Travel guide Tokyo

The Japanese cultivate the art of "kawaii", the cute, the harmless. In Hello Kitty's homeland, it's as much a form of artistic expression as a lucrative industry. People, animals and objects take on round, childlike features, and everything is tinted in fluorescent or pastel colors. Even the police have their own kawaii mascots.

Supermarkets open 24/7 are literally on every street corner in Tokyo. They're handy for grabbing a quick bite to eat, withdrawing cash, going to the toilet or even buying last-minute souvenirs. In the evening, they shine like beacons in the night, around which partygoers gather.

An essential part of Japanese culture, manga are comics that were first published in magazines, covering a wide range of subjects and appealing to all audiences. They are at the heart of a major industry, which is also supported by the sale of derivative products. The scale of the phenomenon extends far beyond Japan's borders.

Festivals punctuate the Japanese year. Traditionally linked to the agricultural seasons, they are now organized by temples and shrines. There's a whole range of them, but those involving an o-mikoshi are very common. The richly decorated palanquin houses the local deity for the duration of a tour of the neighborhood.

Marie Kondo, the tidying fairy, has been a bombshell abroad, but here she's an epiphenomenon as the cleanliness and tidiness sector is so saturated with stars publishing their advice. In a society of hyper-consumption, minimalism drawing on values of simplicity inspired by Zen Buddhism is increasingly appealing.

The mythical Japanese mountain and symbol of the country, Mount Fuji rises to 3,776 metres and is one of Japan's 3 sacred mountains. A place of pilgrimage sung by poets and sublimated by artists, the volcano and its near-perfect conical shape continue to fascinate. Located 100 km south-west of Tokyo, it can be seen on a clear day.

Developed with the tea ceremony, Japanese-style service elevates the art of welcoming guests to an art form. Everything revolves around the customer, who is served with care. From the shop assistant who wraps your groceries in tissue paper to the hotelier who carefully prepares futons for the night, omotenashi is pervasive throughout society.

Japan is a world leader in the robotics industry. The use of robots is all the more crucial in view of the shortage of manpower due to demographic decline. Autonomous trucks will soon be on Japanese roads. Robotization is also affecting other sectors, such as healthcare and leisure.

The "way of the gods" is a set of ancient beliefs according to which the elements of nature are inhabited by kami, deities not always benevolent, in the image of nature. Shinto long existed in symbiosis with Buddhism, but in the ^19th century the two religions were separated and Shinto became the state religion.

Access to clean toilets is easy in Japan. You'll find them in konbini, train stations and shopping malls. Most are equipped with a real dashboard with water jet, music or seat heating options. In shopping malls, they're practically beauty salons, where women put on make-up or change clothes.

The Tokaido Road is the main route between Tokyo and Kyoto. In Edo times, it was used by the lords and their retinues who travelled to Tokyo on foot. If you take the Shinkansen to Kyoto, you'll probably take the same route as the Edo travelers... or follow in their footsteps on foot near Hakone or Shizuoka.

An essential concept in Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi is made up of 2 terms: wabi, or the fullness of simplicity, and sabi, the feeling of the marks of passing time and wear. It's the art of perceiving the beauty of imperfect things, exemplified in the kintsugi technique: gluing together the pieces of a broken object with gold.