The Palace Hotel Tokyo first opened its doors by the Imperial Palace’s moat in 1961, when buildings were forbidden to rise above 30 meters. Reopened in May after a $1.2 billion overhaul, the property has a new, 23-story design that towers over the home of the country’s figurehead, though it avoids overlooking it thanks to an ingeniously curved facade.

Tatsuya Kawagoe’s self-titled restaurant in Tokyo’s trendy Daikanyama district showcases the 39-year-old chef’s own Japanese take on Italian food. Case in point: His nama-fu meunière dish, which combines a Buddhist vegetarian ingredient—wheat gluten—with Western techniques.

After studying French cuisine at Osaka’s Tsuji Culinary Institute, Mr. Kawagoe worked in Kobe before heading to Tokyo in 2000 to focus on Italian cuisine, opening Tiara K Ristorante, then moving to his current restaurant in 2006. “Now people think I’m an Italian chef, but I don’t consider myself so. I’d rather create a new genre,” said the boyish-looking native of Miyazaki, a city on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu.

Fiona Kotur is a native New Yorker whose handbags sell at retailers like Bergdorf Goodman, Harvey Nichols and Harrods. Since 2002, however, she has called Hong Kong home. She spoke with the Journal about beating jet lag with prenatal vitamins (a tip she says works for men, too), balancing airport anonymity with style and making neighborhood discoveries in the dead of night.

Nina Uchida returned to her birthplace of Japan after growing up in Seattle, and now recruits students around the globe for Temple University’s downtown Tokyo campus. The 31-year-old spoke to the Journal about sunrise jogs in Switzerland and heavy-metal hotels in Singapore.

The Montpellier, France, native recently released “Ines Secret,” a DVD beauty-tip series in Japan, and previously worked with Tyra Banks and Milla Jovovich as IMG Models’ Asia-Pacific director. She spoke to the Journal about riding Harley-Davidsons in Hawaii, waking up next to strangers midflight and why you should always look great at an airport.

Mich Dulce, who counts British pop star Adam Ant and Japan Vogue editor Anna Dello Russo among her customers and was named “International Young Creative Entrepreneur” at London’s 2010 fashion week, works in a studio outside Manila but lives and handles marketing from London. Her designs often incorporate aspects of their wearers’ personality, and previous themes include saints and sinners, with references to religious imagery, and fairytale motifs such as kings and princesses.

Now in its fourth year, the festival will show 26 films under its dual program categories, “Laugh” and “Peace.” Selections include movies from Hong Kong, India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and China, while guests include Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius from “The Artist”, British director Joe Cornish and actor Nick Frost from “Attack the Block”, and Korean director Kim Jung-Kwan and actress Han Ye-Seul from “Penny Pinchers”.

The 37-year-old Los Angeles transplant spoke with the Journal about green-tea Kit Kats, color-coordinated packing and why she thinks airlines need professional food critics.

Tokyo-based American Ray Horacek is constantly on the go, traveling up to 30 times a year for his role as head of footwear creative and design for Puma Japan. He has been designing footwear for nine years, and today leads both Japan-based and global projects for Puma, while maintaining a career as a fine artist.

Here, the 31-year-old, who has also done stints in Europe, shares his thoughts on airline dining, bribery by chocolate and the virtues of colorful luggage.

This Phuket, Thailand, home has the biggest private pool in the area and a 300-foot stretch of beach to itself. The house was designed by Jean-Michel Gathy to fuse traditional Thai and contemporary design.

Want a taste of two-century-old cooking? That’s what Nadaman, originally established in Osaka in 1830, serves up at its restaurant at the Shangri-La Hotel, Tokyo. Takahiko Yoshida stays true to the multi-course kaiseki tradition, offering a seasonal menu that draws its ingredients from across Japan.

“Here in Tokyo, we purchase the products in the height of their season, which other Nadamans may not be able to do,” says Mr. Yoshida. “As our food is very seasonal, this assists us in respecting food that can be eaten at the perfect time.”

Girls’ Generation is performing on CBS’s “The Late Show With David Letterman” tonight, the latest inroad by K-pop into the U.S. market.

The nine-piece pop act, which already plays to packed concert venues around Asia, will sing an English-language version of their male-baiting single “The Boys,” which was co-written by Teddy Riley, famed for his work with Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown and Usher.

She only just left one of Japan’s most popular girl groups, but Ai Takahashi hasn’t wasted any time embarking on a solo venture.

Until Dec. 24, the 25-year-old plays the lead female in “Dance of the Vampires” at Tokyo’s Imperial Garden Theater. The play marks the 100th anniversary of the first Western-style theater in Japan and a return to the stage for the 1997 musical production of Roman Polanski’s original 1967 comedy-horror film. In the story, Professor Abronsius and his young sidekick Alfred set off to the Alps to try to prove that vampires exist, but find themselves in trouble when a local girl Alfred falls in love with is visited by a vampire.

Scott MacKenzie has worked in television programming in Europe, the U.S. and Asia, and is now channel director at NBCUniversal in Tokyo. The 34-year-old American regularly travels around the region, as well as to his home country, to discover which new shows might work for a Japanese audience.