You see them walking down the street on the way to a wedding. You see them wrapped around white-faced maiko as they flutter past you in Gion. You see them at summer festivals and accompanying the click-clack of wooden geta along the riverfront of Kinosakionsen. The Japanese kimono. There is nothing else like it. For…
The lights are dim. Drinks litter the table. People are laughing and talking somewhere in the dark. Suddenly, the TV screen changes and music swells – it’s the opening of  “My Heart Will Go On.†Someone hands me a microphone. “Ganbatte!†excited voices shout, chuckling, waiting. Ugh. We’ve all been there. Karaoke is an integral…
Golden week is coming up. For many of us, that means travel – whether it be to places in Japan we haven’t been before, or to a new destination abroad – there seems to be no better time to travel than in the long, warm spring holiday. Despite the cost that is. As all of…
As winter slowly passes and spring edges closer to the hills and valleys of Japan, Valentine’s Day has already come and gone. Perhaps some of us had cause to notice, perhaps some of us didn’t. While Valentine’s Day has never been a holiday of much consequence to me personally, I did find myself very curious…
Steam rises, obscuring the snowy mountain scene outside the window. Serene pools ripple gently. You let the heat soak into your skin, through your muscles, down to the bone. It ensconces you, slowly coaxing all of the tightness in your shoulders and back into release. You sigh, giving in to the calm of the onsen….
2012. A new year begins, and for me, an American in Japan, it looks like it’s going to be quite a ride. The yen is up, the dollar down. The Tohoku region is still picking up what the earthquake/tsunami left behind. The world scrambles against global warming and an uncertain economy. The ancient Mayans predicted…