Photos of a sizzling Yaketori bar in Tokyo for Photo Friday. Mmmm….

Tokyo’s a crowded, industrial place, particularly around Suidobashi station. Yet Hotel Niwa resists the greyness by bringing the essence of a traditional Japanese Ryokan into this thoroughly modern hotel.

I’m far from the first to string those four words together. Legendary journalist Kate Adie looped them in a line to describe her autobiography; Vivien Leigh sighed them in A Streetcar Named Desire. Writing courses rail against them and editors hang their heads and demand something fresh.

I’ve even…

Steam shoots out of the earth and the sound of furious bubbling travels through the air. Here, only a few hours from Tokyo, this fierce, smoking whirlpool is…