Shun Ogawa– Author –

At first glance, Japan’s regional mascots seem like a national fever dream rendered in brightly colored felt. You see them everywhere: a goofy, red-cheeked bear from Kumamoto Prefecture; a waddling, pear-shaped fairy from Funabashi city;...

The first time you feel it, it’s deeply unsettling. Not the violent, movie-style lurch, but the subtle, liquid roll of a minor earthquake. You’re in a Tokyo high-rise, and for a few seconds, the solid world beneath you becomes a fluid, u...

If you could have teleported to the Shibuya Scramble Crossing in, say, 1996, you would have been met with a wall of sound and color. The jingles from pachinko parlors, the rumble of the Yamanote Line, the giant video screens blasting J-P...