Unseen Japan

unseen-japan.comCustom Japan Tours & Private Guides - Unseen Japan ToursCustom Japan itineraries and expert private guides. Skip the crowds and see the authentic Japan most tourists miss.

24 June

See a side of Japan most tourists never discover. Unseen Japan Tours designs itineraries based on your interests and connects you with Japanese-fluent guides who can take you places non-Japanese speakers can't access. unseen-japan.com/unseen-japan...

unseen-japan.comTako! How Did "Octopus" Become a Japanese Insult? - Unseen JapanDid someone just call you an "octopus"? How "tako" became both a fish and an insult in Japanese (spoiler alert: it involves samurai).

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"Tako" is Japanese for octopus, as in takoyaki. It's also an all-purpose insult for an idiot, one that goes back to Japan's Edo era. According to one writer, some women even list their husbands as "tako" in their phone contacts.

unseen-japan.comBeyond Blurred Lines: Tokyo Art Exhibition Draws Backlash Over Explicit Images of MinorsOne of Tokyo's ritziest hotels found itself in hot water over an art gallery exhibition that featured material sexualizing children.

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A gallery inside Tokyo's Imperial Hotel pulled works depicting young girls after guest complaints. The show's curator didn't seem surprised: "If anything, it's remarkable it lasted even three days."

unseen-japan.comOverwhelmed Tourist Spot in Japan Closes After Only One WeekExactly what caused this crater lake destination to close down after just one week? In a nutshell, operation difficulties.

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When Kusatsu's Yugama crater lake reopened on October 13 after more than eight years off-limits, nearly 300 people lined up on opening day. Within a week, the town had shut it again.

unseen-japan.comVegetarian in Japan? Watch Out for the Fish StockWhile Japanese cuisine might seem vegetarian-friendly on the surface, one of its most common seasonings is fish-based and hard to spot.

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NEW: Eating vegetarian or vegan in Japan? Even if a dish doesn't contain meat, dashi broth renders most dishes off-limits. Read about how more restaurants in Japan are accommodating plant-based eaters and how to plan your meals when visiting.

unseen-japan.comKanazawa: The Five Mesmerizing Landmarks You Need to See - Unseen JapanJapan's Kanazawa offers scenic views, amazing culture, and a respite from overtourism. These five places encapsulate its essence.

Kanazawa gets so much rain that locals say, "Don't forget your umbrella even if you forget your lunch box." All that humidity suits one of the city's signature industries: gold leaf. Kanazawa produces about 99% of Japan's supply.

unseen-japan.comThese Uncommon Kanji May Surprise You! - Unseen JapanJapan maintains an official list of kanji. But some "unofficial" kanji are also in common use - and chances are you know a few.

Plenty of familiar kanji fall outside Japan's official list of 2,136 standard-use characters. Take 萌, moe, the anime concept of cuteness or crushing on a character. It's also the verb "to sprout," which makes sense: it has the grass radical on top.

unseen-japan.comOverwhelmed Tourist Spot in Japan Closes After Only One WeekExactly what caused this crater lake destination to close down after just one week? In a nutshell, operational difficulties.

NEW: Yugama, the famous emerald crater lake in Japan's Kusatsu, is a sight to behold. Unfortunately, you won't be able to behold it for a while: a rush of tourism has led officials to shutter the tourist draw a mere seven days after reopening.

unseen-japan.comFree 5-day Japan trip prep - prepare like a localFive emails, five days. Everything you need to know before you fly, from what to pack to how to get around.

Closures like Yugama's catch Japan travelers off guard. Our free 5-day email series on planning your Japan trip covers all the gotchas to check before you go.

A Nippon TV crew spent a day at Tokyo Station International Clinic, where roughly 80% of patients are foreign visitors. The segment raises the question: what happens if you get sick while vacationing in Japan? Where can you go for help, and what will you pay?

Despite online rhetoric to the contrary, foreign patients aren't bankrupting Japan's hospitals. They accounted for about 1.5% of ¥88.14 billion (~$557M) in unpaid bills in one survey. Since April 2026, an unpaid bill of just ¥10,000 (~$63) can be reported to immigration.

unseen-japan.comWhat Happens If You Get Sick While Traveling in Japan?Sick in Japan? Don't panic. Learn where tourists can get care, what it costs, and why travel insurance matters.

Read more on how to prepare for the worst when traveling to Japan: buff.ly/NB927jB

Tourists in Japan pay 100% of their medical bills under jiyū-shinryō, or free-market care. Most hospitals charge the standard ¥10 (~6 cents) per point on the national fee schedule. Only 29.8% of hospitals accredited to treat international patients charge that low rate.

unseen-japan.comHow Fraudulent Bars in Kabukicho are Fleecing Customers - Unseen JapanPolice in Kabukicho are cracking down on peddlers who are pulling customers into shady bars that charge exorbitant rates.

In 2024, Tokyo police arrested 15 people accused of posing as staff of izakaya chain Torikizoku in Kabukicho. They'd tell people "Toriki" was full and steer them to "affiliated" restaurants that piled on seat fees and other extra charges.

Salmon has topped Japan's conveyor-belt sushi rankings for 15 years straight, but raw salmon wasn't really part of the Japanese diet before the 1980s. In 1985, a Norwegian delegation with a salmon surplus came to Japan, and "Project Japan" was born.

Wild-caught salmon in Japan that hasn't been frozen runs a severe risk of infection from Anisakis. A 2001 survey found the parasites in all 27 wild Japanese salmon it examined, mainly in the fatty belly meat used for sashimi. None of the 27 imported farmed samples had any.

unseen-japan.comShake (鮭) vs. Salmon (サーモン): How Norwegian Salmon Became a Sushi Staple in JapanCurious why there are two names for salmon in Japanese? There's an interesting historical (and scientific!) reason behind that.

Our full piece on shake vs. salmon and the labels to look for at a Japanese supermarket: buff.ly/m3PG7cq

Norwegian fisheries official Bjørn Eirik Olsen's market research reached three conclusions: target the expensive raw-fish market, sell on freshness, taste, texture and fat, and call it sāmon (サーモン) rather than shake (鮭), which Japan knew as a fish to cook.

unseen-japan.comJapanese Geisha and Maiko: From Past to Present - Unseen JapanDispelling some of the myths around Japanese geisha and maiko, and understanding the training, history, and evolution of geisha from the past to today.

The word "geisha" originally meant "person of the arts," and the first geisha were all men. The woman usually credited as the first female geisha, Kikuya, opened a teahouse in Edo's Fukagawa district and began training other women.

unseen-japan.comMaid Cafes vs. Con Cafes vs. Girls’ Bars: What They Are (and Whether You Can Go) - Unseen JapanThere are more kawaii cafes and bars in Japan than you can shake a stick at. Here's a guide to what each one offers.

Can you visit a maid cafe, concept cafe, or girls' bar in Japan without speaking Japanese? Maid cafe chains welcome foreigners, but some concept cafes refuse non-Japanese speakers. Here's a guide to where you can go and how each business works.

Most kanji carry two kinds of reading: on'yomi, borrowed from Chinese, and kun'yomi, the native Japanese word. 水 is sui, from Chinese, and mizu in Japanese. Why has Japanese kept this two-layered reading system that other languages dropped?

Korea once read kanji with native words too, and Vietnam built its own script out of Chinese characters. However, both ended up with one Chinese-derived reading per character. Vietnam has since dropped both Chinese characters and its custom script entirely.

unseen-japan.comWhy Did Japan Alone Keep Two Layers of Kanji Readings?Languages can be stubborn things. You can see this clearly in Japanese, where multiple layers of kanji pronunciation exist to this day.

Our full piece on how Japan ended up with multiple layers of kanji readings while other languages that used Chinese characters settled on one: unseen-japan.com/japan-kanji-...

行 has three Chinese-derived readings, and each one arrived in a different era. Go-on came first, with Buddhist sutras. Kan'on followed, with the missions to Tang China. Tō-on turned up last, in the medieval period, with Zen.

unseen-japan.comDivorced but Still Sharing a Futon: Inside Japan's "Cohabiting Divorce"As Japan's divorce rate goes down, some experts say the country is seeing a rise in couples who stay together even after they split.

One Japanese woman told a TV show she divorced her husband three years ago but continues to live with her ex-husband and their 11-year-old son under a special agreement. Their arrangement, she said, will end when their son goes to university.

In 1994, 86% of unmarried Japanese men said they used ore, the blunt, masculine way to say "I," with family and friends. By 2026, that had fallen to 42.5%.

unseen-japan.comWhy Are Fewer Japanese Men Calling Themselves "Ore"?Japan’s masculine pronoun “ore” doesn't have the juice it used to. Instead, men are choosing boku, watashi, and jibun in everyday life.

NEW: Once upon a time in Japan, men's men referred to themselves as 俺 (ore). But the times they are a-changin'. Here's why more men are abandoning the hypermasculine pronoun, and what they're opting to call themselves instead.

A woman told a Japanese advice account on X that her boyfriend was “disillusioned” after she ate yakitori straight off the skewer. His reasoning? “You’re a woman, so why aren’t you taking it off with your chopsticks?” She wrote that she thought she was about to get dumped.

Japan does have gendered dining customs. Pouring drinks and portioning out shared dishes are still treated as women’s jobs at some workplace drinking parties. Eating a skewer the way it’s served, however, isn’t one of them - and nearly all replies sided with the woman.

unseen-japan.com"You're a Woman, So Use Chopsticks": The Yakitori Fight Over How Women EatA woman says her boyfriend seemed poised to break up with her for the way she ate yakitori. Does Japan really have a gendered rule for meat on a stick?

Our full story on how yakitori became yabai for one woman: buff.ly/uWngrB7

There’s no etiquette rule behind it. One Tokyo yakitori shop warns customers the price goes up every time they pull meat off a skewer, and two surveys found most Japanese diners eat it straight from the stick.

NEW: Japan's divorce rate is going down. Some experts say that, among couples who do separate, an increasing number aren't actually separating. Here's why "cohabiting divorce" may be the country's hot new relationship trend.

unseen-japan.comJapan Is Sick to Death of Bicyclists Behaving Badly - Unseen JapanJapanese police are doling out fines to misbehaving cyclists. Many on Japanese social media say it’s about damn time.

Since April 2026, cyclists 16 and older in Japan face fines like ¥5,000 (~$32) for riding with an umbrella or ¥12,000 (~$76) for using a phone. In one survey, 21% didn't know the rules were coming. Online, however, nobody's buying that excuse.

People love to say the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) is so hard that native speakers would fail it. That's bunk. The JLPT is built for non-native speakers and is all multiple-choice, so native speakers can pass it easily.

Few pass the Kanken's top levels. Level 1 covers an astounding 6,000 or so kanji. Only 2,535 people sat it in FY2025, and just 316 passed (12.5%). Pre-Level 1 and Level 1 together drew only 1.37% of the Kanken's 1.29 million applicants.

unseen-japan.comKanji Kentei: Inside the Japanese Test That Even Japanese People Find DifficultForget the JLPT. If you want to take a truly hard Japanese test, check out the Kanji Kentei, whose highest levels have an abysmal pass rate.

We look at Kanken and whether or not you should take it: buff.ly/f0tKmBC

The test that can trip up native speakers is Japan's Kanji Kentei (漢検), or Kanken. Besides writing kanji by hand, you're tested on readings, compound structure, antonyms and synonyms, four-character idioms, homophones, and spotting miswritten characters.

unseen-japan.comThe Most Popular Castles in Japan Among Tourists - Unseen JapanWhich castles in Japan have the most fans among incoming tourists? One company ran the numbers to find out.

Osaka Castle topped a 2024 ranking of the Japanese castles most popular with foreign tourists, with Himeji second. But in a 2010 survey by Osaka's chamber of commerce, 72.9% of respondents who'd visited Himeji Castle rated it better than Osaka's.

Fully private rooms. Creative dining. All-you-can-eat meat sushi. Sounds like a good izakaya, right? Not so fast: a recent viral social media post pointed out that, taken together, this set of features reads as a warning you're about to get scammed.

Tokyo police warn that some touts pose as staff of a known chain, say it's full, and walk you to an "affiliated" shop that isn't. Shinjuku has banned touting for izakaya since 2013, but that hasn't stopped touts from running the lucrative scam.

unseen-japan.comIs That Izakaya a Trap? Japanese Eaters Say Watch Out for These Warning SignsWhat you need to know to avoid the typical izakaya traps: all about touting, snuck-in fees, and fishy business practices.

We captured Japan's advice, along with our own hard-won knowledge leading tours, so you can avoid the scam izakaya: buff.ly/FADDgdK

Japanese TV personality Takei Sō booked a business hotel for a work trip. When he got there, he found mirrored panels, a marble console, a bedside keypad, and no desk. In other words, a love hotel. It's a common trap that even Japanese travelers can fall prey to.

A 1985 legal revision made opening a registered love hotel harder, so operators built them as business hotels and converted them later. Japan called them gisō rabuhoteru, "disguised love hotels." In 2016 the government backed converting love hotels into ordinary hotels.

unseen-japan.comJapan's Love Hotels Advertising as Ordinary Hotels is Biting Travelers (Not in the Good Way)Sometimes, love hotels mask themselves as ordinary hotels. Learn the key differences and what to look for when booking your next trip.

Some love hotels now list on standard foreign lodging sites. Here's how to spot one, and when booking a love hotel may actually be the best bang for your buck (pun intended): buff.ly/A5FeE3d

The checklist goes back to at least 2019, when food blogger Yazaki wrote up a night in Shinjuku: the "fully private room" was a thin bamboo blind, the hot pot was mostly bean sprouts, and the meat sushi was bacon on rice. Then came the seat and service charges.

Japan's law doesn't define a love hotel by what it's for. It's defined by the fixtures and features, including a small lobby, a screened entrance, a front desk built to block face-to-face contact, and a kiosk that gets you to your room without meeting staff.

Under Japan's child pornography law, strengthened in 2014, illustrations of fictional characters are treated differently from material depicting the abuse of real children. Lawmakers debated covering manga and anime, but left them out.