The rainy season is over and the summer heat is in full swing. The year 2020 has already seen the cancellation of many summer fireworks festivals. It is said, originally the tradition of yearly fireworks began during the “Kyoho Famine”. Prices rose due to the famine and epidemics such as cholera had become epidemic. It…

Thomasina Larkin stumbles across a local artist who likes to mix and match. Armed with phat magic markers, acrylic paints and his computer, Shibuya Tadaomi can transform anything that catches his eye into a soulful and lifelike image of robotic funk. Influenced by a childhood spent watching Transformers and Power Rangers, and surrounded by the…

A popular Japanese outdoor pastime offers participants the chance to get well and truly off the beaten track, writes Robert Cameron. It’s summer – time to hit the streams for some sawanobori.  This popular and uniquely Japanese sport, sometimes translated as stream-climbing or river-tracing, is virtually unknown outside of Japan, but is extremely popular here….

Mari Mari, quite contrary, how does your Japanese garden grow?  With large flat stones and no garden gnomes, and temple tiles all in a row, writes Stephen Mansfield. Having accumulated a small library of books and magazines devoted to the subject of Japanese gardens as well as having visited more than 150 gardens stretching from…

Sleep is likely to be in short supply this month as the country follows Japan’s progress in the 2006 Football World Cup in Germany. As the team heads to Europe, Jon Day asks national captain Tsuneyasu Miyamoto what the stalwart defender hopes to take away from soccer’s glamorous tournament. When Japan’s first game at the…

JR East’s largest in-station shopping area “Gransta Tokyo” opened on Monday the 3rd of August, 2020. 66 stores opened in the new area around the north passage of Tokyo station. With the existing 88 stores already in the area, a total of 154 stores will be available. “Try New Tokyo St” features an unprecedented in-station…

100% Domestically-grown vegetables – No chemical seasonings – Zero additives REPUBLI9, founded with the mission of “Connecting families through gyoza and wrapping the world with a smile”, has created a vegan dumpling with excellent flavor and nutritional balance. Packed with vegetables and high-quality soybean protein, “Tokyo Vegan Gyoza 1.0” is now on sale. Currently, it…

Enjoy authentic KANI(crab) cuisine in a traditional Japanese atmosphere. KANI Doraku is a long-established crab specialty restaurant celebrating 60 years of serving delicious dishes that bring out the best of each ingredient. Featuring delicacies such as snow crab, king crab, and horsehair crab. They serve a variety of crab dishes including their specialty KANISUKI (crab…

The kimono is one of Japan’s most iconic symbols, its colors and designs exemplifying Japanese cultural sensibilities and aesthetics. Lesser known, however, is that, the kimono originated as an undergarment. The predecessor to today’s kimono is a robe called the kosode (literally, “small sleeve openings”). The kosode first came into its own as an outer…

In December 2019, Watami Co. Ltd. established a joint venture with the Kagoshima-Kamichiku Group. On Saturday, May 16th 2020, they established Kamimura BBQ, a yakiniku business specializing in wagyu beef, the pride of Japanese cuisine at the highest cost-performance. It opened in Kamata, Ota ward in Tokyo. On the 23rd of June, they will expand…