author

 
 

Meta

J.J. O'Donoghue
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Feb 10, 2017
Usaya: Perfecting classic dishes in a cozy, family-run environment
Sanjo's shotengai (shopping arcade) has long been a poor relative of Nishiki Ichiba, the overcrowded shopping arcade of downtown Kyoto. Go a bit west, however, and you'll discover the Sanjo arcade, where you won't have to fight through crowds and there's everything from secondhand shops to kissaten (traditional...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jan 28, 2017
Photographer John Paul Foster: 'Little details separate a good photograph from a great one'
American photographer on geisha cluture and the art of taking a great picture.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Jan 27, 2017
Asai Togei: Traditional 'kaiseki' with an Okinawan twist
Kousei Togei, chef and owner of Asai Togei, comes from Yonaguni Island, one of Japan's most far-flung outposts. On a clear day, the mountainous coast of Taiwan is visible from this Okinawan island. Togei has the laid-back disposition of someone who grew up in eternal sunshine. He left Yonaguni for Osaka...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Jan 27, 2017
Bokkoshi: Umami-rich ramen that defies expectations
The house special at Bokkoshi is a little confusing — but, that's a good thing. Called Niwatorisayu, this version of chicken-based ramen is served in a tall, deep black bowl and looks extremely creamy. In fact, the broth looks so creamy that it could almost pass for clam chowder or thick chicken soup....
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 14, 2017
Curtain call: Examining the evolution of Japan's humble 'noren'
The shōtengai (shopping street) in Katsuyama, a rural hamlet located on the banks of the Asahi River in Okayama Prefecture, wouldn't look completely out of place in a Richard Scarry picture book for young children.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jan 13, 2017
Gi Han Ebisu Do: a window on Japanese-inflected dim sum
Restaurateur and chef Yoshiyuki Gi has spent a lifetime working in Chinese restaurants. He grew up in the kitchen of his parent's eatery in Yokohama's Chinatown before working his way through Chinese restaurants in Japan and onto China. When he returned to Japan, he settled in Kyoto and opened upscale...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jan 13, 2017
Suzuya: one of the old capital's oldest coffee shops
Last year, Suzuya celebrated its 70th anniversary, making it one of the oldest kissaten (traditional coffee shops) in Kyoto. To the best of my knowledge, only Salon de The Francois — which opened in the interwar period — pips it for longevity.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Dec 23, 2016
Wa Bistro Tsuna: Succulent fish heads along an old shopping street
These are tough times for the shōtengai, Japan's old-school shopping streets. The convenience of online shopping and mega-malls has lured shoppers away from the city's vintage arcades. However, the uniform glitz of a shopping center or an online store can never replace the buzz of a shōtengai — such...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Dec 23, 2016
Kushiyakitori Mahoroba: Get an umami overload at this charming yakitori joint
The area around Kyobashi Station, a major transit hub close to Osaka Castle, is not short of restaurants. But if you're nearby and have a hankering for chicken, try Kushiyakitori Mahoroba, a small and charming yakitori restaurant.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Dec 9, 2016
Izuju: A hidden home for sweet 'Kyozushi'
When you live in a tourist mecca like Kyoto you tend to avoid the major attractions. However, having a visitor in town provides a good excuse to join the horde and get into tourist mode: taking over footpaths, meandering slowly along backstreets and taking photos of everything, especially photos of yourself...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Dec 9, 2016
Togenkyo: A return to Japan's traditional coffee-shop style
Togenkyo is a cafe curated to the nth degree. Being so self-conscious, even self-indulgent, could be a turn off, but Togenkyo has its charms.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Nov 26, 2016
'Dave Barry Does Japan': Three weeks in Nippon with a baffled American
It has been a quarter of a century since American humorist Dave Barry "did" Japan — a task he completed in three weeks. "The Japanese culture is thousands of years old," he writes. "To truly grasp its incredible complexity and infinite subtle nuance, you'd need at least a month." Free of nuance and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Nov 25, 2016
Yoshino Sushi: A meal here will give you a new appreciation of rice
Yoshino Sushi has been making sushi in Osaka for more than 170 years, and has become well known for its hako (boxed) sushi, where the rice and seafood are pressed together in a rectangular wooden mold. Made from cypress wood, the mold creates sushi so pretty it could be mistaken for confectionery. A...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Nov 25, 2016
Ali's Kitchen: The cramped home of more than 600 Pakistani and Arabic dishes
Ali's Kitchen is a basement Pakistani and Arabic restaurant that is so cramped it can hardly contain the outsize personality of restaurateur Ali Zaidi.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Nov 11, 2016
Ajiro: Vegetarian 'shojin ryori' in a Buddhist temple complex
I ate my lunch at Ajiro in the company of a bewildered farmer with a comical Donald Trump-like mop of hair. But looks were the least of his concern; rather it was a bull that had got the better of him, escaping from the herd and hightailing it to the hills. Luckily he finally found the animal hiding...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Nov 11, 2016
Soba Dokoro Sasaki: Traditional soba sets worth lining up for
Soba Dokoro Sasaki is worth a stopover if you're heading north into Kyoto's hills to catch the trees in their autumnal colors. It's billed as a soba restaurant, but there's plenty of udon and tempura dishes on the menu, too. Your best bet is to opt for one of this restaurant's substantial set menus.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Nov 2, 2016
A portrait of the tattooist as a nice young man
'Otattoo' artist Hori Benny overcame prejudice, poverty and punishing training to blaze an inky trail through Osaka.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Oct 22, 2016
Ig Nobel perception prize winner Atsuki Higashiyama: 'Psychology teaches us to be scientific and skeptical'
Psychology professor on perserverance, doubt and the influence of his teachers
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Oct 21, 2016
Zeshin: Seasonal surprises in a 'kaiseki' hideaway
Autumn is our reward for overcoming the extremes of summer. The harvest that comes with the season also makes it quite possibly the best time of year for eating out. Zeshin, opened more than three years ago by Hideyuki Ohishi, will make you wish autumn lasted the whole year.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Oct 21, 2016
Tabaccoya: Japanese curry that's sweet, spicy and slow
...

Longform

Dul Saroth (left) and Soeum Samrach, deminers with the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, practice using the Advanced Landmine Imaging System in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province in August.
The Japanese tech that could one day make Southeast Asia landmine-free