What is Bento? A traditional bento is a complete Japanese meal, with all the side dishes, packed lovingly into a small portable box. A bento lunch should fill the box completely, so that the carefully arranged food doesn’t shift during transport, and it should look immensely appealing, so that even the pickiest of eaters will…
ゴーーールーーー !!!!!! Can you feel it? There is something special about to happen. There is electricity in the air, a growing rumble underfoot, a quickening of your heartbeat – and the cause is not the new Godzilla movie. In fact, it is the sporting event that puts all other sporting events to shame. It…
Long before I stepped foot on the shores of Japan I had an ongoing fascination with the sweet boozy nectar that is umeshu梅酒, a traditional Japanese spirit of which the primary ingredient is green ume é’梅. All too often mistranslated as ‘plum wine’, both these words are more or less lost in translation. Ume are in…
 The Seto Inland Sea (瀬戸内海), surrounded by Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, is a veritable treasure trove of adventure. You can take the longest suspension bridge in the world, Akashi-KaikyÅ, to Awaji Island to feast on onions. From Awaji, or Shikoku’s Tokushima prefecture, there are the turbulent Naruto whirlpools where Japan’s fastest currents make one…
Remember the days as a child when you would receive a shiny new bicycle and in all the excitement you would hop on and start pedaling as fast as you could? Forgetting the concept of danger, you would ride it all around the neighborhood hoping to make the other kids jealous, popping wheelies and…
Do greet and be greeted by every single hiker you pass. Don’t wear regular sneakers to climb the highest mountain in March (you will have sad wet and cold feet). Do use the free huts to sleep in. Don’t expect running water or electricity at the huts. Do take the ferry to Yakushima…
You may visit Tokushima prefecture for the impressive Naruto whirlpools in the strait between Awaji and Shikoku, but whilst there you can also enjoy an unexpected cultural extravaganza thanks to the Otsuka Museum of Art (ÅŒtsuka Kokusai Bijutsukan). On a bright day in February my friend and I were taken to this museum…
Most people in northern Hyogo know of the old wives’ tale about stink bugs: an autumn with many of those pests guarantees a winter with much snow. When the leaves began to change color, stink bugs invaded school rooms and the homes of the innocent. Sapporo was frosted in picturesque white for the Yuki Matsuri….
– A guide to Japanese school uniforms One of the negative aspects to an extended stay in Japan is the normalisation of Japanese life that would draw the stares and cameras of many a foreign tourist. Never is this more evident than in the casual acceptance of students dressed in some of the most distinctive…