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An American at a tech conference casually introduces himself as “an anime otaku.” A Japanese counterpart at the same conference, who also watches a lot of anime, would probably not describe himself that way. Same hobby,…

You walk into a Japanese stationery shop in early January and notice a row of round red dolls on a shelf. They are squat, eyebrow-heavy, and faintly severe, with blank white circles where the eyes should…

You walk into a small Japanese restaurant and almost miss it: a ceramic cat on a shelf near the entrance, one paw raised, looking faintly cheerful. You have seen this cat before, maybe in restaurants outside…

A child opens a bento box at school. Inside is a flat field of white rice, and at the dead centre, a single dark red plum. Nothing else. No protein, no vegetable, no garnish. The lunch…

You are walking on a soft path through a forest in Nagano. The pace is slow, much slower than a hike. You are not trying to reach a summit or finish a route. The instructor has…

A wooden tea house at the edge of a temple compound. A tea bowl glazed in deep iron grey. A kimono in a navy so dark it almost reads as black. An older man in a…

In late November in Kyoto, a temple courtyard slowly fills with people who have come to look at trees. Above them, small Japanese maples have turned from green through yellow into a deep, saturated red, almost…

Two small golden-brown pancakes, about the size of a teacup saucer, are pressed around a generous layer of sweet bean paste. They are slightly domed rather than flat, soft in the hand, and easy to eat…

Walk through a summer festival crowd and you will hear it before you see it: a dry, rhythmic clack cutting through the chatter, the kind of sound that seems to carry even in humid air. Someone…