On the wonder and strangeness of occupying a perpetually in-between space.
Japan
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Japanese Origins of Modern Fine Dining
How kaiseki — Japan’s formal dining tradition — became a major (though often unacknowledged) influence on modern haute cuisine.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Quotes
Scarred by a Rubber Doll
“I’ll never go back to dating a real woman again — no matter what happens.”
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Haruki Murakami’s Advice to Young Writers
In the essay “So What Shall I Write About?” from Monkey Business magazine, Haruki Murakami gives readers a glimpse into his creative process and how to become a novelist.
Posted inFood, Nonfiction, Quotes
Yes, We Do Have Bananas Today (For the Bargain Price of $17)
For Roads & Kingdoms, Bianca Bosker explores the world of high-end Japanese fruit: $500 strawberries and $27,000 melons.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Why Should a Melon Cost as Much as a Car?
Japan’s high-end fruit market elevates produce to works of art.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes, Sports
On Mastery: Learning Kyudo — One of Japan’s Oldest and Most Respected Martial Arts
After a trip to Japan to improve her archery skills, Leigh Ann Henion realizes that achievement with the bow and arrow comes only after mastering one’s mind.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Quotes
Themed for Success
At Eater, journalist Emily Yoshida hits some of Tokyo’s absurd, popular tourist attractions trying to understand specifically what themed-destinations offer and why they’re so popular.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Forgotten History of Japanese-American Designers’ World War II Internment
Revisiting the link between detention and design history, 75 years after FDR’s executive order.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How the Blues Conquered Tokyo
I couldn’t quite figure out why Japanese listeners had come to appreciate and savor the blues in the way that they seemed to—lavishly, devotedly. Blues is still an outlier genre in Japan, but it’s revered, topical, present. I’d spent my first couple of days in Tokyo hungrily trawling the city’s many excellent record stores, marveling […]