behind. Her new one? Grown straight from the soil of the Boso Peninsula.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jun 6, 2022
Same-sex couples in Japan navigate the joys and challenges of parenthood
LGBTQ couples barred from accessing assisted reproductive procedures in Japan are embarking on their own journey as they attempt to raise children of their own.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 17, 2022
No boundaries — culinary, cultural and other — at Meraki Syokudou
Chef-owner Hiroaki Suzuki relies on his inner creative compass to craft a truly remarkable dining experience.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 25, 2022
Teshikaga Extreme Cold Art Festival: ‘A place created by gods and artists’
The annual event, which takes place in Japan's coldest onsen town, finds inspiration in the dramatic natural beauty of Hokkaido winters.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 14, 2021
Elab wants you to opt-in to a circular economy
Operated by a group of young creative professionals, elab — a portmanteau of “laboratory” and erabu, meaning “to choose” — encompasses a kitchen, a living laboratory and a rooftop garden.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 12, 2021
Shozo Street is ‘sacred ground’ for cafe lovers
The town of Kuroiso might seem an unlikely candidate for one of Japan's top coffee destinations. But Shozo Kikuchi has kicked off 30 years of community revitalization, one cafe at a time.

Longform

Capsule hotels were created as a way to deal with the amount of overwork employees tend to do in Japan. Can't commute home? Then spend the night in an tiny, affordable sleeping space.
Japan wakes up to the market for a proper sleep