Stories: Japan

Stories connected to Japan.

• Too much salt? Just cancel it with sugar.A poster recalls hearing their mother worry that a simmered dish was too salty. As a child, they thought addi…
• Tekitō: suitable… or careless?The Japanese word 適当 (tekitō) can describe something fitting or appropriate. It can also mean rough or carele…
• One building. One company.A poster recalls assuming that a company occupied a whole building. Sharing one office block with several com…
• Bought it. Stacked it. There is a word for that.Tsundoku is the Japanese term for acquiring reading material and letting it accumulate unread.
• Sunlight through leaves, in a single word.Japanese komorebi refers to sunlight filtering through a tree’s branches or leaves.
• A festival float that makes visitors look twice.Kawasaki’s Kanamara Matsuri is known for phallic portable shrines. Behind their striking appearance are tradi…
• Japan in 1878, through a traveller’s eyes.British traveller Isabella Bird recorded her journey through Japan in 1878. Her account describes roads, lodg…
• At this event, a crying baby is part of the plan.Japanese crying-baby sumo festivals connect a baby’s cries with wishes for healthy growth. Babies are held by…
• A repair that leaves the break visible.Kintsugi repairs ceramics with lacquer and finishes joins with metallic powder. The damaged areas become visi…
• Nekomata Station has a cat assistant.At Japan's Nekomata Station, the name includes the word for cat. After the station opened to general passenge…
• A bullet train skipped Nagoya.A Nozomi service launched in 1992 passed through Nagoya and Kyoto without stopping on its way to Osaka. The d…
• Cat fever got its own economic buzzword.In Japan, spending on cat goods, cafés, and cat-related tourism has been dubbed “nekonomics,” a play on “Aben…
• Only 43 inches, but about 200 kilograms.Sony's PVM-4300, released in 1989, had a 43-inch screen and is regarded as the largest CRT monitor ever made.…
• An apple-cat mascot plays metal drums.Nyango Star, a mascot from Kuroishi in Japan's Aomori Prefecture, combines an apple and a cat. Its anonymous…
• No hiragana allowed. Only kanji posts.Japan's joke social app Tsuita allows users to post only kanji characters. Without the usual Japanese syllaba…
• Five people spotted one comet in 30 minutes.On October 5, 1975, five Japanese observers independently discovered the same comet within half an hour. The…
• A visiting cat became an official castle lord.After the 2018 floods in Japan, a friendly cat appeared at Bitchū Matsuyama Castle in Okayama. Adopted as the…
• A Game Boy went online through a mobile phone.Nintendo's Mobile Adapter GB connected the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance to a cellular network. Launche…
• It borrowed an airport's name. The airport was elsewhere.Two Japanese towns proposed merging as Minami-Centrair, referencing Chubu Centrair Airport. The airport was a…
• Nintendo linked handhelds before the Game Boy.The 1983 Computer Mah-jong Yakuman could connect two handheld units with an optional cable for a head-to-head…
• A Japanese song went viral abroad, then back home.Cinnamons and Evening Cinema released “Summertime” in 2017. It caught on in Southeast Asia in 2019, then spre…
• A game for non-gamers helped shape visual novels.Koichi Nakamura wanted Otogirisō to appeal to people unfamiliar with games. Players read the story and choose…
• Phone puzzles in the Imperial Palace gardens.QuizKnock collaborated with Japan's Imperial Household Agency on smartphone puzzles for the Imperial Palace E…
• A world-class trampolinist who fears heights.Ryusei Nishioka broke a trampoline difficulty record in 2021 with seven triple somersaults in one routine. Ye…
• British novel. Japanese text. Chinese silent film.The 1926 Chinese silent film Lonely Orchid adapted a British novel through a Japanese translation and then a…
• He helped care for over a thousand children.Japanese social worker Soda Kaichi and his wife ran an orphanage in Korea under Japanese rule from 1921 to 19…
• An early landmark of modern Chinese drama was staged by students in Tokyo.In 1907, Chinese students in Tokyo staged Black Slave's Cry to Heaven, an adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin, at…
• A painting called ○△□. Or perhaps □△○.Japanese monk-artist Sengai painted only a circle, triangle and square. The work is usually titled by reading…
• Japan's first female college graduate. Her great-granddaughter wrote the biography.Ōyama Sutematsu graduated from Vassar after studying in the United States in the 19th century. Her great-gran…
• For a golf anime, the lead actor brought a club to the studio.Voice actor Rika Hayashi took her first starring role in the 2024 golf anime Tonbo!. Early in recording, she…
• An injury changed the pair. The new partners won a world title.Hikaru Mori and Megu Uyama won synchronized trampoline gold at the 2018 World Championships. They had trained…
• Its head dates to the 8th century. Its body to the 13th.At Akishinodera temple in Nara, the statue commonly called Gigeiten has an eighth-century dry-lacquer head fi…
• From the race grid to leading her own team.Misato Haga became interested in motorsport after watching races as a teenager in Japan. She worked as a race…
• The gaming creator is called Pocky. The name came from his dog.Japanese creator Pocky named his channel after a dog he had since fourth grade. He launched the current chann…
• The wood reached Japan in the 8th century. Oda Nobunaga cut a piece from it.The agarwood known as Ranjatai is kept at the Shōsōin in Nara and arrived in Japan in the eighth century. Wit…
• A Tokyo silversmith travelled to the US. A Lakota family welcomed him as kin.Goro Takahashi travelled through the United States to learn silversmithing. In 1979, while spending time at P…
• This tram had too many riders. In 1954, buses replaced it.The Okoshi tram line in Ichinomiya, Japan, was entirely single-track and could not carry growing numbers of p…
• Dragon Ball Super ended. Fans across Latin America watched together.Public screenings of the 2018 Dragon Ball Super finale drew crowds across Latin America, including stadiums t…
• Tomakomai appointed a tourism ambassador. He was a racehorse.Hokko Tarumae won Japan's 2014 Best Dirt Horse award. The Tomakomai Tourism Association then appointed the th…
• Her only album made little noise in 1982. Decades later, listeners found it.Takako Mamiya released just one album, Love Trip. It attracted little mainstream attention at first, but the…
• The composer paced around his home, repeating the same phrase in new rhythms.For the 2024 anime theme Shikairo Days, composer Yūki Waga said he walked around his home repeating its signa…
• An elm leaf has a zigzag cut. A tiny larva made it while eating.The elm zigzag sawfly is native to China and Japan. Early in its growth, its larva eats a distinctive zigzag…
• A lily grows on one Japanese island. Its name has two possible origins.Lilium nobilissimum is native only to Kuchinoshima in Japan's Kagoshima Prefecture, where it grows on cliffs.…
• She unveiled a virtual persona. The screen was an old CRT television.At her final Dempagumi.inc appearance in April 2022, Japanese performer Nagi Nemoto revealed her VTuber perso…
• To save the Pokémon, you have to brush your own teeth.Released in 2020, Pokémon Smile uses a phone camera to turn toothbrushing into a game. On screen, bacteria ho…
• A Japanese manga became a Japanese drama. Its first audience was in Taiwan.The live-action adaptation of Accomplishment of Fudanshi Bartender was produced in Japan but premiered on Tai…
• Japan coined a vivid name for crashes. The statistics tell a quieter story.The Japanese slang Prius Missile spread online after widely reported crashes. Yet transport-ministry data cit…
• Shakespeare reached a Chinese stage. The script travelled through Japanese.The troupe that followed China's Spring Willow Society adapted Othello as The Traitor from a Japanese transla…
• Arms folded, standing firm. A character made the pose famous.Noriko Takaya of Gunbuster helped popularise the arm-folded Gainax Pose. The gesture had appeared earlier, bu…
• A tiny sea slug that looks like a sheep. Its cells keep borrowed chloroplasts.Costasiella kuroshimae was discovered off Kuroshima, Okinawa. This 5–10 mm sea slug retains chloroplasts from…
• Kyoto's Golden Pavilion looks ancient. The present building is postwar.An arson attack destroyed Kyoto's Golden Pavilion in 1950. Reconstruction began in 1952 and was completed in…
• He watched anime on American TV. Then helped build a studio in Japan.The US technology channel TechTV aired an anime block called Anime Unleashed. Arthell Isom, later a co-founde…
• Need help? Summon an armadillo. Or an eagle. Or a chimpanzee.In the 1991 game Danan: The Jungle Fighter, collecting animal symbols lets the player summon one of three cre…
• Its score was lost at sea. The reconstruction was lost in war.Kōsaku Yamada composed Japan's first symphony in 1912. He said the score was lost in a maritime accident afte…
• Why was a fan favorite missing? 'He's too big' became the joke.Fans long wanted Metroid's Ridley in Super Smash Bros. The series director discussed how shrinking his huge b…
• A Japanese comic about Polish history became a publishing first in Poland.Riyoko Ikeda's Ten no Hate Made tells the story of Polish prince Józef Poniatowski. Published in Japan from 1…
• How did the band describe itself? Five people with a 'tofu mentality'.Japanese band Gohobi was formed around the idea of making listeners feel at home. Early on, the members also…
• Ordinary soldiers stayed outside. Women with swords guarded the king.Ryukyuan envoys to Korea reported that fifteenth-century king Shō Taikyū had an all-female royal bodyguard ar…
• ✨ began on Japanese phones. Now it marks AI buttons.The sparkles emoji appeared on Japanese mobile phones in the late 1990s and entered Unicode in 2010. By the m…
• Want to resign but dread telling your boss? Japan has a service for that.Japanese resignation agencies tell employers that a client intends to quit. They have existed since the late…
• Kagoshima's flag maps its shape. Its outlying islands are missing.Adopted in 1967, Kagoshima Prefecture's emblem and flag depict its two main peninsulas and Sakurajima volcano…
• Her 1980s records were not hits. Decades later, listeners found them.Tomoko Aran released nine albums between 1981 and 1990, without major hits under her own name at the time. In…
• The manga journey was fiction. Its travel times came from Google Maps.Manga creator Maki Marukido said in a 2022 interview that she checked travel times on Google Maps while writi…
• To draw the neighborhood, the director reportedly spent a night there.The 1981 animated film Jarinko Chie is set in working-class Osaka. Director Isao Takahata reportedly stayed o…
• A keeper said Hanako the elephant helped save his marriage. How?A keeper at Tokyo's Inokashira Park Zoo said Hanako seemed sensitive to people's moods. After arguments with…
• A jazz arrangement of a Kirby game tune won a Grammy.The US-based 8-Bit Big Band rearranges video game music for jazz orchestra. Its version of Meta Knight's Reve…
• His name is Huwie. People still asked him to write his real name.Japanese singer and actor Huwie Ishizaki said people often doubted the unusual given name he wrote down and a…
• A Japanese town's giant squid statue sparked a debate about public money.Noto in Japan unveiled its Squid King statue in 2021. About ¥25 million of its ¥27 million construction cost…
• Sakura Miko turned up in a paper on stability and thermodynamics.The Japanese VTuber Sakura Miko was used as an example in a 2024 paper titled 'Structural stability and therm…
• This copepod anchors beyond the nose, at the shark's olfactory bulb.Female Driocephalus copepods have been found in several shark species. Part of the body remains in the nasal…
• A Sanrio publication let its characters talk about real conflicts.A 2015 issue of the Strawberry Newspaper carried a pacifist message for the 70th anniversary of Japan's surre…
• Three Japanese governors went to work wearing weighted pregnancy vests.In 2016, the governors of Saga, Miyazaki and Yamaguchi wore vests weighing about 7.3 kilograms as part of a c…
• An empress gave up the throne, then came back under another name.Japan's Empress Kōken abdicated in 758 in favour of Emperor Junnin. She later became a Buddhist nun and shave…
• The same 💩 can be encouragement in Japan and disapproval elsewhere.In Japan, the poop emoji can wish someone luck, helped by a pun linking the word for poop with the word for f…
• After a film about abduction opened, its director received threats against his own daughter.Akira Kurosawa's High and Low opened in 1963. Amid concern about kidnappings in Japan, callers threatened to…
• Rice was leaving the port while locals struggled to buy it.In 1918, protests over rice prices began around Uozu, a fishing town in Japan's Toyama Prefecture, then sprea…
• A naked festival usually still has a loinclothJapan’s hadaka matsuri are festivals in which participants wear very little clothing. A fundoshi loincloth is…
• A karaoke pioneer did not patent the machineDaisuke Inoue developed a machine that let customers sing without live accompaniment. He did not patent that…
• The Japanese keepsake turned out to be a customs formDuring the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, Shizo Kanakuri received help from a local family. An account of his 1967…
• The bellybutton dance puts an extra face on the bodyFurano’s Hokkai Heso Matsuri features dancers with faces painted on their stomachs. Established in 1969, the…
• English shiritori needs a choice about silent endingsShiritori also has an English-word version. For a word such as life with a silent final vowel letter, optiona…
• Bread-making can become an underwear-eating questionA Japanese sound sequence asking about having made bread can be resegmented to ask about having eaten underwe…
• Earlier tabi were leather footwearTabi are now commonly understood as split-toed socks, but earlier forms were footwear made from animal hide.…
• Traditional zori are symmetricalTraditional zori soles and straps are symmetrical, without separate left and right shapes. Some modern design…
• Gateball’s starting point differs from its imageGateball was devised in Japan in 1947 as a game for young people. Kazunobu Suzuki developed it using wood ami…
• Tokyo became a ten-metre panorama from memoryIn May 2005, Stephen Wiltshire drew a ten-metre panorama of Tokyo from memory after a brief helicopter flight…
• Aotagai buys the harvest before the rice is ripeJapanese aotagai refers to reserving a rice harvest while the crop is still green. It also describes securing…
• The Japanese expression names more than one sightJapanese kitsune no yomeiri can mean rain falling during sunshine. A dictionary also records a sense involvin…
• Dokusenjō and dokudanjō have different charactersJapanese 独擅場 is read dokusenjō and describes a field someone can dominate. Confusion between 擅 and the stage-…
• Tabei’s Everest ascent followed an avalancheAn avalanche buried Junko Tabei and others on Everest on 4 May 1975. Sherpa guides dug them out without fatal…
• Hatenkō also concerns an unprecedented achievementThe first Japanese dictionary sense of hatenkō is accomplishing what nobody had achieved before. It also reco…
• Yakubusoku can mean the role is too smallJapanese yakubusoku describes a part beneath an actor’s ability, and more generally a role too light for the…
• The geki in the phrase is a proclamationJapanese geki o tobasu concerns circulating a message to gather supporters. The dictionary distinguishes usag…
• Buzen can describe disappointment or surpriseJapanese buzen has dictionary senses of disappointment and surprise. Usage concerning displeasure has also sp…
• Ugatsu has physical and figurative sensesJapanese ugatsu can mean making a hole or penetrating something. It can also describe accurately identifying…
• Classical wokashi has a broad rangeClassical Japanese wokashi can describe humour, interest, aesthetic charm or beauty, as well as strangeness.…
• Yabusaka de nai need not mean reluctanceJapanese yabusaka can mean stingy. In the negative expression yabusaka de nai, it can convey sparing no effor…
• Barefoot gold, then gold with shoesAbebe Bikila won the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome barefoot. Four years later in Tokyo, he wore shoes and won…
• A cat’s tongue can describe a personThe Japanese word nekojita literally combines cat and tongue. It describes sensitivity to hot food or drink,…
• The fifth month follows an older calendarSamidare refers to prolonged rain around the fifth month of the traditional lunar calendar, rather than simpl…
• An iridescent colour can describe an answerTamamushi-iro names an iridescent colour like a jewel beetle’s wing covering. Figuratively, it describes ambi…
• A two-thousand-year snake suggests worldly cunningUmisen-yamasen describes a worldly, difficult-to-outwit person. Its traditional explanation involves a snake…
• An opinion passes like wind by a horse’s earBaji-tōfū describes hearing advice or criticism without taking notice. The image of spring wind at a horse’s…
• The cat’s salary came as cat foodTama became stationmaster at Kishi Station in Wakayama in 2007, with passenger greetings as her main duty. In…
• Koharubiyori is not a spring-weather termJapanese koharubiyori describes a mild, warm day in late autumn or winter. Koharu originally referred to the…
• Omohayui means feeling bashful or awkwardJapanese omohayui means feeling bashful or awkward. It is written 面映ゆい, with characters associated with a fac…
• The last pupils left doll self-portraits in NagoroLife-size dolls populate fields and bus shelters in Nagoro, Tokushima, following a project begun by Tsukimi A…
• Classical tsutomete can mean early morningModern Japanese tsutomete can mean deliberately or as much as possible. In classical Japanese, the same sound…
• Shinonome describes daybreak, not a type of cloudJapanese shinonome refers to daybreak, when the eastern sky begins to brighten. Its written form, 東雲, contain…
• Namaji can be written with the single character 憖Japanese namaji can describe doing something despite poor prospects, or being incomplete and half-hearted. Th…
• Tokyo includes an island with a volcano inside its volcanic basinAogashima, a volcanic island in the Izu chain, belongs to Tokyo. Inside its caldera stands a smaller volcanic…
• A Toba Aquarium isopod became famous for refusing foodGiant isopods are adapted to food scarcity in the deep sea. A captive animal known as No. 1 at Japan’s Toba A…
• Kataharaitai can also express embarrassment or discomfortJapanese kataharaitai can dismiss someone’s behaviour as ridiculous. The dictionary also gives senses of feel…
• The skeleton flower’s white petals turn transparent when wetDiphylleia grayi, found in Japan and other mountain habitats, has white flowers whose petals become transpare…
• Edo’s recovery changed the streets as well as replacing homesThe Great Fire of Meireki in 1657 destroyed much of Edo and the castle’s main keep. Reconstruction widened st…
• Classical akugaru can mean more than admirationClassical Japanese akugaru can mean wandering about, becoming absent-minded or having one’s heart move away.…
• The forces landing on Kiska found no Japanese garrisonAmerican and Canadian forces landed on Kiska in the Aleutians in August 1943, after the Japanese garrison had…
• 無聊 describes boredom, not a price of zeroThe Japanese word 無聊 is read buryō and means boredom. It is a different word from 無料, muryō, meaning free of…
• A survivor described Titanic’s sinking on Titanic-headed paperAfter surviving Titanic in 1912, Japanese passenger Masabumi Hosono wrote an account in Japanese aboard the r…
• Classical Japanese yoshinashi can mean unrelated or trivialThe classical Japanese adjective yoshinashi is written 由無し. Its meanings include unrelated and trivial or uni…
• Shiorashii has more than one shadeJapanese shiorashii can suggest modest or obedient behaviour. Its dictionary entry also includes elegance, lo…
• Frightening faces, welcomed guestsOn Japan’s Oga Peninsula, namahage visit homes wearing masks and straw clothing. They admonish idleness or mi…
• A penguin and an unlikely favouriteIn 2017, Tobu Zoo in Japan displayed character cutouts from Kemono Friends. Humboldt penguin Grape-kun spent…
• Yukashi invites curiosityIn Classical Japanese, yukashi can mean that something arouses interest. The dictionary connects its origin w…
• Mud with a blessing behind itDuring Paantu on Japan’s Miyako Island, masked visitors spread sacred mud on people and houses. The practice…
• Susamaji need not sound impressiveModern susamajii can suggest intensity. Classical susamaji also carries meanings such as dreary, cold or lack…
• Aramahoshi is a complete wordThe Classical Japanese adjective aramahoshi means desirable or pleasing. The dictionary explains it as ari co…
• Modokashi could express disapprovalThe Classical Japanese adjective modokashi means feeling inclined to criticise, or being displeased. Wiktiona…
• Anagachi once described someone’s mannerModern Japanese anagachi appears with negatives to mean not necessarily. The Classical Japanese adjective ana…
• Asamashi could express astonishmentClassical Japanese asamashi can mean astonishing or unexpected, alongside meanings such as lamentable and uns…
• Itadzura could describe being idleIn Classical Japanese, itadzura could mean useless, idle or empty. Modern Japanese itazura often suggests mis…
• There is a name for impractical ingenuityChindōgu describes ingenious everyday gadgets that appear to solve a problem but may create others. Kenji Kaw…
• Sixteen trees become shrine pillarsAt Nagano’s Suwa Grand Shrine, the Onbashira Festival brings sixteen selected trees down from the mountains a…
• Sozoro is not only about distractionJapanese sozoro can describe an unsettled mind, but also a state without a clear reason. The expression sozor…
• Adashi can mean other or differentThe classical Japanese adjective adashi means other or different and can be written 他し or 異し. An unusual gram…
• That apparent dead leaf may be a mothUropyia meticulodina occurs in Japan, Taiwan and parts of China. Its adult form mimics a dead leaf, with a wi…
• An older word could also mean spitefulClassical Japanese ayaniku could describe inconvenient circumstances, spitefulness, or something happening co…
• Usobuku once also meant slipping out unseenJapanese usobuku can mean boasting or pretending not to know. Older uses include whistling, reciting poetry,…
• The same kanji can be read hinemosuJapanese 終日 can be read hinemosu as well as shūjitsu. Hinemosu means throughout the day, from morning to even…
• Kettai can sound strange—or mean forming a unitIn Japan’s Kinki dialect, kettai describes something odd. A separate word with the same sound, written 結隊, me…
• Subekaraku traditionally expresses what ought to be doneThe Japanese word subekaraku traditionally accompanies an obligation or recommendation, expressing that somet…
• Aramashi also has a sense concerned with the futureThe Japanese word aramashi commonly suggests an outline or summary. A dictionary also records the sense of th…
• Katajikenai can also express shameThe Japanese word katajikenai may sound like an expression of gratitude. A dictionary also records senses of…
• This giant hermit-crab relative gives up its borrowed shellCoconut crabs inhabit islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. Young ones use empty gastropod shells, like o…
• Futsutsuka also has a sense of being thick and sturdyThe Japanese word futsutsuka is associated with shortcomings or lack of refinement. A dictionary also records…
• Atara can be written with two unexpected kanjiThe Japanese word atara means regrettably or unfortunately and can be written 可惜. The dictionary also records…
• A word for greed is linked to a coastal place nameThe Japanese word akogi, written 阿漕, describes shameless or unscrupulously greedy conduct. Wiktionary connect…
• Okogamashii can be written with an unfamiliar pair of charactersThe Japanese adjective okogamashii can describe presumptuous behaviour. Spellings include 烏滸がましい and 痴がましい. W…
• Appare can be written with the single character 遖The Japanese expression appare praises something admirable. Besides 天晴れ, Wiktionary records the single-charac…
• A peace settlement triggered violent protests in TokyoIn September 1905, opposition to the treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War brought protesters to Hibiya in Tok…
• Akudoi can describe flavours and colours tooThe Japanese adjective akudoi can mean excessively bad or unscrupulous. Wiktionary also records a sense for f…
• At this festival, portable shrines enter water and fireAt the Abare Festival in Ushitsu, Noto, large kiriko lantern floats parade through town. Portable mikoshi shr…
• Inase has both a stylish sense and a classical homonymJapanese inase can describe stylish spirit and is written 鯔背. One proposed origin connects it to an Edo fish-…
• Power lines helped divide Hakata’s floats into two rolesHakata Gion Yamakasa has smaller kakiyama floats carried through the streets and tall, stationary kazariyama…
• Tamayura can describe brief time or an orb in a photographJapanese tamayura, written 玉響, denotes a very brief interval. Wiktionary also records a sense for small orb-l…
• Omedetai can be celebratory or unflatteringJapanese omedetai is a polite form of medetai, a celebratory word. It also has senses of being overly trustin…
• Utsutsu means waking reality or one’s sensesJapanese utsutsu appears in phrases such as yume-utsutsu. On its own, the noun denotes waking reality or bein…
• Omomuro ni describes starting slowlyJapanese omomuro ni describes beginning an action slowly, and can also suggest a deliberate or affected manne…
• Ingin alone describes sincere courtesyJapanese ingin means heartfelt politeness, and can also denote close relations. Add burei, meaning rudeness,…
• Ozanari and naozari look different in kanjiJapanese ozanari denotes a careless, makeshift response. Wiktionary connects its formation with goza, meaning…
• Obon turns cucumbers and eggplants into animalsSome Japanese Obon customs use a cucumber horse and an eggplant cow as symbolic vehicles for ancestors coming…
• Shitataka can describe quantity or degreeJapanese shitataka is written 強か. Alongside substantial strength, the dictionary lists firmness and intensity…