Product Reviews: Staying at Home in Style

Rolling with Rola in L.A.

Fashion model, TV talent, actress, and singer Rola has one of the largest social media followings of any Japanese celebrity.

Travel to Las Vegas

NoMad Las Vegas

On the top four floors of the Park MGM complex, the NoMad Hotel is one of the premier European-style hotels in Las Vegas.

Study in Japan

Why study in Japan?

Yumiko's Home Cooking: YAKITORI

Prep Time:30 min

Cook Time:15 min

Total Time:45 min

Yakitori is a Japanese skewered chicken cooked on a grill with either sweet soy sauce or just salt. You do not marinate the chicken before cooking. It's great for entertaining a big crowd, as it is a kind of finger food and it is easy to make. In this recipe, you will learn how to make the two most common yakitori: negima (chicken and shallots or scallions) and momo (plain chicken thigh) with sweet soy sauce. The recipe also includes different methods of grilling yakitori – on a yakitori griller or barbecue, or using the oven grill or broiler.

Serves:12 skewers

Calories:100kcal

Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto

Chef/Owner of Morimoto Management

Chef Masaharu Morimoto — known to millions as the star of Iron Chef and Iron Chef America — has garnered critical and popular acclaim for his seamless integration of Western and Japanese ingredients. Since 1998, Morimoto has competed on the Japanese television show Iron Chef, and he also appears on Food Network’s Iron Chef America.

NOBU: Chef Nobu Matsuhisa

Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, known as “Nobu,” is the critically acclaimed chef and owner of Nobu and Matsuhisa restaurants, which have received rave reviews from such publications as The New York Times, Zagat Survey, and Michelin Guide. Chef Nobu currently has 41 Nobu Restaurants, 11 Matsuhisa Restaurants, and 10 Nobu Hotels in 48 different cities around the world, spanning six continents.

The Four Seasons of Japan

From white to pink to green to red and yellow, the beauty of Japan changes in each of its four distinct seasons. As the country spans 3,000 km from the northeast Sea of Okhotsk to the southwest East China and Philippine Seas, the climate varies greatly. The northern island of Hokkaido has short, mild summers and long winters with heavy snowfalls, while the southern island of Okinawa is subtropical. Japan’s mainland experiences sharp differences from Siberian cold fronts on the western seacoast and warmer sea currents on the eastern Pacific coast.

Tokyo Hotels

Tokyo Journal sent a celebrity review team to stay at some of Tokyo’s top hotels. Dylan Sprouse is an American actor and entrepreneur. He and his twin brother, Cole Sprouse, are known for their roles on the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and The Suite Life on Deck, as well as films including Big Daddy with Adam Sandler. Barbara Palvin is a Hungarian supermodel who was the 2016 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue’s Rookie of the Year, 2019 Victoria’s Secret Angel, and was ranked as one of Forbes’s highest paid models in the world in 2016. Actor Shin Koyamada, who starred in The Last Samurai as Ken Watanabe’s son, has also acted in many Disney Channel programs, including Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior.

Kyoto

Japan’s Cultural Capital

Kyoto was Japan’s capital city until 1868. Today, it is widely considered to be the country’s cultural capital for its plethora of Buddhist temples, along with its Shinto (an ancient Japanese religion) shrines, palaces, and gardens. During WWII, U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, who had honeymooned in Kyoto, demanded it be removed from the list of targets for the atomic bomb due to the city’s cultural importance. In addition, the city was fortunately spared from large-scale conventional bombing, allowing the preservation of many Japanese cultural treasures. Kyoto is the world’s number one destination for kabuki (classical Japanese theater), flawlessly groomed geishas (traditional entertainers), and blooming springtime sakura (cherry blossoms), as well as bamboo forests, sacred shrines, traditional temples, and delicious, traditional food.