Driving through the valleys outside Hofu in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Yasha Yukawa scours the surrounding rice paddies for the raw material he covets. He is constantly on the lookout for rice straw, but only the farmers that harvest the traditional way preserve it. "The people who ...

The soft sound of bodies moving in thick cotton fabric and naked feet stroking the dojo floor is interrupted by loud shouts, causing a man passing by on his bike to turn his head. Through the large windows, he watches the children and adults ...

"Get in the car." An old woman in thick glasses and a knitted hat gestures from her seat behind the wheel. Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't consider jumping into a stranger's vehicle, especially not one that had so suddenly stopped in our path. And, in ...

Locally owned renewable power stations in Fukushima Prefecture are challenging the status quo in their drive toward a nuclear- and fossil-free future

Visitors to the Portland Japanese Garden are invited to engage their senses in the subtleties of nature.

With his dream of inhabiting the red planet out of reach, Kenji Yoshikawa instead sought out similar landscapes on Earth and teaches kids about Mars-style permafrost.

After failing to win respect for his craft in Japan, 17th-generation bladesmith Murray Carter brought the Yoshimoto name to Portland.