Japan

Japanese Honor Old Sewing Needles in Festival

Sewing machine © alecs apple Many ceremonies are held around the world to commemorate loved ones, aging flags–but only one is dedicated to old sewing needles. Every year on February 8th, Japanese tailors lay their used needles to rest in “hari-kuyo”, a festival held in Buddhist temples. The old needles are stuck into pieces of [...]

7 Creepiest Abandoned Japanese Love Hotels [Gallery]

With a whopping 500 million visits a year, love hotels – establishments that offer couples a private, short-stay location in which they can indulge in the pleasures of the flesh – are a booming business in Japan. Indeed, it’s been estimated that 1.4 million Japanese people, or 2% of the country’s population, visit a love [...]

$736K Tuna Sold at Tokyo Fish Market

Bluefin tuna© New York Times A new record was set last week at the first auction of the year at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. The prized piece of fish was a 593 pound bluefin tuna, sold for $736,000. The winning bid went to the president of a noted chain of Tokyo-based sushi restaurants. [...]

Sea Lion Wows Crowds With Keen Penmanship

Jay the sea lion, writing “dragon” in calligraphy © Getty In preparation for the Chinese New Year later this month, an aquarium in suburban Tokyo has once again used the talents of their own, to usher in 2012. Jay the sea lion was spotted at Hakkejima Sea Paradise this week with his trainer, writing in [...]

New, Classier Wendy’s Coming to Japan

Wendy’s Japan ©liddybits Would you like fries with that foie gras burger? After leaving the Japanese market two years ago, American fast food chain Wendy’s is looking to make a strong comeback in Japan. To stand out from competitor McDonalds, and local chains Lotteria and Mos Burger, Wendy’s is counting on a new premium menu [...]

Clever Water Fountain “Art” at Osaka Train Station, Japan [Video]

I want a clock like this for my house.

Tokyo’s Museum Dedicated to Parasites

Tapeworm Specimen © istolethetv Dehli belly. Montezuma’s revenge. The travel trots. Whatever you choose to call it, every serious traveler encounters intestinal problems at some point on the road. Usually our bodies fight off the bacteria or viral infection, but a few lucky people may find that they are carrying around more than just a [...]

Order the World’s Largest Sushi

Sushi © CytecK Umewaka Restaurant in Japan has not only created the world’s largest sushi roll, but is actually offering it on their menu. The thirteen pound monstrosity is available for just under $200. From Geekosystem: Each of these gargantuan roll contains 24 individual ingredients laid out on six feet of rice and seaweed prior [...]

Tokyo Slo-Mode: Japan Caught in Slow-Motion

Lovely and weird.

Hayaku: A Time Lapse Journey Through Japan [Video]

(Hat tip to Dave from GoBackpacking for this one.)

Photo of the Moment: A Moment on the Street, Tokyo

Why the Japanese Travel in Groups (and Other Lessons Learned Atop Japan’s Tallest Mountain)

Despite the fact that I’d been on a near-vertical climb through the rain and fog for the previous five hours, I had yet to reach the summit. Cold, wet and exhausted, my blistered feet and swollen hands ached as I limped up the side of Mount Fuji; the most visited mountain in the world and [...]

Tokyo Passengers Trigger Radiation Detectors at U.S. Airports

The New York Post is reporting that luggage and filtration systems on planes at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport arriving from Tokyo tested positive for traces of radiation. Oy … it just keeps getting worse. More via CheapOair.

Lovely, Decorated Gas Tanks of Japan

Local gas companies occasionally add a touch of character to the giant spherical gas containers that dot the landscape of Japan. Here are a few examples. Why? Because it’s Japan. That’s why. Full gallery at Pink Tentacle.

What a Dr. Pepper Can Looks Like in Japan

What a Dr. Pepper can looks like in Japan. Oh, I heart you, Japan. And all your cultural weirdness.

Behold the ‘Snow Monsters’ of Japan

© plaza.rakuten.co.jp Ghostly trees covered in snow and rime ice — known as “snow monsters” or juhyou (frost-covered trees) in Japanese — are a celebrated feature of the winter landscape in mountainous areas of northern Japan. Pure awesome. More photos via Pink Tentacle.

How to Drink Like a Japanese Salaryman

The situation: You’ve landed in Tokyo for business and quickly discover that the deal you had planned to seal is far from complete. You can’t go home empty-handed, so you need to charm your Japanese counterparts into an agreement. The answer is at the bottom of your glass. Amy McKeever has more via World Hum.

Photo of the Moment: Midnight Over Mt. Fuji, Japan

Photo of the Moment: Sunset Over Odawara Castle, Japan

No Sex in the City: What It’s Like to Be Female and Foreign in Japan

Reannon Muth learns that Tokyo’s a tough city to be single … if you’re a western woman.

The Spirit of the Running People: Three Cultures You Should Know

Turner Wright explores three “running cultures”, in which running is life, deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of the natives.

Bizarre Culture: Fat Bellies in Japanese Advertising [Video]

Really, what can I possibly say about this commercial? It’s just fantastically weird. And funny.

Photo of the Moment: Asakusa Kids Closeup, Tokyo

Bizarre Japan: The Most Fantastically Strange Video You’ll See All Day

We admit it: we’re obsessed with Japanese culture, particularly the more bizarre aspects. The commercial below is by far the strangest Japanese advertising video we’ve seen in some time. And that’s saying something. It only helps that we have no idea what they’re saying (only that the potato chips at the end are evidently loaded [...]

Photo of the Moment: Sea of Red at Inari Shrine, Kyoto

Never Look the Monkeys in the Eye (and Other Essential Tips from Kyoto’s Mount Arashiyama)

All around us, the forest breathed. Raindrops plonked against leaves. Neon-green moss coated the stones below my feet. For the first time in five days of Kyoto sightseeing, my two friends and I were alone: Just us, the trees, the mountain… and the monkeys. Maybe we should have noticed the lack of other visitors at [...]

Photo of the Moment: Approaching Narita at Sunset, Japan

Rabu Hoteru: Lost in Japan’s Love Hotels

Amy Baker explores Japan’s Rabu Hoteru’s, or Love Hotels, and finds “when in Japan, do as the Japanese”.

The Newest In Tokyo Haute Couture: The Anti-H1N1 Business Suit

© Théo La Photo Being a Japanese businessman can’t be the easiest job in the world. Your day consists of getting physically shoved into a train, spilling out the door 30 minutes later, only to get yelled at by your boss all the time once you get to work. We haven’t actually confirmed the getting [...]

Japanese Scarecrows Predictably Weird, Creepy

© Tokyo Times This gallery came as somewhat of a surprise to us. Nothing in our experience had prepared us for a Japanese product that was weird or creepy or lifelike or weird and creepy and lifelike all at the same time. So we didn’t really have a framework for understanding this story from the [...]

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