Tsukemen is cold ramen-style noodles with a dipping sauce on the side. The version most popular in Hiroshima, typified by shops like Bakudan, uses an angry red, fiery dipping sauce that can be adjusted from relatively mild to idiotic. Many Hiroshima natives claim this as a local dish. Many peopl...
Some time in the eighties, and into the nineties, sushi suddenly became a status dish in North America. Similar to Wine Appreciation for an earlier generation, sushi became almost overnight a culinary shibboleth separating the in-crowd from the In-N-Out crowd. Although the situation is improving dai...
Following the Meiji government’s adoption of municipal districting, Morioka was one of Japan’s first cities. Once home to the mysterious Emishi, a non-Japanese people probably related to (or even identical with, no one is certain) the Ainu of Hokkaido, by the end of the Heian era the area was under ...
The Yokohama Raumen Museum is another food theme park, this one devoted to one of Japan’s true obsessions, the now world-famous noodle soup called ramen. The museum’s odd spelling of ramen is intentional, an old fashioned pronunciation that sounds nostalgic to Japanese visitors.
The museum docu...
Buddhism had a profound impact on the Japanese diet, and from the 7th century onwards the consumption of animals was subject to a succession of prohibitions. These varied according to time and place but the general effect was that the common diet contained very little meat.
In Kyoto, both the cul...
Yokohama’s La Cittadella shopping mall is an interesting mix of dining and retail space patterned on an Italian hilltown. What makes it interesting is the architecture. Rather than being a cartoonish replica, La Cittadella uses the hilltown model as a way of moving people through its space. Where...
Yokohama is a port city, and one of the best ways to appreciate its charms is from the sea. The Yokohama Royal Wing, an excursion boat sailing from the Osanbashi International Terminal, lets you see the waterfront at its best, from old town Yokohama to the ultra-modern lights of Minato Mirai and t...
More than living up to its name, this 296 meter building is Japan’s tallest after Tokyo Tower, hosting offices, a hotel, restaurants and shopping spaces. One of the world’s fastest elevators will rush you to the 69th floor in just forty seconds, where you’ll enjoy spectacular views from the Sky Gar...
Among other things, Onomichi considers itself a great food town. Given its location on the Inland Sea, the seafood is especially fresh and abundant, and there are a number of excellent sushi shops around town, especially along the harbor. A number of dishes, including tsuboyakizushi, are claimed...
Pontocho is less a neighborhood than a single, long cobbled alley running one block west of the Kamogawa River.
It is, famously, one of Kyoto’s most appealing districts, but really only shows its best face at night, when the cobblestones gleam in the soft light of traditional lanterns, and the na...
Udon noodles, silky and smooth, are one of Japan’s best-loved snacks. And in the minds of many an aficionados Kagawa Prefecture’s Sanuki udon is the best of the lot.
Udon is a simple food, just wheat flour, salt and water, but somehow the noodlemakers of Kagawa manage to turn out a dense, wonder...
Buddhism had a profound impact on the Japanese diet, and from the 7th century onwards the consumption of animals was subject to a succession of prohibitions. These varied according to time and place but the general effect was that the common diet contained very little meat.
In Kyoto, both the cul...
Beer Garden or Biergarten? No one seems to be able to make up their mind, but don’t worry about it too much. The important thing is the place itself, the very epicenter of Japan’s truly massive beer culture. In 1876 Seibei Nakagawa, recently returned from studying the brewer’s art in Germany, was ...
An Asakusa fixture since the Meiji era, this charming restaurant located across from Dembo-in garden near Sensoji is famous for its tendon, or tempura on rice. If you’re in the area and can’t decide where to eat, give it a try! There’s often a line, especially for lunch, but it’s well worth the wait...
