news, views and reviews from michael rollins in tokyo
Netwise wine portal site Vinotokyo was featured today in The Japan Times along with a short interview with Netwise president Michael Rollins. Read the full article text. The site–billed as “Tokyo’s Guide to All Things Wine”–offers information of Tokyo wine events of all kinds, classes, Tokyo wine bars and restaurants and more. Members can post reviews [...]
1. Tully’s. Understated, cozy, jazzy BGM. 「アメリカノ、お湯少なめで。」 2. DEAN & DELUCA. Expensive and worth it. 3. Seattle’s Best Coffee. Very few Tokyo locations. Enjoy it at Beacon after lunch. 4. Sagafredo Zanetti. Stylish and tasty. 5. Starbucks. What’s to say? 6. Kohikan. Home to the shortest chairs in Tokyo and dated “Blue Mountain”-type offerings. 7. [...]
Easily the best 本格的な和食 (authentic Japanese food) in Miyamasu-zaka-ue (宮益坂上) is to be found at local lunch favorite Honoji. I’ve been going there once every week or two for two years, and the consistently high quality and service make it one of may favorites lunch spots here in Shibuya. The fare is standard-issue 定食 (set [...]
The wine dinner Wednesday evening at Le Petit Tonneau’s Azabu-juban location was a great success and enjoyed by all who attended (and perhaps especially by yours truly). I go to a lot of these wine dinners, and this one was hands-down the best value-for-money of any I’ve joined. For a surprisingly-low 8,000 yen we enjoyed [...]
One of my favorite restaurants here in in the Miyamasu-zaka end of Shibuya is RESPEKT, yet another offering from the good folks over at Cafe Company. Like many of their other restaurants, RESPEKT is a true multi-use space that works equally well for lunch/dinner, business meetings, hanging out with friends, or dining alone. The menu [...]
It’s November and that means Beaujolais Nouveau for the wine world here in Japan. While in many other countries (especially France, perhaps) the entire spectacle has become passe, in Japan we love our annual rituals and comfortably familiar events, and so dutifully exult in the 解禁 or “lifting of the ban” on Beaujolais Nouveau wine [...]
Stumbled across this great article on pairing vegetables and wine on the NPR website today. It also includes some tasty-looking recipes that I’ll be preparing sometime soon.
This Shibuya noodle shop is a favorite of locals and cross-town lunch commuters alike. You show up any time between 11:30 and 13:30 and you’d better be ready to wait in line, and today was no different for us. However, these つけ麺 (tsukemen, a type of ramen) noodles are worth the wait. Hand-pounded right on [...]
Uoki sushi in Ark Hills (Akasaka) has long been one of my favorite kaiten sushi restaurants. Consistantly fresh, the portions are large and the quality exceptional. Not too expensive, either, when you consider the building it’s in. (You can’t swing a stick in the place without hitting a French investment banker…) I have a client [...]
I’ve become a bit of a ramen maniac since coming to Japan and now always look forward to finding a new good place for steaming noodles. Recent trips to the Shinagawa/Takanawa area (trying to get some bussiness) introduced me to an interesting walk-o-ramen called 品達 (shintatsu) under the Yamanote Line tracks close to Shinagawa station. [...]
Congratulations on finding my personal blog. It's been around in various incarnations since 1997, which is before blogs were called "blogs." See if you can top that.
My name is michael, and denbushi (電武士) is the now-dorky-seeming online name I made up back when I thought (ever so presciently) that some kind of unique nickname for the interwebs might be handy. Just for the record, it IS unique (even today!) except for this jujitsu variant/dojo in Puerto Rico which co-opted it without even asking me. If I had to cage-fight them for exclusive use of "denbushi" chances are good they'd win. But I'd still do it.
These days I live in Tokyo and mostly use my real name. A few years ago I founded a design and marketing agency called netwise. We do web and internet stuff. We're pretty good at it.
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