What should have been a heart-wrenching meeting with plans to make changes for the future instead ended up boiling down to one poor choice of words on behalf of the superintendent.

At some point during the conversation with the boy’s father, the superintendent asked: Omae mo hogoshakai ni kuru ka? (お前も保護者会に来るか).

As Japan sizzles under its hottest summer since record-keeping began in 1880, event organisers around the country are having to come up with creative solutions to entice people outdoors and away from the comfort of their air-conditioned homes this year.

One event which might be able to do just that is Tokyo’s new Bathtub Cinema, the first of its kind in Japan, which is set to pop up at MAG’s Park on the rooftop of the revamped MAGNET by SHIBUYA109 building that overlooks the world-famous Shibuya Scramble Crossing.

Giving and receiving whether it’s objects or favors is a bit more complicated in Japanese because you need to be aware of the social status between the giver and the receiver. Basically, there are two words for giving and one word for receiving listed below.

Japan has long been famed for its unique capsule hotel accommodation, but generally speaking these tiny rooms have been for practical purposes only (read: you wouldn’t really have wanted to stay in them while on vacation, other than for novelty reasons). But over the last few years, Tokyo has dramatically upped its tiny hotel game, and new hip – sometimes even “luxurious” – capsule hotels are popping up all over the city. Here are four of our favorites…

“Edge the Harukas,” located on the roof of the 60-story, 300-meter-high Abeno Harukas building, provides a sky-high view for those brave enough to traverse the 20-meter-long ledge while tethered to the building.

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The attraction costs ¥1,000 ($9.30) per person in addition to the observatory’s ¥1,500 admission fee per adult.

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NTT Docomo on Monday announced its Japan Welcome SIM TM series will introduce Plan 0 to allow overseas visitors in Japan to access the Internet for free via the Docomo mobile network, from Tuesday. The free service will initially be available in Hokkaido and Niigata prefectures, after which other areas will be added sequentially.

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.

But down at the end of one block, there’s a sign things are changing. Scaffolding surrounds a vacant house on a corner and workers from Daiwa House are clanging away inside. They’re not demolishing the house but refurbishing it – reorganising the floor plan, knocking down walls, opening up the kitchen and enhancing the insulation. Rather than tear down the house so the next buyer can build something new, they’re rebuilding it from the inside and putting it back on the market. It’s a relatively rare commodity, but something that is increasingly common across Japan: a secondhand home.

“For the first time, Japanese people are beginning to appreciate living in older homes,” says Noboru Kaihou, a Daiwa House public information officer.