Evidence-led guides to Japanese language, names, culture, travel, food, anime, the Chinese zodiac and Japanese eras.
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Japanese Crafts
Folds That Ended Up in Space and Surgery
The crane is one model out of thousands. Where the standard folding notation came from, and how a fold designed in Japan opened a satellite solar array.
Japanese Beauty
Different Filters, a Different Rulebook
Japan clears UV filters the US has not approved since the 1990s, and rates UVA with PA plus signs. What that changes on skin, and the import caveat.
Japanese Eras
The First Era Name Not Taken From China
Every earlier era name traced back to a Chinese classic. Reiwa was pulled from an eighth-century Japanese poetry preface, and that was the whole point.
Anime & Manga
Why So Many Shows Stop at Twelve
Japanese TV sells airtime in three-month blocks, so a season runs eleven to thirteen episodes. What a split cour is, and why a sequel takes years.
Your Name in Japanese
Surname First or Last: What to Write Where
Japan flipped its own romanized name order in January 2020. What that means for the order you write, and where a swapped name creates a mismatch.
Writing & Language
Why the Second Alphabet Trips Everyone
Four look-alike pairs, a long-vowel bar with no hiragana equivalent, and words you have to decode back into English. Where katakana really breaks down.
Japanese Phrases
The Word You Will Use Fifty Times a Day
Sumimasen calls a waiter, apologizes, thanks, squeezes past, opens a question and softens a request. Which job the tone and the situation assign.
Japanese Food
Paying Before You Sit Down
Buy the ticket, hand it over, sit and wait. Where the topping buttons hide, what kaedama costs, and why the machine wants cash far more often than cards.
Travel to Japan
Fares by Season, Departure City and Booking Window
West Coast nonstops run hundreds below East Coast ones, and late March costs the most of any month. The fare pattern by month and when to buy.
Japanese Crafts
How a Square of Cloth Carries a Bottle
Two knots do most of the work. Which cloth size to buy, how to wrap a box, a bottle and a watermelon, and why the plastic bag fee revived the habit.
Japanese Beauty
Oil First, Foam Second, and Why
The habit began with makeup that water would not move, and modern sunscreen kept it alive. When the second cleanse is pointless, and when it is not.
Japanese Eras
1 April 2019, and the Board Held Up
Suga held the card up before midday, thirty years after Obuchi did the same for Heisei. What happened in the room, and why the name stayed sealed.