Here are a couple of videos to help explain all those wonderful candies or wagashi that you see when at the department stores or at other confectionery shops around Japan. Wagashi truly is an art and is generally made from natural ingredients. Wagashi is typically served as part of a Japanese tea ceremony, and is also a very seasonal gift. In fact, serving a proper seasonal wagashi shows one’s educational background.

During the Edo period, the production of sugarcane in Okinawa became highly productive, and low quality brown sugar …

Ooh So Cute! is a new site that focuses on everything cute! It’s a one stop shop for everything kawaii and cuddly. The site has an adorable layout and offers an array of everything you may need to make your life a little cuter. Fashion and cute come together on this site like never before. Cute or kawaii characters like Hello Kitty, Miss Bunny, Duffy and Tinker Bell to name a few can be found in every shape and form you can imagine. You can get …

Standing Bars are not only for middle aged men any more. They once were as they were used by salarymen to drop in after work. They would drink, perhaps have an appetizer, and talk there around the big barrels discussing what ever it was that happened to be happening around the office. That was yesterday. Not today. Today standing bars are a lot more hip and diverse.

For a stylish Standing Bar near Azabu Juban Station, try the Bistro Juban Stand. It is open …

Have you ever thought about eating as much KFC fried chicken as you want?
There is such a place where your dream can come true.
KFC Onohara in Osaka is that place. It’s the only KFC that has a buffet called the Colonel Buffet. And they call it that for a reason cause it has it all!

After paying a buffet fee (weekdays: 1050 yen, weekends and holidays: 1380 yen), you get a bottomless glass and a endless plate. The buffet has not only the colonel’s secret recipe fried chicken, but …

Halloween isn’t here yet, but the candy is…

Look at these wonderfully spooky candy designs of some of your favorite Japanese snacks.

My favorite has always been the ChocoPie.

Junichiro Koizumi will roar once again in a new movie “Dai Kaijuu Battle Ultra Galaxy Legend The Movie” as a voice actor! His part is “Ultraman King” who is the captain of the Ultra family.
The first time he got this offer, he tried to refuse it. But his family encouraged him and he decided to do it. Go Fam!
The movie will come out on December 12th.

Tokyo Tower…Ever wonder what all the lights mean? Well here’s you chance to find out…well maybe it’s in Japanese…but I’ll give you a few hints as to what’s happening this month…

Just past is pink on the 1st and it was for….breast cancer’s “Pink Ribbon Day.”

And today, Friday the 2nd, is for the 2016 Olympics and Paralymics, and on the 11th and 12th is…

A sculpture of Phoenix appeared in Kyoto International Manga Museum on September 22nd.

This Phoenix is from the manga series of the same name written by Osamu Tezuka.

The statue is made by the same sculptors that have sculpted Buddha in Japan. And it’s big! The Phoenix has a width of 11 meters and a height of 4.5 meters. That’s more than 35 feet wide and almost 15 feet tall.

This October 3rd in 2009 is Ju-goya (Full moon night). It is the day for Tsukimi. Tsukimi means watching the moon. People enjoy watching the moon and the feeling it gives in the autumn nights.

This custom originally came from China, but has changed a little in Japan. Compared with Chinese Tsukimi, which is a big annual event, Japanese Tsukimi mainly is a day to enjoy watching the moon and just soaking in autumn.

The TV animation “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” is based on the Light Novel (a category of Japanese subculture novels) written by Nagaru Tanigawa.
Not only the song, but also the story, I think is very attractive. It is about daily life, but with a little bit of Sci-Fi. It’s the story of a girl, Haruhi Suzumiya, and her friends at high school. Its episodes are not in chronological order, so you don’t know everything until you finish the last one.
There is no doubt in mind that you will …