Here is an interesting question, what’s something that countries like the United States, China, France, and Italy have in great numbers and that Japan lacks? The obvious answer, based on the article’s title at least, is five-star hotels. To put into perspective just how few five-star hotels Japan has when compared to other places, London…

There is a saying with a couple of variations that goes something like “tourists seem to leave their brains at home when they travel”. Many will read this and nod in agreement, as tourists everywhere are often seen disoriented, bumbling, fumbling, miming, breaking social rules and norms, and some even breaking laws! The bigger the…

Inside Tokyo’s luxury hotels the champagne bottles are empty and the canapés are gone. End-of-year parties have come to an end, and a whole new year has officially started. New Year’s Day is a very important national holiday in Japan. It’s a day to relax and enjoy with one’s family, and people likely already prepared…

Thereare a lot of firsts that are important to Japanese people in the new year – the first visit to a shrine, the first sunrise, and even the first dream! Hatsuyume (初夢) literally means the first dream of the New Year. It is traditionally believed it foretells the kind of year and luck you will…

During my first years living in Japan, I did something that many expats around the world tend to do: bring multiple products from home which I assumed I could not live without. One of these products was my favorite moisturizer from the United States. Therefore, each time I would go back to the United States…

Two years after the accusation that brought the #MeToo movement to Japanese headlines, a court has ordered former reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi to pay 3.3 million yen in damages to Shiori Ito. In 2017, Shiori Ito came forward to accuse Yamaguchi of raping her in 2015 when she was an intern at Reuters and Yamaguchi the…

Have you ever wondered how Japanese people celebrate Christmas? After all, Christmas is not a national holiday, and less than once percent of the population are Christians. Nevertheless, Christmas has had a huge impact in Japan with a big exception when compared to other countries that celebrate this holiday: there is absolutely no religion attached…

The year was 2013. Walt Disney Animation Studios, also known as Disney Animation, had experienced a couple of successful years, finally been able to come out of the creative slump it had found itself at since 1999 when Tarzan became the last film of the Disney Renaissance. The decade that followed had been marked by…

It’s been officially announced that the iconic Harajuku Station will be demolished after the 2020 Olympics. This has been a sad turn of events for those who love the station’s façade, and those who want to preserve the last remnants of “Old Tokyo”. The interesting thing, however, is that Tokyo is finding itself in a…

After months of spending your limited free time stressfully looking for the perfect place to live, you end up finding a 1LDK apartment in coveted Chiyoda ward. It’s a dream property. An apartment of that size in the heart of Tokyo is rarely available, and much less at the price that is being offered to…