Koganji Temple (Togenuki Jizo) in Sugamo
On the northern and less crowded part of the JR Yamanote Line in Tokyo is Sugamo Station. Sugamo is famous for the Jizo-Dori shopping street near the train station. Dubbed…
Caroline Kennedy at Imperial Palace
On Nov. 19, 2013, I took a friend from Hawaii around Tokyo and when we headed for the Imperial Palace, we saw this large crowd on the streets. Most were…
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…
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…
Supermodel Sayoko Yamaguchi dies
I was shocked and saddened to hear that Japan’s one and only super fashion model, Sayoko Yamaguchi, died of acute pneumonia on Aug. 14, 2007. She was 57. She was…
Tanaka Kio, Nagasaki bomb survivor dies
One of the most iconic images of the Nagasaki atom bomb was of a young mother breastfeeding her dying child as they wait for emergency treatment on the day after…