WCTU in Meiji Japan (book)

Elizabeth Dorn Lublin, Reforming Japan: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Meiji Japan (University of British Columbia Press, 2010).

Posted by David Fahey on February 7, 2010 at 12:44 PM in Books, Japan, Temperance | Permalink

Prostitution and the Japanese WCTU (article)

Bill Mihalopoulos, "Mediating the Good Life: Prostitution and the Japanese Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 1880s-1920s," Gender & History 21/1 (April 2009): 19-28.

Posted by David Fahey on April 25, 2009 at 05:47 PM in Japan, Temperance | Permalink

Japanese whiskies better than Scotland's?

According to a taste test in Glasgow (of all places) Nikka's 1987 Yoichi was the best single malt in the competition, while rival distillery Suntory's 30-year-old Hibiki was the best blended whiskey.  For more, from the (London) Guardian, see here.

Posted by David Fahey on April 20, 2009 at 09:59 PM in Japan, Scotland, Whiskey | Permalink

Soju, baijiu, and shōchū, East Asian distilled alcoholic beverages

According to Wikipedia, "mass produced [Korean distilled beverage based on rice] soju is similar to Chinese baijiu, a grain liquor, and Shōchū, a Japanese beverage." The online encyclopedia also says that "soju is sometimes mistakenly referred to as cheongju ..., a Korean rice wine similar to [Japanese] sake."

Posted by David Fahey on June 1, 2008 at 09:47 AM in Alcohol (general), China, Japan, Korea, Whiskey, Wine | Permalink

Britain's best tea shop is Japanese-owned and managed

Britain's Tea Guild has honored Juri's--the Old Bakery Tea Shoppe in the Cotswolds town of Winchcombe as the country's best tea room. Interestingly, the couple who own Juri's and their daughter who manages it were born in another country with a tea heritage, Japan. Manager Juri Miyawaki, the woman after whom the tea shop has been named, is Cordon Bleu trained. For more, see here. For details about Juri's, see here.

Posted by David Fahey on May 21, 2008 at 01:37 PM in Britain, Drinking Spaces, Japan, Tea | Permalink

Japanese smoking etiquette

A major cigarette producer in Japan (where about half of all adults smoke) has produced a series of public service ads and signs that foreigners find curious. For details, see here.

Posted by David Fahey on May 18, 2008 at 09:14 PM in Japan, Tobacco | Permalink

Japanese like new McDonald's coffee

Pollsters report that Japanese coffee-drinkers now prefer McDonald's new 100-yen coffee over that of competitors Doutor Coffee (Japan's biggest coffee chain with 1479 outlets), Mos Burger, Starbucks (in Japan since 1996), and Mister Donut. For details, see here.

A few words about Doutor Coffee. Beginning in 1962 as a wholesaler of roasted coffee beans, it opened its first self-service Doutor Coffee shop in 1980. Under a variety of names, the company offers coffee to different categories of customers (for instance, espresso).

Posted by David Fahey on April 12, 2008 at 09:43 PM in Coffee, Drinking Spaces, Japan | Permalink

Japanese siphon or vacuum coffee at the Blue Bottle

Illustrated article shows and explains the $20,000 Japanese siphon or vacuum method of brewing coffee that currently is available in the USA only at the Blue Bottle Coffee Company in San Francisco. For the picture and story, see here. Makes the $11,000 Clover, whose manufacturer recently was purchased by Starbucks, seem cheap!

Posted by David Fahey on April 4, 2008 at 10:04 AM in Coffee, Japan, Kava, United States | Permalink

Rise of the Japanese microbrewery

In contrast to the dearth of microbreweries in the rest of Asia, Japan now has 280 of them. See the New York Times, 21 October 2007, article by Jeff Boda, here.

Posted by David Fahey on October 23, 2007 at 07:15 PM in Brewing , Japan | Permalink

Japan's microbreweries

Asia is weak in microbreweries with Japan (280 microbreweries) the exception. For more, see here.

Posted by David Fahey on September 26, 2007 at 09:57 AM in Brewing , Japan | Permalink