Hanten: Not a Happi, and Check What Is Inside
The padded winter one, not the thin festival coat. And if a listing says machine washable, the filling is not cotton — which is the entire point. Read More
About 12 min readGUIDES & STORIES
This archive brings together guides that explain how to choose Japanese-made products — such as “Japanese-made frying pans”, “domestic kitchen knives”, “baby tableware”, or plush toys — along with makers' stories and special features. Use it as a starting point when you want to carefully discover tools and daily essentials made in Japan.
The padded winter one, not the thin festival coat. And if a listing says machine washable, the filling is not cotton — which is the entire point. Read More
About 12 min read
France sent it to Japan in the Meiji era, the West moved to zips, and Kyoto kept fitting the frames by hand. What "to... Read More
About 12 min read
Somen is graded by how long it has been stored, the salt is already in the noodle, and the cold rinse is not optional... Read More
About 12 min read
A Portuguese cake Japan changed three ways: no butter, sunk sugar, bread flour. Two weeks of shelf life — and the old... Read More
About 12 min read
Massachusetts bans them indoors and California bans the sale. Toyotomi's answer is a direct-vent model. Plus the CO r... Read More
About 14 min read
It holds 80–120 ml, not 350, and there is no handle — because Japanese tea is not brewed at boiling. If the cup burns... Read More
About 12 min read
Japan exported black tea for a century, then fell from 2,000 tons to 3 in six years. What came back is sweet, low in ... Read More
About 13 min read
Pressed from one sheet with no welded seams, and sold by a company whose slogan is "dreams will not rust". Why that p... Read More
About 12 min read
Textured washi and fountain pens fight each other. And formal Japanese letter paper is ruled vertically, which Englis... Read More
About 12 min read
Since 2018 "Japan Wine" legally means 100% Japanese-grown grapes; anything else was bottled from imported must. Plus ... Read More
About 13 min read