Click on photo or link to read the feature • Seasonal Secret: Hacking cherry blossom season: How to beat peak pricing and crowds, while still enjoying maximum pinkness You go to Japan for cherry blossom season expecting it’ll be all picnics under the spreading boughs of pinkness, but even if you manage to book ticketsContinue reading “MAR-APR 2023”
Category Archives: March
Dead-End Memories
By Banana Yoshimoto Setting & details: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Authenticity of Japanese characters & dialogue: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Translation quality: ⭐⭐⭐⭐Entertainment value: ⭐⭐⭐⭐My recommendation: Although Japanese fiction nearly always loses a lot in translation, this collection of short stories still manages to feature characters and situations that are strangely Japanese, yet truly universal at the same time. If you’ve heard meContinue reading “Dead-End Memories”
Did you win the Jan-Feb Book Giveaway?
If you recognize your email, congratulations! You just won a copy of The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka! If you think this is you, shoot a message to JapanagramJonelle@gmail.com and tell me if you’d like an ebook or paperback, and where you’d like me to send it. (I’ll need an email address for the ebookContinue reading “Did you win the Jan-Feb Book Giveaway?”
Spring Vegetable Salad with Creamy Sesame Dressing
Dress up a bouquet of colorful spring vegetables in this decadently creamy dressing that’s made without cream! The surprise ingredient is silken tofu, so not only will your loved ones be begging for second helpings of vegetables, they’ll get all the enjoyment of cream without the dairy. • Spring Vegetable Salad with Creamy Sesame DressingContinue reading “Spring Vegetable Salad with Creamy Sesame Dressing”
Let’s hike through the cherry blossom forest!
Hanamiyama Park in Fukushima Let’s escape the elbowing cameramen, blossom-hogging selfie-snappers and crowded parks of Tokyo and head up to Tohoku, where kilometers upon kilometers of wild cherry blossoms line the hiking trails at Hanamiyama. “Cherry Blossom Mountain” is a vast private park planted with so many flowering trees that every vista is painted inContinue reading “Let’s hike through the cherry blossom forest!”
Hacking cherry blossom season
How to beat peak pricing and crowds, while still enjoying maximum pinkness! You go to Japan for cherry blossom season expecting it’ll be like this: But if you come during peak season, you’re more likely to get this: And trip dates are becoming harder to guess. Thanks to global warming, the sure bet of “last-few-days-of-March-through-the-first-few-days-of-April”Continue reading “Hacking cherry blossom season”
If we’re going to give up cars, we’re going to need more hand towels
Five unexpected things that explain why 21 million Tokyo dwellers choose the train every day, instead of their cars If you want to convince everyone to use public transportation—rich, poor, young, old—it goes without saying that it needs to be faster, cheaper, more convenient and more reliable than using a car. And it’s not wrongContinue reading “If we’re going to give up cars, we’re going to need more hand towels”
Ghosts of the Tsunami
by Richard Lloyd Perry Setting & details: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Authenticity of Japanese characters & dialogue: N/ARepresents real life in Japan: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Entertainment value: ⭐⭐⭐⭐My recommendation: Full of fascinating details and well worth reading Ghosts of the Tsunami is a page-turningly readable piece of narrative non-fiction, written by the Asia Editor of The Times of London. And while it centersContinue reading “Ghosts of the Tsunami”
Get the best cherry blossom pix in Tokyo: Where, when & how
Whether you’re an Instagrammer with a mega-following or just want to capture some of the pink magic to show your besties back home, snapping some envy-inducing photos is on every cherry blossom to-do list. But getting those perfect shots isn’t easy, especially if it’s your first time in Tokyo, so here’s how & where toContinue reading “Get the best cherry blossom pix in Tokyo: Where, when & how”
Let’s walk across red-hot burning coals!
Hiwatari Matsuri at Mt. Takao Who can resist the opportunity to do a bit of firewalking? Once a year, they actually let you join in, at the Hiwatari Matsuri, just an hour outside of Shinjuku Station at Mt. Takao. Get there early, because the festivities start with a grand parade of ascetic mountain monks from all overContinue reading “Let’s walk across red-hot burning coals!”
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