I’ve always been a model citizen. Not a church boy, but just enough so my moral compass feels I’m benefitting the world in some fashion….
As kids, Mum would tell us, “Don’t talk to strangers.” But living in Tokyo for a month, I thought I’d be spontaneous, so I searched…
Content warning: This piece discusses self-harm, suicide and mental health. In Japan, a country known for its conformity, the backstreets of Tokyo reject and rebel….
I ate nothing but onigiri and edamame for five days and nearly lost my mind A wildly distorted account of surviving on green beans, confronting…
To the last man standing. To the big night out. The party isn’t over if the music’s still playing. Who did I get that cigarette…
He bumbles aimlessly through the station, his sandy brown hair a beacon, head and shoulders above the tide of mostly black. He has no passport…
Clack, Clack, Clack. I press my teeth together as I sit on a stool in the tiny, five-person bar. The edges of my vision blur…
It’s a Monday night and I’m standing in a bar bedecked with crushed crimson velvet, staring at a phallic mound of vibrating silicone. I’m in…
When I asked my brother what advice he had for me for my trip to Japan I expected him to suggest an ornate shrine, a…
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…
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 was in the Tokyo suburb of Shibuya when I first laid eyes on one. Nothing about my bright and hectic surroundings felt familiar to…
