Ayaka Mori– Author –
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The Real Pokémon Marts of Japan: A Journey into the World of Dagashiya
Before you could tap a screen to buy Potions and Poké Balls, there was a real place you could go to stock up for the adventures of the day. It didn’t have a futuristic chime when you entered, but it had something better: the gentle rattl... -
Magazine for City Boys: How Popeye Brought California to Japan
Imagine a Japan before the internet, before a thousand Instagram accounts could beam the sun-drenched aesthetic of Venice Beach skate culture directly into a teenager’s bedroom in suburban Tokyo. Picture the mid-1970s. The country was in... -
Beyond the Filter: How Japan’s Purikura Booths Designed a Culture
To an outsider, it might look like just another photo booth, maybe one on a heavy dose of digital steroids. You see them tucked away in the glowing, cacophonous temples of modern leisure known as game centers, or occupying entire floors ... -
The Silent Salesmen: Decoding Japan’s Vending Machine Obsession
Walk down almost any street in Japan, from the hyper-caffeinated arteries of Shinjuku to a sleepy alley in a remote fishing village, and you will eventually see it: a soft, rectangular glow humming quietly in the dark. It’s the light of ... -
The Naked Commune: Why Japan’s Public Baths Are About Connection, Not Just Cleanliness
You asked me why Japanese people still go to public baths, the sento, when almost everyone has a perfectly good shower at home. It’s a great question, because on the surface, it seems redundant, almost archaic. But to think of a sento as... -
Fires of Farewell: Understanding Okuribi, Japan’s Solemn Bonfires of Remembrance
The air in mid-August in Japan is thick enough to swim through. It’s a heavy, wet heat, filled with the incessant, high-pitched hum of cicadas that seems to vibrate in your very bones. Days are for enduring, for seeking shade and the tem... -
Why Japan’s ‘Power Spots’ Are More Than Just a Modern Trend
If you spend enough time in Japan, you'll eventually hear the term. It might be whispered by a friend planning a weekend trip, or featured in a glossy magazine spread with maps and star ratings. The term is pawā supotto, or "Power Spot."... -
Plastic Love and Neon Dreams: Why the World Fell for Japan’s City Pop
It almost always starts the same way. You’re somewhere deep down a YouTube rabbit hole, hours after you meant to go to bed. The algorithm, in its infinite and inscrutable wisdom, serves up a new recommendation. The thumbnail is a simple,... -
Eating with the Seasons: An Explorer’s Guide to Japan’s Culture of ‘Shun’
If you spend enough time in Japan, you start to notice the calendar isn't just marked by months and holidays. It’s marked by taste. There’s the earthy bitterness of the first mountain vegetables in spring, a signal that the snows have fi... -
The Kawaii Crucible: Inside the High-Tech Ritual of Purikura
Walk into any Japanese arcade, past the rows of crane games with their plush captives and the percussive thunder of rhythm games, and you’ll likely find a dedicated corner where the energy is different. The lighting is softer, the music ... -
Beyond the Wall: How Japanese Gardens Steal Whole Mountains
There’s a moment that happens in certain Japanese gardens. It’s a quiet click in the mind, a sudden recalibration of scale. You’ll be walking along a path of meticulously raked gravel, past carp gliding through a pond no bigger than a li... -
Concrete and Water Lilies: How an Industrial Island Became Japan’s Art Sanctuary
You’ve probably seen the pictures, even if you don’t know the name. A giant, yellow pumpkin covered in black polka dots, sitting alone at the end of a pier, the calm sea stretching out behind it. That pumpkin, a creation by Yayoi Kusama,...
