Japan

Restaurant of Mistaken Orders is upfront about potential problems in order to cultivate future understanding. Japan has incredibly high customer service standards, especially where restaurants are concerned. Because of that, a restaurant saying, in advance, that it might get your order wrong seems like a recipe for dissatisfied diners, but that strategy led to smiles all around, plus a few appreciative tears, recently in the city of Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture. “Restaurant of Mistaken Orders” d

This tiny Shibuya spot brings quintessential UK snacks straight to central Tokyo. Whether you have moved to a different country and pining for the foodstuffs of the motherland or you are interested in foreign cuisine without the hefty price tag of the airfare, specialty import stores are a treat to walk around. Tucked away amid the towering buildings of Shibuya, you’ll find The British Shop, a grocery store specializing in British ingredients with its own eat-in area. Located just outside exit

The number one rule of comedy is unwavering loyalty to the government. I suppose in terms of things on a global scale, the Japanese government isn’t doing all that bad. It’s just that with all the talk of how Prime Minister Takaichi works constantly and rarely sleeps, I was sort of expecting something more in the way of results.  Don’t get me wrong, since coming into power, her cabinet pissed off China right quick, jacked up visa fees, and made it so people can’t poop on the flag. These are all

New collection brings warmth and style to tumblers and mugs this winter.  When the seasons change in Japan, so too do the limited-edition goods at Starbucks, and this season we’ll be getting a new limited-edition collection just for winter. With icy hues of white and mint green, these items are said to blend easily into any scenario to “softly illuminate your winter days”, and there are six specially designed products to choose from. ▼ Pale White Stanley Stainless Steel Bottle

The “Everyone Gather Together! Winter Pokémon Campaign” goes all out for the 30th anniversary celebrations. It’s become something of an annual tradition for Mister Donut to release a new Pokémon collection at the end of the year, with a different pocket monster taking centre stage as the star of the show. This year, however, for Pokémon’s 30th anniversary, the chain is going all out with the celebrations, putting not just one Pokémon in the spotlight, but a whole gatheri

Don Quijote doubles up its “Peculiar Preference” sandwich. Japanese egg sandwiches have recently become an unexpected hit among the international foodie community, but within Japan, they’ve been a staple for generations. You really don’t have to go very far to find one, as just about every convenience store or supermarket stocks them. But if you really love Japan’s egg sandwiches, it’s worth going to the little extra trouble of making a trip to discount retailer Don Quixote to get one, because

Death is a growth industry that no one’s happy about. There has been a lot of talk about the aging population in Japan and how it’s affecting society and the economy. But a more immediate concern is how to handle the influx of people currently dying across the country.  According to estimates, the number of deaths per year is expected to swell to a peak of 1.65 million in 2040, but with the current number over 1.5 million, Japan looks poised to overshoot that estimate considerably. Large

If you’re going to do wrong, do wrong right. For many years, pachinko parlors have stood tall and proud in just about every community across the country as bastions of the human desire to make quick money without having to work for it. Every day, thousands and thousands of people flock to the large and comfortably equipped complexes, seemingly never realizing that the main reason these places are so large and comfortably equipped is that they’re the ones ending up with the money. It should be n

Preserving arcade culture is hard enough without hacker jerks making it even tougher. A photo of an empty interior and unused game machines accompanied by the message “This is the harsh reality for arcades right now” might be the kind of thing that would make gamers sad, but not necessarily surprised. Though the video game business as a whole is bigger than ever, the ways that people play them has changed significantly since the arcade glory days of the ‘80s and ‘90s, and the industry trend in

Fukubukuro season starts very early for Starbucks fans in Japan. In Japan, shops, restaurants, and other companies celebrate the new year by releasing fukubukuro, a.k.a. lucky bags, surprise assortments of their wares and coupons, usually with a combined value much greater than their asking price. Back in the day, the only way to get a lucky bag was to show up at the shop on the first few days of the year, but especially popular bags now go on sale ahead of time, and with Starbucks Japan’s luck

Art collection includes never-before-shown illustrations from Hayao Miyazaki’s vision for a feudal-Japan version of Beauty and the Beast. The very first time I saw a preview for Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke, I was shocked by how dark the tone was. I was not at all prepared for a grim tale of humans and giant forest creatures fighting to the death in a territorial struggle with no clear “good guys” or “bad guys.” I’d been expecting this story of a mononoke/monster princess to be a sort of f

Travelling Japan with tattoos: what you can and cannot do at onsen, sento, pools, gyms and the beach, which Tokyo baths allow ink, and how to cover up. The post Can You Have Tattoos in Japan? Explained appeared first on Japan Insider.

Suntory’s newest Craft Boss release promises the taste of freshly dunked buttery pastry in a single bottle. One of the things I’ve enjoyed since coming to Japan has been stopping at vending machines I walk past to check out what new and unusual drinks they have on offer and scouring different supermarket and convenience store shelves for limited-edition flavors that could potentially blow my mind with their outlandishness—I’m looking at you, caramel popcorn soda. Now, the latest limited-t

Green oasis in the center of Tokyo is site of city’s newest cafe serving exclusive coffee blend. With people in Japan long having been fans of cafe culture, Tokyo has plenty of spots in the city in which to sit and sip a cup of coffee. However, there’s never been a cafe on the grounds of the Imperial Palace, until now. November 3 was the grand opening for the Imperial Palace East Garden branch of Sarutahiko Coffee. As the name implies, the cafe is inside the eastern garden area of the palace gr

King of the Monsters looks to become lord of the backpacks. Durability and functionality are the two biggest priorities for Japan’s randoseru backpacks. The boxy bags need to be able to carry everything a student needs on their way to and from school for six years, after all. But in recent years, more and more people are also looking for randoseru with fashionable or fun designs, and now come awesome randoseru inspired by none other than the King of the Monsters himself, Godzilla. For this thr

The site with a goal of “Adding muscles to everyday life” has released a new gallery collecting its most viral muscly moments up to the present.  Fukuoka-based Smile Academy’s Muscle Plus free stock image site has been around for a while now and it hasn’t stopped causing a stir. We can only thank the muscular geniuses who decided to gift the world with free-to-use, professional-quality shots of themselves posing in situations that make you think, “Heck, I can&#8217

Tokyo's new sushi bus puts conveyor-belt dining on wheels. Here's what to expect from the 70-minute ride, including ticket prices and how to book. The post Tokyo’s Sushi Bus Takes Your Lunch for a Ride appeared first on Japan Insider.

Latest crook to hit Tokyo’s hottest theft target feels either remorse or fear, but probably shouldn’t expect forgiveness. In a city as big as Tokyo, different neighborhoods have different atmospheres, but those reputations can change over time. For example, Nakano is best known for its Nakano Broadway shopping center, which used to be thought of almost entirely as a place for fans of eclectic pop and subculture genres, sort of like a weirder, less trendy version of Akihabara. Over the last few

In Japan the drinking age is 20, but adulthood starts at 18. What you can and cannot do at each age, how it is enforced, and where to drink once you are 20. The post What is the Drinking Age in Japan? appeared first on Japan Insider.

We head to the Seto Inland Sea for a Shimanami Kaido sampler. Japan has a lot of great places for bicycling, but the Shimanami Kaido Cycling Road is widely considered to be the best. Stretching across the Seto Inland Sea, the 70-kilometer (43.5-mile) route ties together seven different islands as it runs from the town of Imabari in Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku all the way to Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture on Japan’s main island of Honshu. But while the idea of a 70-kilomter, possibly multi-day