Spooks and kooks on a Japanese island

Most Japanese schoolchildren know the kappa as a trickster who looks like a cross between a frog and a turtle with an indented head. If you're not careful, it could drag you into the river to drown. ( read original story ...)

Japan bestseller ‘Honeybees’ is an ode to creatives

Riku Onda’s “Honeybees and Distant Thunder” is a meandering ode to music, to the artists who create it and the nature that inspires it. The novel pops between a slew of characters as they witness breathtaking performances and nervously wait for results at the end of each round, ( read original story ...)