As you might expect from a major railway hub for one of the country’s most visited cities, Kyoto Station is filled with souvenir stores. From sweets to miscellaneous goods, there’s such a wide selection on offer you’d think they have all the main products from Kyoto in stock, so when our reporter Udonko was planning a trip to the city, she did some online research beforehand to find out which souvenirs she should buy.

As she scrolled excitedly through all the recommendations online, a question suddenly popped into her head. Out of all the many souvenirs at Kyoto Station, which would be the cheapest one to buy?

Pivoting her search to find the answer to her question, she jotted down some ideas before making her way to Kyoto Station, located beneath the iconic Kyoto Tower.

Kyoto Station is directly connected to various complexes such as the Isetan department store building, Kyoto Theatre, and an underground shopping mall, but as this was way too much ground to cover, Udonko limited her

Eruptions from an undersea volcano have apparently created an islet in the Ogasawara island chain more than 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean, officials said.

Princess Kako attended a ceremony on Saturday marking 110 years of women attending universities in Japan.
Tohoku Imperial University, the predecessor of Tohoku University in Sendai, opened its doors to three women in 1913, who became the first female university students in Japan.

During the event held at Tohoku University's Kawauchi campus, the princess, the second daughter of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, said that the admission of the three women 110 years ago was an "important step" in women's education.

She voiced her hope for a society in which all people are offered a wide range of life choices.

Princess Kako returned to Tokyo on Friday after recovering from COVID-19. She tested positive during a visit to Tottori Prefecture that began on Sept. 23.

Keio won its first National High School Baseball Championship in 107 years, defeating defending champion Sendai Ikuei 8-2 on Wednesday at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture. The final of the 105th tournament, held in front of 42,100 spectators, saw Keio Senior High School of Kanagawa Prefecture handle Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School, denying the Miyagi Prefecture team of becoming just the seventh school to repeat as champion.

Japanese language, a language isolate (i.e., a language unrelated to any other language) and one of the world’s major languages, with more than 127 million speakers in the early 21st century. It is primarily spoken throughout the Japanese archipelago; there are also some 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and their descendants living abroad, mainly in North and South America, who have varying degrees of proficiency in Japanese. Since the mid-20th century, no nation other than Japan has used Japanese as a first or a second language.

Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples are dotted around Japan—but how are they different?

Shrines are built to serve the Shinto religious tradition and are characterized by a torii gate at the entrance. Temples are built to serve the Buddhist religious tradition and are characterized by a sanmon gate at the entrance. Large sanmon gates at temples like the Todaiji Temple in Nara or the Sensoji Temple in Tokyo have impressive roofs and fierce temple guardian statues known as niozo in their columns.
Shrines
Pass through to holy ground

All shrines have a torii gate, even if they do not have a main sanctuary housing the spirit of a deity. A torii gate is the boundary line between holy ground and the secular world. Bowing once in front of the torii gate is the correct—if not always practiced—way to enter. It is customary not to walk through the gate directly in the exact center. Walk through a little to the left or right of the center path.
Purify your hands and mouth

At the temizuya

Hanetsuki (Japanese: 羽根突き or 羽子突き) is a Japanese traditional game, similar to racket games like badminton but without a net, played with a rectangular wooden paddle called a hagoita and a brightly coloured shuttlecock, called a hane. Often played by girls at the New Year, the game can be played by any gender in two fashions: by one person attempting to keep the shuttlecock aloft as long as possible, or by two people batting it back and forth. Players who fail to hit the shuttlecock get marked on the face with India Ink. Traditionally, the longer the shuttlecock remains in the air, the greater protection from mosquitoes the players will receive during the coming year. Although hanetsuki is not as popular as it used to be, decorative hagoita are commonly sold throughout Japan. The game is also known as ...