Japanese Dumplings: Gyoza Festival 2018

It appears to be that time of the year where I catch up on posts I didn’t get to from the end of the previous year. Whoops! In this installment, we go back to November 4th when the Mrs. and I went into Tokyo to partake in some of the nation’s best gyoza (dumplings) on […]

Tokyo Metro: The Underground Mysteries 2018

Every year for the past four years, the Tokyo Metro company has put on a bit of a scavenger hunt puzzle that takes you all across the Tokyo metro area on the Tokyo Metro subway lines. Armed with your puzzle kit and a 24-hour metro pass, you zip around Tokyo, finding clues in real life […]

Lucky Bags in Japan

Do you fancy yourself a gambling-type? Do you find a thrill in the luck of the draw? Do you also like getting goods at steep discounts? If you answered yes to any of those, then Japan has a New Year’s consumer tradition for you: The Lucky Bag, or Fukubukuro (福袋).

Things I Enjoyed From 2018

It’s the end of the year and I felt that instead of going through the top nine Instagram posts I threw into the Internet void this year, I thought I’d discuss (mostly media-related) things I found or did this year that really got me inspired in hopes that they might inspire you, too!

Shibuya Blue Cave (Ao No Dokutsu)

Winter illuminations (light displays) are very popular in the winter months in Japan, with most starting in November and going through January. One particularly popular and unique display is in Shibuya ward in Tokyo, where they take a piece of Yoyogi park and a drag of the city and line it with over 600,000 blue […]

Robot Fried Chicken in Osaki, Tokyo

Japan is known for its futuristic automation. The convenience store chain, Lawson, decided to get in on the game with its own robot that cooks and dispenses fried chicken for the masses.

Kiyomizudera: Waters and Blessings

Let’s be real: Kyoto can really be overwhelming with the number of shrines and historic places nestled within its boundaries. There are just so many to see that in order to draw in pilgrims, visitors, and those lucrative tourist moneys, each shrine or temple needs to have something to draw people in. It isn’t necessarily […]

Dasai! Is Saitama Lame?

After the Yuru-kyara Grand Prix this year, the magical mascot of Shiki won the first-place prize. That’s a city just a few stops up the Tobu Tojo line from my beloved Kawagoe, and it has gotten a lot of people talking about Saitama prefecture, mainly, how it has a reputation of being lame, full of […]

What I’ve Learned Making YouTube Videos

Many lessons are learned the hard way: You stumble, fumble, recover, take a few more steps, and eat dirt all over again. I wanted YouTube to accomplish two goals for me, which were to reach more people and to practice my video-making prowess. While doing both, I’ve learned a lot about the platform, viewing habits, […]

Sapporo Beer Factory

Way back in February of this year, I was in the snowy northern island of Hokkaido. While there, I was able to visit the Sapporo Beer Factory, producer of one of the most iconic Japanese beers seen at home and abroad: Sapporo. While the tour was all in Japanese (unlike the information available from Yebisu) […]