Many Japanese towns are losing population. This is what one Japanese town did with its abandoned schools.
Many Japanese towns are losing population. This is what one Japanese town did with its abandoned schools.
For a long time I’ve been living under the assumption that Japanese thermoses (tumblers, travel mugs, insulated drink bottles, vacuum flasks… whatever you call them) are the best. To test out my convictions, I added to my already large collection of thermoses to test out a whole bunch of them.
The Ainu are Japan’s indigeneous people who live in Hokkaido, it’s northernmost prefecture. In June of 2019 I visited the Ainu village of Nibutania to see how their traditional textile Attus (アットゥシ) is made using tree bark.
I interviewed friends and family about their experiences living during the pandemic in Tokyo during the first half of 2020.
How about a bike around Tokyo… all of it. I go on a 120km trip from the Eastern banks of the Edogawa river to the Western banks of the Tamagawa river. I did a similar journey by train four years ago.
A timeline of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Tokyo, Japan: from the first case to the end of the state of emergency.
Over 700 years ago, a katana master from Kyoto was searching for the perfect place to make katanas, found that Echizen had the best water and ingredients, and set up shop. Nowadays the most sought after blades in the city are chef knives. See how they’re made when we visit Ryusen Hamono, which hand makes the knives that are a Japanese traditional craft. Thanks to Ryusen Hamono for letting me film. What are traditional crafts like where you’re from?
I finally went to Japan’s Northernmost prefecture: Hokkaido. As the plane was descending, I thought to myself, huh, this looks a bit like Canada. Thanks to the following for providing for my family’s travel, accommodations, and food.
Visit https://teamtrees.org and lets get some trees planted! #teamtrees I started off making this nice video about how Japan got its forests back through afforestation. Then I did too much researching on the Internet and came to the conclusion that Japan should be chopping down some of its trees. Trust me, it’ll all make sense once you watch the video… I hope.
Have you ever wondered about all the gates (torii) you see around Japan? They are entrances to the sacred ground of Shinto shrines (jinja). While some might see Japan’s traditional practices of Shinto as a religion, and their various kami as gods, it’s not quite as simple as that. Special thanks to David Chart for explaining the ins and outs of Shinto. Find out more about Shinto on his blog at https://www.mimusubi.com/ and support his writing on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/mimusubi.