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Tokyo bento boxed lunch shop charges different prices depending on how heavy your laptop is

If you’ve got a heavy laptop, it’ll get you a hefty discount at this Tokyo Station pop-up.Pricing at bento boxed lunch shops usually works in one of two ways. At shops where you pick out the contents yourself, the price is based on how many items and which type you choose, and at others the price is fixed because the chefs have already arranged the contents ahead of time.However, there’s a bento shop opening this month in Tokyo where the bento ingredients are set, but the price isn’t, because th

Eating Japan’s highest-priced Cup Noodle at Japan’s highest place【Photos】

So very, very takai.Cup Noodle instant ramen has a lot of things going for it. It keeps for a long time, it’s quick and easy to make, and it’s tasty. But you can’t sing the praises of Cup Noodle without also devoting some of the lyrics to how cheap it is, right?It turns out, though, that there’s a place in Japan where Cup Noodle is startlingly expensive, though not without reason.Before we get to the main dish of this article, let’s pause for a quick linguistic appetizer. In Japan, the word taka

Tokyo’s Shibuya losing popularity as a place to go drinking, drops out of top 10 in survey

What’s behind the Shibuya slide as a spot to grab a drink?Japanese restaurant information website Hot Pepper recently conducted its latest user survey, and among the questions it asked Tokyo-area residents is which neighborhoods they like to go out for drinks in. Downtown Tokyo’s Shinjuku was the top pick for the sixth straight year, followed by the Tokyo Station surroundings and Ginza in second and third place, which swapped positions since last year’s poll.However, there’s one internationally

Oodles of noodles! Udon chain pays homage to all 47 prefectures of Japan with 47 dishes【Photos】

You’ll have to travel to Marugame Seimen locations across Japan to try each dish in its respective prefecture.Following the success of udon specialty chain Marugame Seimen‘s Wagamachi Udon 2025 (“My town Udon 2025”) campaign last year, a whole new lineup of locally inspired udon dishes will hit menus on October 21. Chefs around Japan helped concoct over 300 new dishes over the past year, which were gradually whittled down to only 47 final menu items–one representati

AM Best to Host Market Briefing at 2025 Singapore International Reinsurance Conference

SINGAPORE, October 20, 2025--AM Best’s Insurance Market Briefing - Singapore International Reinsurance Conference (SIRC) will discuss trends and developments affecting Asia-Pacific (re)insurance markets on Tuesday, 4 November 2025, as part of the 21st annual SIRC event.

Cherry blossoms appearing early in Nagano… about half a year early

Better early than never.It’s autumn once again in Japan, and that means sweet potatoes are in season, the leaves on trees turn a beautiful crimson, and cherry blossoms delight many with their gentle hues. You might have thought cherry blossoms were a spring thing, but nature likes to keep us on our toes every once in a while.On the morning of 17 October, visitors to Garyu Park in Suzaka City, Nagano Prefecture, were surprised to find a scattering of sakura among the autumn foliage. Garyu P

Yakiniku without the niku? New Tokyo restaurant applies yakiniku concepts to sashimi-grade fish

Yakiuo Ishikawa Ginza Rinkaro serves up a very unique crossover of meat and seafood traditions.At Japan’s yakiniku restaurants, customers dine on strips of grilled meat, which they grill themselves at a grill set within their table. The term makes a lot of linguistic sense, since yakiniku means “grilled meat,” but that’s also why we were confused when we were invited to a tasting at a Tokyo restaurant that says its concept is “Yakiniku without grilling meat.”But a certain amount of confusion is

Ghibli Museum clock is now yours to take home with you

New product will make you feel like you’ve ripped the clock right out of the wall. If you’ve ever visited the Ghibli Museumin Tokyo, you’ll know just how charming it is, with enchanting details waiting to be discovered throughout the complex. One of the most iconic details is the large clock near the ceiling, which can be seen from the central hall.▼ The clock has been ticking away since the museum opened 25 years ago.Whether viewed from the ground floor or one of the upper pla

Kunchi: The major Japanese festival most Japanese people don’t know about

Dance Towns & Dragons.Nagasaki Prefecture is a rather popular tourist destination and even placed in very respectable 11th place in the prefectural attractiveness ranking this year for its many sights and culinary delights. And if you ask our writer Mariko Hanabatake, one of the best times to visit is 7, 8, and 9 October, when the Kunchi (also known as Okunchi) festival is held.When most people inside Japan and abroad think of festivals in Nagasaki, the most likely one to come to mind is the

President Ramaphosa to undertake three-nation visit to Asia

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We deeply regret spending five hours on this artistic Japanese island (we should have spent more)

No-plan Naoshima visit leaves us with regretful satisfaction.Some might say he’s impulsive, and others might call him adventurous, but in any case our Japanese-language reporter Kouhey has a tendency to fly by the seat of his pants when travelling. So when he recently found himself in Takamatsu, the biggest city in Kagawa Prefecture, he decided on a whim to mosey down to the port and see where the ferries were headed.There was one leaving soon for Naoshima, an island in the Seto Inland Sea that

Japan has vending machines that put protective film on your phone for you — Here’s how to use them

Film Labo promises a perfect fit with no stress, no matter how clumsy you are.As smartphones become both increasingly expensive and integrated in so many aspects of daily life, it’s more important than ever to protect your screen from scratches, cracks, and other damage. The simplest way to do this is by applying a layer of screen-protecting film, but depending on how coordinated your fingertips are, that can be a zero-sum plan. After all, are the trapped air bubbles and wonkily aligned edges of

Adorable Totoro lamp is here to make us ooh, aah, and learn what honnori means【Photos】

The littlest Totoro gives a lesson on a subtle point of Japanese vocabulary.Honnori is one of those Japanese expressions that’s hard to translate into a single word in English. It’s close to “subtle,” but you can’t use honnori to describe, say, a subtle suggestion or a subtle storytelling device. “Soft” doesn’t quite do it either, since honnori wouldn’t be used to talk about a soft pillow.Instead, honnori is used to talk about soft, subtle, and gentle sensations, impressions, and atmospheres, su

What’s the best way to spend 1,000 yen at Denny’s in Japan?

Find out what you should order from the menu at this super popular family restaurant chain.For the past few years, our team of Japanese-language reporters has been visiting the nation’s top chains, setting themselves a challenge to find out what customers can get for 1,000 yen (US$6.62).This time, they’ve pulled up a chair at Denny’s, where each member of the team ordered their top recommendations, creating a moniker for their selections and sharing the reasons why they chose t

Japanese rickshaw drivers turn into athletes for an unforgettable Red Bull showdown

The first event of its kind in Japan converts traditional culture into a thrilling new sport of strength and technique.When my mind combines the words “Red Bull” and “contest,” it inevitably wanders to Red Bull’s version of the Birdman Rally, the Red Bull Flugtag, where competitors drive manmade contraptions off a ramp into the water below. While Red Bull’s latest event in Japan, a rickshaw race, has steered away from propelling devices into the air and silly costumes, it more than makes up for

Häagen-Dazs may have made the perfect sweet potato ice cream, and it’s a Japanese convenience store exclusive

Häagen-Dazs’s Japan hardly ever disappoints, but hardly any ice cream has ever made our taste-tester this happy.On the Japanese seasonal desserts schedule, sweet potato’s time comes in autumn. So does chestnut’s, though, and rather than split their attention between the two flavors, for the last few years Häagen-Dazs Japan has chosen to focus on only one of them. In years when it released a sweet potato ice cream, it didn’t release a chestnut flavor, and vice-versa.This had our Japanese-language

Buddhist monks in Japan preparing to hold funeral service for thousands of stuffed animals, dolls

Temple founded centuries ago helps out with unique modern ceremony in Osaka Prefecture.Each year, monks from Shinguji, a temple in the town of Yao, Osaka Prefecture that was founded in the late 17th century, hold a massive funeral service. Last year’s ceremony was to celebrate and put to rest more than 50,000 individuals.Thankfully, the ceremony wasn’t prompted by a natural disaster, tragic accident, or outbreak of disease. Instead, it was the latest iteration of what’s become a Yao tradition, t

Ghana to pursue WASH goals at Global 2025 sector ministers' meeting in Madrid

Two Ghanaian cabinet ministers are set to join a high-level global delegation at the 2025 Sector Ministers’ Meeting (SMM) in Madrid, Spain, on October 22–23, to address the urgent need for integrating water, sanitation, and climate action into...

Uniqlo and Tamagotchi team up for Tamagotchi T-shirts and special Uniqlo Tamagotchi【Photos】

Collaboration comes as Tamagotchi nears its 30th birthday.A toy has to have a pretty great design for its name to basically become the shorthand for its entire genre, but that’s exactly the phenomenon-level of pop culture presence that the Tamagotchi achieved. Toymaker Bandai first released the pioneering digital pets in 1996, and as they get closer to celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2026, they’re teaming up with Uniqlo for a new line of T-shirts, and also a new Uniqlo Tamagotchi.Four diff

Should you flush a Japanese toilet with your foot or your hand?

Toto gives us a guide on proper bathroom etiquette in Japan.When you think of Japanese toilets, chances are the nation’s advanced Toto washlets may come to mind. However, there are plenty of traditional squat-style toilets around the country too, and they can be slightly more puzzling to use.The first thing you need to know is that you should face the wall when squatting over the bowl. However, what happens once you’ve done your business and need to flush? That’s become a bit o