Phoebe Amoroso

They say rules are made to be broken. As for traditions? Well, they change with the times....

It might easily be mistaken for a hipster café. From the street in buzzing Shinjuku City ward, a large window illuminates an open kitchen where Yuichi Itoi, sporting a baseball cap, white T-shirt and piercings, is prepping ingredients. As we step inside, we’re greeted by the sound of low-key hip-hop and the chatter of two young couples sat at the counter, sipping drinks. Two men are at a table butted up against a bare brick wall, an open laptop amidst their plates.

Feature article for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Magazine Spring/Summer 2021.

How Tokyo Metropolitan University’s unique program is giving older citizens new ways to
connect with ideas and people.

It’s a chilly December evening in Tokyo and chef Noriyuki Suzuki, of restaurant Sakanoura Rojitei Yasaito, is presenting curious onlookers with an array of unexpected ingredients, whipping up a nine-course tasting menu out of leftovers such potato peelings and forlorn-looking pineapple skins....

Deep inside a complex of caves carved into a Tochigi Prefecture mountainside lie rows and rows of bottles of sake.

Here, no sunlight penetrates and, with an average temperature of 10 degrees Celsius, the underground shelter is said to provide the perfect conditions to age and bring out bold, new flavors in Japan’s national drink.

Growing your own meat might seem like something straight out of science fiction but that’s precisely why Yuki Hanyu from IntegriCulture decided to try it.

“It didn’t even have to be cell-cultured meat,” admits Yuki Hanyu. “In 2013, I was thinking about actually doing science fiction and I thought about different options like a Mars colony or interstellar starships and stuff like that. Then I thought it was probably the right time for cell-cultured meat..."

My interest in awamori began from a place of skepticism. We’ve all read the spiel about some local liquor somewhere, which often falls into the “nice to try on holiday, wouldn’t care for again” category. This is how I started out before I tripped and fell down the rabbit hole into the world of Japan’s oldest distilled liquor.
Awamori has flavor profiles as deep as its 600 years of history. Official tasting note suggestions for this fascinating Okinawan liquor, range from “fruity,” “nutty,” an...

If you take a trip to Gifu City, it won’t take long before you spot a fish motif scattered around, depicting ayu sweetfish (or just plain “ayu” or “sweetfish”).

Shizuoka is one of Japan’s largest prefectures, often synonymous with Mount Fuji due to the many breathtaking views it offers of the famed mountain. It’s also known as the country’s tea capital, accounting for 40% of production. Its countryside is famed for its gentle green slopes, where many farms grow and harvest their tea.

Ramen has been, arguably, one of Japan’s biggest culinary exports in the past few years. Across the globe, new legions of converts will proclaim to be tonkotsu (pork bone broth) fans, avid followers of the shoyu (soy sauce) style, or miso ramen aficionados.
Yet a new store in Sugamo, a northern Tokyo suburb, is throwing its weight behind a type of ramen – iekei – still little known outside of Japan.

As international visitors dive back into Japan after two-and-a-half years, many are eager to dive into bowls of ramen. Fortunately, there’s plenty of new noodles on the market in Tokyo....

“Don’t mention it’s your first time and don’t mention you’re nervous. And whatever you do, don’t make a joke comparing this to your first time having sex — I’ve heard it a million times before.”

Comedian B.J. Fox reels off his advice and I nod as I eagerly jot it down. I wish I could chalk up my enthusiasm to pure journalistic rigor but, in fact, I’m interviewing Fox just half an hour before I subject myself to an open mic — my very first.

“Oh, tell me how the neighborhood has changed!” We’re chatting with a woman behind a café counter in Kiyosumi Shirakawa, an area to the east of Tokyo’s Sumida River. “We’re local people so we don’t know!” she exclaims, her eyes above her mask doing all the smiling and her tone indicating a genuine curiosity.

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My update on the neighbourhood of Kiyosumi Shirakawa - how is it faring in January 2021, after the turbulent 2020?

A male friend once noted that I never included anything about my love life in writing. Considering I am mainly a food writer, I thought that was a rather odd comment.
But since Tokyo Weekender has kindly given me this column with free reign to let my “personality” run wild, I couldn’t resist making my first entry about MEN: long, thick noodles that give me a thrill – ramen, tsukemen, tantanmen etc. – and occasionally human beings with a Y chromosome.

A guidebook to Japan's startup scene: I researched and wrote the opening chapter and overview. I also interviewed around 20 startups and venture capitalists and wrote up their profiles.