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Culture — Life in Japan — Page 2

  • culture/ Apr 25, 2026

    Carp in the Wind

    A Kyoto native on the carp streamers of Children's Day — and their quiet migration from home balconies to the country's rivers.

    Colourful carp-shaped streamers in black, red, blue and green flying from a pole against a blue sky above a tiled roof.
  • culture/ Apr 6, 2026

    Everyone Starts on the Same Day

    Fiscal year, school year, working year — in April the whole country steps over the same threshold at once.

    Two pale cherry blossom petals resting on the dark wool lapel of a folded coat.
  • culture/ Mar 25, 2026

    The Ceremony of Leaving

    An American commencement faces forward; a Japanese graduation faces back. A returnee reads the gap between arriving and leaving.

    A close view of a dark high-collared school uniform jacket with a row of round silver buttons.
  • 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

    A couple sits eating on a blue picnic sheet beneath blossoming cherry trees lining a riverside path.
  • culture/ Mar 8, 2026

    The Ninth Inning Nation

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

    Beer and a takeaway box of noodles on a seat tray overlooking a floodlit baseball field at night.