seasons

Puma’s newest Japanese shoes feature beautiful designs from traditional Japanese playing cards

Modern fashion combined with a traditional Japanese flair

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Step inside a mystical, dazzling display of illuminations at the Flower Garden of Lights

Ashikaga’s Flower Park transforms into a fantastical fairytale world that you can step inside for the next few months.

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How to dress for the weather: A guide from Japan

A simple life hack you can use anywhere in the world.

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“Feeling the seasons through cats” manga warms the heart by showing how pet kitty warms itself

This artist’s pet cat marks the changes of the seasons as surely as the flowering of the cherry blossoms.

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Japanese Twitter artist shares beautiful trick to draw anime-style clouds specific to the seasons

Elegant comparisons makes adding a sense of time to your skyscapes a snap.

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W.T.F. Japan: Top 5 Japanese autumn foods 【Well-Fed Top Five】

Autumn: the time to bundle up and enjoy some Japanese comfort food.

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The ingenious (and ridiculous) ways the Vietnamese are fending off the crippling summer sun

The summer is seriously no time to be in any part of Asia, really. While you might exaggeratedly fan yourself with your hand and joke about frying eggs on the sidewalk when thermometers in your hometown start creeping past the upper-20s (Celsius) come late July, society in Asia is basically devolving into Lord of the Flies, with people in China retreating into caves, those in Japan sweating buckets and people in Vietnam desperately scrambling for whatever random object they can find to fend off the violent rays of the sun, lest they literally burst into flames.

That last one, we suppose, is good for us, as at least it’s resulted in a few photos for us to chuckle over as we write this from our ice-filled summer cave bunker.

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The top 10 instances when Japanese people feel thankful to be Japanese

Are there ever times when you feel really glad to have been born where you were? Maybe you’ve felt that way during a holiday, or while eating your favorite local food, but regardless, most of us have had those moments when we’re just plain thankful to be a citizen of a particular country.

Internet portal Mynavi Woman was curious to learn the specific situations and things that made Japanese people happy to be Japanese, and so in typical Mynavi fashion they opened up an internet survey in July to find out. Those results are finally in, and we’re happy to present to you the top 10 things that made Japanese respondents feel lucky to be nihonjin!

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One of the trickier aspects of adapting to life in Japan is getting the hang of the numerous seasonal customs. While your acquaintances aren’t likely to get that bent out of shape if you miss a day or two, completely adhering to proper etiquette involves managing a year-round schedule of sending gifts and written salutations to friends, family, and business associates.

The sentiment is definitely admirable, but don’t Japanese people don’t find this all to be a huge hassle? Actually, it turns out some of them do, as shown in a poll of the top five seasonal traditions people in Japan would like to do away with.

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