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Nihon Tips — Life in Japan — Page 3

  • food/ May 26, 2026

    The Endless Aisle

    A food critic walks the department-store basement, where a ¥10,000 gift melon sits one counter from a ¥300 croquette.

    A net-skinned green melon with its stem, nestled in straw inside a wooden presentation box.
  • travel/ May 23, 2026

    The Pod Hotel

    Not a weird-Japan novelty but a designed answer to the missed last train — stacked pods, shared baths, and exactly enough room.

    A softly lit sleeping pod with a thin mattress and pillow set against a dark surround.
  • culture/ May 21, 2026

    Three Days of Noise

    If Kyoto's Aoi is a whisper, Tokyo's Sanja is a shout — the few sanctioned days a restrained society lets itself be deafening.

    A gilded phoenix figure with spread wings perched atop a black-and-gold, rope-bound portable shrine.
  • culture/ May 18, 2026

    Reading the Banzuke

    A systems guide to sumo, read off its ranking sheet: how one calligraphic page encodes the entire hierarchy.

    A close view of the straw boundary rope and white sand line on a sand-coloured sumo ring.
  • daily-life/ May 16, 2026

    No Street Has a Name

    Japanese addresses nest blocks inside districts inside wards — and name no street at all. A systems guide to reading them.

    A blue address plate reading 3-12 on a concrete gatepost outside a beige suburban house.