(UPDATED after the ceremony) The enthronement ceremony for Emperor Naruhito, called Sokuirei-Seiden-no-Gi, took place on Tuesday afternoon, October 22, and was witnessed in person by...
July 24 marked exactly a year until the opening of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the atmosphere around the city appeared...
Twenty-two years have passed since the handover of Hong Kong to China from British rule, and large-scale protests have been taking place against the Hong...
Kanako, a maiko from Miyagawacho, Kyoto, does the ceremonial first pitch in Koshien Baseball Stadium on May 22, 2019. The weather in Japan is...
Maiko, or apprentice geisha, are one of the main attractions of the ancient capital of Kyoto. Young maiko in their elegant kimonos, with their...
Imagine around 500 people, all wearing imperial kimonos from the Heian period, parading down the streets of Kyoto. In the first such ceremony of...
Thanks to the passionate interest of my two sons in all things pertaining to railroads, I have traveled to isolated freight yards, passed many an...
Tozaburo Yanagiya, 42, is a storyteller with a drive to spread the word on rakugo, a traditional form of Japanese comic storytelling. If you ask...
Recently, the current Emperor Heisei emerged from Ise shrine with the three sacred treasures of the Imperial regalia, known collectively as the, Sanshu-no-jingi. These...
In 2016, Seibu Railway released a series of posters, which it displayed inside its trains and on platforms. An instant hit, they have become so...
Progress was slow, but no one seemed to mind. This was a festival, and people were in a good mood. As the purple-robed Shinto...
On March 3 in Japan it’s Hinamatsuri, the girls’ festival where wishes for the good health are made for young females in the family. It’s...