MAR-APR 2023

Japangram cover, Mar-Apr 2023

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Seasonal Secret: Hacking cherry blossom season: How to beat peak pricing and crowds, while still enjoying maximum pinkness

Cherry blossoms along the Chofu River

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 tickets that catch the blooms at their peak (along with the thirty million others who also also guessed right), you’re likely to pay the kind of peak pricing that makes even the most gorgeous displays seem not quite worth it. But people who live here have ways of getting around all that, and here’s how they do it!…read more

The Thing I Learned Today: If we’re going to give up cars, we’re going to need more hand towels

Warm hand towel at Japanese restaurant

Five unexpected things that that explain why 21 million people happily use the train instead of their cars every day in Tokyo…read more


Beyond Tokyo: Let’s hike through a wild cherry blossom forest!

Cherry trees in bloom at Hanamiyama Park

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 in a patchwork of…read more

Japanese Home Cooking recipe:
Spring Vegetable Salad with Creamy Sesame Dressing

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….read more

Mar-Apr 2023 Book Review & Giveaway:
Dead-end Memories by Banana Yoshimoto

Cover of Dead-end Memories by Banana Yoshimoto

https://japanagram.me/2023/03/01/dead-end-memories-banana-yoshimoto/Banana Yoshimoto puts her characters into scenarios we are all familiar with and lulls us into suspending our disbelief by getting inside the character’s head, so we see it through their Japanese eyes. In this collection of short stories, she gets us past our own cultural assumptions, so we can…read more

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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly Japanagram newsletter, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had

Dead-End Memories

By Banana Yoshimoto

Cover of 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 me bemoan the horrors of Japanese fiction translations before, you’ll know that I seldom enjoy Japanese novels in English because so much of the meaning isn’t in the words, but inferred by details that only people raised in Japan can understand. Banana Yoshimoto manages to get around this problem by writing about situations all human beings face—how a single misfortune can change a person’s life, how it feels to face the exhaustion brought on by the demands of modern life—so we sympathize with her characters and find their mystifyingly Japanese reactions to situations thought-provoking instead of annoyingly unbelievable.

She does this by putting her characters into scenarios we are all familiar with and lulls us into suspending our disbelief by narrating from inside the character’s head, so we see their choices and reactions through Japanese eyes. She gets us past our own cultural assumptions, so we can embrace accepting the supernatural as if it were ordinary (in “House of Ghosts”) or ride along for a very un-Western way to recover after being dumped in the worst possible way (“Dead-end Memories”).

This book of short stories is a fine window into the life and thinking of ordinary Japanese characters, and is a surprisingly enjoyable read.

You can get it right now from your favorite bookseller, or check out the May-June Japanagram to see if you won a copy! All subscribers are automatically entered to win—if you’re not among them yet, click this button to subscribe, and be automatically signed up to enter.

How I pick the book giveaway winners: On the last day of each month, I load all the email addresses of Japanagram subscribers into a random name picker on the Web and ask it to choose subscribers to match however many books I’m giving away that month. Then I publish the emails in the next day’s Japanagram (all emails obscured in a way so only the subscriber will be able to recognize it as their own, of course!)

Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had

Did you win the Jan-Feb Book Giveaway?

If you recognize your email, congratulations!

Cover of The Buddha in the Attic book giveaway winner Japanagram Mar-Apr 2023

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 ebook or a mailing address for the paperback).

If I didn’t pull your name from the hat this time, you might get lucky next time! In the next issue, I’m giving away Dead-end Memories, a collection of short stories by Banana Yoshimoto.

Cover of Dead-end Memories by banana yoshimoto

One lucky subscriber will win a copy, so check the May-Jun Japanagram to see if it’s your lucky day!

And if you’d like to be automatically entered to win each month’s giveaway, subscribe! Click here to get the Japanagram e-magazine delivered to your email every month

How I pick the winners: On the last day of the month, I load all the email addresses of Japanagram subscribers into a random name picker on the Web and ask it to choose one subscriber’s email as the winner of that issue’s giveaway. Then I publish the email in the next Japanagram (obscured in a way so only the subscriber will be able to recognize it as their own, of course!)

Know someone who might enjoy this Japanagram? Share it!

Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly Japanagram newsletter, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had

Spring Vegetable Salad with Creamy Sesame Dressing

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 Dressing

Serves 4

The combination I used:

Creamy Sesame Dressing (recipe below)

Snow peas, trimmed

Carrots, sliced thin and cut into shapes or matchsticks

Lotus root, peeled and sliced

1 t. salt

But you can also use whatever combination of veggies you like best: asparagus, green beans, snap peas, garden peas, etc. Adjust the cooking time upward to about 4 minutes for green beans and shelled peas.

First, wash, peel, and cut vegetables into bite-sized bits.

Cutting carrots for vegetable salad
You can just slice the carrots into thin rounds, but it looks nicer if you cut the rounds into matchsticks or (if you want to get really fancy and Japanese!) use a cookie cutter to make them into plum blossoms

Add salt to a saucepan of water and bring to a boil. Fill a big bowl with cold water. Toss the prepared vegetables into the boiling water and count to fifteen. Pour off water and plunge veggies into the cold water to stop them cooking.

Snow peas, carrots and lotus root, sliced and prepared to put in vegetable salad
Cooking the veggies very slightly makes the colors brighter and softens them just a little. They should still be crunchy.

Dry vegetables with a towel and put them in a bowl, then add spoonfuls of dressing, tossing until coated.

Creamy Sesame Dressing

4 oz. silken tofu (230g)

3 T. rice vinegar (45ml)

3 T. white miso (45g)

1 T. sesame paste (tahini or Japanese nerigoma) (15ml)

1 t. sugar (5g)

2 t. salad oil (10ml)

2 T. water (30ml)

1 T. fresh ginger, grated (15g)

Salt, to taste

Whip tofu with a whisk (or beat with a mixer) until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until smooth and creamy.

Silken tofu whisked in a bowl for dressing
You don’t have to get every tiny little lump out of the whipped tofu—it’s fine if it looks like this!

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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly Japanagram newsletter, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had

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 in a patchwork of pink.

Hanamiyama Park in bloom during cherry blossom season

Even though it feels like you’re far out in the countryside while you’re hiking, Hanamiyama Park is actually just a short bus ride from Fukushima Station (about an hour and half from Tokyo via bullet train).

Hanamiyama Park in bloom during cherry blossom season

Because it’s farther north and further inland than Tokyo, spring comes later and is compressed into a shorter time period. These photos were taken in mid-April, long after the Tokyo cherry blossoms were finished.

Hanamiyama Park in bloom during cherry blossom season

The plum trees, cherry blossoms, peach trees, forsythia and fields of yellow nanohana all bloom all at once, creating an overlapping extravaganza of color you won’t see in coastal cities like Tokyo and Kyoto, where the seasons stretch out longer.

Hanamiyama Park in bloom during cherry blossom season

Every bend in the trail delivers new delights, and the park is so big, you can hike there for hours.

Hanamiyama Park in bloom during cherry blossom season

From the entrance, a nicely accessible walking path meanders along a watercourse, but as you climb into the hillier parts of the park, the paths become more like hiking trails.

Hanamiyama Park in bloom during cherry blossom season

Here’s where Hanamiyama Park is:

Map showing Hanamiyama Park

And here’s a closer look to show where it is, right outside Fukushima city:

Map showing Hanamiyama Park

How to get to Hanamiyama Park from Tokyo:

Route to Hanamiyama Park

Once you get off the bullet train at Fukushima Station, find the bus lot outside the station and catch the bus that goes directly to Hanamiyama Park. It takes about 15 minutes.

I used the Japan Navigation phone app to figure out this route, and you can easily use it too, with your actual date and preferred arrival time. It’s also good for finding the easiest way to get to Tokyo Station from where you’re staying. Here’s where to get the app and how to use it.

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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly Japanagram newsletter, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had

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:

Cherry blossoms in Chofu

But if you come during peak season, you’re more likely to get this:

Cherry blossoms at Ueno Park

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” is shifting—sometimes by as much as ten days—and while the Japanese powers-that-be can still predict peak bloom, the map isn’t published until it’s too late for overseas visitors to buy plane tickets and get hotel reservations.

So, what can you do, besides invest in a rabbit’s foot?

1
Expand your cherry blossom wish listcome to see the spectacular early or late-blooming varieties instead of the classic Yoshino cherries

The classic cherry blossoms that are mooned over by the haiku poets are the single, barely pink, Yoshino variety that bloom in giant clouds like the ones below at Shinjuku Gyouen.

Cherry blossoms at Shinjuku Gyouen
This photo was shot on April 2, at Shinjuku Gyouen in Tokyo

These are the ones predicted by the cherry blossom forecasts and that feature in all the hanami party plans. The ten days when the yoshino-zakura are in bloom are the most crowded and expensive travel days all year.

But cherry blossoms come in all shapes and sizes, and lots of them bloom outside that narrow “cherry blossom season” window. The ones that bloom as early as mid-February (even in Tokyo) look like this:

Cherry blossoms at Shinjuku Gyouen
This photo was shot on February 25, but other kawaru-zakura trees in Shinjuku Gyouen began blooming as early as February 15.
Cherry blossoms at Shinjuku Gyouen
They’re a little pinker and grow in bunches like the late-blooming yae-zakura, I think you’ll agree they are just as beautiful!

The next to bloom are the kan-zakura and shidare-zakura, which pop in mid-March, a week or two before the official cherry blossom season begins. They look like this:

Cherry blossoms at Shinjuku Gyouen
This photo was shot on March 19, at Shinjuku Gyouen in Tokyo
Cherry blossoms at Shinjuku Gyouen
This shidare-zakura weeping cherry photo was also taken at Shinjuku Gyouen on March 19. It was in full bloom a week before the Yoshino cherries.

And in mid-April, about a week after the Yoshino cherries become sad shreds of wilted petals on the ground, the fluffy, double yae-zakura begin to bloom

Cherry blossoms at Shinjuku Gyouen
This photo was shot on April 11, at Shinjuku Gyouen in Tokyo
As an extra bonus, yae-zakura come in many colors!

Here’s where to see the best late-blooming cherry blossoms in Tokyo

Also…Tokyo is an urban heat island, so if you get to town late and miss The Season, you can still catch peak bloom of the yoshino-zakura an hour inland.

Cherry blossoms at Showa Kinen Park
These beauties at Showa Kinen Park in Tachikawa were in full bloom a good week after peak bloom in Tokyo. The ones at Mt. Takao bloom even later.

Here’s where to take the best cherry blossom photos in Tokyo, with maps to where the earl and late-blooming trees are.

2
Expand your horizons: Explore famous cherry blossom spots outside the big cities

If you travel to places outside Tokyo and Kyoto, peak bloom happens as much as a month earlier or later.

Cherry blossom forecast map 2023
The map published every year by Japan Rail to help Japanese people plan their cherry blossom trips is the best one to consult when deciding when/where to go.

Official yoshino-zakura cherry blossom season only lasts about ten days from the first buds opening to the last petal dropping, but those ten days happen at different times over a two month span, depending on altitude and north/south location. (They bloom later at higher elevations and to the north; earlier at sea level and to the south.)

Not surprisingly, the places and bloom times outside the well-beaten paths around Tokyo and Kyoto not only have fewer crowds, they have more affordable travel prices.

But are they just as beautiful? You be the judge!

If you go early:

Mid-February
Kawazu City kawazu-zakura

Cherry blossoms in Kawazu City
Kawazu-zakura bloom in mid-February in Tokyo too, but places like Kawazu City plant them all together like this, so you can have the full under-the-cherry-blossoms experience a whopping six weeks before the spectacle begins in Tokyo (thanks to the Kawazu Tourist Association for the photo)

If you go late:

Mid- to late-April
Photo taken April 18, Miyagi prefecture, shidare-zakura

Cherry blossoms in Miyagi prefecture Miharu no Takizakura
This photo of the thousand-year-old cherry tree named Miharu no Takizakura was taken three weeks after cherry blossom season was finished in Tokyo

Photo taken April 24: Hirosaki, Aomori prefecture yoshino-zakura

Cherry blossoms at Hirosaki Castle
This photo was taken at Hirosaki Castle, a full month after the cherry blossoms were history in Tokyo

If you do hit the sweet spot and manage to be in Tokyo or Kyoto for The Classic Pinkness, here’s how to enjoy the fluffiness despite the kerbillion other lucky souls enjoying them with you

3
Choose what time of day you enjoy them

Go in the early morning…

Cherry blossoms at Shinjuku Gyouen
This photo was taken at peak season at Shinjuku Gyouen in Tokyo, but I was standing outside the gate when it opened at 9:00 and I dashed to the pond before other other visitors made it that far into the park

…or at night. Plenty of places hold “light-up” events now, and the crowds of people become mere silhouettes instead of distracting annoyances.

Cherry blossoms at Chidorigafuchi moat
Record hordes of people turn up every night to see the Chidori-ga-fuchi moat all lit up during the cherry madness, but you don’t notice the other people when they’re just black silhouettes instead of orange jacket-wearing photo spoilers

Here’s where to see the best cherry blossoms lit up at night in Tokyo

4
Talk a local friend into divulging their favorite secret cherry blossom spots

Everybody who lives here has one. Or more.

Cherry blossoms in Chofu
This one is alongside the Chofu River, between Chofu Station and the Jindai Botanical Gardens

Because you are my friend, here are MY favorite secret cherry blossom spots in Tokyo.

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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly Japanagram newsletter, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had

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

Tokyo subway train leaving station

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 wrong for any government focus first on obvious design decisions like (for example) trains not getting stuck in traffic, so people can count on them getting where they need to be on time.

But how does Tokyo get 57% of residents to use trains instead of cars every day?

Commuters at rush hour at Shibuya station
That’s over 21 million people every day, if you’re the kind of person who likes numbers.

#1

All restaurants give you a little wet hand towel to clean your hands before eating

O-shibori hand towel at a Japanese restaurant

Nobody wants to dive right into their food with dirty hands after riding public transport, so even the cheapest restaurants provide little warm hand towels to wipe off the grime before digging in.

#2

There are coin lockers at every train station, so you don’t have to lug your shopping around with you

Coin lockers at Shibuya Station

If you’re out checking off your to-do list, you can stow anything from a new pair of shoes to a suitcase in a train station locker for a few hundred yen.

Refrigerated coin lockers at Mitsukoshi Ginza
There are even refrigerated lockers for groceries!

#3

If you buy something too big or heavy to carry around, you can have it messengered for cheap

Takubin form for delivering luggage to airport

Whether you just bought a new rug or a weeks worth of groceries, Japan’s takyubin services got you covered. You can get stuff delivered from any store—not just supermarkets—for a few hundred yen (less than ten US dollars) and you can even ship your luggage to the airport instead of schlepping it yourself.

#4

Cheap umbrellas on every corner

Dead umbrella collection truck

If it starts to rain, you can save your expensive blowout and dry-clean-only suit for five bucks at any convenience store.

#5

Nobody eats or drinks on the train.

If you want people to ride the train to fancy parties and weddings, you’d better make sure there’s no chance they’ll end up with someone’s spilled latte all over their formalwear.

Abandoned coffee cup on subway
This used cup was such an anomaly that station after station went by with nobody sitting in that prime corner seat. Nobody on the train dared pick it up and take it away, for fear that oncoming passengers would think they were the barbarian who brought it on board…
Taped-up recycling bins
…and because there are next to zero public trash cans in Tokyo, no one wanted to get stuck carting it all the way home.

Click here for more The Thing I Learned Today posts

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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had

JAN-FEB 2023

Cover of Jan-Feb 2023 Japanagram e-magazine

Click on photo or link to read the feature

Seasonal Secret: Feast your eyes on these Japanese New Year’s decorations

Photo of Japanese shimenawa new year's decorations

From December 28 to January 7, Japanese new year decorations hang on every door, beckoning in good luck and prosperity for the coming year…read more

The Thing I Learned Today: Why do Japanese people refuse to buy used cars, beautiful old houses and vintage kimonos?

Photo of old house for sale in Japan

The longer you’re in Japan—a place known for its meticulously curated ancient sites and intricate recycling rules—the weirder it seems that people insist on buying only new houses, new cars, new clothing, new everything. Saddest of all…read more


Beyond Tokyo: The weird Japanese theme park that’s amazing in the most unexpected way

Author Jonelle Patrick holding up the leaning tower of Pisa at Tobu World Square in Nikko

What if I told you that I’d visited a place in Japan that surprised me in a way that I never expected to be surprised? When I finally made it to this place in October, I expected the space-time continuum to be so warped that in a single day you can look in on morning meditation at the Byōdo-in Temple near Kyoto, get in your 10,000 steps at the Great Wall of China, drop by Bangkok’s…read more

Jan-Feb 2023 Book Review & Giveaway:
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

Cover of The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

I expected this to be a book of short stories, but it’s an almost stream-of-consciousness flow of gorgeous details, pulled from the real experiences of countless immigrants and woven into a complex portrait of how and why they left their families in Japan and built new…read more

If you enjoyed this, subscribe!

Get the Japanagram e-magazine’s recipes, books, travel and more delivered right to your email. And of course, it’s FREE!

Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly Japanagram newsletter, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had

Did you win the Nov-Dec Japan Swag Giveaway?

If you recognize your email, congratulations!

Sushi fridge magnet

You just won a realer-than-real sushi fridge magnet!

If you think this is you, shoot a message to JapanagramJonelle@gmail.com and tell me where you’d like me to send it! (I’ll need a mailing address for this one,)

If I didn’t pull your name from the hat this time, you might get lucky next time! In the next issue, I’m giving away The Buddha in the Attic, a book I thought that every Japan-lover would find fascinating.

Cover of The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
THe other refrigerators on your street will be green with envy

One lucky subscriber will win a copy, so check the Mer-Apr Japanagram to see if it’s your lucky day!

And if you’d like to be automatically entered to win each month’s giveaway, subscribe! Click here to get the Japanagram e-magazine delivered to your email every month

How I pick the winners: On the last day of the month, I load all the email addresses of Japanagram subscribers into a random name picker on the Web and ask it to choose one subscriber’s email as the winner of that issue’s giveaway. Then I publish the email in the next Japanagram (obscured in a way so only the subscriber will be able to recognize it as their own, of course!)

Know someone who might enjoy this Japanagram? Share it!

Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, produces the monthly Japanagram newsletter, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had

The Buddha in the Attic

By Julie Otsuka

Setting & details: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Authenticity of Japanese characters & dialogue: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Translation quality: N/A

Entertainment value: ⭐⭐
My recommendation: This book is less like a novel than an epic poem, its layer upon layer of luscious details shining light on every facet of the immigrant experience, mostly through the eyes of the Japanese women who came as “picture brides” to carve out a new life in America.

I expected this to be a book of short stories, but instead it’s an almost stream-of-consciousness flow of gorgeous details, pulled from the real experiences of countless immigrants and woven into a complex tale of how and why they left their families in Japan and built new lives in America. Presented without judgment or commentary, these details explore every aspect of immigrant life: servitude and freedom, undeserved cruelty and unexpected kindness, the prejudice they suffered and the ones they held themselves. How they feared, hoped, loved, hated, worked, bore children, raised them, lost them, made it through each day, and eventually died.

Without a single character or hint of a plot, The Buddha in the Attic still manages to tell a detailed and compelling story of an entire immigrant wave, portraying the inner Japanese attitudes and reactions to the situations they were thrust into with a clarity found in few other pieces of literature. Through the eyes of many, we get a picture of the world they found themselves in, and how they adapted to survive and eventually thrive.

Because this book didn’t have the intriguing plot and sympathetic characters that usually hook me into a story, I didn’t think I’d finish it, much less like it. But oddly, it kind of grew on me, and the skill with which the author builds each layer upon the last builds a deep undertanding of the Japanese in America. Their intertwined experiences reveal triumphs and disappointments that are both uniquely Japanese and universally human.

You can get it right now from your favorite bookseller, or check out the Mar-Apr Japanagram to see if you won a copy! All subscribers are automatically entered to win—if you’re not among them yet, click this button to subscribe, and be automatically signed up to enter.

How I pick the book giveaway winners: On the last day of each month, I load all the email addresses of Japanagram subscribers into a random name picker on the Web and ask it to choose subscribers to match however many books I’m giving away that month. Then I publish the emails in the next day’s Japanagram (all emails obscured in a way so only the subscriber will be able to recognize it as their own, of course!)

Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had