If it felt like everyone you knew had been on holiday to Japan in 2024, it was because they probably had. According to the country’s tourism agency, a record 36.9 million people travelled to Japan in 2024, up 47 per cent from the previous year, as the weak yen helped boost the Asian nation to … Read more
4/5 stars An inner-city high school becomes the testing ground for an intrusive new security system in Happyend, the debut feature from Japanese-American filmmaker Neo Sora. Through the prism of this institution, the film observes the strengthening grip of an authoritarian regime as anxiety builds over an impending earthquake and widespread malaise among the adolescent … Read more
When Sonoko Sakai’s mother sneaked a little miso into her lasagne, she was not thinking of the kind of Japanese fusion that became an American dining craze in the 1980s. Rather, she was doing what Japanese cooks had been doing for centuries: adapting to outside influences. Many dishes now thought of as quintessentially Japanese are … Read more
A group of governors is aiming to have Japan’s hot spring culture added to Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage list in 2028, to bring recognition to the importance of the centuries-old practice of bathing in naturally heated water. The group, set up in November 2022, defines the culture of hot springs, or “onsen” in Japanese, as … Read more
Umami is present in almost all savoury foods and is one of the five primary human tastes, along with salty, sweet, bitter and sour. It is often conspicuous by its absence, like the lack of meat taste in vegan stock. The word “umami” was coined in 1908 to describe the flavour discovered by Japanese chemist … Read more
On the banks of the Kinugawa River in central Japan, a row of abandoned, crumbling hotels stands like a relic of a forgotten past. A destination that once thrived as a hot spring resort during Japan’s bubble economy era of the 1980s, many parts of Kinugawa Onsen have now fallen silent. But a revival is … Read more
1. Tara Margarita of Bourke’s wine bar in Hong Kong on putting simple human love back into cooking Margarita, head chef of Bourke’s in SoHo, shares her journey from corporate life to the culinary arts, emphasising simple, refined bar food. Avoiding the burnout so often found in fine-dining kitchens, she is now fostering a positive … Read more
This summer, Hideaki Sato closed his fine-dining restaurant Ta Vie in Hong Kong, which received its third Michelin star in 2023, for several weeks, reopening it only at the beginning of September. While done primarily for renovations and redecoration following nine years of almost non-stop operation, another reason for the pause was for the chef … Read more
Hongkongers love all things Japanese, from going on frequent trips to Japan to queuing up for hours at the myriad of sushi restaurants in Hong Kong. Not only did such a love chart the careers of Keita Wu, Eummie Chik and Kiu Au – which all have to do with Japanese culture – it also … Read more
Brand new Mercedes, state-of-the-art 4x4s, even Teslas: high-end modern cars have started appearing in the Cuban capital Havana, a city whose image is intricately linked to the numerous classic American sedans and Soviet-era Ladas that cruise its streets. The influx has come despite a biting economic crisis on the communist island, where the average monthly … Read more
