The Toilet Goddess song
The song, Toire no Kamisama (The Toilet God or more accurately, The Toilet Goddess トイレの神様) sung by Uemura Kana (植村花奈) is back at No. 1 on the music charts in…
Buying a flat-panel TV in Japan
Last Nov. 2010 was a buying frenzy for TVs in Japan. Electrical appliance stores sure made a killing with so many customers every day until Nov. 30, 2010. I was…
Iruma Air Show
Nov. 3 is when the annual Iruma Air Show is held at Iruma Air Base in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture. It’s one of Japan’s most spectacular free shows. The main attraction…
Festival for geisha hairstyles
The classic-looking hairstyle you see on geisha in Kyoto, etc., is usually called Shimada-ryu. Why is it called “Shimada-ryu?” One leading theory says that it originated in Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture.…
Video of “Megumi” kidnap victim
The current visit to Japan by Kim Hyon Hui, a former North Korean agent who planted a bomb which brought down a Korean Air jetliner in 1987, is reminding us…
L&L Hawaiian BBQ in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
L&L Hawaiian BBQ is a restaurant chain based in Hawaii. They specialize in what we call “plate lunches” which typically consists of two scoops of rice, a scoop of macaroni…
Japan Blog revamped
After 3 years of neglect, I’ve finally revamped this Japan Blog and hope to start writing here again. The previous blog system was so cumbersome to use, and upgrading it…
Our online gallery’s new look and features
Our online photo gallery at PHOTOGUIDE.JP/pix/ has undergone a major makeover upon the upgrade of the software that runs it. It now has a new look and feel even though…
Movie: Katen no Shiro
Released in Japan on Sept. 12, 2009, this movie is about Okabe Mataemon, a Nagoya (Atsuta)-based master carpenter who in 1576 was ordered by Japan’s leading warlord Oda Nobunaga to…
Real Geisha Real Women, Kyoto geisha film by Peter MacIntosh
I just saw a screening of my friend Peter MacIntosh’s documentary geisha film called Real Geisha Real Women at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo on June 22,…