Lifestyle | CHILD'S PLAY Apr 15, 2018
The sweet smell of an incense workshop success
Incense workshops can be a sweet-smelling way to teach kids about a traditional craft of Japan
Lifestyle | CHILD'S PLAY Feb 18, 2018
Washi workshop: Good on paper, better firsthand
"Mummy, where does paper come from?" This was a question recently asked by my young daughter that was easier to answer than her usual string of whats and whys ("Do insects cry?" and "Why were we born?" among them). On this occasion, I was not ...
Style & Design Jan 28, 2018
Eat, sleep and shop at Muji Hotel
It all feels faintly familiar. There are the neutral textiles, the pale wood furniture, the green plants, the clean-lined gadgets and an aesthetic that is as calming as it is minimal. In short, it's identical to the interior of a Muji store — except here, ...
Style & Design Dec 17, 2017
A modern answer to your home prayers
With its white latticed facade, shiny walls of glass and monochrome interior lighting, passers-by could be forgiven for assuming that Wakabayashi Butsugu is a fashion flagship or contemporary interiors store. Yet the reality is a little different, for the minimal, clean-lined space, which opened in ...
Lifestyle | CHILD'S PLAY Dec 17, 2017
Living it up at the Hilton — Disney style
The seemingly simple act of checking into a hotel can be a recipe for disaster with tired young children: cue tackling mundane paperwork while trying to preempt high-volume meltdowns or contain hyperactive runarounds. So recently, it was something of a surprise to arrive at a ...
Art Dec 12, 2017
It has been a year of new museums, galleries and inventive renovations
From polka-dot emporiums and oceanfront observatories to a new-generation castle museum, a raft of eclectic new cultural spaces have been showcased over the past year across Japan. Here are a few highlights that have either opened or been renovated across the country in recent ...
Lifestyle | CHILD'S PLAY Oct 15, 2017
A crafty way to give the kids a creative workout
It's one of those fleeting parenting moments when my normally nonstop high-volume children are awake, but silent. The reason for this? They are studiously poring over a table covered with a neatly aligned assortment of wood cutouts — a cat, a witch, a star, ...
Art Oct 10, 2017
Tokyo remodels the 'design event'
If Akio Aoki had his way, there would be one new word included in dictionaries across the globe: "Designart." The Tokyo-based designer is one of a team of high-profile creators united in their desire to transcend the boundaries of all things art and design with ...
Lifestyle | CHILD'S PLAY Aug 20, 2017
Learning to become snap happy with an instant camera in Japan
My 5-year-old daughter has something precious in her hands. It's perfectly square, with a bright orange body, a black lens, a neck strap, a distinct red dot logo — and it's making me nervous. The object in question is an instant camera by Leica, the ...
Lifestyle | CHILD'S PLAY Jun 18, 2017
Dipping into Hakone's more unusual hot spas
"I love red wine, it's my favorite thing!" These are perhaps not the words that a mother particularly likes to hear from her young daughter — especially when she is only 4 years old. But this was precisely what my daughter told me when we ...