Last July I went to Ueno Park for the annual Sakura Taisen Midsummer Festival. The Taisho steampunk dating sim (I mean “dramatic”) adventure franchise turns 30 this year and these annual performances anchored by Shinguji Sakura voice actress Yokoyama Chisa…
“You want nuts? Let’s get nuts.” Bruce Wayne, Philanthropist We covered the creation and historic background of Japanese militia troops in our last episode, this time I’m looking at simple kitbashes with Warlord’s Ashigaru Missile Troops and Perry Miniatures…
In a city with over a million people, where do you put them all? Tokyo’s upper class had their estates and mansions, and the merchants had their townhouse businesses that lined the busy streets. As for commoners, many lived in…
A new exhibition has brought a culture even more ancient than Japan’s to Fukuoka. The Brooklyn Museum’s “Unraveling the Secrets of Ancient Egypt” is going on now at the Fukuoka Art Museum. The exhibit explores the land of…
“If the enemy chooses to attack the mainland a combined force of 100 million Tokko, special attack soldiers, will obliterate them. They will, with absolute certainty, defend this imperial land.” National Resistance Manual, as published in the Chubu Nihon newspaper…
In 1878, Japan was becoming a modern nation freeing itself of its feudal past. But what should be done with the men who fought and died to make that modern nation a reality, the samurai? In Last Samurai Standing, hundreds…
Sasebo’s Shimanose Art Center opened its latest exhibition, “Waltz on the Western Edge,” on Oct. 31, 2025. As a coastal city, the ocean has always been vital to Sasebo’s livelihood and its place on Kyushu’s western edge has put it…
I like to visit Sasebo’s former naval cemetery at Highasi Park from time to time, looking at ship memorials and enjoying the changing seasons there. It’s Japan’s largest naval cemetery and since the first burials in 1892, it’s kept alive…
This is my first “editorial” style of article in awhile. While I did research these topics, I feel it’s a bit too casual to be called a proper article. This is especially true when I talk about Golden Week and…
The suicidal kamikazes were the Japanese empire’s last ditch effort to slow advancing Allied forces. Viewed as tragic heroes today, most of them sortied out from Kyushu and many of the former kamikaze bases have sprouted memorial hall museums and…