Last spring my friends and I decided we would stretch our legs a bit and drive down to see the natural and spiritual sights of Kumano in the southeastern part of Wakayama prefecture. The highlights of our trip included a short Kumano Ancient Road experience (kumano kodo), Kumano Hongu Taisha (Kumano Grand Shrine), and the…

A lot of people don’t much like Nagoya, at least on first contact. The complaints about its heat and lack of greenery usually come later. The first thing most people feel when they alight at Nagoya Station is bewilderment. If you like this sort of thing — infinities of shops, the hum and thrum of…

As new amusement facilities burgeon in Tokyo, yesterday’s trendy spot soon becomes forgotten. Yet in the Shitamachi, the old part of Tokyo, there are shops and crafts that have endured the test of time to claim a history of being in business for over 100 years. Funabashiya is an unassuming shop that boasts a history…

If you expect this creator of breathtaking aesthetic spaces to be coiffed in the same sensibility as his works, you will be in for a surprise. Takashi Sugimoto has little regard for superficial appearances. No matter who he is meeting with, he dresses in the same casual manner. He wears Birkenstocks with socks, a charcoal…

The last few decades have seen a literal expansion in people; not in numbers, but in size. Worldwide, particularly in developed nations, people have been getting fatter and less fit. Sedentary lifestyles and cheap, high-fat food has led to this trend, with predictions now that in North America, more than twenty five percent of adults…

The Japanese tea ceremony or Sado is an ancient Buddhist-influenced ritual steeped in tradition, which is enjoyed today as a fairly popular hobby by Japanese interested in learning about and preserving their culture. Drinking tea in Japan traces its roots back to China, from where tea was originally imported and, over the course of several…

The words are from a haiku by Matsuo Basho, evoking the multi-layered complexity of Nara, a city the Japanese have great affection for. In the sixth century Japan dipped its toes into the great flood of Chinese culture, when Buddhism first appeared; by the eighth century, it was swimming in it. Shinto, with its view…

At the definitive clang of the referee bell, two sweat drenched fighters, clad in somewhat offbeat pink shorts rise from their opposing benches and circle each other in a manner that looks somewhat like an animalistic display of attack and fleeing behavior in a territorial battle between wild cats. Rising and falling in tension, their…

Rally racing has always enjoyed popularity in Japan and with the World Rally Championships returning to Japan for the fifth time, that trend is not likely to end anytime soon. Raced for the last three years in and around Obihiro, the race moves closer to Sapporo this year and will feature narrow forest roads with…

Occasionally something happens in the art world that is so truly fresh and ground breaking that it creates something of a revolution. When “girl photographer” Hiromix burst onto the scene in the 90s, her unpretentious, natural documentary-style snap shots had a charm and simplicity that immediately mesmerized Japan. Her fans ranged from young Japanese girls…