It was 2PM in Osaka, and I was staring a pair of socks to death from the window of a shop in Tsuruhashi. This was…
She beams at me expectantly. I look back confused and unsure of what she is saying. Damn I wish I spoke Japanese. I step onto…
My capsule hotel had bigger beds and cheaper rates than anything else in the area, but it didn’t have walls around its showers. So as…
Together with a flood of Japanese businessmen on their way home, I leave the train station and embark on a journey through Tokyo’s suburbia. It’s…
People travel for different reasons. Recreation, junket, mental health. And many trips are shaped by certain frameworks that guide or sustain a certain version of…
Cover by Takahiro Taguchi Dotombori, 10 pm. The street was neon-drenched and the soundtrack was synthetic saccharine J-pop. I stepped into a bar. “Irashaimase!”, shouted…
I stare out the plane window at the twinkling lights in the darkness below. That’s Japan down there. Hitting the ground feels like victory: a…
When countries outside of Japan started to realise that Lolita fashion was a thing, I was still a kid, busy tottering around the house in…
Right now, I should be in absolute shock and wonderment. I’m sitting comfortably in the rental home of three elderly Japanese people, who have just…
The inner workings of Toby Paramor, founder of Stoke Travel and a dear friend to all at Global Hobo, is a mystery to many. Does he…
The plates circulated like a runway at fashion week, except instead of haute couture, the models were dressed in shades of raw fish, and instead…
I was in the Tokyo suburb of Shibuya when I first laid eyes on one. Nothing about my bright and hectic surroundings felt familiar to…
