Michelin unveiled Tuesday its new guide to Japan’s western cities of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, with a novelty: a selection of 106 top restaurants that offer courses under 5,000 yen (60 dollars).
The guide, due to hit Japanese bookstores on October 22 in both Japanese and English, lavished the ancient capital of Kyoto with seven three-star ratings, all for Japanese cuisine, 22 two-star and 71 one-star ratings.
Kyoto is famed for the quiet sanctuary of its temples, shrines and Zen gardens, while the more boisterous, working-class Osaka has been nicknamed “Japan’s kitchen” and port city Kobe is famed for its premium beef brand.
To celebrate its fifth anniversary, the five-star Mandarin Oriental Tokyo hotel is offering the opportunity to rent the entire property for one night for $670,000.
Under the plan, the entire hotel – 178 guest rooms, all nine restaurants and all spas — would be reserved from 3:00 in the afternoon to noon the next day.
There will also be the option to have a cocktail party for 500 people featuring pastries from an award-winning Japanese pastry chef.
The ranks of Asia-Pacific millionaires are likely to continue growing faster than those from developed countries as regional economies led by China and India power ahead, a report said on Tuesday.
The study on high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) — defined as anyone with investable assets of at least one million US dollars — was issued by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and consultancy firm Capgemini.
“Moving forward, China and India will lead the way in the region with economic expansion and HNWI growth likely to keep outpacing more developed economies,” the Asia-Pacific Wealth Report said.
Dolce & Gabbana has announced that is dramatically scaling back operations in Japan of its D&G line, which is aimed at the younger fashion market.
They blamed the decision to halt the distribution of the D&G ready-to-wear lines, leather accessories and shoe collections in Japan on the scarcity of available locations for its boutiques and the widespread availability of counterfeit products.
The decision to regroup in Japan comes in the wake of Versace and French Connection UK leaving the market entirely within the last year.
Japanese electronics giant Toshiba plans to market the world’s first 3D television that does not need special glasses later this year, a report said on Tuesday.
Toshiba will unveil three models of the television, which will cost several thousand dollars, before Christmas, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.
The company has developed a new system that emits a number of rays of light with various angles from the screen so that viewers can see stereoscopic images without glasses, the daily said.
In Japan, watermelons have become a luxury food that apparently now requires a carry-on luggage-like cooler/warmer, a world’s first.
First came the square watermelon creation that was introduced to the global market with the hefty price tag of $75 (€56.41) for 6.8kg. In Japan the same square watermelon can cost ¥10,000 yen (€90).
The Japanese site Joybond.co.jp sells the single round watermelon on-the-go cooling or warming device for Â¥19,950 (€179) referred to as “ã¾ã‚‹ã”ã¨ã€€ãŸã¾ã¡ã‚ƒã‚“”.
