One day I was standing outside my local ward office staring forlornly into the distance, the way people are wont to do when they undergo stress-inducing encounters with Japanese bureaucracy, when an…

With almost 56,000 convenience stores in Japan today, it’s hard to believe everything started with a single shop. With their familiar logos shining their lights on every street corner and many places…

In April 2020, Edo Oliver, a creative director at Japanese Creative Studio Reing, was scrolling through Instagram for inspiration for a new project to take on. Oliver stumbled upon Kotetsu Nakazato’s Instagram…

“Our mission is to introduce Venezuelan gastronomy to Japan,” declares Raul Marquez, one-half of Tokyo Arepa. Raul hails from the bustling city of Caracas in Venezuela where many arepa shops line the…

Nakameguro, just two stations from Shibuya on the Toyoko Line, is mostly known for its gorgeous riverside cherry blossoms and high-end bars and restaurants. A frequent hangout for Japanese celebrities, it’s no…

For visitors to Japan, kissaten (Japanese coffee shops) have always held a mysterious allure, especially in areas like Jimbocho. For the locals, however, kissaten often invoked images of cluttered rooms, ancient yellowed…