The Tokyo Traveler

This past weekend I accidentally attended the grand opening of Eataly, a great to place to taste and shop for Italian wines, cheese, breads, pastries and almost everything else that you can imagine in Tokyo’s Daikanyama neighborhood.  And what a great accident it was! 
Surrounding a stone paved courtyard with relaxing patio seating, near Daikanyama’s landmark green flower, Eataly is the largest Italian food & wine center in Japan.   The store is a bakery, deli and wine store all rolled into one great location and also offers prepared food that you can take home and a variety of dine-in offerings. 
La …read more

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Combine some bourbon, amaretto and a little cranberry juice and you have the award winning Red Carpet Cocktail created by Takahiro Watanabe of the Keio Plaza Hotel’s Polestar Skybar.  Sounds like a tasty drink to sip while overlooking the Tokyo skyline from the hotels’ 45th floor in Shinkjuku, and it’s only one of the award winning drinks created by Watanabe over the years!

In honor of the award, the staff of the Polestar Skybar have teamed up with the Liquid Culture team at The Japan Times to offer an afternoon workshop in the art of the cocktail.
Reserve your Red Carpet …read more

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As seen on CNN!  Check out this weeks Offbeat iReport images to see one of my shots from the Tokyo Cow Parade 2008.
What worries the Japanese?  Earthquakes and global warming top the list of worries.
Your favorite English language magazine in Tokyo may be hard to find due to the bankruptcy of a major distributor.
Baseball legend Sadaharu Oh has announced that her will retire at the end of the season.  Did you take advantage of the opportunity to see him manage a baseball game in Tokyo this summer?
Maison de la Bourgogne offers French food and fine wine in Kagurazaka.
A kamikaze …read more

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School is back in session, improv school that is!  Have you always been fascinated with improv theater and thought that maybe someday you’d like to give it a try?  Now you can!
All native-level English speakers are welcome to attend a weekly two hour improv workshop hosted by Chris Wells, director of the Tokyo Comedy Store  for the past 13 years and an improv performer himself.  Workshops are held every Tuesday night, from 7 to 9PM, in Azabu-juban and are reasonably priced at 2,100 Yen.   Each workshop starts with exercises based around a theme for the evening which are followed by …read more

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Summer is almost a memory and fall is fast approaching in Tokyo.  The Japanese are well known for being proud of their four seasons and autumn is no exception. In Japan the changing of the seasons are celebrated throughout the country with festivals, seasonal foods and special events.
In the fall, the harvest of new rice is celebrated at temples and shrines and moon viewing, tsukimi, is all the rage.  Residents and visitors alike head out for walks in the parks of Tokyo to take in the colorful fall foliage with almost as much delight as when they head off to …read more

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Upon approaching the main building of a shrine in Tokyo you may notice a number of wooden plaques tied to a simple structure or tree.  These are ema and visitors purchase them from a stall on the shrine premises, write a prayer on the back, and then leave them behind in the hope that their prayer might be answered.  People employ ema to pray for good health, bountiful harvests, prosperity in business, success on exams, overall happiness and just about anything else you can imagine.
The literal translation of ema is “horse picture” and it is a tradition that dates back …read more

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Bunkyo Ward is located in the center of Tokyo and is home to many of the city’s colleges and universities along with over 190 thousand residents in a 11.3 square kilometer area.  It sits alongside Arakawa Ward and is the fourth smallest ward in terms of area and fifth in terms of population.  Despite it’s small size there is a lot for the visitor to do and see in Bunkyo Ward.
A Brief History
Bunkyo-ku, translated as “culture ward”, was established in 1947 and is a combination of Hongo Ward, which dates back to the Edo period, and Koishikawa. The ward has …read more

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If you have a love of ramen then you will adore Ramen Tokyo, a site that offers reviews of ramen shops throughout the Tokyo Metropolitan area and was recently featured by The Washington Post. The man behind Ramen Tokyo prefers to remain anonymous but he kindly granted me an interview via email so that I could share his love of this great Japanese food with you!
The story behind Ramen Tokyo goes like this, several years ago an IT guy from New Jersey moved to Tokyo for work and discovered a love of ramen.  He says that he always …read more

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When you think of Sega you think of video games!  Sega is a household name when it comes to video games and they are the makers of classic arcade games such as Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter and House of the Dead.  They are also well known for games such as Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, Super Monkey Ball and NiGHTS Journey of Dream on the Nintendo Wii, as well as Viking: Battle for Asgard, Sega Rally Revo, Virtua Fighter 5 and Virtua Tennis 3 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
In addition to creating some of the best video …read more

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Manma, or food, is the first words spoken by many Japanese babies according to The Mainichi Daily News.  Mama came in a distant 4th on the list of 50 words!
How Japan’s antiquated baseball system is being challenged, again…this time by a semi-pro player.
Have you heard of Metabolic Syndrome?  It’s commonly spoken about in Japan and the government has mandated employers to counsel workers suffering from the syndrome.  Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of the most dangerous risk factors for a heart attack and one of the tell-tale signs is a bulging waistline.
Shochu, a Japanese alcoholic beverage, has made its …read more

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