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Shimane has a secret hot spring town that feels like stepping into an old Japanese film
A World Heritage hot spring town with retro bathhouses and seafood feasts.We love uncovering hidden travel sites around Japan that take us away from the crowds and lead us to discovering a myriad of culturally rich places. Shimane Prefecture has proven to be a veritable silver mine of them, as our Japanese-language reporter Marie Morimoto discovered on her previous visit there earlier in the year.Marie recently found herself back in the region, and decided that she’d explore a hidden hot spring
Tokyo station platform to transform into sake bar with hot drinks, hot oden, and hot kotatsu
Limited-time event returns to Ryogoku this winter.Last month, travelers passing through downtown Tokyo’s Ryogoku Station were treated to the sight of a giant (and blue) sumo wrestler stopping a train to protect a cute kitty. And while that event, courtesy of Sony’s PlayStation team, isn’t going on anymore, there’s something else coming to Ryogoku Station soon that’s very cool too…and also very warm.In what’s become an annual winter tradition, Ryogoku will be hosting Oden de Atsukan Station
Totoro gamaguchi pouches will hold whatever you want them to, but already captured our heart
Ordinarily fluffy and fuzzy, Totoro goes smooth and sleek in these adorable pouches.The Japanese word gamaguchi translates literally into English as “frog mouth,” but the language didn’t really need a single, specialized vocabulary word for discussing that part of amphibian anatomy. You’re much more likely to hear gamaguchi being used in its fashion-related figurative meaning, where it describes a pouch with a metal clasp that stretches from one end to the other and lets you open it up wide, res
Japanese man who didn’t know how banks work defrauded out of 21 million yen
But now he knows, and knowing is half the battle.We all have certain gaps in our knowledge that are widely known to others. They say even Einstein couldn’t drive a car because he found it too complicated, though in fairness, cars were a lot more complicated when he was growing up than they are now, what with the hand cranks to start the engines and all.Anyway, the point is everyone has their blind spots, and we can only hope they don’t emerge in embarrassing or damaging situations
Record number of foreign children in Japan need help understanding Japanese in school
As Japan’s foreign population grows, its foreign kid count is getting bigger too, and educational systems might not be keeping up with the country’s changing demographics.As Japan’s foreign population continues to grow, the number of foreign-nationality kids living in the country is rising too. Unfortunately, the number of kids living in Japan who aren’t proficient in communicating in Japanese is growing too.According to Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, whi
Pokémon Christmas village event taking place nightly in Yokohama
Bayside park lights up every night with Electric-type Pokémon Christmas tree.We’ve still got a couple weeks until it’s time for Santa to show up, but there are already some very welcome Christmas visitors who’ve arrived in Yokohama, the bayside city half an hour south of Tokyo. That’s because Yokohama’s picturesque Akarenga, also known as the Red Brick Warehouse, is hosting a special Pokémon Christmas village event with adorable decorations and photo spots.Though it’s open daily from 11 a.m. to
“Bear” voted Japan’s Kanji of the Year for 2025 in extremely close race
It bear-ly beat out the second-place kanji.A little while back, after writing my fifth or so article about bear-related news in Japan, I thought to myself, “You know, I bet ‘bear’ is going to win Kanji of the Year this time around.” And even though the increasingly chilly weather and increased hunting activity seem to be slowing the incidents recently, it’s hard to argue against calling 2025 “the year of the bear” in Japan.And sure enough, on 12 December
Kyoto samurai house wants to share its history of seppuku, torture and gold coins with visitors
If these walls could talk, they would probably scream.Nothing brings the story of samurai warriors to life quite like seeing and touching the marks left in wood by their swords in battle. You can almost hear the desperate shouts and feel the wind slicing through the air with the thrusts that must’ve occurred when these marks were made, and one place where you can see them is at the Former Maekawa Residence in Mibu, Kyoto.The Shinsengumi, a police force of elite swordsmen formed in 1863 to
Japan’s Hiepita forehead cooling strips, so popular they changed the language, are disappearing
Sales of the cooling strips are not so hot, but why?In the world of Japanese marketing, there aren’t many product names on the level of Hiepita. Produced by Tokyo-based health and hygiene company Lion Corporation (also a cool name), Hiepita comes from hieru, which means “cool down,” and pita, the Japanese onomatopoeia for sticking something to a flat surface. It’s a cute and concise summary of what Hiepita is: an adhesive strip that you stick to your forehead to bring your body temperature down.
Japanese group to hold fashion show of colostomy bags and other stoma equipment in Paris
Why hide it when you can accessorize it?There are estimates that the global population of ostomates is somewhere around 13 million and growing, and yet there is such a taboo about it in English-speaking countries that a lot of people don’t even know what an ostomate is. Heck, even my spellcheck keeps going off every time I type the word.There is a little more visibility about it in Japan through, and you may see restrooms labeled as suitable for ostomates using either the Japanese word 
U.S.A. now the fastest-growing market for Japan’s high-tech toilets, now selling quicker than ever
Toto’s Washlet is washing more and more backsides in the States, and there are likely two big reasons why the U.S. has started liking them for when it goes number two.“Japan is living in the future” is a statement that’s kind of debatable. Sure, we’ve got such science fiction-y wonders as real-world ridable Pokémon over here and services that’ll 3-D scan your body to turn it into an anime robot figure component, but we’re also kind of at the mercy of bears at the moment, and nostalgia for the si
This hot springs town in Japan sets fire across a mountain every winter in a beautiful tradition
Plus, another traditional festival involves giving a very icy bath to recently wedded grooms.Uonuma, Niigata Prefecture is probably most famous for its koshihikari rice production, but that doesn’t mean that it’s only worth visiting in the warmer months. While we previously compiled some of the best autumn activities to do in Uonuma, let’s build on that list by looking at two unusual festivals that blur the lines between fire and ice when the temperature drops and the snow star
Navigating the Future of Finance: Key Takeaways from Money20/20 Asia 2025
Money20/20 Asia 2025 recently wrapped up in Bangkok, and it really felt like the pulse of global fintech was beating strong ...
Evangelion original anime studio Gainax is now completely dissolved, Eva’s creator mourns ruined friendships
Gainax goes out in a very Gainax-like way.Anime studio Gainax is a great example of how you don’t necessarily have to be prolific in order to be prodigious. Best known for the original Evangelion TV anime and its earlier associated theatrical features, Gainax would sometimes go years between high-profile projects, but with works such as Eva, Royal Space Force/The Wings of Honneamise, Gunbuster, and Gurren Lagann, it’s ratio of landmark hits is enviably high.And yet, all has not been well with Ga
7-Eleven Japan has a hack for creating insanely delicious potato chip rice meals
A new product so good it’ll likely go viral. These days, many visitors to Japan get their information on what to buy at convenience stores through social media accounts, but it always pays to keep your eyes open for other interesting finds while you’re browsing the aisles, because then you can discover new products before they go viral online.▼ Take, for example, this humble product hiding out in the seasonings aisle, overlooked by many foreign tourists.Called “Aventure Meshi&
Gundam and Reebok team up for new GQuuuuuuX Pumps【Photos】
GQuuuuuuX kicks are ready to help you walk around in mobile suit style.Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX isn’t just the newest Gundam anime series, nor is it merely the one with the most unintuitively pronounced title (it’s meant to be said like “G quacks”). It’s also the first creative collaboration between Sunrise, perennial production studio of the Gundam anime franchise, and Studio Khara, founded by Hideaki Anno and best known for the Rebuild of Evangelion movies.Because of that, you could descri
Tokyo event lets you travel back in time, for free, to celebrate 100 years since Showa era start
A fully recreated Showa-style living room, with a modern surprise, awaits retro-seeking visitors.There’s always that time period that people tend to romanticize, or look back upon with nostalgia-tinted glasses, and for most of Japan that period is the Showa era. To mark 100 years since the start of the Showa era, a delightfully retro celebration is being held in the Otemachi Place entertainment complex in Tokyo from December 8 to December 12, 2025, called Otemachi Timeslip 2025: Back to Those No
Japanese woman sues man for 1.5 million yen for violating her “right to chastity”
It really does pay to know your rights.Sadly, it’s not such an uncommon story: You meet someone on a dating app, hit it off, and get into a romantic relationship with them. However, as time goes on, you notice some suspicious behavior, until it’s revealed that your partner had actually been married the whole time and was cheating on their spouse with you.Normally, this would result in a broken heart and a once-bitten-twice-shy attitude, leaving little else to do but pick up the piece
Tokyo considering law requiring more trash cans following litter increase in heavily touristed area
Proponents want cafes, convenience stores, and other takeout shops to take on greater responsibility as foreign tourist numbers and litter amounts grow.For quite some time, the scarcity of trash cans has been among the top complaints from foreign tourists in Japan. Now it looks like they’re going to become much more common in some of the parts of Tokyo most popular with international travelers.On December 10, a proposal was submitted to the assembly of Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward which would legally re
Pocky recall issued in Japan after customers notice off-the-mark taste caused by unintended smells
Pocky maker Glico recalls six million units across 20 different product types.Pocky is one of Japan’s all-time favorite snacks. The chocolate-covered biscuit sticks are loved by sweets fans both young and old, and their ubiquitous presence on store shelves and affordable price means that pretty much everyone in Japan is deeply familiar with what Pocky tastes like, so palates have been puzzled with a recent development.Starting around the middle of October, a large number of Pocky buyers in Japan