When bringing food from home for lunch at school or work, the menu generally consists of last night’s leftovers in a Tupperware container or a freshly-made sandwich, piece of fruit and juice box in a paper bag. In Japan, the…
With nearly 1.5 million residents, the city of Kyoto in the Kyoto Prefecture is the 7th largest city in Japan, but it’s also one of the nation’s most important cities, in terms of history and culture. The city, located about…
Today we’re not going to discuss Japanese food–at least not the type of food you can eat. Instead, we’re going to examine the fake Japanese food you’ll find adorning many restaurant windows in Japan. If you live near a Japantown…
This past December’s theatrical release of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog reminded anyone over the age of 10 that Walt Disney was once a name eponymous with hand-drawn, 2D animation of fantastical stories that awaken children’s imaginations. In the…
It was recently reported at Japan Today that the U.S. House of Representatives is asking Japan to re-think its policy on custody battles that involve foreign parents. U.S. Representatives such as Chris Smith have stated that, “Americans are fed up…
A few weeks ago, we discussed the bento lunch in Japan and briefly mentioned the wrappings via which a bento box is usually carried: the furoshiki. This very large handkerchief-like cloth is reusable and thus makes an environmentally-friendly way to…
Home of the 1998 Winter Olympics, the city of Nagano is approximately 150 miles northwest of Tokyo in the central area of the main island of Japan. You can reach Nagano in about 2 ½ hours by train from Tokyo.…
Earlier this month, you might have been walking down a Japanese residential street only to come across Japanese people tossing beans outside of their front doors. Maybe you even visited a nearby temple or shrine and saw someone wearing a…
If you’re studying Japanese, chances are one day you’ll meet Japanese people. Whether you want to practice Japanese with an exchange student, people in a nearby Asian community or in Japan itself, you must know how to properly and politely…
When most Westerners think of Japan, they think of one large curved island, roughly the size of California. However, Japan is actually made up of 6,852 islands, most of which are very small and uninhabited. (97% of the Japanese population…