PAANTU FESTIVAL (パーントゥ)
A terrifying tradition on Miyako-jima sees 3 men dress as monsters and wander the town smearing mud on anyone and anything they see
NAKI SUMO: The Crying Baby Festival
This bizarre annual festival sees two sumo wrestlers hold a baby in a face off with the first to cry winning a blessing of good health
DOAI EKI: Japan’s creepiest station
The Silent Hill-esque platform at Doai Eki, situated between Gunma and Niigata prefectures, is 70m below the surface and enough to give anyone nightmares
MINAKAMI ONSEN, GUNMA
Minakami is a small town in Gunma famed for having the most beautiful onsen in the Kanto region
ERO-GURO NANSENSU
Ero-guro nansensu, was a movement that began in the 1930s and took its name from the English words Erotic, Grotesque Nonsense. It reached into all aspects of Japanese media, culture and art and continues in an adapted form today
JAPAN’S MOST WANTED
Visit any Koban in Japan and you’ll be met with the same faces staring back at you – a wall of wanted posters, or Shimei Tehai (指名手配), showing the rewards offered for Japan’s most dangerous fugitives
NAKAGIN CAPSULE: an endangered species
With demolition looking increasingly likely, we take a look at Kurokawa Kisho’s paragon of Metabolist design
SAYAMA HILLS: Miyazaki’s world on the edge of Tokyo
Escape the noise of Tokyo and reconnect with nature in the park that inspired Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro
ELEMENTAL CHURCHES: Tadao Ando’s holy trinity
Wind, water & light - the three churches that contributed to the rise of architectural luminary Tadao Ando
JIMBOCHO: the heart of Tokyo’s book scene
Lose yourself exploring second hand stores in Tokyo’s book heaven
SUN TRIBE: The disillusioned youth of postwar Japan
The mid 1950s exploration of youth, nihilism & sex that sent older generations into a state of complete moral panic
OKUTAMA: An interface between nature & architecture
Look no further than a non-descript fire station in Okutama to see the symbiosis between nature & architecture that runs to the core of Japanese design