About a quarter of the world’s nations drive on the left side of the road, Japan being one of them. But why do they drive on the left side when so many other countries drive on the right? Have they always used the left side of the road? Do Japan’s reasons have anything to do [...]
As we film this month in Japan, I’m starting to remember the things that I’ve missed most while being here. While there’s things I definitely don’t miss, I think it’s the little things that count. Most of them have to do with bathrooms in some way, but hopefully you’ll understand my love for getting my [...]
If you pay attention to any traditional media outlets, everything is all doom and gloom in Japan. Leaf through the pages of any newspaper or cruise around any news site and you find article after article about how Japan is screwed. Japan’s economy is floundering. The population is shrinking. China is growing and is going [...]
One of the most interesting documentaries I’ve ever seen has been the “Up” series from England. The series started in 1964 with 7 Up, and is still going strong after almost fifty years. The premise is simple: filmmakers document the lives of ordinary people, checking in with them every seven years. So at ages, 7, [...]
Even though Japan is the birthplace of crystal meth (which makes me wonder how the Japanese feel about Breaking Bad), it has notoriously stringent drugs laws. Get caught with some marijuana in Japan, you’ll face severe consequences. But in Japan, like virtually anywhere else in the world, there are just so many drugs out there [...]
While Japan isn’t quite like Portland, OR, where there needs to be double-decker bike etiquette, Japan has what I’d consider to be fairly unique rules when it comes to riding a bicycle. I’m not sure about how things are in Europe, but any American who decides to jump onto a bicycle in Japan for the [...]
Today we’re going to explore how kimono pockets evolved into the popular phone charms that the Japanese people seem to be so fond of. I know, seems like a pretty unlikely progression, right? Kimono pockets to phone charms? What’s the deal here? Sagemono and Netsuke It all starts with these little things called sagemono and [...]
