Megumi Hara– Author –

You’ve seen the images, I’m sure. Legions of men in identical dark suits, pouring out of train stations like a river of conformity, marching toward the gleaming towers of Marunouchi. This is the classic picture of corporate Japan, the er...

You’ve asked me why Japanese food culture seems so obsessed with seasonality, with this concept of ‘shun’ (旬). It’s a great question, because it gets right to the heart of what makes eating in Japan feel so different. It’s not just abou...

You’re standing in a Japanese garden, perhaps in Kyoto. It feels serene, meticulously composed, yet not entirely contained. Your eyes follow a line of carefully placed stones, past a sculpted pine tree, over a low, moss-covered wall, and...

If you find yourself in a Japanese neighborhood park on a summer morning, just as the sun is beginning to burn off the night’s humidity, you’ll likely hear it. A simple, almost childlike piano melody drifting from a crackling loudspeaker...

You asked me what the deal is with those immersive digital art museums you keep seeing pop up from Tokyo. You know the ones—videos of people wandering through shimmering crystal forests, wading knee-deep in projections of koi fish, or st...

I get this question a lot, usually after someone’s just watched a Studio Ghibli film for the first time. They’ll ask, “Are there really places in Japan like the ones in Spirited Away or My Neighbor Totoro? Places that feel… well, other?”...

Someone asked me recently what food best defines modern Tokyo. They were expecting an answer like sushi, or maybe a steaming bowl of ramen from some hidden, ten-seat counter. I told them, with a completely straight face, to go to the nea...

You’ve seen them. Of course you have. It’s impossible to walk down a bustling Tokyo side street or a quiet Kyoto alley without encountering them. Behind a pane of glass, gleaming under a soft light, sits a perfect bowl of ramen. The brot...

Walk into any major train station in Japan—Tokyo Station, Shin-Osaka, Hakata—and you’ll be hit by a wave of organized chaos. The rhythmic click-clack of a thousand hurried footsteps, the melodic chimes announcing departures, the crisp, a...

Walk into a Japanese convenience store—a konbini—and you’ll be hit by a symphony of carefully orchestrated sounds. The cheerful irasshaimase! welcome chime, the whir of the coffee machine, the crinkle of onigiri wrappers. For decades, an...

If you ask someone to describe a Japanese breakfast, they'll likely paint a picture of a traditional meal: grilled fish, a bowl of steaming rice, miso soup, some pickles, maybe a rolled omelet. It’s a beautiful, balanced, and deeply cult...