I was recently asked if it is better to move to the countryside in order to learn real Japanese. My answer was, "Wakaran!" ("I don't know!") I moved to a small island in the Seto Inland Sea in the ...

A constant fixture of National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek’s journey through rural Japan was the whirligig, or as he called them, “seismic scarecrows.” Gardeners he spoke to use these ...

a cosy-looking indie game (albeit with a cheeky BMX-ing tanuki), which you might assume has Ghibli vibes just because of its setting in the Japanese countryside and anime aesthetic, but certainly ...

A rural primary school in Japan has enrolled a baby goat as its only new “student”, delighting pupils and amusing mainland social media. Due to declining birth rates and population outflow ...