Features
How long-term couples in Japan can keep the spark alive
Once you’ve been with someone for a while, your interactions can become routine. However, when you’ve been in a relationship for long enough, it’s easy to start taking your partner for granted. It doesn’t matter what ethnicity or gender your partner is; everyone can, in some way or another, forget… Read
Washington Post's sports section was gold standard, all the way to the end
The Washington Post sports section died Wednesday. Whether you blame natural causes or more avoidable factors, the loss for the D.C. area is immense. The ramifications were felt almost immediately. Shortly after the newspaper eliminated its sports section while laying off a third of its staff, the hometown NBA team… Read
Paying for a selfie: Rome starts charging for Trevi Fountain
Italy's Trevi Fountain has launched a new ticketing system, making the famous Rome landmark the latest tourist site to charge entry in a bid to raise funds and battle overcrowding. People posed in the sunshine in front of the Baroque masterpiece after paying the two-euro ($1.68) fee to access the… Read
Here comes a new katsudon: ice cream katsudon?!?
Broadly speaking, katsudon (pork cutlet bowl) comes in two varieties. There’s tamagotoji katsudon, in which the cutlet is sort of wrapped in egg… …and then there’s sauce katsudon, in which a special sauce, tasting kind of like a sweeter Worchester, is drizzled over the cutlet. But now, here comes Japanese restaurant chain Fuji… Read
Do you need to control your cortisol? Probably not, doctors say
Cortisol, what is known as the stress hormone, is the talk of the internet. Wellness influencers warn about the various symptoms of chronically high cortisol: waking up at 3 a.m., swollen “cortisol face” and accumulating belly fat. And many offer diet and exercise routines that they claim will help. But… Read
Climate change threatens Winter Olympics future
Watching the Winter Olympics is an adrenaline rush as athletes fly down snow-covered ski slopes, luge tracks and over the ice at breakneck speeds and with grace. When the first Olympic Winter Games were held in Chamonix, France, in 1924, all 16 events took place outdoors. The athletes relied on… Read
As election day nears, magazine takes objective look at Japan's alleged 'foreigner problem'
With immigration-related matters taken up by many of Japan's political parties during the current campaign, the cover story in Newsweek Japan (Jan 27), titled "An in-depth look into the 'foreigner problem,'" was clearly timed to appear ahead of the upcoming Diet elections. Compared with other OECD member countries, Japan's foreign… Read
Where are those darn keys? Tricks for remembering where you put things
With a scarf dangling from your coat pocket and those gloves left behind at the coffee shop, there are simply more things to lose in winter. That’s not counting your misplaced keys at home or those exasperated moments looking for your phone when you say, “I just had it!” Try… Read
Cherry blossoms already blooming at Gap Japan with Sakura Collection lineup
We’re getting down to the last few weeks before cherry blossoms season starts. In many people’s minds, spring hasn’t really started until Japan’s most famous flowers bloom, and so the event is often seen as an opportunity to put away your heavy winter coats and sweaters and bust out your lighter,… Read
Starbucks Japan releases new Chocolate Milk for Valentine’s Day
With less than two weeks to go until Valentine’s Day, Starbucks is vying for our attention with a new limited-edition beverage called Sweet Milk Chocolate. Specially designed to align with the Japanese custom of gifting chocolate on Valentine’s Day, this new offering is a drink you’ll want to gift yourself, with its three-layer… Read
