In late July, fellow Tofugu writer John posted this funny K-pop video on Facebook. I liked it, shared it with a few friends, and went on with my day. I thought it might get the same kind of cult following that quirky Asian … [Read more...]
Japan is home to many an urban legend, some of which end up being turned into popular horror films. The Slit-Mouthed Woman (Kuchisake-onna) is one such legend. Conveniently enough, it's also one of the legends that's had … [Read more...]
Earlier this year I got a nice surprise in the mail: Tuttle Publishing sent me three books: Ninja Attack!, Yokai Attack!, and the new Yurei Attack!. The books were written by Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda, a husband and wife … [Read more...]
While Japan obviously has its own set of holidays and festivals (some weirder than others), it's adopted a lot of foreign holidays too. Valentine's Day is celebrated in Japan, and Christmas is widely celebrated, even … [Read more...]
All this week, a story has been pretty consistently making the rounds on Japan sites: from RocketNews24 to JapanToday to Japanator, a bunch of different sites have been really interested in the opening of a new … [Read more...]
The word tebori (手彫り), literally “hand carving” describes the technique of tattooing by hand which first arose during the Edo period. There are still tattoo artists (彫師, horishi) that practice tebori today, but … [Read more...]