Culture

Lockdown has got us all wishing we had a furry companion at home. Don’t we all wish we had a little creature around that we can show off at our...

“Have you ever been curious about the daily life of a Japanese student?” In Japan, it is mandatory to go to elementary for 6 years and junior...

The consistent occurrence of earthquakes in Japan has made the country a geographical nightmare for natural disasters. One-tenth of the world's earthquakes occur in and around Japan. On average, the...

The image of James Dean leaning against a wall in a white t-shirt, red jacket and rolled-up jeans is iconic. Rebel Without A Cause’s “bad boy from a good family”...

What happens when things break? Most of us throw that thing away, but is it time to consider a different approach? One that instead fosters adaptation and...

From Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) to Hadaka Matsuri (the Naked Festival), Japan has always been known to celebrate festivals and traditions in its own unique way. Therefore, it may not...

Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the most anticipated video games of all time. Set in the futuristic megalopolis of ‘Night City’ (on the Californian coast), the first-person...

Happy 2021! As England plunges into its third lockdown, many of us may be finding it hard to accept this is how we begin the new year. If your days...

Japan is a design powerhouse, we’ll all been left in awe at the artful conceptions brought to life by Japan’s architects. From minimalist sleek surfaces to naturalistic representations of...

From a tiny city south of Osaka, comes 200 years’ worth of tradition in the artisan creation of fude, or brushes. A beauty enthusiast’s dream - Kumano has become the...

2021 will hopefully be the year where life (semi) gets back to normal. The adventure of moving to Japan is now a reality as student visas and working holiday visas...

Have you ever experienced the Japanese countryside? If you happen to come across Akita Inaka School, located in Kosaka, then off the beaten track, you went. The school opened its...

As Japan moves forward with the recommencing of work and student visas, an optimistic feeling of adventure can not reframe from filling our hearts. A feeling we have all missed...

In 1981, a 250-year-old juniper bonsai tree reportedly sold for a mind-blowing $2,000,000 US dollars, but a picture remains to be found. More recently, in 2011, a white pine bonsai...

Japan often flexes its muscles as a tech-savvy nation with break-dancing robots and toilet/computer seats being the forefront of its technological advancements. It turns out, Japan in the 90s isn't...

Get 20% off your first Kokedama plant at Handspun Botanics, using the code JAPAN20. It was on a cold, dreary October morning when a sharp knock on the door...

Across the globe, dating app users have shot up like crazy since COVID-19 knocked on our doors. The use of dating apps in Japan was already rising as 2019 showed...

If you aren’t greeted by a wagging tail and a booming bark when you enter the door, you are living in a house, not a home. The Architecture for Dogs...

2015 was a moment in history that changed Japanese whisky forever. (And yes – it is whisky without the “e”, spelt the same way as its closest neighbour, Scotch whisky)....

Dating in Japan can be tricky at the best of times!  Getting a foreign perspective is handy before arriving as It's easy to come off as rude or out of place when trying to impress a cute local who...

Ahh, don’t we all love Shiba Inus - renowned for its handsome, fox-like looks, the Shiba Inu (柴犬) has shot up in fame in recent years, becoming one of the...

Set in feudal Japan (during the Kamakura period) in the late 13th century, the Ghost of Tsushima is an open-world, third-person, action-adventure samurai game, released exclusive to PlayStation 4 (PS4)...

Five months or so since we were trapped inside our homes, the global pandemic left us all in a state of wanderlust -- having a strong desire to travel and...

The Auteur Coinciding with the BFI’s major season on Japanese cinema, we here at Japan Nakama have aspired to...

In our last filmic review, we discussed the transcendent efforts of the late Akira Kurosawa to distinguish the intricacies of human fallibility in his seminal crime drama, Rashomon. Dissecting the...

Green tea is deeply entrenched in Japanese culture, history and tradition. Tea ceremonies were a universal aspect of everyday life in Japan; from feudal lords settling political...

Kamakura is Japan’s former capital city located in the Kanagawa Prefecture, which is 1.5hours away from central Tokyo by train. This traditional city is famous for being...

Akira Kurosawa is arguably the most well-known and celebrated filmmaker in Japanese cinematic history, bar perhaps one Yasujiro Ozu. With a prominent style and narrative diversity that has duly inspired...

With an endless array of captivating cinema dating back to 1894, Japanese films make up one of the largest, oldest and universally admired film industries in the...

Japan rightly holds the reputation as being one of the tastiest and most popular cuisines on the planet. But while many across the globe stuff themselves silly with irresistible Japanese...

Next level soundsystem music is flowing through Vomitspit, the Japanese record label run by the dubstep demons, Dayzero and Karnage. Individually, the duo’s tectonic tunes have been released worldwide on...

Japan doesn’t immediately spring to mind as a literary hub. Its popular culture is usually hidden under the canopy of anime, Harajuku style and kawaii souvenirs; but there is a...

Whether you like to unwind in front of a Studio Ghibli film, lose yourself in the fantastical worlds of Haruki Murakami’s novels, or gobble up succulent sushi until your bank...

As we all wrestle with living through the lockdown in our homes we make sure to nail down a routine that keeps us sane, be it finding new recipes, being...

Japanese musical innovator, Ryuichi Sakamoto, has recorded a touching live performance for those in isolation around the world. Special guest, Hidejiro Honjoh, joins the session with his shamisen expertise. Sakamoto...

We're big fans of Japanese music as you may have noticed. At Nakama, we've promoted Japanese Ongaku Yoru in London and always swap tracks with each other on new finds...

WHEN we think of America we think of burgers. When we think of the UK, Tea, and when we think of Japan we think...

Almost nine months after the launch of the #MeToo movement, questions relating to its impact – whether the campaign has gone too far;...

Kamon are Japanese emblems or symbols used to identify the ancestral bloodlines of samurai warriors and Japanese nobility. Kamons are an example of Japanese...

Double Method, by photographers Tokyo Rumando and Hideka Tonomura, their exhibition takes a truly intimate look at the concept of reality through the eyes...

With a focus on time and perception, London-based artists Iyamari’s UK debut exhibition ‘Stay-’ aims to construct a model of ‘a moment’ and human...

As early as the eighth century, Japan’s Sakura season has been celebrated annually between the months of March and May,...

We've gathered some of the funniest moments from Japanese Comedy Prank Shows, Comedy Sketches and Game shows. You'll just never guess what they get away with in Japan, Hillarious! Japanese...