Tokyo gets taste of Okinawa longevity
Last in a series Okinawa is well-known for the longevity of its people. Its subtropical climate may be one reason, but a major contributing factor is most likely the southern-most prefecture's healthy foods. A shop in Tokyo's Ginza district serves up some of this bounty, offering ...
Pork, potatoes, pottery Kagoshima's mainstays
Kagoshima Yurakukan, a local-specialities complex taking up three floors of a building in Tokyo's Yurakucho district, has been attracting health-conscious consumers with its products from Kagoshima Prefecture. Takuro Matsunami, manager of the food shop on the first floor, said consumer trends regarding food have changed ...
Miyazaki's Tokyo foothold a success story
Shuji Yoshida, joint owner of Miyazaki Konne, is all smiles when asked how things are at the Miyazaki Prefecture satellite shop. In Tokyo's Shinjuku district, the bright, glass-walled store matches the image of the generally warm-weather prefecture and welcomes between 3,000 and 5,000 customers a ...
Shoppers on Sotobori Street, in Tokyo's fashionable Ginza shopping district, may have been surprised by a sweet scent of citrus hanging in the air. The refreshing smell can be traced to the first floor of Ginza Kumamoto-kan and its huge pile of "banpeiyu" which are ...
Kochi's Tokyo outpost cashing in via discerning clientele; eyes expansion
In the three years since Kai Ishiguro took the helm of the satellite shop Kochi-ya in Kichijoji, western Tokyo, the 29-year-old representative has managed to turn its sluggish business around. The shop is expected to achieve an 80 million yen annual turnover in the current ...
Taste, color of Tokushima arrive in Tokyo
One weekday afternoon in January, an elderly woman dropped by Tokushima Ai-ai Plaza in Tokyo's Minato Ward just to pick up a package of boiled and dried baby sardines and fish paste. This is not at all unusual at the Tokushima Prefecture outlet. Located close to ...
Yamaguchi outpost touts relaxed alternative to madding crowd
The fresh air of Yamaguchi Prefecture may be far removed from Tokyo, but stepping inside Oidemase Yamaguchi Kan (Welcome-to-Yamaguchi Building), its outpost in the Nihonbashi business district, can make a visitor feel half-way there. "A laid-back atmosphere represents the character of the people in Yamaguchi, ...
Hiroshima's long-neglected cuisine brought to the fore at Shinjuku store
Hiroshima Prefecture's natural beauty and abundance of marine life are almost always upstaged by the tragedy that befell its capital in 1945. The city of Hiroshima, a symbol of Japan's postwar peace movement, has long been an important destination for school trips, as educators attempt ...
Sake, sweets part of Shimane's spell
Once upon a time, there was a violent god named Susanoo-no-mikoto who challenged a giant serpent that had demanded the life of a young woman every year. The god killed the eight-headed Yamata-no-crochi, a dragonlike creature with eight tails, when it became drunk on ...
Kobe shop puts its best feet forward
When it comes to local specialties, Kobe has much to boast about -- Kobe beef, Kobe wine and famed confectionery, to name but a few. Indeed, Kobe may have too much when it comes to selecting items to showcase at a specialty shop. As a ...
Style, taste, color of Kyoto brought directly to Tokyo
If you want to learn some of the secrets of the ancient capital of Kyoto without leaving Tokyo, visit Kyoto-kan in the Akasaka district. In addition to its normal display of thousands of made-in-Kyoto products, the shop occasionally rents extra space to invite Kyoto-based companies ...
Center pushes Shiga culture, history
You can't talk about Shiga Prefecture without mentioning Lake Biwa, which takes up one-sixth of its area. "Even the geography is dominated by the lake, which is situated in the center of the prefecture," explained Sugako Imai, a staff member at the Shiga Prefecture tourism ...
