About Engawa
Engawa is an independent English-language guide to everyday Japan: what people cook and eat at home, the customs that shape daily life, the seasons and festivals of the year, and the way Japanese homes are built and lived in.
Why "Engawa"
The 縁側 engawa is the wooden veranda that runs along the edge of a traditional Japanese house, between the rooms and the garden. It is neither fully inside nor outside: a place to sit, talk with neighbours, dry persimmons or watch the rain. That in-between view, close to daily life but open to visitors, is the one we try to write from.
What we publish
Guides in four areas: Japanese home cooking, everyday culture, seasons and festivals, and homes and small spaces. Each guide explains a subject from the ground up, with practical steps where they help, and lists its sources at the end.
How guides are researched
- Public sources first: Japanese ministries and agencies (agriculture, land and housing, health, the Meteorological Agency), local governments, the Japan National Tourism Organization, museums, UNESCO and peer-reviewed research.
- Customs are described, not prescribed. Practices vary by region, family and generation; where they do, we say so.
- Every text is original. Images are free-licence or public-domain works, credited on the photo credits page.
What we don't do
- Nothing is for sale on Engawa: you will find no shop, no price lists and no affiliate links.
- We don't publish sponsored content or paid reviews.
- We don't invent experiences or quote people we haven't spoken to.
Publisher
Engawa publishes itself, under its own name, through a small editorial team. A custom described too narrowly, a wrong date or a misread source is worth pointing out; the legal notice sets out how requests are handled.
About this domain
From around 2012 until 2026, the address morethingsjapanese.com was used by a blog called More Things Japanese, which published posts on Japanese culture, food and pictures. That blog is not connected to this publication. Engawa is a new, independent site under new ownership; it does not republish the former blog's posts, photographs or comments, and it holds no data about its readers.
Addresses from the former blog now lead to the closest guide on Engawa on the same subject, or to the relevant topic page. A few former addresses are cited by Wikipedia articles; they now host new, independently written pages on the same subjects, such as Coralway and the Kengo Tarumi prize and an Okinawan New Year. Some addresses that had been taken over by unrelated content in later years have been removed and return a "gone" status.