A fairy tale might not have been what you were expecting when you opened this blog post, but we will tell you one anyway. It is a story of gods and love. Orihime, the sewing princess, and daughter of the Sky King, was sewing beautiful clothes by the Heavenly River, known in our modern understanding as the Milky Way. The Sky King loved his daughter very much and also her...

Cosplay — the art of dressing up as characters from anime, manga, video games, TV shows, or any other media — has become a global phenomenon over the years. Once dressed in their cosplay, cosplayers attend conventions to take photos, enter competitions, or perform theatrical routines. The World Cosplay Summit is a perfect occasion to do all of this at the same time. It’s the world’s biggest cosplay event, and...

Hydrangea is a flower with a long history and tradition in Japan. Because of its beauty and special significance, Japanese people adore hydrangea flowers the same way that they do Sakura flowers during spring.  If the plum blossom is a sign of early spring, the hydrangea (Ajisai in Japanese) is a sign that summer is approaching. The hydrangea blooming season starts in early June and lasts until mid-July, coinciding with...

Of the roughly 70 festivals each year held at Atsuta Shrine, the Atsuta Festival (Atsuta Matsuri or Shobu-sai) is by far the biggest and most important. This festival is held every June 5th and signals the arrival of summer. Summer in Japan is the season of summer festivals and fireworks! Atsuta Jingu, also called Atsuta-san or Atsuta-sama, is the second most revered Shinto shrine in Japan after the Ise Grand...

Arimatsu, located just about 20 minutes by train from Nagoya Station, is a town well known for being the home of the traditional Arimatsu-Narumi Shibori technique, a fabric dyeing method that has been skillfully crafted over the last 400 years. Edo Period traditional black wooden houses along the Tokaido Road During the Edo Period (1603 – 1868) the town used to be one of many located along the Tokaido, a...