Otaru’s reputation as a “glass city” rests on more than a century of practical necessity, industrial skill, and later artistic reinvention. What began as the production of everyday items for a frontier port has evolved into one of Hokkaido’s most distinctive craft traditions. Origins: Lamps and Fishing Floats Glassmaking took root in Otaru in the …
A bronze Buddha longer than a blue whale, a pitch-black tunnel to paradise, a first-century gold seal and an island of cats: ten things most Fukuoka visitors miss.
Hokkaido is an island the way Greenland is an island: on the map, and by definition. On the ground, the word stops doing any work. A drive from Hakodate in the far south to Wakkanai at the northern tip runs around 600 kilometers and fills most of a day, through farmland, mountain passes, and towns …
Musubi began in Japan. Long before it became a convenience-store staple or a beachside snack, it was a practical, portable way to carry rice. Formed by hand into triangles, cylinders, or simple mounds and often wrapped in nori, these rice balls—known as onigiri or omusubi—have roots stretching back centuries. Archaeological finds of hand-shaped rice date …
Read more “From Japan to Hawaiʻi and Back Again: The Full-Circle Journey of Musubi”
Your friends cancel. The riverside row of yatai in Nakasu glows with the usual red lanterns and plastic curtains, but somehow the stalls look smaller, more ordinary than the photos promised. The air smells of pork bones and grilled chicken, yet the magic feels distant. You stand there for a minute, wondering if the famous …
Read more “Alone in Fukuoka: When the Yatai Look Ordinary and the Real City Food Begins”
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”