Inakadate, the village in northern Japan’s Aomori prefecture famous for their rice paddy art, today unveiled their latest creation. The seeds of their labor, which were planted in June, have now grown and filled out the canvas, rendering versions of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and Seiki Kuroda’s “Lakeside,” which depicts his wife Taneko Kaneko.

Western people perceive the smile as a sign of a positive approach while Russians necessarily identify the smile with laughter. Western people perceive a smiling person as "happy" and "well-off" person. For Russians happiness and prosperity are not associated with the smile, at least not to the extent they are in the United States. A happy person is not obligated to smile. On the other hand, the smiling man is not necessarily happy or more prosperous than anyone else. Sometimes these states coincide, sometimes not.

This story has been doing the rounds since 1996, and it has never been verified. It seems to have first appeared in a book called Competing For The Future by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad, and by “appeared” I mean it was just made up. The authors never provided a source. None of the authors who have referred to the experiment in the past eighteen years have provided a source either. None of the appealing memes or infographics that describe the story now provide a source. Suffice to say, there is no source, because the experiment never happened.

Well, actually, there are a ton of different ways to say “father” in Japanese, and what better day to take a look at them than today?

"Today" being yesterday, the third Sunday in June, or Father's Day (父の日).

Japan’s National Theatre has risen to the occasion after the cancellation of Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura (Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees), which was originally scheduled to open for audiences in Tokyo on March 3 of this year. Instead, the performance, sans audience, will be posted to the theatre’s online YouTube channel. In fact, the play, split into three videos, is available for viewing right now, and will be free to watch to your heart’s content until April 30, 3:00 p.m. JST.

Time is seen in a particularly different light by Eastern and Western cultures, and even within these groupings assumes quite dissimilar aspects from country to country.

The Kabuki Play Guide provides synopses and highlights of major works in the Kabuki canon for those interested in learning more about Kabuki theater.

A handy dictionary of kabuki terms, plays and characters from the Japan Arts Council.

Saw my first live kabuki performance today in Tokyo and absolutely loved it.

In Japan, small children take the subway and run errands alone, no parent in sight. The reason why has more to do with social trust than self-reliance.