Japan Eats!

Our guest today is Ian Chun who is the owner of Japanese online tea shop and community Yunomi.life.    The website is not just selling tea but highly inspirational and educational about Japanese tea and the underlying unique Japanese culture.   For example, you can meet tea producers on the designated webpage, which tells you each vendor’s detailed history, tea fields and manufacturing philosophy...

Our my guests are Marc Matsumoto & Maki Ogawa .  Marc and Maki host a popular English cooking show called BENTO EXPO produced by NHK, the national public broadcaster of Japan.   They teach a global audience how to make great bento boxes.  The show is so popular that it is now in the fifth season.   Also, Marc and Maki recently published a fascinating cookbook about Japanese-style bento called...

Our guest is Atsushi Numata who is the chef and owner of Ni Japanese Deli at the Essex Market in the Lower East Side, Manhattan.   Ni Japanese Deli is unique because all the food he sells is very healthy and allergen-free.  He opened the deli in 2012 inspired by his newborn baby who suffered from a lot of allergies.   In this episode, we will discuss Atsushi’s intriguing childhood of growing up in...

Our guest is Sachiko Nakamichi who is the co-owner of Beniya Mukayu in Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture.  Beniya Mukayu is a beautiful boutique hotel located in the famous hot spring area Yamashiro.  There are many hotels in the area but Mukayu is truly distinctive.  It has earned multiple accolades including the member status of Relais & Châteaux, which is regarded as the best of the best in th...

Our guest is Marcus Consolini who is the CEO of Daimon Shuzo, a sake brewery in Osaka that was founded in 1826.  It is extremely rare to find non-Japanese management at a traditional sake brewery like Daimon.   In this episode, we will discuss Marcus' unique background, why and how he decided to manage the authentic sake brewery, what changes he has made at the brewery, what is special about sake...

"Our guest is Lucy Seligman who is the author of the fabulous cookbook “The Wonderful World of Osechi: Japanese New Year’s Recipes”. New Year is a huge deal for Japanese people.   It is foremost the biggest holiday of the year, which is an equivalent of Thanksgiving and Christmas combined in terms of the cultural importance.   There are many kinds of special food involved in the Japanese New Year...

Our guests are Shuso Imada, general manager of the Japan Sake & Shochu Information Center and Sebastien Lemoine, co-host of the fantastic podcast Sake On Air .   The Japan Sake & Shochu Information Center and Sake On Air jointly organized the fascinating online event Sake Future Summit 2020, which was held on Saturday, November 21st and Sunday November 22nd.   Since the program ran in Japa...

Our guest is Joshua Schlachet who is the Assistant Professor of Japanese History at The University of Arizona.   Josh is a historian of early modern and modern Japan, specializing in the cultural history of food and nourishment in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which was the era of powerful Shoguns and the subsequent westernization.  But the scope of his work is way beyond it sounds!  Hi...

Our guest today is Joshua Walker who is the President & CEO of Japan Society in New York. Joshua has a very intriguing background. He was raised in Japan and spent his formative years until 18 in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan where the geography and climate are diversely different from the mainland Japan. And Hokkaido’s food culture is extraordinary!  Since Joshua left Japan, he has b...

Our guest is Kanariya Eiraku who is a rakugo-ka or traditional Japanese comic storyteller.  Rakugo is a unique form of entertainment that became popular in the 17th century during the Edo period. A storyteller sits on the stage alone only with a folding fan and a hand towel. These are the only props used during the performance. But once the rakugoka starts talking, you are in another world. The ra...

​ Our guest is Elizabeth Andoh , who already joined us 9 times on Episodes 18, 61, 83, 99, 108, 131, 156, 180, 200 and shared her truly deep insight into traditional Japanese food culture.  Elizabeth is a food writer and Japanese cooking instructor based in Tokyo and she has lived in Japan for over 50 years. She runs the culinary arts program called A Taste of Culture, which offers a great opportu...

Our guestis Tom Kisaichi who is the owner, grower and winemaker of the Maboroshi Vineyard in Sonoma, California.  Tom is courageous. Without any background of wine-making, he went to France to study wine at the one of the greatest Burgundian wineries in Gevrey Chambertin in 1991 and he opened The Maboroshi Vineyard in Sonoma, California with his wife and business partner Rebecca in 1999.  Tom prac...

Our guest is Bastian Schwithal who is the CEO and co-founder of Go-Sake based in Berlin, Germany. Since Bastian founded the company in 2017, he has been actively introducing Japanese sake to Germany, which is the kingdom of beer and wine. He also has an award-winning premium sake brand co-produced by traditional Japanese breweries.  In this episode, we will discuss how Bastian got into Japanese sa...

Our guest is Andrea Fazzari , a Tokyo-based James Beard Award- winning photographer and author who specializes in travel and the culinary world. Andrea joined us on Episode 113 to discuss her then-new book “TOKYO NEW WAVE: 31 Chefs Defining Japan's Next Generation with Recipes”, which won The 2019 James Beard Foundation Book Awards for photography. Andrea just released a fascinating new book - whi...

Our guest is Tez Sawanobori who is the founder and CEO of the Connected Robotics based in Tokyo.  We have already seen various applications of robots to our daily life. For example, a Japanese older couple lives with a robot as their close friend to ease their loneliness.  Tez develops robots that can manage skillful tasks with advanced technology and AI for the restaurant industry. The restaurant...

Our guest is Kumiko Zimmerman who is the Founder and CEO at Don Sueños Tequila . She is the first Japanese woman who owns and runs a tequila company.  Although Japan is now famous for great whisky production, tequila is not instantly connected with Japan in our mind. But Kumiko has been proving to the world that she can make the world-class tequila by winning reputable awards since she launched he...

Our guest is Scott Haas who is a writer and clinical psychologist based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He went to Japan for the first time in 2003 and has been visiting the country three to four times a year ever since.  Based on his intimate experience with Japanese culture over the years, Scott recently published a truly inspiring book “WHY BE HAPPY?” . This book is about how to achieve happiness...

Our guest is Jeremy Hunter who is the Founding Director of the Executive Mind Leadership Institute at Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management.   Jeremy teaches corporate executives how to examine their lives, because he thinks that you cannot manage people without managing yourself first.  You may have heard of the concept of flow state or being in the zone or the Zen state and his approach...

Our guest is Elizabeth Andoh who joined us 8 times on Episodes 18, 61, 83, 99, 108, 131, 156, 180 and shared her truly deep insight into traditional Japanese food culture.     Elizabeth is a food writer and Japanese cooking instructor based in Tokyo, and she has lived in Japan for over 50 years.  She runs the culinary arts program called A Taste of Culture , which offers a great opportunity for no...

Our guest is Marybeth Boller who is a chef with impressive experience. She worked under some of the greatest chefs in the world like Michel Roux in London and Jean Georges Vongrichten in New York. She also served as a private chef for the US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy from 2013 to 2017 in Tokyo. She continues to live in Japan and pursue her own culinary philosophy there.  In this episode we will...

Our guest is Sakura Yagi who is the chief operating officer at the T.I.C. Group . The T.I.C. Group is very important for the Japanese food culture in NYC. It is founded by Sakura’s father Bon Yagi who is regarded as the founder of the Japan Town in the East Village. In 1984, Mr. Yagi opened his first restaurant Hasaki in East Village. Since then Mr. Yagi opened more approachable and high-quality u...

Our guest is Yuu Shimano who is the executive chef at Mifune , a creative Japanese restaurant in Midtown, Manhattan.   Yuu’s experience is unique.  He is from Japan and studied in France, worked in Japan and eventually he became the saucier at Guy Savoy in Paris, which has 3 Michelin-stars.  Saucier is the top station in French kitchen, and he was the first Japanese person to take that position at...

Our guest is Karl Palma who is the chef and owner of Karl’s Balls in New York City. He cooks authentic takoyaki at various pop-up events. Takoyaki is one of the most classic Japanese comfort foods but it is yet to be discovered in the US and most other countries outside Japan.  In this episode, we will discuss what takoyaki is, why the simple bite-size balls are a piece of art, Karl’s philosophy o...

Our guest is Hirohisa Hayashi, the chef and owner of Hirohisa in SOHO, which has a previous Michelin star.  Hiro’s culinary experience is unique.  He was classically trained in Japan and came to New York, cooked at Sushi Samba, which is a both latin and Japanese themed creative restaurant. He also had a casual neighborhood restaurant in Brooklyn called Hibino before he opened Hirohisa.   In this e...

Our guest is Yael Peet who is a chef with impressive culinary training at top restaurants in New York City including Prune and Shuko. Until April 2019 she was the co-executive chef at Karasu, which is a cool Japanese-influenced izakaya-style restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Yael and her co-executive chef Elena Yamamoto joined us on Episode 158 to discuss her unique culinary approach and their...