Japan Column
What’s in a Japanese Fridge?
Three kinds of soy sauce, a tub of fermented soybeans, and almost no cheese. What an ordinary Japanese household actually keeps, what…
Region
Nationwide
Guides that apply anywhere in Japan.
Guides
55 articles
Reading list for Nationwide
Japan Column
The Japanese Work Year, Explained by Its Holidays
Japan has more public holidays than almost any developed country and its workers take less leave than almost any. Both facts have…
Japan Column
Where Do Japanese People Go on Holiday?
Not Kyoto. The domestic destinations Japanese people actually book are a useful reverse map for a visitor — and they explain why…
Japan Column
How Much Does Life Cost in Japan? A Local’s Monthly Budget
Rent, electricity, a supermarket shop and a phone bill, for three real households. Japan is cheaper than visitors expect for daily life…
Japan Column
What Does a Japanese Person Earn? Average Salary, Explained
The headline figure is around 4.6 million yen, and it tells you almost nothing on its own. What comes out of it,…
Culture and Etiquette
The Japanese Year: Hanami, Tsuyu, Momiji and New Year
Japan pays more attention to the calendar than almost any country, and the whole population moves in step with it. What each…
Culture and Etiquette
Matsuri: What Happens at a Japanese Festival and How to Join In
Portable shrines carried by four hundred people, illuminated paper warriors, and a dance anyone can join. The dozen festivals worth planning a…
Culture and Etiquette
Tipping in Japan, and Why Nobody Wants Your Money
There is no tipping in Japan, in any situation, and attempting it causes a small crisis. Here is why, what the charges…
Culture and Etiquette
On Trains, in Queues, with Rubbish: Public Behaviour in Japan
Why Japanese trains are silent, why there are no bins, and why the escalator side changes between Tokyo and Osaka. The public…
Culture and Etiquette
Shrines and Temples: What to Do from the Gate Onwards
How to tell a shrine from a temple in three seconds, what to do at each, and what all those wooden plaques,…