It seems like every Japanese person can fold at least a few complicated origami objects. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to fold an origami crane by learning from a book. It wasn’t until someone finally showed me how to fold a crane that I learned how.
If you don’t have your own [...]

Live in a small apartment in Japan, or anywhere else, and having trouble finding a place to store all of that toilet paper? — here is the solution.
AEON/Jusco started selling a super-compressed version of toilet paper — packing 7 rolls worth of paper into 2 compressed rolls. I have personally tried this out. There is [...]

Have you been to Ikebukuro before? Do you love peeing on staircases there?
Well, sorry my friend. Those times have passed. ‘They’ have caught up on us. This building next to the Ikebukuro Bic Camera Computer Store must have problems with urine flowing down the stairwell because they put up an intimidating sign to scare the [...]

Google recently announced a new feature for Google Translate, the Google Translator Toolkit. What makes this a potential cool-tool is the ability to take a computer translation and edit it yourself with the Google translation tools. You can also work on a project collaboratively by using the share feature.
Currently, the translator toolkit only lets you [...]

Instead of salivating over the exquisite food featured on travel shows, get out your maps and start visiting the places yourself. We’re highlighting three shows on Japan that got our taste buds going.
Wonder if the restaurants really are as great as they look? Visit and let us know what you think.
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations in [...]

Attention all you Japan lovers out there, help us find great travel information. After living in Japan for awhile, you’ve probably hit all the temples and museums recommended in the English-language travel guides. Then what? It’s time to start visiting the places the locals go, but where do they go? What’s the best beach? What’s [...]

Okay, so you moved to Japan or you’re planning a visit, but the closest you’ve ever come to speaking the language is watching The Last Samurai. No problem, no worries, you can quickly improve your entire experience in Japan by setting aside a little time to learn hiragana and katakana, the two basic Japanese alphabets.

Quick overview if you’re completely new to Japanese:
Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji are the three written components of the Japanese language. Kanji are the Chinese Charaters used in Japanese. Some characters have remained the same as their Chinese counterparts, but many characters have been modified over centuries[…}