Planning to visit Tokyo? Wondering how you can make your visit truly memorable and unique? Why, by searching for samurai ghosts, of course. As it happens, stories about the lost souls of samurai have been a staple of traditional Kabuki and Noh theatre, for centuries, and are still popular in modern Japanese films, such as…

Have you ever wondered what it would take to become a J-pop idol? Well, it’s a lot different nowadays than how it used to be, even only ten years ago. And the good news is, it’s a lot easier than it was before. Mind you, it still takes a lot of hard work, genuine talent,…

If you want a unique taste of Japanese culture, why not try the odd and intriguing sushi which is fabled to be the favourite food of the Shinto god, Inari? Whether you are going to your local sushi place or visiting Nara, in Japan, and sampling one of the many famous Japanese restaurants in the…

If you’re as big of a film buff as I am, you’ll know who Toshiro Mifune (三船敏郎) is. Also, if you’re as obsessed with Japanese cinema as I am, then you probably know all the lines of “Yojimbo” by heart! For the western world, there’s no more iconic image of the samurai than the swaggering…

So, you think the model for the modern day economies were invented on Wall Street? Or somewhere in London’s venerable financial district? No, in fact, the modern day concepts of stocks, futures markets and financial speculation are based on concepts used by Japanese merchants, in 1698 AD. Dōjima Rice Exchange As a keen student of…