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Nihon Tips — Life in Japan — Page 7

  • 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.
  • food/ Mar 14, 2026

    The Return Gift

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

    Rows of pastel ribbon-tied gift boxes with Japanese price tags arranged in a shop display.
  • 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.
  • culture/ Mar 1, 2026

    A Thousand Tiny Courts

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

    A tiered display of ornate Japanese dolls on red cloth in a tatami room with shoji screens.
  • travel/ Feb 22, 2026

    Gates and Bells

    Torii or sanmon, clap or bow — a Kyoto native on telling shrines from temples and why the line keeps blurring

    A bright orange torii gate beside a dark wooden temple building on a quiet stone-paved street at dusk.