Japan

A High-Speed Bullet Train and a Cruise Ship Are Missing in Japan

​Details continue to come in about the aftermath of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan and the devastating tsunami that followed. The death toll, currently in the hundreds, is expected to increase dramatically. Google has launched a person-finder app to try to help people locate missing fri ... More >>

The Facebook Craze Is Skipping Japan

​The New York Times has addressed Mark Zuckerberg's apparent global domination in an article called "Facebook Wins Relatively Few Friends in Japan," which points out that Facebook has actually failed to win Japan. Although Goldman Sachs just valued the company at $50 billion dollars, the Japanese ... More >>

A Glimpse of the Original Ippudo in Tokyo

​Mmmm, this bowl of Ippudo ramen from the Ebisu location in Tokyo looks like the one called Shiromaru Hakata Classic here. Fork in the Road Beijing correspondent Lillian Chou recently traveled to Tokyo, where she met another friend of ours, musician Carl Stone, and the two of them went ramen ... More >>

LOVE ACTUALLY

Get backed into a corner with someone sweet.

Family Ties, Unbound, in Tokyo Story

Sharon Van Etten Playing Bowery Ballroom In January

​Politely acidic Brooklyn folkie Sharon Van Etten is a burgeoning SOTC obsession -- her intoxicating sophomore album, Epic, is a killer if you're in a particularly emotionally vulnerable mood. (YIMBY'd closing track "Love More" especially.) She hasn't played around here lately, alas, denying u ... More >>

The Internet is Actually an Island in Japan, Full of Cats

The "wonky Japanense language, culture" blog Tofugo isn't exactly breaking news so much as reading Wikipedia and scouring YouTube, but it bears repeating, especially in light of yesterday's New York Times investigation: there is an island in Japan called Cat Island. And the internet goes wild! But i ... More >>

'I knew Mishima Yukio very well.'

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. December 3, 1970, Vol. XV, No. 49 A memory of Mishima By Faubion Bowers I knew Mishima Yukio very well. Now, so does the whole world, not so much for his books which are marvelous and multitudinous in their variegation, but because on ... More >>

10 More Wild and Crazy Food Vending Machines

jetsetta.comThis Japanese machine lets you take a chance on what flavor soda you're getting. Even weirder, you have to stick your hand up the guy's ass to get it, as a gleeful proctologist looks on.​A couple of days ago, we put up a collection of 10 Wild and Crazy Food Vending Machines. In the ... More >>

10 Wild and Crazy Food Vending Machines

toxel.com1. Vending machine from Japan turns shopping for seafood into a game of skill​When Fork in the Road Beijing correspondent Lillian Chou wrote to tell us about a new Chinese vending machine that dispensed hairy crabs kept alive at barely above-zero temps, it got us thinking about other ... More >>

Deerhunter

In Japan, Misplaced Old People Are Still Old, Just Not Edward-Cullen-Old

​Last month, it came to the attention of the Japanese government that many of the hundredsomething oldsters they thought they'd kept around to jazz the place up actually may have died or, at the very least, "gone missing," in the most euphemistic way possible.

HARAJUKU FUN

Celebrate Tokyo’s fashion with a show and party

Our Nine Best Ramen Restaurants

Ippudo's karaka-men, spicy ramen with ground pork ​In the port city of Yokohama, Japan, there is a large museum dedicated to ramen. There, one can learn the story of ramen's genesis between slurps of noodles and broth: Though the noodle is now practically Japan's national dish--popular enough ... More >>

The NFL Bans Players from Selling Wine; Rheingold Comes Back from the Dead

​The garagiste movement, popular in the 1990s, seems to be resurfacing and changing, with a number of micro wine producers returning to a terroir-driven philosophy. [Wall Street Journal] Some diners are uneasy with the practice of the sommelier tasting the wine first. Daniel Boulud's wine dir ... More >>

Animals Taunted With Food in Crazy Japanese Game Show

A clip currently circulating on YouTube shows complacent animals posing motionlessly as excited contestants stack food on or around them. In one sequence, a black dog looks mournful as his owner piles 32 strips of Spam on his nose and forehead (he gets to eat it after the stacks fall off), while i ... More >>

'Sunday Best Presents Alex from Tokyo'

Japanese Entrepreneur Takes on Sisyphean Task of Getting Americans to Eat Natto

tasteofculture.comOpen wide...​Although we have something of an admiration for it, natto - the fermented black soy beans eaten widely in Japan -- is definitely an acquired taste. With a texture typically likened to mucus or snot and an odor that is, well, distinctive, natto isn't quite as easy ... More >>

Hollywood Celebs Tell Japan to Stop Killing Their Friend the Dolphin

"Thank you, Woody."​The makers of the documentary film The Cove, which won an Academy Award, have now released a PSA starring such Hollywood celebrities as Jennifer Aniston, Ben Stiller, Woody Harrelson, and James Gandolfini. In English with Japanese subtitles, the PSA is meant to enlighten pe ... More >>

Fashion Terror Watch List: Japanese Men Co-opt Shorts Over Leggings, the Universe Weeps

​Time to lighten the mood a little, folks, with another brand of terror: The kind you put on feet-first and wriggle over your thighs and then up to your waist, where their ill-conceived elastic pants-holder-up mechanism digs brutally into your belly-parts, indenting your sensitive flesh with r ... More >>

Sumo Wrestlers Taunt Babies in Japan, But That's Not Okay in America!

​In a pairing for the ages, meet the Sumo wrestler and the baby. They look alike, they wear the same kind of clothes, they are both adorably chubby and bare-butted ... They go together like peas and carrots, or Splenda and that third cup of coffee. Americans have been slow to celebrate the S ... More >>

Endangerment, Be Damned: Giant Tuna Sells for Giant Sum at Japanese Fish Market

National GeographicBluefin tuna: the world's most expensive sashimi.​Environmentalists are telling us that the bluefin tuna population in many parts of the world is more or less screwed, but that hasn't stopped the Japanese from rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Case in point: earlie ... More >>

Slurp Tokyo-Style O-Zoni Soup for Good Luck in the New Year at EN Brasserie

EN Brasserie's o-zoni​ Many cultures have certain foods traditionally eaten at the new year, believed to bring luck to the next 365 days. In the American south, it's Hoppin' John made with black-eyed peas; Spaniards eat a dozen grapes for every strike of the clock at midnight; and other cultur ... More >>

Let Us Now Praise Stinky Foods: Japanese Natto Beans

tasteofculture.com​Not to be confused with annatto, a red coloring central to several Spanish-speaking Caribbean cuisines, natto are black soybeans (a smaller variety than familiar green soybeans) that are fermented using the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. These beans originated in China, but ha ... More >>

Krispy Kreme In Doughnut Sludge Scandal; Wendy's Pulls Out of Japan

​Chex cereal sees about half its annual sales occur in the final three months of the year, when party throwers buy multiple boxes -- Corn, Rice, and Wheat -- to make Chex Mix. The brand is now pushing new microwaveable recipes. [NY Times] Krispy Kreme was sued by Fairfax County earlier this y ... More >>

KIDDIE CULTURE

Is Japan’s cute obsession creepy?

Costco Takes Manhattan; Long Island Scallops Make a Comeback

​iVillage has launched a new food site, ivillage.com/food, specifically targeted at "women on the go." The site will feature blogs, recipes, photos and video content, as well as content by Gail Simmons and restaurateur Donatella Arpaia. [WWD] Costco got its first Manhattan location on Thursda ... More >>

"Bovine Spinal Columns" Lead Japan to Ban Tyson Beef Shipments

In another big step forward for food safety and international diplomacy, a Tyson meatpacking facility has been banned from shipping beef to Japan after Japanese authorities discovered bovine spinal columns in 732 boxes shipped from the Nebraska plant. Although Tyson claimed the delivery was the resu ... More >>

Strange Snacks of the World: Japanese Fish Sausage

​ Strange fish products are often much tastier than they sound (like prawn cheese in a tube and dried wild fish). Japanese fish sausage is not one of those snacks. On the upside, it is so bouncy you could play paddle ball with it. Poke around Japanese grocery Sunrise Mart long enough and yo ... More >>

Japanese Food Extravaganza This Sunday

Oi.Max/flickr​This Sunday's NYC Japan Fair will occupy only one block of Madison Avenue, between 43rd and 44th streets, but will devote a large portion of the space to showcasing Japan's gastronomic contributions to the city. Look for ramen from Souen, pork from Hakata Ton Ton, pancakes from O ... More >>

How to Be a Japanese Reggaephile

Step one: Move to Kingston or Brooklyn, and try not to get killed

Forget the Best Crust. Which Pizza Has the Most Legs?

If you think the pizza wars in New York have gone too far, thank your lucky stars you aren't eating pies in Japan. The Head of the Insect Eating Cuisine Association serves up spider pizza at an Okinawa pizzeria. Mr. Matsuba promotes the eating of insects and arachnids, especially among kids. He al ... More >>

ZuZu Ramen Leads the Noodle Charge East

The ramen explosion crosses the river

'Krazy!' at Japan Society

'Krazy!' at Japan Society; Yohei Nishimura's 'Spent Heat'; 'Totally Rad' at MAD

'Krazy!' at Japan Society

OTAKU ATTACK

Japan Society takes you to Tokyo

Strange Snacks of the World--Noodle Sandwich

A Portable Disneyland: Otaku Take Manhattan at This Year's Anime Fest

Enter Curry-Ya's Spicy Laboratory

From India to England to Japan to you in the East Village

New York Times Tries, Fails Drunkblogging

Having a Riot at Tompkins Square

On the 20th anniversary of the mayhem, a walking, talking tour of the neighborhood in honor of the decades-old mayhem

EASTERN PROMISES

The best of contemporary Japanese films

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's Real Craftsmanship

Even if you hate anime!

DRONE HOME

Japan’s Boris test your hearing

Silk

Know your Shochu: Sakagura Event

It's a Good One: Nama Tofu

Roll, Sushi, Roll!

Sasha Issenberg serves up the raw facts on the global economy of a favorite meal

Graphic Marvels