Monday marked Coming-of-Age Day, bringing with it the usual festivities that saw Japan's 20-year-olds celebrate their newfound adulthood - each in their own way. (Japan Times)
Japan's Defense Minister says his ministry is carefully examining a North Korean video that appears to show a submarine-based ballistic missile test. (NHK )
Fukuoka Prefectural Police are investigating an attempted arson attack that targeted an office of a second-tier gang of the recently troubled Yamaguchi-gumi in Fukuoka, reports TBS News. (Tokyo Reporter)
Thousands of people took part in a New Year race at a Shinto shrine in western Japan on Sunday. The winner is crowned the year's "luckiest man." (NHK)
Top Japanese brewer Asahi Group Holdings is taking a gamble amid a new wave of global consolidation. (Nikkei)
There has been a lot of discussion recently about allowing more foreign workers into Japan to make up for severe labor shortages in some fields. As of the end of 2014, the labor ministry estimated there were 790,000 foreign nationals working in Japan legally, which is more than the number of national civil servants (640,000). (Japan Times)
The Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces have decided that Japanese P-3C patrol aircraft returning home from anti-piracy activities off the coast of Somalia will give priority to stopping along the way at bases of countries facing the South China Sea, including the Philippines and Vietnam, according to sources. (the-japan-news.com)
My alarm sounded at 6:45 a.m., but I quickly silenced it and rolled over in my futon. I enjoyed a fleeting moment of quietude before the thrumming of rubber soles on pavement and accompanying excited voices crescendoed, a brief multilingual hubbub that then faded away for a minute or two before rising up again. It was starting. (Japan Times) 
The surprise smash hit event of 2015 in Tokyo was the Shunga Exhibition, the first such large-scale public showing of erotic prints in Japan.
200,000 people packed the tiny Eisei Bunko Museum over the 85 days of the exhibition, which was based on...

The train's time-table. One train at 7:04AM and another at 5:08PM.
Japan's impressively efficient high-speed rails have continued to expand to the outskirts of the country, rendering many of Japan's older, low-tech railways obsolete. Kami-Shirata...

goo Ranking recently published a survey on what kinds of things happen at the adjacent coffee shop table.
Demographicsgoo Rankings asked iBRIDGE's Research Plus to conduct this survey, where between the 27th and 30th of October 2015 500 members...

I was drinking with Sandy in the park recently. It was dark and naturally we were on the swing set.
“I'll just never be happy here,” she said.
“Congratulations,” I replied, “you're finally Japanese. Here, have a chu-hi. It's got real l...

Kimono have existed as a staple for women's clothing in Japan since the 8th century. They still remain a vibrant and existing part of Japan's traditional culture, which seem to be growing in modern street fashion as well. But now, they're receivin...

The first week of 2016 has kicked of with stories that run from the seemingly ‘no brainer' - Tokyo police urge partiers not to sleep in traffic, The Asahi Shimbun. Down to the thoroughly depressing - Rationing hits Japan's nappy trade as Chines...

Author: Aurelia George Mulgan, UNSW Canberra
On 18 December 2015 the Abe administration announced details of the much-anticipated agriculture, forestry and fisheries-related
Characteristically, the ‘agricultural tribe' (nōrin zoku) of the ru...
Staying in Kyoto for a few months is great and learning Japanese in Japan sounds amazing. Something you should realize, however, is the fact that Kyoto, Osaka and the rest of the Kansai region have their own dialect known as Kansai-ben but often a...
On the final day of every year, red-faced demons storm the streets of Oga, yelling and stomping as they go. Kicking down front doors, they burst into homes in search of idle children.
For residents of this northern Japanese town, their Namahage t...
Top 10 Japanese Izakaya Phrases
(How to get your black belt in Izakaya-ology)

So, you want to visit Japan and try your Japanese out on the locals right? The perfect place to do that is an Izakaya which is a Japanese style pub. If you've neve...



































