Local Life

The small booth with the blue light, the maps taped in the window, and an officer visible through the glass is

Walk into almost any Japanese supermarket after about five in the afternoon and a pattern starts to form: smal

Walk into almost any Japanese supermarket in the early evening and you will notice something odd happening nea

If you’ve stayed in a Japanese apartment building, even for a few nights through a short-term rental, yo

A sign taped near a balcony door or laundry area in a Japanese apartment building or guesthouse rarely has any

Arriving at a small Japanese guesthouse or an older apartment building, a visitor sometimes finds not one door

Arrive at a Japanese apartment building or a small guesthouse and you may find two separate buttons by the ent

Here’s the short answer to a common platform puzzle: the gentle tune you hear just before a train leaves in Ja

Short answer first: when a no-smoking sign appears on a Japanese street, assume it covers the sidewalk and the