Japan

Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, and Mongolian Barbecue

Record Recycling with Recent Arrivals

I Ate This: Tokara

Japan's Drastic Measures: A Lot Like Cheerleading Camp

Japan's Pop Superstar Visits C89.5 FM

Utada Hikaru and I went to rival high schools in Japan. But just as I was finishing eighth grade, she trumped me in coolness by becoming an overnight pop sensation with a debut LP First Love that became--and still remains--Japan's best selling album of all time. She's essentially the Japanese versio ... More >>

Live Music Round-Up: Monday, April 6

Our favorite British drama queen Lily Allen is playing at the Showbox tonight, but that shit's been sold out for ages, and unfortunately for me and all the rest of you ticketless people, I have no idea who we're going to have to blow to get in. Instead, you can go check out Acid Mothers Temple, a ... More >>

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: Huge in Japan, Less So Here

Our favorite British drama queen Lily Allen is playing at the Showbox tonight, but that shit's been sold out for ages, and unfortunately for me and all the rest of you ticketless people, I have no idea who we're going to have to blow to get in. Instead, you can go check out Acid Mothers Temple, a ... More >>

Japanese Monster Movies

Our favorite British drama queen Lily Allen is playing at the Showbox tonight, but that shit's been sold out for ages, and unfortunately for me and all the rest of you ticketless people, I have no idea who we're going to have to blow to get in. Instead, you can go check out Acid Mothers Temple, a ... More >>

Big in Seattle?

This week: dueling Japan Nites

Ramen Is Ready for Its Slurp-Up

Seattle’s new noodles come with a backstory, not a bouillon packet.

Accesorize Your Takeout With Japanese Beer

Kiuchi Brewery beers rank highly for sophisticated flavor and a certain food-friendly strangeness.

A Man Vanishes: The Legacy of Shohei Imamura

Kiuchi Brewery beers rank highly for sophisticated flavor and a certain food-friendly strangeness.

Cooking With Corruption

The Mexican sets readers straight as to his motherland's ranking among the hemisphere's most deviant countries.

Big in Japan

Shochu: Coming to a bar near you.

Killer Cute

The Japanese TV show Paranoia Agent perfectly captures our media-mad age.

DJ SHADOW, THE GOSSIP, and More

The Japanese TV show Paranoia Agent perfectly captures our media-mad age.

Busted

The Japanese TV show Paranoia Agent perfectly captures our media-mad age.

Whale Madness

The Japanese TV show Paranoia Agent perfectly captures our media-mad age.

Shake your butoh

A two-week festival of the Japanese art form hosts dancers from across the globe.

Harpooning conspiracies

Puncturing conspiracy theories about the Makahs.

See you at the dohyo, eh?

The boys of sumo descend on Vancouver, in a hokey, glorious cross-cultural match.

One Microsoft Whopper, Coming (Urp) Up!

​Burger King of Japan is promoting Microsoft's Windows 7 release today with this seven-layer Whopper. It's 5 inches in diameter, and tips the scale at 1 3/4 pounds - about equal to the weight of the change it could remove from your pockets - $15.90 in U.S. coins. It's available for one week ... More >>

Man Thinks He's a Ninja, Impales Himself on Metal Fence

The code of the ninja demands stealth, courage and first checking to see if the fence has a door.​According to all-knowing Wikipedia, the ninja was a covert mercenary in Feudal Japan who specialized in unorthodox arts of war. But unorthodox doesn't even begin to describe the tactics of one Sea ... More >>

Ground-Beef Zero

In Mabton, Mad Cow capital of America, the world's journalists want to know: Is beef still what's for dinner?

Free Slurpees in Celebration of 7-11's Birthday (Also Some Trivia)

Thank you! Come again...​I am not generally one for suggesting that anyone go to a convenience store looking for grub. But when it's as hot as balls out there, when there's a frosty treat waiting for you, and when said frosty treat is free? Well, then I have a tendency to relax my standards ju ... More >>

One For the Rugrats: Boom Noodle Up, Running and Killing It in University Village

​A month, give or take a few days. That's how long the newest Boom Noodle has been open in University Village. We wrote about it's scheduled opening back in May when owners Steve Rosen and James Allard thought they were going to make a July 1 date, and you know what? They were pretty damn clos ... More >>

Robot Serves Ice Cream, Forces Small Japanese Children to Sing Opera

Who fears the ice cream robot?​ There are a lot of reasons why I want to live in Japan. Tokyo, in particular. There's the food, for starters. The food, the food, and the food. Then the food, of course. And also the food. But there are a few reasons why I wouldn't want to live in Japan, too. ... More >>

Shonen Knife

Who fears the ice cream robot?​ There are a lot of reasons why I want to live in Japan. Tokyo, in particular. There's the food, for starters. The food, the food, and the food. Then the food, of course. And also the food. But there are a few reasons why I wouldn't want to live in Japan, too. ... More >>

The Ex X

How Japan's biggest band plans to conquer the States without their most famous member.

The Fussy Eye: A Sign of Failure

Cross? Don't cross? WTF?

A Lesson About English Overcoats from a Japanese Bakery

Presenting prophylactic panko​Last weekend, I attended the 13th Annual Worlds of Flavor International Conference & Festival at the Culinary Institute of America's Napa Valley campus. The theme was "Japan: Flavors of Culture," and a team of 39 of Japan's most talented chefs came to teach other ... More >>

Today in Sex: Legalized Child Porn Leads to LESS Pedophilia?

​In an unsettling study published this week in Springer's Archives of Sexual Behavior, scientists say that legalizing child pornography has led to lower instances of child sexual abuse in Czechoslovakia, Denmark, and Japan. Um, what?! Uh, isn't child pornography, by definition, child sexual ab ... More >>

7 New Media-Infused Food Products, In Honor Of Japan's Mozart Bananas

​There was a very brief post on Eater this morning, linking back to a week-old story in The Independent, referencing an even earlier story from the Japan Times, detailing the latest (but far from craziest) food item that Japanese people are willing to pay a premium for: Mozart Bananas. What a ... More >>

Tantalizing Tentacle Porn at Madison Park Conservatory

​At a recent dinner, Madison Park Conservatory offered my kind of menu: liver pate, foie gras terrine, roasted bone marrow, grilled beef tongue, wild boar ragu, and grilled octopus. Ordering was easy: "One of each, please." As Cormac Mahoney was top chef during Tako Truk's summer fling two ye ... More >>

History Lesson: Massive Earthquake in Pacific Northwest Triggered Japan Tsunami in 1700

​About 300 years before the current earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan, another wave of water swept the Island nation, wreaking havoc and laying waste to entire coastal villages. That tsunami was caused by a massive quake--estimated to have been a magnitude 9.0--that rocked the entire Pacifi ... More >>

Japanese Nuclear-Meltdown Fears Spark Iodine Shortage in Seattle

​As Japan's Fukushima Daiichi reactor toes the edge of a full-scale meltdown, Seattleites 6,000 miles away are taking no chances in girding their bodies against a radioactive onslaught. Folks here aren't yet retreating to fallout shelters--that's too heartland-conservative. Rather, they're com ... More >>

Help Japan by Partying at Shorty's on St. Patrick's Day

Good times at Shorty's ​Shorty's is one of the few bars that keeps it real in a neighborhood obsessed with being hip. Cheap beer, stiff wells, hot dogs, and arcade games - it's like Chuck E. Cheese for grownups! On St. Patrick's Day this Thursday, the beloved Belltown bar is hosting a fundra ... More >>

The Tsunami That Rocked Japan 300 Years Ago

Seattleites bracing for "The Big One," take note: It can happen again.

Fine, Totally Fine

Seattleites bracing for "The Big One," take note: It can happen again.

CakeSpy Hosts National "Bakesale for Japan" on Saturday

​Do you make the meanest chocolate-chip cookies on your block? Show off your baking skills and help raise funds for the earthquake and tsunami victims of Japan this Saturday, April 2 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Bakesale for Japan, a simultaneous bake sale hosted at bakeries and restaurants acros ... More >>

Learning to Play Ball at Issian

​Issian is an izakaya in Wallingford that advertises itself as a stone grill and a sushi bar. This Japanese pub is a perfect place for a group to enjoy drinks, share small plates, and engage in spirited conversation. During a recent visit, my group went a bit wild for grilled and fried food. ... More >>

The Japanese Grill Leaves Other Grilling Books in the Dying Embers

​It's grilling season, which means cookbooks on the topic have been front and center on bookstore displays for weeks. The thing is, many of them say the same thing, and few bring anything unique to the grilling party. There's a lot to love about beer-can chicken, grilled pizza, and London broi ... More >>

Radiation-Seeking Helicopter Will Be Flying Low Over Seattle Area Starting Next Week

​How are everyone's paranoia levels doing? Got enough obsessive fear in your life? 'Cause if not, you can always look to the sky next week and imagine all the worst-case-scenarios for why there's a radiation-measuring helicopter flying around.

Showa's Udon: A-Rated for Taste, X-Rated for the Prurient Thoughts It Puts in My Mind

​If the photo looks familiar, it's because I just showcased the inaka udon at Showa in this week's Mein Man column. Now, two days later, the noodles are providing fodder for this week's Sexy Feast. Why? I liked this udon dish so much that I wanted to learn how to make it at home. When feeling ... More >>

Subtle Shochu Plays Nice in Cocktails

​Shochu--the distilled spirit from Japan--appears to be popping up on cocktail menus all over Seattle. You may be used to ordering sake--the brewed rice wine--when going out for Japanese or other Asian food, but the variety of flavors offered by shochu, not to mention its low alcohol content, ... More >>

Indie Anna Jones: If You Can't Find a Job, Make Your Own

A conversation with Dumb Eyes' managing director, Michael Ellsworth.

Shonen Knife

A conversation with Dumb Eyes' managing director, Michael Ellsworth.

U:Don Will Make U: Smile with Fresh Noodles in the U:District

​Dish: Kitsune udon Place: U:Don, University District ("U" is pronounced "You") Price: $5.75 for a medium bowl In the bowl: From the menu: "Udon noodles served hot with our extra thick fried and marinated tofu (Atsu-age), sliced green onions & grated fresh ginger." Supporting cast/What to ... More >>

Boom Noodle Takes You to Tokyo with Its Ramen

​Dish: Tokyo Ramen Place: Boom Noodle, Bellevue (also in Capitol Hill and University Village) Price: $10.95 In the bowl: Chashu (braised pork butt), tamago (egg), menma (bamboo shoots), green onion, and a piece of nori (seaweed) in soy seasoned chicken-pork broth Supporting cast/What to do ... More >>

Kiku Tempura House and Norwegian Wood Get You Out of the Cold

Soda PicturesLike this, but without clothes.​ The Dinner: Tempura at Kiku Tempura House (5018 University Way NE) The Movie: Norwegian Wood (Noruwei no mori) at SIFF Uptown (511 Queen Anne Avenue North) The Screenplate: Tumultuous, passionate, fragile--all three describe Tokyo's youth culture ... More >>