Cultural Concepts

It’s January 1, 1:30 in the morning. The temperature in Tokyo is just above freezing. A line of people stretches for nearly half a kilometer through the dark, slowly moving toward the lit gate of a…

It’s early July in a Japanese train station. Hanging from the high ceilings: enormous paper streamers in pinks, blues, and golds, dangling like upside-down rivers of color. Around the corner, a small bamboo tree has been…

Mid-August in Japan. Tokyo’s central districts are quieter than usual — many offices are closed, restaurants have shorter menus, taxi drivers are scarce. The shinkansen to the countryside is sold out. Highway traffic moving away from…

It’s 3 a.m. in a small town in rural Japan. The streets are empty. The single train line stopped running at midnight. Almost everything is closed — except, on the corner near the station, the convenience…

A real estate listing in Tokyo describes a Japanese apartment as having a “6-jou” living room. There are no tatami mats actually shown in the photographs — the floor is laminate. Yet the size is given…

A 35-year-old man lives in his parents’ house in suburban Tokyo. He has not left his bedroom for more than half an hour at a time in three years. His meals are left outside his door…

It’s January in a Japanese living room. The temperature outside is just above freezing; the temperature inside, in unheated rooms, is barely better — Japanese houses are notoriously poorly insulated. In one room, however, four members…

A summer evening in a Japanese city. People streaming toward a fireworks display along the river. Among them: dozens of women and men in soft-cotton robes — pale blues, indigos, pinks, navy with bamboo motifs —…

The “matcha latte” sits in front of you at a Western café — pale green, sweetened, topped with a little design in the foam, the brand name of the drink chain printed on the cup. The…

A small confectionery shop in Kyoto, mid-October. The window display has shifted overnight. Yesterday’s pink-petal sweets are gone; in their place are small, perfectly shaped maple leaves in russet and gold, a few miniature chestnuts in…