In the land where innovation meets tradition, Japan has once again outdone itself with a product that perfectly embodies its unique design philosophy. Enter the Godzilla 1994 Mug, a testament to the ...
In Japan, the arrival of spring is marked by a breathtaking spectacle of cherry blossoms, or 'sakura', that paints the landscape in delicate hues of pink and white. This fleeting beauty, lasting only ...
If you do a quick search in this blog, you'll notice that umbrellas are the items that come up more often. And how couldn’t they? We are living in a country which has an official “rainy ...
Unless you follow Japanese news you probably missed it, but April 7, 2022, was a sad day for anime lovers and particularly Japanese ones: it was the day Motoo Abiko, aka Fujiko A. Fujio, passed away ...
Pitta Designer Face Mask Khaki
Dust/pollen allergies and infection protection
For any Japanese over 40, the realization that this year marks the 30th anniversary of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, the manga/anime industry’s most iconic teenage girl-oriented ...
Two and a half years ago, when the world was young and words like “Covid”, “pandemic” or “vaccination passport” weren’t part of everyone’s vocabulary, we published a post about a ...
I’m old enough to remember when Rubik’s Cube came out: it was in 1981 and suddenly everyone everywhere was talking about that amazing puzzle that put to test even the highest intelligence. Since ...
The history of their creator himself is not a rags-to-riches story but there is certainly something dramatic in the tale of the first instant ramen, the Nissin Chikin Ramen. A product of the ...
Pikachu Electric Shock Wire Loop Game
Nintendo character hand-eye coordination test
One of the things that amazes me in Japan is people’s weird relationship to shoes. This is a strange thing to say but I believe I’ve been here enough to have earned the right to not stand in awe ...
So the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, also known as the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, came and went and, as expected, were enjoyed by the people who wanted to be enjoyed and were ignored by those who didn’t care ...
We have now entered the final countdown until the second Tokyo Summer Olympics: there are just days left before the Games that, while actually happening in 2021, are still called “Tokyo 2020” to ...
It shouldn’t really surprise anyone with an interest in Japan: people here do pretty much everything their own way, so why wouldn’t they do the same with candles? Yes, there is such a thing as a ...
My Neighbor Totoro Wind Chimes
Studio Ghibli anime character wind bells
When I first wrote an article about masks in this blog in April 2020, I didn’t think masks would be still a thing one year later -- I mean, I knew they would still be a thing in Japan, as they ...
We have mentioned it before on this blog that one of the many things that surprise first- (and often second- and third-) time visitors to Japan is the coexistence of two religions, sometimes ...
The word “monsoon” is hardly ever used in Japan; the Japanese prefer for their rainy season the more poetic “tsuyu.” which means “plum rain” and actually comes from an 8th-century ...