Click on photo or link to read the feature • Seasonal Secret: Design Festa: Your one-stop shop for predatory purses, zombie nesting dolls & more Twice a year, Design Festa takes over the Big Site convention center in Odiaba, and artists selling everything from zombie matroyshika to predatory purses gather to outdo each other…read moreContinue reading “NOV-DEC 2022”
Category Archives: November
Did you win the Sep-Oct Japan Swag Giveaway?
If you recognize your email, congratulations! You just won a set of six limited-edition gashapon Attack Cats! If you think this is you, shoot a message to JapanagramJonelle@gmail.com and tell me where you’d like me to send them! (Note: My apologies—I’m in Japan at the moment and the attack cats are in San Francisco, so I won’tContinue reading “Did you win the Sep-Oct Japan Swag Giveaway?”
Japan Swag Giveaway
The Nov-Dec 2022 giveaway: Ikura Sushi Refrigerator Magnet Yes, this month’s giveaway is one of those high-quality can’t-believe-it’s-not-real food magnets they only sell on Kappabashi Street in Tokyo. All lesser refrigerators on your street will envy yours. On the last day of December, I’ll randomly pick one lucky Japanagram subscriber to get this choice pieceContinue reading “Japan Swag Giveaway”
Miso-Butter Potatoes
Move over, french fries! You may think that potatoes don’t sound like an authentic Japanese dish, but the stand selling hot miso-butter potatoes at all the winter festivals has a line a mile long, because they are awesome. Miso makes everything you put it in taste deeper and richer (while also secretly being good for you!)Continue reading “Miso-Butter Potatoes”
Why are those trees wearing placemats?
Ever wonder why they wrap Japanese pine trees in those funny little mats in winter?Arboreal stomach warmer? The tree version of black tie for the holidays? Guess again. They’re actually old-fashioned, super-eco pest control! It’s diabolically simple. The mats are girded around the trees as winter approaches, wrapped tightly at the bottom and loosely atContinue reading “Why are those trees wearing placemats?”
Let’s go to the Werewolf Shrine!
Mitsumiya Shrine in Saitama prefecture The Mitsumine Shrine sits high atop a snowy mountain near Chichibu, so far from any train station that you’ll be eligible for a senior citizen discount by the time you get off the bus. At first it looks like a typical Shinto shrine with fox messengers at the gate… …butContinue reading “Let’s go to the Werewolf Shrine!”
Design Festa: Your one-stop shop for predatory purses, zombie nesting dolls & more
Twice a year, Design Festa takes over the Big Site convention center in Odiaba, and artists selling everything from zombie matroyshika to predatory purses gather to outdo each other. Get one in every color! Or if that isn’t creepy enough for you, perhaps a crying baby head? Or you can take blowing your nose toContinue reading “Design Festa: Your one-stop shop for predatory purses, zombie nesting dolls & more”
JUL-AUG 2022
Click on photo or link to read the feature Why, Japan, Why?: Extreme lunchboxing: The what, how & why of Japanese bentō No country has made more of an art of packing a bag lunch and no moms* put more effort into this most resented of daily chores than those in Japan. Here’s why they doContinue reading “JUL-AUG 2022”
MAY-JUN 2022
Click on photo or link to read the feature Why, Japan, Why?: International Food Fails of Japan In a country where only 24% of the population even have a passport (compared to 45% of Americans and 78% of Brits), the closest most Japanese have ever been to “foreign” food is the restaurant down the block.Continue reading “MAY-JUN 2022”
MAR-APR 2022
Click on photo or link to read the feature Japanese Home Cooking: Sweet Sesame Spinach As a veteran vegetable hater, I have a special spot in my grinchy heart for leafy greens, but this traditional Japanese way of cooking spinach is so good I can eat a bag of green stuff as big as myContinue reading “MAR-APR 2022”
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