Food & Ritual– category –

You probably have a picture of Japanese food in your head. Maybe it’s a master sushi chef, silent and focused, placing a glistening piece of tuna on a perfectly formed pillow of rice. Perhaps it’s an elaborate, multi-course kaiseki meal,...

You feel it before you see it. The moment you push aside the heavy noren curtain and step into a proper Japanese noodle shop, the air changes. It’s thick with the savory promise of pork broth that’s been simmering for days, the sharp tan...

Someone asked me the other day what my most unexpectedly profound experience in Japan was. They were probably expecting an answer about a silent Zen garden or the controlled chaos of Shibuya Crossing. I told them, honestly, it was the ba...

You've seen them. In every major Japanese train station, airport, and roadside rest stop, there are gleaming shops stacked floor to ceiling with exquisitely wrapped boxes. Inside, you’ll find meticulously arranged cookies, delicate cakes...

Walk down almost any bustling commercial street in Japan, from a high-end Ginza department store basement to a sleepy suburban shopping arcade, and you will eventually be stopped in your tracks by a window full of food. A perfect bowl of...

You’ve seen them. Even if you’ve never set foot in Japan, you’ve seen them in photos, in travel shows, in the background of an anime. They sit in glass boxes outside restaurants, gleaming under soft spotlights, a silent and perfect testa...

Step out of the overwhelming, hyper-modern stream of a Japanese city street and into a kissaten. The air changes instantly. The frantic energy of the outside world is replaced by a hushed, reverent calm. The light is dimmer, filtered thr...

It’s past midnight in a neon-laced Tokyo backstreet. The boisterous energy of the izakaya, with its endless draft beers and shared plates of grilled skewers, has faded. The second stop, a cramped karaoke box where you all belted out off-...

You’ve asked me why Japanese food culture seems so obsessed with seasonality, with this concept of ‘shun’ (旬). It’s a great question, because it gets right to the heart of what makes eating in Japan feel so different. It’s not just abou...

You’ve seen them. Of course, you have. Stroll down almost any commercial street in Japan, from a bustling Tokyo shotengai to a quiet side alley in Kyoto, and you’ll find yourself stopped in front of a restaurant window, staring. Not at t...

There’s a particular quiet that settles over a proper Japanese kissaten in the morning. It’s not silence, but something richer. It’s the gentle hiss of a coffee syphon, the muffled clink of a ceramic cup meeting its saucer, the soft rust...

Spring in Japan is a season of profound contradictions. The entire world knows the sweet, impossibly gentle side of it. We see the photos of cherry blossoms, those pale pink clouds that drift through parks and line riverbanks, consumed w...