Yuki Sato– Author –

Walk down almost any quiet side street in a Japanese city, past the gleaming convenience stores and minimalist boutiques, and you might see it: a doorway that seems to belong to another time. Perhaps there’s a sign with swirling, old-fas...

You’ve seen them. If you’ve spent more than ten minutes in a Japanese train station, airport, or highway rest stop, you’ve seen them. Endless, immaculate stacks of beautifully designed boxes, each one promising a regional delicacy. White...

You see them along the concrete-banked rivers that slice through Tokyo, Osaka, and a hundred other Japanese cities. A lone figure, often an older man but sometimes a younger office worker, still in his slacks, staring intently at a slive...

You might think you know what a plastic model kit is. Maybe you remember a half-finished airplane from your childhood, wings stubbornly unaligned, sticky with too much glue, collecting dust on a shelf. It was a messy, frustrating affair,...

Picture Japan in the mid-1960s. The country is a paradox, humming with the energy of its post-war economic miracle. Tokyo is gleaming, newly polished from the 1964 Olympics, a global showcase of a nation reborn. Bullet trains slice throu...

You’ve probably seen the images. Towering infernos lighting up a snowy night, men in traditional loincloths carrying massive, flaming torches through crowded streets, or giant characters of fire blazing on a mountainside. It’s spectacula...

You asked me what detail of daily life in Japan really gets to the heart of the culture. It’s a great question, because it’s never the big, obvious things like temples or tea ceremonies. It’s the small, unspoken rituals that reveal the m...

You’ve seen them. Of course, you have. Stroll down almost any commercial street in Japan, from a bustling Tokyo shotengai to a quiet side alley in Kyoto, and you’ll find yourself stopped in front of a restaurant window, staring. Not at t...

Walk through a Japanese park around 6:30 in the morning, especially in the summer, and you’ll likely encounter a scene that’s both wonderfully mundane and quietly profound. You’ll hear a simple, slightly jaunty piano melody drifting thro...

Ask anyone about karaoke in Japan, and you'll get a familiar picture. You'll hear about teams of salarymen loosening their ties after work, belting out classic rock anthems. You'll hear about groups of friends sharing a tambourine, laugh...

You’ve seen them in movies, in anime, in travel photos. A single red lantern glows against the deepening blue of twilight, illuminating a small wooden cart. Steam billows into the cool air, carrying the scent of grilled meat and savory b...

Someone asked me the other day what the most “Japanese” thing they could do in Tokyo was. They were expecting, I think, a temple, a museum, or some elaborate tea ceremony. My answer surprised them. I told them to find a small, old coffee...