Tokyo Curiologue

A Familiar Sight Across Japan One of the highlights of a trip to Tokyo is Sensō-ji. After passing through Kaminarimon and walking through the lively Nakamise shopping street toward the temple, there is a spot where many people stop in their tracks. A tall, beautiful building glowing in vermilion rises on your left. It is a five-story pagoda, or gojū-no-tō in Japanese Its impressive presence and beauty make it one of the area’s top photo spots. It is beautiful during the day, of course, but also at night when it is illuminated. As you walk around Asakusa, you will often come across both Japanese and foreign visitors taking pictures of it just as enthusiastically as they photograph Kaminarimon and the main hall. Now, after enjoying this beautiful piece of traditional Japanese architecture in Asakusa, some visitors may head to Ueno, just one station away. As you stroll through the lush greenery of Ueno Park, another imposing multi-tiered tower appears among the trees. Yes, this is anothe...

In December 2025, the Japanese government revised its rules for writing Japanese in the Roman alphabet for the first time in about 70 years, adopting Hepburn-style romanization (Hepburn-shiki) as the basic system in place of Kunrei-shiki. The romanization used in official documents and school education will gradually be changed accordingly. A change to the way Japanese is written may sound like a major news story. In practice, however, the impact on everyday life is not particularly large. That is because many of the romanized forms we see every day in Japan—on train station signs, road signs, passports, and tourist information—have already been written using Hepburn-style romanization. In other words, for many people, a system they are already familiar with has simply become the official basic standard. This small news story offers an opportunity to introduce a foreigner whose name almost every Japanese person has heard at least once. What Is the Difference Between Kunrei-shiki and H...