Mark Robinson, author of "Izakaya: The Japanese Pub Cookbook" (Kodansha International, May 2008) is recently back in Tokyo from New York, where he spent three weeks "signing books at stores like Barnes & Noble, meeting people and seeking inspiration."
Though the word from the publishing world is that cookbooks are in as much of a slump as any other type of publication, Robinson is far from pessimistic: "I don't see books like 'Izakaya' as strictly cookbooks. So I've returned with ideas for several more laterally inclined books about Japanese food and food culture, and also visual culture."
Busy as he is, working as a freelance journalist and editor, Robinson is now actively putting these ideas into proposal form. He has watched with interest as his book has gone into a third printing since the spring, an indication, he believes, of the level of interest in Japanese dining in general, and izakaya in particular.