While walking the aisles of the supermarket this evening, a friend spotted some green tea-scented toilet paper, with lovely embossed tea leaves, too. Photo: Richard Pavonarius

Here's a word I learned in English today: hair whorl. Wikipedia defines it as "…a patch of hair growing in a circular direction around a visible center point. Hair whorls… Read the rest of the article: Don't Press My Whorl: a hairy superstition in Japan

Next year around 250 million yen will be spent to insert AI robots into 500 classrooms across Japan in an effort to improve children's English skills. An unnamed official in… Read the rest of the article: AI robots to help teach English in Japan

There's a Japanese proverb I'm particularly fond of that states how foolish it is to try and predict the future. It goes: "Rainen no koto ieba, oni ga warau", meaning… Read the rest of the article: Laughing Devils: a Japanese saying about the comedy of prediction

In Japan, Suntory has come out with a new beverage called All-Free All-Time, a clear, non-alcoholic drink that is purported to taste just like real beer. The bottles and commercials… Read the rest of the article: Clear Beer

Do you ever want to take a quick little note with real pen and paper, but hate carrying around big, medium, or even small-sized memo pads? Well, Mamimu Memo has… Read the rest of the article: Mini Matchbook Memos

Let's pretend we're buddies. I'm visiting you from Japan and brought with me all kinds of fun and interesting snacks. There's one in particular I want to introduce you to.… Read the rest of the article: "Addictive Hormones" is a delicious treat from Japan

One of my favorite things about learning Japanese and living here for over half my life is discovering all the words and phrases that have no exact equivalent in English.… Read the rest of the article: Shaking Like a Samurai – Musha Burui

Have you ever woken up one morning and bemoaned how much time you waste everyday preparing and eating meals? You have to rifle through your refrigerator to dig up ingredients,… Read the rest of the article: Super, super, super-size me: a 2142 calorie meal