'Abenomics' means a special holiday spread
Before anyone had a chance to shrug off their beach sandals and pack away their tank tops to make room for long-sleeved shirts and jackets, the Seibu flagship department store in Ikebukuro Station announced that it would start taking reservations for osechi ryōri — ...
Farmers bring a slice of country life to Tokyo
With Tokyo Tower as a backdrop and being home to some of Tokyo's most famous nightclubs, several foreign embassies and upscale clothing stores, Roppongi has all the flash and glamor missing from slow-paced, rustic country life. Fields and farms have no place in the ...
East-West sweets are a favorite fusion feast
In Japan, single-flavored foods are sometimes just too monotonous to attract new customers, and so snack companies are constantly going back to the planning board to come up with a hot new flavor of potato chips and chocolate. Often their inspiration comes not only ...
Tokyo chef who likes a good breakdown
Kamose, a private cooking studio run by fermentation specialist Nobuaki Fushiki, is hidden among the backstreets of Tokyo's Gakugei Daigaku district. Fushiki's special dinner events, which feature an array of fermented ingredients, have a clandestine quality that brings to mind the speakeasies of the ...
Eat yourself broke at Grand Front Osaka
You've gotta love a city whose primary motivation is to accumulate wealth then promptly squander it through the time-honored pursuit of kuidaore (eating oneself to bankruptcy). Now, with the opening of the massive Grand Front Osaka commercial, residential and entertainment complex on the north ...
Book finds lessons in Japanese cuisine
In 2008, British food writer Michael Booth embarked on a journey deep into the heart of Japanese food culture. The outcome of his three-month sojourn, a memoir titled "Sushi & Beyond," follows Booth and his young family from Hokkaido to Kyushu as they seek ...
Why it matters where our food comes from
The latest trend in fine dining has nothing to do with molecular gastronomy or pan-Latin fusion: Sustainability is the new order of the day. At the influential World's 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony in London last month, the organizers presented their first Sustainable Restaurant ...
Sample a sweet Golden Week experience at the National Confectionary Expo
Sweets mean different things to different people. Some say such treats are their perfect stress release, while others say they bring back childhood memories.
Hokkaido's diverse cuisine recognized by Michelin
Hiroshi Nakamichi dreamed of becoming a great one-star restaurateur when he went to Lyon, France, with a Michelin guide in his hands, to work at Michelin-starred restaurants. More than 30 years later, his dream came more than true when his "bible" gave three stars ...
On entering the minimalist five-story cube opposite the Yokohama Cosmoworld ferris wheel in Minato Mirai, it's hard to believe that the huge white-walled atrium, with its monumental wooden staircase and beech floors, is not the entrance to a modern-art museum. The blurb in the ...
Sweet dreams of a childhood winter warmer
The mournful chant of the ishi-yakiimo-ya or stone-roasted sweet-potato seller advertising his wares is a cherished part of the late fall and winter landscape in Japan. The sing-song chant is often accompanied by the thin, penetrating tone of a whistle, which seems to echo ...
A taste of home: Life after National Azabu
Ask local expats what they miss most from their homelands, and they might tell you about Fig Newton cookies (Americans), Shreddies breakfast cereal (Brits), fresh coriander (Thais) or morning congee (Chinese). In other words, an authentic taste of home. That's what Tokyo's National Azabu supermarket ...
