Hagoita (battledores) are traditional Japanese wooden paddles used to play hanetsuki (hitting a feathered shuttlecock), a game similar to badminton. Both the game and the paddles have existed since at ...

For over ten years now, I have sworn off Christmas and birthday cards: simply writing my name, plus a sentence or two, simply doesn’t justify the dollars spent purchasing and sending cards. As a ...

For those with an interest in Japanese cuisine, you can’t hear the name of Tokyo’s Tsukiji neighborhood without thinking about sushi, and it’s hard to think of sushi for very long without thinking ...

Like a lot of people, visits to the bathroom on my first few trips to Japan were a source of a lot of surprises, from “Whoa, this toilet is so high-tech that it has a heated seat and washes your ...

Japan's year-end homecoming travel rush peaked on Saturday, with major train stations and airports crowded from the morning as families with suitcases queued on platforms, kicking off a holiday ...

On Friday, Japan marked 20 years since members of a shadowy cult let off deadly sarin nerve gas in Tokyo's subway system. The attack was the worst in modern Japanese history, and prompted global ...