Visitors to Japan can now experience semi-autonomous parking technology within the realms of their accommodation; in the furniture, the floor cushions, and even the slippers. While otherwise similar in appearance to any other traditional inn, known in Japan as a ryokan, the ProPILOT Ryokan in Yokohama is putting Nissan’s technology to some more unusual uses. […]
Self-parking Slippers Entertain Guests in Japan Read More »
If you’ve ever visited Japan, you may have noticed a jingle playing to signal the departure of trains at many of the stations — well there’s more to them than just a fun tune. The Japanese take their train system very seriously. Conductors bow to passengers as they enter the train car and companies profusely apologise
Train Station Jingles Read More »
In Japan, most little boys want to become professors when they grow up and little girls want to become bakers and bread makers, but not necessarily breadwinners. The results of this year’s annual nationwide survey of Japanese children on the topic, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” are a fascinating
Why Japanese Girls Want To Be Bread Makers Rather Than Breadwinners Read More »
Calling all ice cream fans : No longer do you have to race against the clock to scarf down your whole cone. Japanese food scientists recently invented an ice cream so ridiculously melt-proof that not only can it hold its temperature for hours in warm rooms, but it can also withstand being lit on fire. You might remember the popsicles released
Japan’s Non-Melting Soft Serve Ice Cream Can Even Be Lit on Fire Read More »
Japan’s sewerage industry has found a way to clean up its dirty and smelly image: elaborately designed and colourful manhole covers with 12,000 local varieties nationwide – including, of course, a Hello Kitty design. Appealing to a Japanese love of detail and “kawaii” (“cute”), bespoke manhole covers adorn the streets of 1,700 towns, cities and
Japan sewers clean up their act with manhole art Read More »
Shogatsu, the term for the New Year’s holidays in Japanese, is a time when people take the first three days of the New Year off to relax with their families and engage in traditional activities to remind themselves of their heritage. Below are some of the New Year’s traditions in Japan. Otoshidama On New Year’s
Japanese New Year’s Customs Read More »
While preparing for a message recently, I decided to to a simple Google search. People often refer to “That World” in Japan when talking about the place when people go after they die. To hear some public thought, I searched for “Where is That World.” The very first result was on Yahoo Japan’s Chiebukuro, which
Where is “That World”? Read More »
The tasty Japanese seaweed nori is ubiquitous today, but that wasn’t always true. Nori was once called “lucky grass” because every year’s harvest was entirely dependent on luck. Then, during World War II, luck ran out. No nori would grow off the coast of Japan, and farmers were distraught. But a major scientific discovery on
How an unpaid UK researcher saved the Japanese seaweed industry Read More »
In Japan, a game of Red Light, Green Light might be more like Red Light, Blue Light. Because of a linguistic quirk of Japanese, some of the country’s street lights feature “go” signals that are distinctly more blue than green, as Atlas Obscura alerts us, making the country an outlier in international road design. Different languages refer to colors very
Why Does Japan Have Blue Traffic Lights Instead of Green? Read More »
As globalization makes headway, calls for increased ability in an international language like English become louder and louder. Although English is a compulsory subject in junior high and high school in this country, Japanese still have a hard time achieving even daily conversation levels. According to the most recent EF English Proficiency Index, the English
Why do Japanese have trouble learning English? Read More »
