Day trips out of Tokyo are usually down south to Kamakura for hiking, out west to Hakone for the hot springs, or — for the ambitious — the shrines and temples of Nikko to the north. One advantage of not being raised up or ...

'I start every morning with a glass of champagne," declared a friend of mine once, a food and beverage director of a hotel in Austria. "Oh, with some orange juice for a mimosa, right?" I asked. "Oh no, a glass of champagne. After that, ...

Nothing turns a woman on more than a room full of excited men. No, this was not the Super Bowl, but the International Chefs Congress, a "show and tell" held last September in New York City by some of the world's most influential chefs. ...

Top New York chefs were given a rare treat recently when master chefs from Kyoto traveled to the Big Apple to give a master class. The exchange was organized by the Japanese Culinary Forum on Oct. 21 and 22. Representing Japan was the Tsuji ...

Autumn brings the brilliant colors of the fall leaves, and the harvest of mushrooms and root vegetables as hearty stews find a home on the dinner table. It also signifies a time to finish the last few bottles of rose you picked up during ...

There are mile markers in life, and an impending 40th birthday recently forced me to take stock of my health. I had put on weight while at culinary school and, being a complete nonathlete, I never managed to lose it. I had a gym ...

"Enjoy it while you can," says Professor Theodore Bestor of Harvard University. He's referring partly to Tsukiji's famous fish market and partly to sushi and to the fact that "some species are at risk of becoming commercially extinct." We are meeting to discuss his book ...

When the summer heat sets in, my Japanese mother religiously serves hiyayakko (chilled tofu) sprinkled with katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and soy sauce. Just looking at this simple dish, I feel myself starting to cool down, knowing that tofu actually helps lower your body temperature. Natural ...

Summers in Japan are associated with boisterous matsuri filled with men in fundoshi sweating under the great weight of omikoshi portable shrines, and colorful yukata-clad girls clip-clopping in their geta en route to see fireworks-filled skies. But this time of year also offers the ...