In case you find yourself in the city of Kawasaki, Japan (located just south of Tokyo), you won’t find much beyond the local baseball stadium, Kawasaki Stadium, and a large industrial center along the waterfront. However, if you get out at the Kawasaki Train Station and head across the street [...]

Once an evasive creature contained to their natural habitats in Williamsburg, Portland and Austin, hipster culture is now globally ubiquitous. Blame it on cultural imperialism, the undeniable twee delight of appliqué birds, or the sheer convenience of ironic facial hair, just know this: The hipster has reached these international cities, and will no doubt [...]

It struck around 2:45 in the afternoon on what had been a beautiful spring day. I was nearing the end of my contract as an English teacher at a middle school about an hour outside Tokyo. I’d been in good spirits due to the winding down of the workday and [...]

For those of us in that vast portion of North America that has remained snow-free for most of the year, the idea of a snow monster haunting the frigid landscape outside the safe confines of our homes seems a bit abstract. But in Japan, it is a very real prospect, [...]

I’m crazy for pictures. You put a picture of a cheeseburger in the menu of a five-star restaurant and that’s what I’m ordering. Screw the caviar, unless there’s a picture, it’s losing out to the photo option. Apparently, my quirkiness also works for travel. In particular, I recently came across [...]

Just outside Shibuya Station is perhaps the world’s most famous crosswalk next to Abbey Road’s. Billed as the world’s busiest crosswalk, this mind-numbing stroll is only accentuated by the pulsating video projections overhead. Tokyo’s subway stations are crowded already, but throw in the prospect of a fireworks show, and you’ve [...]

In an effort to boost tourism to Japan following a 50 percent decline in visitors since the March 11 earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster, the Japan Tourism Agency announced it will be offering 10,000 free trips to the country beginning next April. It appears that this offer covers [...]

It’s hard to imagine that someone would get bored limiting their diving experiences to coral reefs, but for those looking for a little variety in their underwater adventures, why not try exploring some of the world’s best places to dive that have absolutely nothing to do with animals that could [...]

Odori-don, which literally means “dancing squid rice bowl,” is a dish popular in the Japanese port city of Hakodate, as well as a newly-popular viral video craze. As FoodJapan.net describes the dish, Odori-don consists of a live squid with its head removed and served on top of a bowl of [...]

There’s been some buzz lately here in New York about fake signs cropping up in the NYC subway system. Designed to look like official decrees from the MTA, these posters instruct riders to avoid doing those ever-so-annoying things you’d be surprised people actually do, and quite often I might add, [...]