Category: CULTURE

If Kabukicho had a theme park starring Akihabara chika aidoru ("underground" idols), this might be it... After opening last summer amidst much sound and fury, we finally paid a visit to the Robot ...

In Japan, April is the month of new starts. The new school year. New company employees join their firms. And we see an increasing number of TV commercials promoting the message of “It’s now or ...

Raising kids is indeed one of the toughest jobs out there. While parenting entails balancing when to treat and when to reprimand your child (of which I’m sure the latter is much harder), Media ...

The Japanese have one of these effortless and inimitable attitudes towards religion. It is both part of their lives, sort of, in the form of Shinto customs, visiting shrines, animistic "power ...

Lanterns in Japan are called chochin and are featured on the front of most izakaya restaurants, as well as shrines. There is a famously huge one, for example, at Kaminarimon ("Thunder Gate") in ...

An actor is someone who acts. A dancer is someone who dances. A singer is someone who sings. They all get paid to do what their job title claims, but when it comes to singing, we tend to become more ...

As we see more and more young celebrities using informal speech (or tameguchi) on TV, some might question, “Is it acceptable not to use honorific language at all in our everyday life?” Perhaps ...

During the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11th, 2011 many of the victims or people affected were children. So the Pokémon With You project was started to support the disaster-struck region and ...

For the great majority of Japanese people, same-sex marriage is still a fantasy that, well, should only happen in a fantasy world. On March 1st, Tokyo Disneyland held its first same-sex wedding ...

It seems like I've been spending a lot of my time in Roppongi these days. Last week I went to the Pamyuseum, and on Saturday night I ventured back to Roppongi Hills for Roppongi Art ...

Hungry Ultra Seven fans, get ready. If your very own Ultra Seven guitar wasn't enough for you, there is even now a special hashed beef dish especially for your retro diet. It may need no ...

A long time ago, long before we had augmented reality toys or flying gadgets that interacted with your smartphone -- long before even anime had really got going and brought with it the toppling ...

Paddle8, the online art auction portral, is holding a special online art auction during this month, to accompany an exhibition, Trailblazer, happening at the Japan Society in New York. The auction ...

Akira Toriyama fans are looking forward to the end of this month. After seventeen years away, Dragon Ball Z is finally back in theaters with an feature-length anime. On March 30, Dragon Ball Z: ...

The new Liberal Democratic Party government has announced a new "Cool Japan" cultural campaign with a proposed budget of 50 billion yen funded from fiscal 2013's budget. The bill is to be submitted ...