Nikko Food Tour: Six MUST EAT Foods in the City of Temples

Otoshidama, the New Year cash gifts traditionally given to children in Japan, is undergoing a noticeable transformation as the spread of cashless payments and persistent inflation begin to affect even this long-standing custom.

The way people pay respects at family graves in Japan is undergoing rapid change, driven in part by shifting lifestyles and difficult realities surrounding grave maintenance.

The annual New Year “Karuta Hajime” ceremony was held on January 3rd at Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto’s Higashiyama Ward, where women known as “karuta-hime,” dressed in elegant Heian-period court robes, performed the opening match of the Hyakunin Isshu classical poetry card game.

Nearly three decades after the end of World War II, one man finally returned to Japan. He was Hiroo Onoda, known as the last Japanese soldier, who had remained hidden in the jungles of the Philippines for 29 years after the war ended.

Three men broke into a card shop in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward on the night of December 31, stealing Pokemon cards and other items worth about 30 million yen before fleeing the scene, according to police.

The Imperial Family welcomed the New Year on January 1, with the Emperor releasing a message through the Imperial Household Agency expressing his hopes that the year ahead will be one in which people in Japan and around the world can move forward with hope.

More people are struggling with what to do about family graves, as the number of people choosing to close ancestral burial plots continues to rise across Japan.

A man has been arrested in connection with the stabbing of a female esthetic salon manager in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward on August 29, with investigators revealing that the suspect had previously used the salon multiple times and had been involved in a dispute over unpaid fees.