Uchikura & Co Blog
2026-01-31
Up and Down — How Japan’s Railways Still Point to Edo One thing that often surprises visitors to Japan is how railway directions are described. Trains don’t just go “east” or “west.” Instead, they ...
2026-01-31
This is a video of me riding a train from Tokyo to Shinjuku. The train is full—every seat is taken, and quite a few people are standing. Please excuse the video. In Japan, I avoid filming people wh...
2026-01-31
Why Japan’s Streets Are Clean — And It’s Not Because of the Government I walked this morning starting around 8:00 a.m. from my hotel near Tokyo Station to Akihabara Station, two stations away. It w...
2026-01-30
Why Do Hotels Have a $300 Hair Dryer (ReFa)? If you’ve stayed at a decent hotel in Japan—or visited an onsen, super sento, or public bath—you may have noticed something unusual: a hair dryer that c...
2026-01-30
Japan Should Be Japan — Not a Product of Globalization Tokyo is in the middle of an election season.Yet, when you walk through the streets of the city, you hardly feel it. There are no loud political...
2026-01-29
Silence That SpeaksYesterday, I arrived at Tokyo Station after a 2.5-hour Shinkansen ride from Shin-Osaka.During the entire journey, I did not hear a single loud voice. Not one. People checked thei...
2026-01-28
Japanese Credit Cards Don’t Actually Sell “Credit” In Japan, almost everyone has a credit card. Whether it’s VISA, Mastercard, or JCB, they’re an essential part of daily life and business. However, th...
2026-01-28
Hot Drinks in Japanese Vending Machines One of the small but telling differences between Japan and the United States is vending machines. In Japan, vending machines sell hot drinks.Not just coffee,...
2026-01-28
A Japanese Proverb the World Should UnderstandThere is a Japanese proverb:“Hito no furi mite, waga furi naose.” It literally means, “Look at others’ behavior and correct your own.”But its true mean...
2026-01-27
A Small Courtesy in the Sky Yesterday, on a short flight from Narita to Itami in Osaka, I noticed something quietly meaningful. The flight was only about an hour on a Boeing 737-800, but what impre...