Apply 140 milliliters of hot water on the brown rectangular block, then stir for 60 seconds and voila, a steaming plate of chicken cutlet curry — that quintessential Japanese comfort food — is resurrected from its mummified state, offering instant gratification with minimal preparation. This ...

Perched cross-legged on an altar in one corner of Churenji Temple, cupped palms facing upward, the monk Tetsumonkai is set up for perpetual meditation — just as he intended as he lay dying nearly two centuries ago. The skeletal figure draped in clerical robes is ...

Sandwiched between old residential apartments in the capital's central Minato Ward is the Arimaston Building, an eccentric collage of individually patterned concrete slabs piled upon each other as if by happenstance. It's the work of Keisuke Oka, who has been building the unfinished structure mostly ...

The year is 1842 and the artist known as Hokusai is in his 80s. He has already lived nearly twice the average life span of his peers, but his advanced age hasn't stopped him from embarking on a 250-kilometer journey from Edo to Obuse, a ...

Call it a flashy billionaire's whimsy or a stroke of PR genius. When Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk hinted on Twitter last week that a Japanese person could be the first tourist to go around the moon on board Space X's Big Falcon Rocket, social ...

A muffled bass line is soon matched by Katsumi Tanaka's staccato electric guitar riff loosely emulating a shamisen. Congas and timbales start grooving in the rhythm of cumbia before the horn section dives in, setting the stage for Fredy Tsukamoto to belt out a ...

It was literally an out-of-this-world idea that seemed unfeasible when it struck her nearly two decades ago: Made-to-order shooting stars. But Lena Okajima's audacious project to reproduce nature's fireworks for mass entertainment is getting ready for takeoff. "The concept dawned on me when I watched ...

There was the 24-year-old insurance saleswoman who got sick of being yelled at when she couldn't reach her quota. Then there's the exhausted designer who clocked 160 hours of monthly overtime. And the ramen noodle shop employee who suffered stress to the point of ...

They aren't just acting tough; they really are tough. In an entertainment industry rife with crime shows, no one can supply villains quite like Takakura-gumi: Most of the talent agency's 62 members are former gangsters. Take Yoshidamaru, for example, a son of a yakuza boss with ...

Whether it's tales of hauntings, spirits or paranormal phenomena, Yuki Yoshida loves a good scare. The 37-year-old writer known as the "occult detective" is on the lookout for the supernatural. From ghost sightings and bizarre religious rituals to unidentified flying objects, he has spent over ...