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…
The trainee clerk at 7/11 gives me a nervous smile as she fumbles my items through the scanner. I wait for her to see the…
