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food (Page 301)

It’s Hello Kitty galore! Ms. Kitty takes over food department at Tokyu Toyoko Department Store

You may have read our previous report about Ms. Kitty taking on the tough job of being baked into small golden brown cakes. Well, it appears she was just getting warmed up for a huge number of engagements in the Shibuya area this week. When yours truly, a humble Hello Kitty fan, found out that Ms. Kitty would be appearing in various edible forms at the food department of the Tokyu Toyoko Department Store in Shibuya, I knew I just had to go and see Ms. Kitty hard at work. And wow, has she been keeping herself busy! Read More


  • May 3, 2012

You can now have “best breakfast in the world” in central Tokyo! Australian restaurant Bills opens shop in Omotesando/Harajuku area

Okay, we admit it, we are seriously thrilled about the restaurant “bills” opening in central Tokyo. The Australian restaurant based in Sydney is known to serve the “best breakfast in the world”, and apparently their food is so good that  celebrities from around the world travel to Sydney  to have a meal there. So, naturally we had to have one of our reporters check the new restaurant – and our verdict? Their amazing soft scrambled eggs are to die for! Read More

Are You Adult Enough for this Pepsi?

Summer is a competitive time for beverage companies, who duke it out to get those thirsty, hot customers. Actually, manufacturers (as well as regular people) are still contending this year with a lean, electricity-short summer, a season when the demand for power understandably goes up. Amid all these circumstances, those of you who yearn for an unsweet soft drink should have a crack at ‘Pepsi Black’, coming mid-June.

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Designer Sushi Seaweed – An Interview with its Creator

Design NORI, squares of seaweed (nori in Japanese) carefully crafted into intricate and beautiful designs, have been gaining attention both in Japan and overseas. Currently featured in KATAGAMI STYLE, a 19th century Japanese stencil artwork exhibition being held at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum in Tokyo until May 27, they’re going for 840 yen (10 USD) a piece and are currently sold out, the museum unable to keep up with a flood of inquiries.

How did this ‘designer seaweed’ come into being? We visited the Umino Seaweed Shop in Ibaraki Prefecture and spoke with creator Umino Hiroyuki (32) to find out.

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  • Apr 24, 2012

You won’t need your lucky charm anymore – now all you need is this lucky tea!

What are some of the things considered to be lucky omens in your country? In Japan, it’s considered good luck if you dream about Mt Fuji or a hawk or eggplant in the New Year, or the number 8 is also thought to be lucky. But what if there was a sign of good luck that you could recreate at will? Well now there is, based on the Japanese saying that it’s good luck to have a tea stalk floating vertically in your tea.  With the Cha Bashira Engi Cha, or “Tea Stalk Good Luck Tea” in English, you are guaranteed to have  a vertically floating tea stalk in your tea. Read More

Veggie Sushi Will Win Over All Your Senses in the End

For many vegetarians and vegans, Japan can be a difficult place to get something to eat.  Sushi is nearly completely off limits for those who forego meat, and very few Japanese people would consider California rolls real sushi, especially the chef of Vegetable Sushi Potager.

Vegetable Sushi Potager is a restaurant located in the glitzy Roppongi Hills Area of Tokyo is serving up a full course meal based entirely on vegetables.  I was told that although its presentation is high quality, like a lot of vegetarian cooking the deliciousness of it doesn’t hit you over the head right away. It takes time to build bit by bit from the bottom of your heart as go through each course culminating in a new understanding of the word “delight”.  That’s some big praise so I was understandably skeptical.

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A New Convenience Store (Just Probably Not Convenient For You)

The Japanese convenience store chain Poplar has announced its newest store opening in none other than Tachikawa Detention Center. As in the clink, the joint, the hoosegow: jail. Read More


  • Apr 22, 2012

Hello Kitty not picky about her jobs – this time she gets baked!

We’ve said before that Hello Kitty doesn’t appear to be too picky about her jobs – she seems willing to take on an awfully wide range of engagements upon request. Well, we’ve recently discovered that Ms. Kitty, as we sometimes like to call her, now has an amazing new job. This time, believe it or not, her job involves being baked whole and then sold as kongari-yaki or “golden brown baked Kitty”. What will become of our beloved Kitty? Will she come out of this endeavor unscathed? Read More

The Japanese version of the popular travel information site Trip Adviser recently published a list of the best factory tours in Japan. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the nation’s most popular exports makes it to number one. Read More


  • Apr 18, 2012

A Sweets Lover’s Paradise – Tokyo Confectionery Land opens in Tokyo Station and their “drinkable” cream puffs are a must try!

We have good news for all of you cream puff lovers out there. Three major confectionery makers have joined efforts to open “Tokyo Confectionery Land” in the “Tokyo Station First Avenue” shopping area on the Tokyo Station premies, and one of the confectionery companies involved, Fujiya Co., Ltd, is selling a seriously delicious confectionery – the “drinkable” cream puff! For anyone who loves cream puffs, or sweets in general for that matter, we think this is a must try! Read More


  • Apr 18, 2012

The perfect summer snack – potato chips that are made to be cool, literally

Aren’t potato chips just great? They’re the ultimate comfort food (well, at least they are to me) and they come in a wide variety of flavors to suit your every mood. Well, there’s going to be another novel flavor for potato chip lovers in Japan to try, and the flavor is not the only thing that’s interesting about these new potato chips. Read More

Ice Cream Too Hard? No More!

We’ve probably all experienced that struggle, that anguish – you go to eat your ice cream only to discover it’s still frozen solid and your spoon can only make pathetic little dents in it. The folks at Lemnos Co. could not let this injustice go unaddressed, and have invented a special spoon to do the job. Read More


  • Apr 15, 2012

Have the Ultimate Domino’s Pizza – All the toppings and Over $100!

Our adventurous reporters previously tried a plate of Coco Ichiban Curry with everything on it, and this time we decided to follow that up with an order of Domino’s Pizza with all the toppings on it. But we didn’t order just a regular pizza with all the toppings; that would be too simple.

No, we ordered a Triple Mille-Feuille crust pizza with all the toppings! The Triple Mille-Feuille crust consists of three layers of thin ultra crispy crust with plenty of cheese sandwiched in between. So, we placed our order and waited to see what the pizza would be like. Read More


  • Apr 14, 2012

You’ve probably never eaten melon with mayonnaise before. Well, we saw it being done by actress Erika Toda on the T.V. drama “SPEC” and thought we would give it a try. But seriously, melon with mayonnaise? Wouldn’t melon taste better as, well, simple melon?

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Yay ‘merica! Bacon Shake! But How’s It Taste?

Well, that’s what we’re here for.

So, Americans love bacon. Bacon with eggs. Bacon with burgers. Bacon with waffles, even. We’ve even seen bacon with chocolate and other sweets. Read More

School Lunch Cookbook a Hit With Nostalgic Dieters

If you are feeling a bit nostalgic for the school lunch experience, you don’t have to pass yourself off as a grade schooler and sneak into your local elementary school. You can find healthy, hearty school lunch recipes in a recently published book by nutrition specialist Katsuko Fujiwara called “School Lunches at Home“.

And these recipes aren’t just any old standby. They’re the kind of meals that make everyone happy. Kids want school meals to be delicious, parents want them to be nutritious, and schools just want them to be reasonably priced and easy to prepare. That’s a high bar to clear, but with over 20,000 schools in Japan offering a school lunch program, there were sure to be a few offerings that hit the trifecta, and Fujiwara has compiled some of the best for you.
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Is Fizz Saver the True Savior of Cola Fizz or Does It Fall Flat?

Now that it seems spring has slowly arrived and summer is around the corner, cold drinks are on everyone’s minds.  It’s especially hard to resist all the dirt cheap soft drinks that can be found in convenient 1.5L bottles.

But for most of us, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs and what’s left of the massive bottle gets stored in the fridge.  Here it inevitably falls victim to the scourge of carbonated beverages everywhere – flatness – and ultimately is poured down the drain.

A new product called “Fizz Saver” has arrived on the scene to help keep your large bottles of cola alive a little longer.  I decided to try one out and see in the hopes of a bubblier tomorrow.

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  • Apr 6, 2012

The Perfect Vending Machine – for when you gotta have those fresh cut apples

Ever had the irresistible urge to have fresh apples while you’re outdoors? Well, if you ever have such an urge when you’re at the Kasumigaseki subway station or the Suidobashi subway station in Tokyo, you don’t need to wait to satisfy your urge. You can get some fresh cut apples right at the station – from a vending machine!

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  • Apr 5, 2012

What to do when you need to find a good sushi restaurant – hire a Sushi Taxi, and get some sightseeing done at the same time!

Whether you’re Japanese or a foreign tourist, it can be difficult finding a good sushi restaurant when you’re in a part of Japan you’re not familiar with. Well, if you find yourself in that predicament in the city of Kanazawa, there’s an excellent solution to the problem – hire a sushi taxi! Read More


  • Apr 5, 2012

Popular Japanese Anime enters the food world in soft green form – No, it’s not Jello-O but it still tastes good

The anime “Mobile Suit Gundam”, or Kido Senshi Gundam as it is know in Japanese, has been a hugely popular series for over 30 years with many spin-offs and affiliated products being produced during that time. The anime has been so popular, that the word “mobile suit”, the name of the large humanoid fighting machines that feature in the series, has become an accepted part of the Japanese language. Now the anime has become a part of Japanese cuisine as well, courtesy of a new food product from Sagamiya Foods Inc. Believe or not, they have made the “Zaku” mobile suit model into Tofu! Read More

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