JAPAN LITE

It's April on Shiraishi Island in Japan's Seto Inland Sea. The nights are still crisp, dipping to 4 degrees Celsius, but the sky is clear and the stars arc over the beach like thousands of glittery sequins on a pop idol's stage dress. The ...

I was speaking with a woman the other day who had recently been to Japan. She acknowledged that Japan is the "in" place to travel to and, as if to qualify this fact, complained that "Kyoto was so crowded, I couldn't even get a ...

It's not easy being an expat. While most of us choose to live in Japan of our own volition, there are still times when we're frustrated with the way things work — or don't work — and the Community page often serves as an ...

On a recent bus trip in Indonesia, I struck up a conversation with the man sitting next to me who told me he was Malaysian but living in Australia, which prompted me to admit that I was American but living in Japan. This seemed ...

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 ...

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 ...

Ancient rites bend to an aging, shrinking population, but how much longer can local traditions hold out?

The most successful works remain true to both the author's time abroad and to Japan itself.

As Japan continues to court more foreign tourists, the nation must learn to respect foreign languages as much as its own.