Having sourced croissants aux amandes from all over Tokyo, I now have a new favorite, a rather large and sumptuously rich one from bricolage bread & co. Their main shop is in Roppongi 6-chome, but they also sell them from Tokyu's Food Show in Shibuya (shibuchika). bricolagebread.com

To be sure, I would very much welcome a bourbon-type whisky that is not from the US. 日本発のバーボンスタイルウイスキーを追求。静岡・三島「Distillery Water Dragon」所長が登壇する特別セミナーをBAR東京バーボンクラブにて開催 gourmetpress.net/1435239/

If you make it to your 80s like me, when you look back on your life and the things that made it special, not one of those things will be the sports you watched, no matter how much (needless) anguish they are causing you today. In the end, none of the results will matter to you.

「夜遊びの街」六本木から若者が消えた…「クラブでオール」する20代が激減したワケ gendai.media/articles/-/1...

A miso shop in Kichijoji, which closed a couple of decades or so ago. The owner, like many who used to live upstairs from their shop, could no longer tolerate the increasing liveliness as surrounding establishments stayed open later into the night.

"これで自転車で転ばせたら損害賠償請求されるらしい" matometanews.com/archives/211...

Cheap and highly recommended. This far surpassed my expectations and was part of a set purchased online for just over 700 yen per bottle. It is "sparkling" but only a little, and the strawberry notes made it really enjoyable.

My very Japanese wife has a seriously adverse reaction every time she sees and hears White House Spokescreature Karoline Leavitt on the news, and I totally relate to that

This is how I use Bluesky, thanks to deck.blue. Note that there are two "Science" columns because one is a list I made and the other is a custom feed.

Polls show that people really underestimate meat's wide-ranging environmental impact. So here are some charts I've made over the years that show just had bad meat is for the planet. Let's start with efficiency:

【火山名　桜島　噴火に関する火山観測報】 火　　山：桜島 日　　時：2026年04月21日 22時21分 現　　象：噴火 火　　口：南岳山頂火口 噴煙高度：2400 m 噴煙流向：直上 出典：気象庁防災情報XML

鹿児島県・桜島で昨夜から地殻変動を観測　山体膨張の動き weathernews.jp/news/202603/...

Basically, my family’s diet over generations, a family of “super agers”, often living to 100. I’m convinced the judicious inclusion of whole milk dairy, in the form of cheese, yoghurt, and eggs, plays a huge part. This is a fascinating look at the MIND-DASH diet and the reason I’ll never go vegan.

"There were some unexpected quirks to the findings. Wholegrain foods were associated with faster declines in gray matter, while higher cheese intake seemed to slow declines in brain health." www.sciencealert.com/this-unique-...

Recently I was suspended from my X account for an unexplained reason. I went through several processes but just received cold emails back. This came shortly after I unexpectedly received a blue tick. Anyone had a similar experience? My X handle is/was @sharp_writing

"Consular fees for renouncing US citizenship will be reduced from US$2,350 to US$450 starting April 13, according to a notice in the Federal Register. The move reverses a 2015 price hike and returns the fee to the level when it was introduced in 2010." www.straitstimes.com/world/united...

美味しんぼ鼻血事件、「怪しいお米セシウムさん」事件、Jake Adelsteinや山本太郎のデマ、孫正義の変形トマトなど、色々と酷いことあった、15年前。皆さんは今反省しているでしょうか。

"And then there's the issue with my line of work. Translation and conference interpretation are being absolutely decimated by AI tools. Not a lot of us will survive." folkmoss.bearblog.dev/crumbling/

Not the first time I've read an analysis of Japan's political scene like this one, but I'm curious what Bluesky Japan watchers think of it

There goes my career as a translator. Thanks, AI. www.japantimes.co.jp/business/202...

Astounding one-year drop by Mainichi especially. 直近（2026年2月時点）の日本ABC協会データに基づく主要全国紙の状況（前年比） 読売：約525万部（-8.5%，-約44.5万部） 朝日：約315万部（-4.9%，-約15.3万部） 毎日：約112万部（-19.7%，約-22.2万部） 日経：約125万部（-6.7%，-約8.4万部） 産経：約 78万部（-5.2%，-約4.08万部） (from the extremely informative @edmsedms3 on Twitter)

Unbelievable ignorance for a major party leader news.livedoor.com/article/deta...

Wow, Japan's Nikkei basically comes right out and says Trump is a lying, corrupt leader lacking in universal ethics and morals (in Japanese; paywalled) www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZ...

He probably won't see this, but I want to tell @carlquintanilla.bsky.social how grateful I am for his many Bluesky posts. One of the first things I do every morning is read every one of them, and feel more informed for it.

LOL, what Komeito thought about its current partner just a little more than a year ago. Maybe it really was a cunning assassination plot?

So much for Threads being the pulse of Japan's voters

Let us once again praise the Japanese election system (and the people who run it in each municipality) whereby all the votes are tallied and announced by the following morning, in the midst of record cold and snow

Also this, from 15 days ago

The signs were there all along. This was 16 days before the election

"The CRA, grandchild of the then-New Frontier Party, has chosen to entrench its tired discourse in a rhetoric that is both implausible and prematurely aged." (Good line among many more in this piece) www.tokyoreview.net/2026/02/when...

Saw that "ultra-conservative" and figured it had to be by Justin McCurry. Do better, Guardian! www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

「日本に行くなと呼びかけているけれど、いま中国経済はすごく低迷してて、消費をみんな控えているわけだから、日本で消費するより、中国国内で消費してほしいというのが、本当の理由なわけです。高市政権に圧力をかけようしているように見えるんだけども、実態は中国経済を助ける部分が大きい」 www.j-cast.com/2026/02/0451...

The director of this film, Kazuhiko Hasegawa, has died. He wrote the story with my long-time friend the late Leonard Schrader (older brother of Paul), and it starred the late Sugawara Bunta, who lived upstairs from my company's office in Mamiana. www.imdb.com/title/tt0194...

FT in my RSS feeds right now has quite the rogues gallery

"Karman has developed a cooling system similar to the heat pumps in the average home, except its pumps use liquid carbon dioxide as refrigerant, which is circulated using rocket engine technology rather than fans." hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/01/...

I kind of feel this is a bit of a sexist comment by Noda. Am I wrong?

(Japan Pol) The YouTube vote is in, and it's not looking good for the new party

Attn: @jimrion.com Have you seen this, made in cooperation with Nakashimaya Shuzojo? gourmetpress.net/1400077/

枝野「原発ゼロは広報のミスリード」　X民「いや、広報どころか法案を提出してますけど、、」 itainews.com/archives/205...

Reiwa head Yamamoto Taro quitting for health reasons www.47news.jp/13752705.html

Disappointing, but not surprising. And she's not the only one acting like this.

枝野幸男 「例外なく全ての原発再稼働に反対という政策を立民が決めたことはない」 → 大嘘つきと炎上 itainews.com/archives/205...

アメリカがこの1年間で国連総会で採択された決議の9割に反対し、40回以上、1か国だけで反対していたことがNHKのまとめでわかりました www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20...

The Threads "For you" feed has been showing me lots of posts by Japanese voters about the coming election, and the ones I am seeing are overwhelmingly leaning toward the new centrist party, both in the original posts and in the comments. FWIW

I highly recommend this software as a highly configurable alternative to Deck.Blue

Is this different from relic worship in any other religion? www.scmp.com/news/people-...

JTB estimates that while Chinese visitors to Japan have declined, those from Europe, Australia and the US are up, and overall tourist expenditures have actually risen in 2025. www.yomiuri.co.jp/economy/2026...

A success story I can attest to, having lived through it "Crows previously emerged as a social problem in Tokyo due to their scavenging of food waste among other issues, but their population has now been reduced to just 20% of the peak recorded around 2000." mainichi.jp/english/arti...

I posted this because I didn't see anything about it on Bluesky. Kan Naoto, PM at the time of the 2011 tsunami and meltdown, no longer remembers that time

菅元首相、夫人が明かす「認知症」「要介護3」の現在…東日本大震災のことは「覚えていない」 news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/757...