Every country has their pop culture icons. While most fade into obscurity outside their homeland, there are those hailing from media strongholds that represent their nation to the rest of the world, for better or worse. Australia had Crocodile Dundee and the late Steve Irwin, Britain has Dr. Who and James Bond, and the United States has a massive legion of comic book super heroes. Japan is no stranger to this either, as in the past 25 years the world has seen a flood of animated and video game characters saturating the pop culture of our own respective countries. Yet before the coming of Pikachu and Sailor Moon, Japan had one star already well established.

There is something about the animation work of Hayao Miyazaki that captures the imagination. The artwork, the stories, the myth all combine into timeless works of animated cinema. Much of this comes from the core concepts and ideals that Hayao Miyazaki uses when making his films. In many ways the process is just as interesting as the final result. But to see how his mind works you have to take a journey to the outskirts of Tokyo and visit the Studio Ghibli Museum.

Asian movies are the reason I am in Japan today. I was 13 when I first saw the anime Akira, and ever since then I have constantly searched for more and more obscure and unique Asian films. In high school I was always trying to get my friends to watch them so they could understand why I was so obsessed. I guess you could say I’m an Asian movie otaku. Scouring the Internet and finding hidden gems is a massively rewarding experience, though sometimes turkeys do crop up. After years and years of searching for the greatest Asian films, I’ve compiled the ones I consider to be the very best into this brief guide.

Last weekend I ate dolphin. Wait! Where are you going? Let me explain. I did not set out to eat dolphin. I went to an international exchange barbecue hosted by my friend in Osaka. The participants came from Japan, America and Australia. We all brought food and drinks for one another, and learned how to play cricket. We fired up the grill and started throwing on what we brought, and one of the Australians said, “I have a bit of dolphin in the cooler if you want to try.”

Hate anime with the fire of 10,000 burning suns? Well so do we, yet we still managed to find a few that were good. Give it a second chance by checking out a few of these recommendations.

Teams from around Hiroshima-ken worked together to create an eclectic mix of films for this year’s 4th annual Fukuyama Let’s Film Festival on May 30. We received seven entries, including one from an ex-JET in Tokyo and the festival’s first entry from our neighbors in Okayama-ken.

When I think back on what drew me to Japanese studies, I can`t help but chuckle. It was a scene from Natsume Souseki`s Kokoro, a novel about a young man who befriends an aged teacher known only as “Sensei.” This scene contains all the quietude and pathos that novice Japanophiles crave: a pair of run-down teahouses on a rocky stretch of beach; gulls shrieking over the calm black sea; a lonely old man at the water`s edge, rinsing salt from his bathing costume and humming a Japanese folk song under his breath. This is what I want, I thought. Give me more of this.