Overview of Japan posts: Japan 1: Welcome to Tokyo! (and a killer okonomiyaki) Japan 2: Yokohama and Omuraisu Japan 3: What Makes Japan One Of A Kind Japan 4: Special Japanese Neighborhoods + Those Famous Food Floors Japan 5: A Gourmet Japanese Lunch + Roppongi Hills Japan 6: Kyoto (1st installment, 2nd installment) Japan 7: Disneyland and DisneySea Japan 8: Tsukiji Fish Market & Tsukiji Neighborhood crazy, long line for sushi A visit to Tsukiji Market is best paired with a sushi breakfast. After seeing all that fish, I’m hankering for seafood so fresh it wriggles. There are several sushi bars and kissaten (coffee shops) located in and around the market. They open around five am and close around noon. Judging from the lines outside these restaurants, some are obviously way more popular than others. One such place is so crowded (see above photo) that people are actually jostling for a space in line. To a tourist like myself, it’s a waste of time since there are surely other equally good places....

Overview of Japan posts: Japan 1: Welcome to Tokyo! (and a killer okonomiyaki) Japan 2: Yokohama and Omuraisu Japan 3: What Makes Japan One Of A Kind Japan 4: Special Japanese Neighborhoods + Those Famous Food Floors Japan 5: A Gourmet Japanese Lunch + Roppongi Hills Japan 6: Kyoto (1st installment, 2nd installment) Japan 7: Disneyland and DisneySea Japan 8: Tsukiji Fish Market & Tsukiji neighborhoodOn my last day in Japan, I wake up and immediately feel shots of pain coursing up my calves. The nonstop walking of the past nine days is catching up with me and my body is threatening to shut down. Still bleary eyed and trying to ignore my discomfort, I momentarily consider canceling my trip to Tsukiji, Japan’s, no -- the world’s -- largest seafood marketplace. I’d be crazy not to go, it’s akin to blasphemy for this food lover. “Ack, no sleep for the wicked,” I think as I pull on some clothes that I know will smell like fish when I return. entrance to fish market ...

Overview of Japan posts: Japan 1: Welcome to Tokyo! (and a killer okonomiyaki) Japan 2: Yokohama and Omuraisu Japan 3: What Makes Japan One Of A Kind Japan 4: Special Japanese Neighborhoods + Those Famous Food Floors Japan 5: A Gourmet Japanese Lunch + Roppongi Hills Japan 6: Kyoto (1st installment, 2nd installment) Japan 7: Disneyland and DisneySea Japan 8: Tsukiji Fish Market & Tsukiji neighborhoodAfter the global warming that is Disneyland, DisneySea already feels like (and proves to be) paradise. The DisneySea AquaSphere (photo above) at the entrance to the park makes a magnificent first impression and sets the tone for the entire DisneySea experience. There’s a feeling of cool in the park since almost all seven ports of call are surrounded by bodies of water. Venetian gondolas view of Mediterranean Harbor from the gondola ...

Overview of Japan posts: Japan 1: Welcome to Tokyo! (and a killer okonomiyaki) Japan 2: Yokohama and Omuraisu Japan 3: What Makes Japan One Of A Kind Japan 4: Special Japanese Neighborhoods + Those Famous Food Floors Japan 5: A Gourmet Japanese Lunch + Roppongi Hills Japan 6: Kyoto (1st installment, 2nd installment) Japan 7: Disneyland and DisneySea Japan 8: Tsukiji Fish Market & Tsukiji neighborhoodAll the guidebooks say it: “Disney has a special place in the heart of many Japanese so go early, and preferably on a weekday.” We are there on a Thursday at 10am. Barely two hours after opening, there couldn’t have been more people and it couldn’t have been a more sweltering day. I’m stunned (more dismayed actually,) at the mass of humanity that’s crawling around the park today. Shouldn’t these ‘tweens and teenagers be in school?? Shouldn’t these adults be at work?? I guess no one can resist the pull of the “happiest place on earth.” Mickey bus ...

Overview of Japan posts: Japan 1: Welcome to Tokyo! (and a killer okonomiyaki) Japan 2: Yokohama and Omuraisu Japan 3: What Makes Japan One Of A Kind Japan 4: Special Japanese Neighborhoods + Those Famous Food Floors Japan 5: A Gourmet Japanese Lunch + Roppongi Hills Japan 6: Kyoto (1st installment, 2nd installment) Japan 7: Disneyland and DisneySea Japan 8: Japan 8: Tsukiji Fish Market & Tsukiji neighborhoodSukiyaki is my favorite way to eat in a social setting. Unlike fondue where everyone’s bread pieces fall into the pot thereby instigating a frenzied “hunt and search” for the errant piece, sukiyaki is definitely a more convivial, pleasurable way of eating. Most sukiyakis that are served in Manila are alarmingly sweet – sugar is best reserved for dessert after all – so I make my own sukiyaki at home where I can temper the sweetness to my and my eating companions’ likings.Sukiyaki is part of the family of hotpot cuisine, known in Japan as nabemono. A weighty, metal pot with a wide lip is suspended over a hearth, the pan is oiled, aromatics sautéed, meat and vegetables added, and then a ...

Overview of Japan posts: Japan 1: Welcome to Tokyo! (and a killer okonomiyaki) Japan 2: Yokohama and Omuraisu Japan 3: What Makes Japan One Of A Kind Japan 4: Special Japanese Neighborhoods + Those Famous Food Floors Japan 5: A Gourmet Japanese Lunch + Roppongi Hills Japan 6: Kyoto (1st installment, 2nd installment) Japan 7: Disneyland and DisneySea Japan 8: Tsukiji Fish Market & Tsukiji neighborhoodKyoto was Japan's capital and the emperor's residence from 794 until 1868. I notice that ‘Kyoto’ is an anagram of the word ‘Tokyo,’ and I’m told that in Japanese script they mean “Capital of the East” and “East of the Capital.” Its numerous temples and shrines form the heart of art and culture in Japan. Here, the tranquility of a zen garden and the awesome stature of temples are a stark contrast to the neon lights of Tokyo.Kinkaku (Temple of the Golden Pavilion) It’s a blessedly clear day when we visit this temple, a former retirement villa of the 3rd Shogun of Ashikaga in the 1390s. Five layers of gold leaf coat this three-story pavilion topped by a bronze phoenix. The sun glints off the ...

Shameless self promotion here, but I want to announce that I've been chosen as one of the 26 talents in Preview magazine's Creative "It" List. I'm in good company: stage actors, movie directors, furniture designers, singers, visual artists, film makers, musicians, and one food writer/blogger -- me. Click here for a more readable copy of the magazine article.The photo of me here is a stylized shot, but I quite like it. I especially like how my library practically looms in the background. Yup, those are all my books.Thanks to Preview for including me on this list. I'm truly thrilled and flattered. Thanks especially to photographer Milo Sogueco who made me feel so at ease during the shoot, thanks to Ara Fernando for "prettying me up", and to Pia Rojas for putting my prose into words.For the rest of the Creative "It" List, check out the October issue of Preview.

First, read my little intro about Japan.Overview of Japan posts: Japan 1: Welcome to Tokyo! (and a killer okonomiyaki) Japan 2: Yokohama and Omuraisu Japan 3: What Makes Japan One Of A Kind Japan 4: Special Japanese Neighborhoods + Those Famous Food Floors Japan 5: A Gourmet Japanese Lunch + Roppongi Hills Japan 6: Kyoto (1st installment, 2nd installment) Japan 7: Disneyland and DisneySea Japan 8: Tsukiji Fish Market & Tsukiji neighborhood entrance to Kissho Kissho’s killer view kimono-clad waitress The Japanese reserve shabu-shabu for celebrations or at least, the sense of it being a special occasion. Fittingly enough, Yappi takes us to Kissho, a luxury Japanese restaurant with a killer view of Tokyo and its environs. I’m not sure if Kissho could be considered a ryōtei, a traditional, upper crust establishment that offers the complete Japanese dining experience. ...