Mixed bathing still flourishes in northeastern Japan. Giles Murray visited several hot spring resorts in Towada-Hachimantai National Park to discover the pleasures—and occasional awkwardness—of bathing together in the buff.
Wish Scroll is a mini hanging scroll that carries a Japanese character chosen for you by a calligrapher.
Tokyo City View, the observation deck at the Roppongi Hills complex, has traded its usual skyline for a stage set.
NEON PICKLEBALL CLUB, Japan’s first neon-lit pickleball facility, opened in Shibuya, Tokyo this past August.
FuelFest Japan, a car festival that began in Hollywood and ranks among the world's largest, returns to Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture on Tuesday, August 11. The event carries on the legacy of the late Paul Walker, star of the Fast & Furious films, combining high-energy car culture with humanitarian fundraising and drawing some 30,000 fans from Japan and abroad each year. Highlights include live recreations of scenes from the film, heart-stopping drag races, and a massive gathering of 2,000 custom cars.
Kyoto has never been short on things to watch being made. This summer, at Kiyomizudera, visitors can make chopsticks themselves.
In the classic sixties TV show Ultraman, Hiroko Sakurai played Akiko Fuji, the female lead to the super-sized superhero. In an exclusive interview marking the show's 60th anniversary, she shares her memories of the launch, the creative team, and dealing with the fame of the ground-breaking program.
The lumpy head of a bright pink balloon elephant fills a room, its trunk stretching out the door. Facing it is a spinning wheel with thousands of opening and closing eyeballs. These are the creations of Noboru Tsubaki, a Japanese contemporary artist known since the 1980s for his massive sculptures that look at today’s world through a surreal lens.
