Name: Sosuke Kitamura Age: 59 Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Calligrapher Likes: Analog stuff, food, clothing, housing from 1960s Japan Dislikes: Digital stuff, especially touch screens 1. What do the kanji that comprise your first name mean? 宗 (so) means "to better oneself" and positively influence one's surroundings. My father chose a ...

Name: Mizuki Tanaka Age: 35 Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Sento (public bathhouse) mural painter Likes: Reading, art, movies Dislikes: Headaches 1. When did you first go to a public bathhouse and how did you like it? I went in my second year of university when I started to consider writing a ...

What brought you to Japan? I came here for the magic. Osaka is home to some of the best close-up magicians in the world. — Ben Daggers, magician Richard Brezina | COURTESY OF RICHARD BREZINA What's your favorite Japanese word or phrase? I like Japanese tongue-twisters; my ...

Luis Mendo's most embarassing moment is yet to come.

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Tokyo street vendor on flexibility, lines for food and missing underwear.

"The koto is a plucked string instrument in which the sound and music really reflect the player."

Japanese cooking teacher on the joys of bill's famous creation and fermented soybeans.

It's hard to describe Seiko Ito with one handy label. When I ask my friends to do it, they struggle. "He's a TV comedian on a show for kids," says one. "He's an award-winning novelist," says another, before adding — "And he's one of Japan's ...