Japan has the highest life expectancy of any country in the world, averaging 84.62 years (according to 2020 data from the World Bank). It also has a reasonably priced healthcare system, with insurance picking...
Japan is famous for its rich and enduring culture. And hey, you can’t just keep all that culture bottled up. You need to put it on display. What better way than to put some of it in a museum for people to enjoy. About...
When you move to Japan, especially from the West, you quickly learn that whatever you used to call “normal” is more correctly named “normal for my culture.” The default for many things—actually, for basically...
On the train line I ride most often, most of the stations are above ground. But there are a handful of underground stops with a tunnel on each end. I have noticed that at the stop just before the tunnel, the conductor...
I’ve always found traffic lights in America to be pretty easy to understand. The solid red light means stop, the solid green means go, and the solid yellow means go real fast, there’s still time. (You should check that...
If I had to sum up the process of getting a refund for something you bought in Japan, it would be this: You can’t. Well, that’s not entirely true. You can absolutely get a refund for some purchases. But compared to how...
Do you ever have one of those days where you perform major remodeling on the exterior of your home, inflicting several weeks of construction noise and dust on your neighbors? I hate it when that happens. But when it...
When I moved to Japan a few years ago, I expected to engage in local tourism: visit thousand-year-old temples and castles, take in a bit of sumo or Noh, ride the bullet train to the far reaches of the country, have my...
Sometimes on a lazy weekend morning, I venture out to my local Denny’s for breakfast. Mind you, this isn’t the American version of Denny’s. You won’t find oversized Grand Slam plates or umpteen ways of serving up fried...
There are so many big cultural touchstones that draw people to Japan from across the globe. Manga and anime, sushi and tempura, bullet trains and sports cars, rakugo and Noh, sumo and karate; the list seems endless. And...
Tim Patrick
