Neighbors on Mogami In Mogami 1-chome, on the slope above central Otaru, two high schools sit a short walk apart. Otaru Meiho is a small private school that takes in students who stopped attending school or dropped out somewhere else. Otaru Mirai Sozo is a public vocational school that trains electricians, builders, and accountants. In …
Read more “Six Schools on One Hillside: Otaru and the American High School”
I used to collect baseball cards in the 1990s in the USA and on a whim bought a Japanese pack in a konbini for 500 yen… What I found inside was not the cardboard nostalgia I expected. It was something far more interesting. The pack was from Bandai’s Pro Baseball Fan Stars League (プロ野球 ファンスターズリーグ), …
Read more “I Bought a Pack of Japanese Baseball Cards. They Play the Season.”
Colive Fukuoka opens its fourth edition with a free conference on how digital nomads can create impact for the communities that host them, then spreads across ten towns in Kyushu.
Otaru, the historic port city on Hokkaido’s western coast, rarely sits still. Between its canal-side warehouses, hillside streets, and cultural venues, the city maintains a steady rhythm of exhibitions, performances, markets, and community events. Autumn 2026 offers a particularly rich stretch, with overlapping programmes that blend industrial heritage, contemporary art, traditional performing arts, music, and …
This article was written by AI because after visiting Patong Beach in Phuket, I became curious about the reality. Later, in talking with former and active sex workers, I thought it was probably important to share this information because there are a lot of misconceptions about who these women are and how their lives are …
Read more “The Paradox of Phuket: Can You Be a Sex Worker and Have a “Normal” Family in Thailand?”
The coffee arrives in a glass, already sweet, the color of old blood held up to light. Somchai pours it without hurry, as though time itself has forgotten this corner of the bay. His shack squats beneath a tin roof a hundred meters from the half-drowned hull, the air thick with mangrove rot and the …