culture/ Mar 18, 2026
Under the Forecast
Cherry blossom season is a week of blue tarps, warm beer, and rearranged calendars — and the compulsion never fades

The city with Japan's lowest greenery per capita spent a trillion yen building a park on a freight yard — and it might actually work


Cherry blossom season is a week of blue tarps, warm beer, and rearranged calendars — and the compulsion never fades

The confectionery industry invented a holiday, set a 2-3x return rule, and built a ¥50 billion market out of obligation

Organised cheering sections, beer vendors with kegs on their backs, and why losing to Venezuela at 2am still hurts

Hundred-year-old dolls on red-draped tiers, the superstition about putting them away on time, and what Girls Day reveals about tradition
