Shichi-Go-San (Seven-Five-Three) is one of several rites of passage the Japanese celebrate to insure the growt…
Nihonga draws on the traditions of over a thousand years, yet is a distinct genre of modern Japanese painting …
The Tokyo National Museum is Japan’s largest and oldest modern-style museum. To commemorate its 150th an…
The Japanese have been eating salmon (saké) for thousands of years, though historically it was consumed cooked…
Though the moon waxes and wanes every month, chūshū no meigetsu, literally “moon of the middle autumnal month,…
NHK (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai), Japan’s national broadcasting system produces and transmits television and radio sho…
There are hundreds of members of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae) with sundry shapes, sizes and colors. Gourds…
Food cultures around the world employ various aromatic herbs and spices to stimulate the appetite and promote …
Gobō (burdock root; Arctium lappa) most likely arrived in Japan from the Asian mainland in the 10th century AD…
My early years in Japan were flooded with hatsu taiken (first-time experiences), especially at table. Among th…
