Greetings dear Chroniclers,Today, February 3, is Setsubun in Japan, also known as the Bean Throwing Festival.(Photo by Alimughni on Freepik)Setsubun marks the beginning of spring and a time of new beginnings.The word mame (bean) also sounds like sayi...

Greetings dear Chroniclers,Do you set resolutions for the new year? I haven't for some time now, instead I've picked themes and larger projects I'd like to work on. This year I chose "Play" the Japanese concept of "Ma". I chose Play because I need to...

Greetings dear Chroniclers,Do you enjoy venturing out to see the lights for Christmas and holiday displays? It's my favorite winter outing.In 2024, my husband and I spent time in Japan in early December. Hard to believe that was already a year ago. J...

Greetings dear Chroniclers,Are you looking forward to Halloween, too? I have candy ready for the trick-or-treaters. (And I'm doing well so far at not snitching any!) The weather should be good for our neighborhood kids this year, so I stocked up wel...

Greetings dear Chroniclers,Spooky season is upon us! So I thought I'd share some of my favorite Japanese ghosts from one of the best English resources Matthew Meyer's yokai.com.The first is fudakaeshi, a ghost who tempts people to remove the protecti...