You may have seen his elegant kimono-clad figure on television, in newspapers, or in your Tokyo guidebook. After almost 40 years of career in Japan, American-born Allan West has become a familiar figure in the world of Nihonga, the Japanese traditional painting. I had the great pleasure to meet him at the end of Spring 2019 in his beautiful studio in Yanaka,…

For a long time, I ignored that the rickshaw was actually a Japanese invention! This old profession still subsists today in a newer form in Japan: the rickshaw drivers double as guides who often speak several languages. Let me introduce you to Mr. Taira, a rickshaw driver you can meet in Asakusa, Tokyo. All the Things I didn’t Know about…

Seeing Japan’s beautiful nature should be a top priority for every visitor. The best way to do this is to drop by one of Japan’s 30 national parks. This experience can be enhanced further by joining a locally guided tour. In this article, I’ll introduce Picchio, a company providing nature tours in Japanese and English inside Japan’s second-largest national park,…

In Tokyo, Buddhist priests chanting sutras in the streets, with their traditional robes and straw hats, have become an exotic sight not only to foreign tourists but to Tokyoites too. Mr. Mochizuki has been practicing takuhatsu (religious mendicancy and sutra chanting) in the streets of Ginza for nine years.I had the opportunity to interview him about his path in life…

Chie is a nagashi artist: her job consists of wandering the streets of Arakicho (a part of Shinjuku ward), going from tavern to tavern to play and sing to entertain the customers. She’s also a mangaka and draws people’s portraits while singing. I met Chie by chance at the Ringo no Hana tavern in Arakicho back in 2018, and we talked a little. Intrigued by her…

In this roundtable discussion, we look back on our past in Japan to help you plan ahead for your future. Moving to a new country on a whim can be fun and exciting, but as you’ll soon read, there are some important things to consider before you start packing your bags. Even if you think you’ll only live here for…

Tokyo is massive. The megacity, which doubles as a prefecture, includes endless urban cityscapes, tropical islands hundreds of kilometers off the coast, and mountains crisscrossed with hiking trails. A city of cities (also known as wards), Tokyo is filled with variety, and this is both a blessing and a curse. There’s something new and exciting around every corner, but when…

With foreign residents in Japan reaching record numbers, our editorial team thought it would be a good time to reminisce about our halcyon days in Tokyo and share a few things that we’ve learned during our time here. Representing the U.S., France, and Belgium, we have a combined experience of nearly 30 years of living and working in Japan. We…

With a combined experience of nearly 35 years living and working in Japan, Amelie, David, and I figured it was high time we had a roundtable discussion about how we ended up in the land of the rising sun. Representing the U.S., France, and Belgium, our backgrounds may be diverse, but we discovered that we actually share a lot of…

When it comes to things that I wish I had known before visiting (and eventually moving to) Japan, the goshuincho, a book used for collecting ink stamps and calligraphy from Japanese shrines, tops the list. So, allow me to save you some regret. If you are planning on visiting Japan, do yourself a favor and pick up a goshuincho at…