The unwritten rules, the tatemae performances, the kuuki you'd better be reading. Field notes from inside the most polite hostage situation in the world.
The Japanese shouganai meaning is supposed to be a graceful acceptance of the unchangeable. In practice it's the most elegant way ever invented to say 'I can't be arsed and you can't make me.'
Rajio taiso, the nationwide morning radio calisthenics ritual, is not exercise. It is a compulsory group performance of belonging, broadcast at dawn to people who would rather be asleep.
In a country obsessed with silence and reading the room, the Japanese salaryman sneeze detonates like an artillery shell on the 7:42 Yamanote. Nobody flinches. Nobody comments. It is the loudest permitted sound in the quietest culture on Earth.
Thirteen years of collecting LINE accounts from strangers who never message again. A field report on the great tatemae friendship performance, and why I've finally stopped pretending.
Ordering hot food at a Japanese convenience store should be simple. But dare to ask for three pieces of fried chicken and watch the entire konbini counter reboot into existential shock.
Japanese online reviews are a masterclass in tatemae: glowing paragraphs of praise attached to a savage 2/5 rating. Welcome to the most passive-aggressive scoring system on Earth.
Umbrella etiquette in Japan is a nationwide referendum on the weather, held hourly, in which half the country votes for rain that isn't happening. A field guide to the great Tokyo umbrella panic.
Japanese football fan culture has a fascinating quirk: the national team only exists when it wins. Lose, and the entire tournament is quietly erased from history. A field report on selective national pride.
Understanding tatemae vs honne is the single most important bit of cultural knowledge you can have in Japan. It is the difference between living here and being managed here.
Why does Japanese food culture treat British food like a war crime when nobody here has actually eaten any of it? A rant about the smuggest culinary inferiority complex on earth.