Culture

Imagine this: You spend nearly a day of traveling to get to an island nation that is like no other. You arrive early in the morning and have your day planned out but it turns out everything is closed. How do you feel? Devastated, miserable, confused, or maybe angry? It turns out that Japan happens...

Source The end of the year is approaching quickly! And it only means one thing: Christmas and New Year celebrations are coming. Perhaps in your part of the world, preparations to celebrate the festivities are already being made. Streets full of Christmas lights, gingerbread cookies in the oven, a trimmed Christmas tree standing tall… even...

Take a look at the picture above and take a guess: are they real or not? From weird burgers and DIY snacks to cute bread art, Japanese food culture is highly creative. And this is especially true for Japan’s highly realistic plastic food models. You can find these mouth watering fake foods, called ‘sampuru’ in...

Although Japan is a modern country, there are still many ancient traditions practiced today. A notable one is the Japanese tea ceremony–known as sadō (茶道). This ceremony is a ritual steeped in history. Participants will discover a stylized way of preparing and drinking green tea (matcha), typically in a tea room with a tatami floor....

Source Halloween might have passed, but there’s one thing we can not get enough of: horror stories! Some of you might have heard about yurei and yokai, two kinds of Japanese ghosts that have haunted people since ancient times. Yurei refers to spirits of the deceased who didn’t rest peacefully and yokai refers to kinds...

In case you didn’t know, the 2020 Summer Olympics are being held in Tokyo. The country is gearing up as millions of tourists and Japanese from across all over Japan get set to storm Tokyo for the Summer Olympics. If you are in Tokyo currently you may have seen the mascots on billboards and merchandise...

Matsuri (祭) is a Japanese word for festival or holiday. Japan is a beautiful country with hundreds of traditional festive occasions, so the phrase ‘Japanese Matsuri’ is widely known for those occasions. If you’re planning to visit Japan and want to enjoy the Matsuri, here’s what you need to know! 1. Japanese Matsuri varies widely...

Japan has beautiful weather a lot of the time (outside of the rainy/typhoon seasons, perhaps!), and they are very proud of the fact that they continue to have very defined seasons each year. This means Summer is no exception, and Summer can be a rough time in Japan! Whilst the average can be anywhere from...

If you’re going to Japan, you might be interested to try one of the must-visit restaurant styles in Japan. Kaitenzushi, better known as Conveyor belt sushi is pretty famous abroad for its unique serving style! It’s the perfect location to find cheap-yet-fresh sushi. While it’s nice to experience eating at Kaitenzushi, you should know there...

How much do you know about food culture in Japan? The presentation of Japanese desserts is very important; even the cakes in cheap supermarkets and convenience stores look amazing! Have you ever seen cute animal shaped desserts? What about anime characters? Here in Japan, especially in Tokyo, there is so much selection you can find...

Japanese women love beauty and skin care items and are known to take good care of their looks. When walking around Tokyo you will notice that most women are very fashionable and wear at least a little bit of makeup. Therefore, the Japanese beauty and skin care market is also huge! When you visit a...

When Sanrio started making Hello Kitty-themed goods, she took the world by storm. But there are still some things we don’t know about her!