When most people think of art and Japan in the same vein, images on the order of Hokusai’s Great Wave of Kanagawa spring to mind. You could tour the traditional...[ Click to read more ]
Many people arrive in Japan from places where it simply does not get cold and are unaware that they need to worry about things like frozen pipes. In most places...[ Click to read more ]
It is hard to describe how popular baseball is in Japan. With the recent win at the World Baseball Classic over the USA, nobody can deny that Japanese baseball is...[ Click to read more ]
In Japan, the "Craziness of Valentine's Day" falls mainly on women. In fact, unlike most countries of which I am aware, in Japan, the tradition calls for women to give...[ Click to read more ]
Valentine’s Day always sneaks up on me. Between recovering from Christmas and New Year's and dealing with some seriously cold Tokyo weather, it’s easy to forget that Valentine’s Day is...[ Click to read more ]
Valentine's Day is a big deal worldwide, including in Japan. To understand why you need to understand how the holiday came to be. The Origins of Valentine's Day Although the...[ Click to read more ]
Valentine’s Day is an essential holiday throughout Japan, but it’s extra significant in Kobe. Here, a chocolate shop advertised Valentine’s Day chocolates for the first time in Japan back in...[ Click to read more ]
Ramen is a classic Japanese food. If you ask a random person, foreign or Japanese, male or female, what their favorite food is, you are highly likely to get "ramen"...[ Click to read more ]
Japan hosted the first-ever Winter Olympics in Asia at Sapporo in 1972, but the country already had a rich history of playing on snowy mountain slopes. Although you won't find...[ Click to read more ]
Ice skating has a long history as skates made of animal bones dating back 5,000 years were found at the bottom of a lake in Switzerland. It's unknown when the...[ Click to read more ]