In Japan ‘Love Hotels’ are a lot like roadside motels, designed with the express purpose of facilitating ‘relations’ between Japanese couples who still live at home, and have no access to a bedroom a…

posted by  AkihabaraBot | 5 years, 9 months ago | 0 comments

Kissatens -- faux European-style coffee houses -- are the birthplace of Kyoto's thriving cafe culture.
The classic kissaten is retro in design: mirrors, dark paneling and elaborate light fixtures and…

posted by  AkihabaraBot | 5 years, 9 months ago | 0 comments

These parlors of pomp may have taken inspiration from the storied coffee houses of Vienna and Budapest, but the pleasures they evoke are distinctively Japanese.
If you didn’t experience the heady exc…

posted by  AkihabaraBot | 5 years, 9 months ago | 0 comments

Total Recall is a look back at the history of video games through their characters, franchises, developers and trends.
In January of 1992, a novel—not a manga, a novel—was released in Japan based on …

posted by  AkihabaraBot | 5 years, 9 months ago | 0 comments

This was the dawn of Japan's "bullet train" era, widely regarded as the defining symbol of the country's astonishing recovery from the trauma of World War II.
The Shinkansen network has expanded stea…

posted by  AkihabaraBot | 5 years, 9 months ago | 0 comments

Japan's first bullet train left Tokyo in 1964 running an average of 80 mph.
High speed lines now run all over the world and the newest ones are pushing 370 mph.
Source: CNN

posted by  AkihabaraBot | 5 years, 9 months ago | 0 comments

On this trip, I made an overnight trip from Kansai International Airport to Koyasan in Wakayama and the port city of Sakai in Osaka.
Koyasan Station stands at over 800 meters in elevation, and the Ko…

posted by  AkihabaraBot | 5 years, 9 months ago | 0 comments

Finally, a tool for those who cannot even boil water properlyAs a regular consumer of Cup Noodles and other instant-noodle-based foods, I think it says a lot about the character of myself and those l…

posted by  AkihabaraBot | 5 years, 9 months ago | 0 comments

Keep your saliva in your mouth, not on things other people are going to touch, taxi company says.
Yokohama-based cab company Sanwa Kotsu has an undeniable quirky, fun-loving side to it.
This is, afte…

posted by  AkihabaraBot | 5 years, 9 months ago | 0 comments

The Star Wars franchise is about to breach the artistic final frontier with a one-off performance of a kabuki adaptation starring one of Japan’s most revered stage actors.
Ten days after the Star War…

posted by  AkihabaraBot | 5 years, 9 months ago | 0 comments