Sao Jorge Castle

Up one of the seven hills of Lisbon, you can find the ruins of the castle of Sao Jorge. Just past some gift shops, sloping past an outdoor urinal (oh how I wish I had taken a picture of it!), and in the sights of a statue of Saint George himself, you can step back […]

Surgical/Medical Masks in Japan

Something that I thought would be appropriate to discuss was the use of surgical masks in Japan. I can’t speak for other Asian countries, but we tend to see lots of images of Asian people, in general, in surgical masks going about their daily routines. Many in the west scratch their head and ask “Why?” […]

Life in Japan With Covid-19: Government Inaction

In my continuing series on living in Japan during the now pandemic-level spread of COVID-19, I wanted to take a look at the sociological and political toll its has taken here in Japan. Disclaimer: As an outsider, and someone not extremely proficient in the language or completely understanding of the culture, my opinions may contain […]

Two Traditional Japanese Foods That Actually Came From Portugal

When you hear about certain things, you automatically associate them with Japan. Japan has this gift of taking on things and breathing new life into them, giving them a new identity waiting to be discovered. Their oldest modern trading partners, the Portuguese, gave them some of what now consider the most iconic parts of Japanese […]

Life in Japan With Covid-19: Hoarding

The point where I can calmly look on without much introspection and investigation has ended: There is so much going on in Japan in regards to the outbreak of Covid-19 (AKA the latest iteration of the Corona virus) that I can’t help but start digging around. How do the Japanese handle serious situations like these? […]

Rooftop Amusement Parks (Okujo Yuenchi 屋上遊園地)

There isn’t much space in Japan, and what space is available is used to fit in as much as possible, given the high value of each meter. This has lead to some creative uses of roofs in the country. For a while, putting amusement parks on the top of department store roofs was wildly popular, […]

Valentine’s Day in Japan

If you’ve lived in Asia before, this may sound familiar. For those of you who have never been, particularly those in America, you may know Valentine’s Day as a holiday where, traditionally, it is expected that the man makes a grand gesture of sorts to show his love for his partner. That has changed a […]

Healing Characters, Healing Women

When I started researching this post, my goal was to write and expand upon the Yuru-Kyara (mascot) article I had written before. That was before I upped my Japanese Google-fu and saw a ton of articles comparing the characteristics of healing characters with people, specifically, women, and how they can nurture those healing traits and […]

Disaster Awareness in Japan

Listen, if we’re being honest, Japan, on paper, seems to be a pretty inhospitable environment: It’s susceptible to numerous earthquakes, typhoons, tsunamis, and hosts numerous active volcanoes. In spite of all of these signals that Mother Nature might be telling them to beat it, the Japanese have managed and mitigated disasters pretty well. There have […]

Coming of Age Day – Seijin no Hi (成人の日)

20. This is a most important number in Japan. This is the age at which you transition from childhood to adulthood, the age at which you leave behind childish things and begin to take control of your own destiny. But how do you do that? Well, put on your fanciest outfit and join us for […]