Culture is a fluid thing. It washes through history, sweeping up customs and practices on the periphery and incorporating them into the aptly named mainstream. It ripples between classes, seeps across borders, and, like all liquids, flows from the top down. Japanese history can be looked at as a series of waves of adoption and…

I always look forward to our family’s annual Disney pilgrimage, and I’m never disappointed. As someone who neither likes roller coasters or Mickey Mouse, let me explain the many ways that Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea appeal to me. Disney parks are pop cultural museums. A 50-year-old artist friend once said her dream project would have…

Rebecca Rayborn was born on March 6, 1984. Her father is British. In 2008, she replaced Ueto Aya as Japan’s ‘CM Queen,’ an accolade which is awarded to the star who appears in the most TV commercials in a year – in other words, Japan’s most marketable face. Never heard of her? Don’t worry, under…

With the world’s lowest infant mortality rate, Japan appears to be an ideal place to give birth. But having baby is more than a medical procedure, and personal beliefs play a huge role. If you can accept Japan’s cultural idea about childbirth, then you can take advantage of the impressive post-partum care at many hospitals…

“…from her balcony she looked down on the city of Kobe. Michiko’s house was built on a hill. It looked over the town to the port with its cranes and the smoking chimneys of a steel works. Beyond this jumble was the sea…. She was far from the rice fields of memory here.” Michiko’s House,…

It is a cold February morning in West Tokyo and we are standing outside the house of Jake Adelstein, author and former journalist for the Yomiuri Shinbun. The only problem? Adelstein isn’t here. J SELECT’s photographer calls him. “It’s the first lesson for any journalist: check your e-mails every morning,” he tells her. It turns…

It is a little-known fact that the Thermophis baileyi (perhaps more commonly known as the hot spring snake) gets its warmth and energy not from the sun, but from slithering in and out of the thermal waters near Lhasa, Tibet. I’ve often imagined what it would be like to be one of these snakes, pondering…

The Tokyo Sky Tree. A lot has been said and written about the new broadcasting tower which is set to become the tallest artificial structure in Japan, but one thing amazes no matter how often it is heard – the sheer size of it. At 634 meters, or 2,080 feet in old world money, it…

The man on a bicycle at the end of the lane, singing shima uta  (island songs), bows as deeply as he thinks, gives me a spirited greeting and, speeding past, resumes his melody. Smiles here in Okinawa are generally of the unforced variety and greetings a daily commonality. Eye contact elicits at the very minimum…

Some people plan out their lives, setting goals for milestones they’d like to reach along the way. For such a person aspiring to be an actor, this would normally involve heading straight to Hollywood, carving out a place in the industry, networking like it’s going out of style, and waiting for a stroke of good…