Celebrating New Year's the island way
On the small island where I live in the middle of Japan's Seto Inland Sea, new year celebrations are stalwart traditional. Preparations start a week before when the holiday spirit wafts in on sea breezes tinted with chilling temperatures. The island holds a community ...
Japan has a reputation for cleanliness — just don't look in our closets
The cleanliness of the Japanese is known worldwide. Thanks to the internet, videos of Japanese students cleaning their schools have gone viral, as well as a memorable clip of how the JR staff clean an entire shinkansen train in under seven minutes. The Japanese ...
The death of a Japanese countryside festival
Ancient rites bend to an aging, shrinking population, but how much longer can local traditions hold out?
'My Year in Japan' books offer reassuring words to armchair travelers, but expats need more
The most successful works remain true to both the author's time abroad and to Japan itself.
In Japan, the most important rule for language translation is often broken
As Japan continues to court more foreign tourists, the nation must learn to respect foreign languages as much as its own.
One man's labor-of-love museum captures Seto Inland Sea island's storied stone history
Build a stone museum and they will come? That's the idea behind the K's Labo museum on Kitagi Island in Okayama Prefecture.
Minpaku law could leave tourists to Japan without beds
Onerous licensing process for private lodging won't stop bad operators, but it will put off honest would-be entrepreneurs.
Japan's public policy is killing rural entrepreneurship
While big-ticket tourism projects in Japan thrive, those involved in smaller-scale projects can feel starved of government support.
Chichibu: Steeped in tradition, but challenged by industry
The city of Chichibu, about 90 minutes by train from Ikebukuro, Tokyo, has a population of approximately 60,000. The region, which sits in the shadow of Mount Buko and alongside the Arakawa river is steeped in tradition with more than 300 festivals taking place ...
What's behind Japan's enduring love of Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights'?
Emily Bronte's only novel, "Wuthering Heights," set in the moors of Yorkshire in the late 18th century, has long held a special place in Japanese hearts.
High-tech Pyeongchang Olympics needed more low-tech support for foreign tourists
Attending the Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea reminded me of what Japan still needs to do as it gears up to host one of the world's most prominent sports events.
Launch a tourist-friendly Seto Inland Sea ferry system and they will come
The 250 or so inhabited islands scattered like pebbles between Honshu and Shikoku have been unfairly relegated to guidebook sidebars labeled "Off the beaten track."
