Noah Oskow

A reconstructed land-use map of Edo, with gridded categories including rice paddies, upland fields, tea fields, villages, samurai land, Edo castle, temple/shrine land, etc...

Rice paddies, upland/tea fields comprise just over 48 percent of the land use. way more agrarian than I had imagined!

(Given I've also recently interpreted with a JP individual in lock-up because of crimes abroad, this was an especially funny thing to hear.)

Speaking of that arch-right-wing figure I recently interpreted an interview with, this was something else he insisted: that while foreigners in Japan are inherently criminal, Japanese people abroad commit exactly "no crimes."

It's like poetry. It rhymes.

Wait, two 2025 Oscar-nominated films are period pieces about self-destructive men in sports with put-upon romantic partners traveling to Japan to compete in a big event? And the film that actually put effort into properly portraying Japan in its period era is the vastly superior film? Huh.

The Simpsons has been running for over a decade longer than the One Piece anime, but has almost 350 fewer episodes.

The current Japanese workforce will not be able to supply the labor required for increased nursing care needs as the population continues to age. If "human hands" are the prerequisite for dignified care of the elderly, AI and automation will not meaningfully fill that gap.

I was the interpreter on an extensive project with an EU government wherein we visited numerous Japanese nursing care facilities, tech labs, and government offices to discuss automation in elder care. What we heard again and again was that Japanese culture demands "human hands" for humane care.

Is AI going to replace construction workers? Nursing care staff? Even with convenience stores, which can already function to some degree without floor staff, we've seen a resistance to full automation.

Japan's Ramen Shops Repel Women. One Store Wants to Change That - Unseen Japan 70% of women surveyed in Japan don't feel comfortable going into a ramen shop alone. Here's why - and how one store plans to fix it.

Ramen shops in Japan have a "boys club" problem: 70% of Japanese women surveyed say they'd hesitate to enter a ramen joint alone. Here's how one store is creating a friendlier atmosphere and menu to break ramen's male-coded image.

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YouTube video by Unseen Japan Kitano Takeshi: The Complete Ranked Filmography

In 1990, Kitano Takeshi’s 1st directorial outing emerged shockingly fully formed. In filmographies, first films are usually very hit-or-miss. Violent Cop is different; it’s everything you’d expect from Kitano, boiled down to his components. Learn more in our full ranking!
youtu.be/uDB5mZfzSEc

Magical combat in the 1903 Méliès extravaganza THE KINGDOM OF THE FAIRIES. Every frame was hand-colored, Méliès arranged a bespoke score, and advertisements boasted of REAL WATER EFFECTS

Cashless Payment in Japan: What's Available & How to Use It - Unseen Japan Wanna use cashless payment in Japan? You have options. Almost too many, in fact. Here's what's available - for both tourists and residents.

As the first step in the partnership, the companies will also soft-launch PayPay in the US in states such as California. It's a big move for the Japanese company, which dominates the field of cashless payment services in Japan.

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The 1984 WHEN THE US WINS, YOU WIN promotion was an unexpectedly costly one for McDonald’s when the Soviet Union and 13 eastern bloc countries boycotted the Summer Olympics in LA and the US dominated in unprecedented fashion. 174 medals, 83 golds… that’s a lot of Big Macs!

Visit Spots in Japan Most Tourists Can't - Unseen Japan Tours - Unseen Japan Experience Japan with the Japan experts. Book your tour today with Unseen Japan Tours for a unique, guided experience.

Want to make your visit to Japan this hanami season one you'll never forget? Let Unseen Japan Tours show you places off the beaten path that tourists often can't access.

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Don’t forget Captain Frasier Crane!

A nightsoilman working his trade in 1870s Tokyo.

Even after World War II, when prostitution was outlawed, Tokyo's Shinjuku has remained Japan’s biggest red light district, in both a legal and illegal sense. However, before the war, the area also took on a less-than-appealing appellation: “The Anus of Tokyo” (東京の肛門).

Article from Asahi Shimbun. JP headline: 杉田水脈氏が大阪5区で落選、比例復活もなし　首相との近さアピール

One person didn't benefit from yesterday's blowout LDP victory in the Japanese Lower House election: Sugita Mio. The militantly bigoted LDP member lost her election in Osaka's 5th District and failed to make the cut for a proportional representation seat.

5 story pagoda looking very red against a white snowy sky. Copious snowflakes visible against the color, like an ukiyoe but real.

Sensnowji™️

Wrong

Tokyo Noir by Jake Adelstein | Book A darkly comic sequel to Tokyo Vice that is equal parts history lesson, true-crime exposé, and memoir. It’s 2008, and it’s been a while since Jake Adelstein...

BREAKING🚨 Tadamasa Goto, Japan's most vicious #yakuza boss has reportedly died
Financial genius and sociopath–he sold out his own gang to obtain a liver transplant at UCLA, depriving hard-working honest Americans of a chance to live. And he helped do the same for 3 more yakuza
🪦

bit.ly/4rDdu55

I’ve heard so much praise for this one. Will have to check it out at some point!

New edited volume focuses on the student movement at Kyoto University in the late 1960s. Contributors include some big names like Ukai Satoshi, Fujihara Tatsushi, Ueno Chizuko, Fuke Takahiro. www.seidosha.co.jp/book/index.p...

Someone wearing a Lithuania Olympics uniform by Issey Miyake. There's a cape across the back that says "Lithuania." Also pleated, flowy sleeves, puffy chest, cinched torso, and close fitting shirt below the waist point. Wearer has metallic pants and white sneakers.

The hood on the uniform is pleated, so it has lines everywhere. The hood is half zipped, so it's covering part of the person's face.

Bunch of athletes in the Lithuania Olympics uniform. The capes across the banks say "Lithuania." There's a Olympics logo on the seat.

Similarly shaped Olympics uniforms for different countries, so they feature different colors in accordance with those countries.

Lithuanian Olympic uniforms by Issey Miyake for the 1992 games in Barcelona. This was Lithuania's first time in the Olympics after gaining independence from the Soviet Union. Fabric was cut and shaped using heat, not scissors or sewing machines.

The Colonization of Hokkaido: How a "Foreign" Frontier Became Japan - Unseen Japan How a mysterious frontier island peopled by "barbarians" became one of the four main islands of Japan - and how the original inhabitants suffered as a result.

Hokkaido has only truly been part of the Japanese mainland for the past 150 years. Who lived there before its colonization by the Japanese? And how do the island’s indigenous people, the Ainu, fare today?

It actually happened!

More of the beautiful 2026 Tokyo snowpocalypse, as seen from Shinjuku. Some major train shutdowns now in effect.

Snowy Tokyo is real! ❄️

The Minnesotan in me is hoping this Tokyo snowfall actually comes to pass.

Next year the PlayStation 3 will be older than the NES was when the PS3 launched.