Pop Culture

Text & video by Phoebe Amoroso, cover image courtesy of Kanamara Shrine Our roving reporter, Pheebz, visited the annual Kanamara Festival on April 7th, which involves a lot of phalluses.…

You can’t make blood from a stone but you can make ink with a stone, and beautiful artistic ink. That is, if you’re using as 硯石(suzuri-ishi), a traditional Japanese ink-stone,…

Overall, Japanese Tattoos was a fascinating read and I would recommend it enthusiastically to anyone interested in tattoos or keen to learn more about specifically about irezumi. While perhaps the…

I have anxiety about sleeping. I never know what time of my life I’ll wake up in. The persistence of the past both helps and hinders my relationships in the…

When you write about Japan, you have to assume that many readers aren't following your story---or they may know little about the country and culture. . They may be coming…

The PR for Family Mart stated that ultimately, the company leaves the choice to stock porn up to the individual outlet owners. "Some of our outlets don't carry magazines at…

3 hours of music, dance, DJs and drinks. Also featuring special guests, The Dream Team, with a singer alleged to be the second-coming of Whitney Houston. Feature live performances by…

I love Japan and many Japanese people are hard-working, honest, and polite. That doesn't mean the society doesn't have problems, such as child poverty, gender inequality, discrimination against: the handicapped,…

Weekly SPA, a magazine famed for insisting that sex and money are the only things worth striving for, came out with a story in late December about which colleges had…

Today, submissions open for the True Story Award, the first global award for reporters writing for newspapers, magazines and online publications. The prize recognises written reportage from all countries and…