Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
Global (Page 33)
Potato chips and chocolate aren’t as obvious of a choice as chips and salsa, but the Royce Confectionary Company in Japan has had a impressive amount of success with their Potato Chip Chocolate snacks. With their sweet and salty flavor combination, these little treats are uncommonly satisfying. And even if you don’t live in Japan, you’re in luck, we have a super simple recipe just for you!
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The rainy season is upon us in Tokyo, which means the smart commuter always has a fold-up umbrella in his or her bag. Their small size and portability makes them great for just-in-case days of dubious weather forecasts, but then there’s always the issue of what to do with them after you’ve used them. You can’t just fold them up and pop them dripping back into your bag, holding them by the strap usually means they end up dripping down your legs, and tossing them on the luggage rack means ta shower for the passengers below.
Until now that is. Someone has finally invented a workable solution! Introducing the Susu microfiber dry case for wet brollies!
Food, although mostly delicious, doesn’t always look beautiful. But what if food that was tasty also looked cool? Something as simple as the humble pancake, always delicious, was turned into some pretty wicked art by a few artistic chefs on the Internet. It’s definitely making us impressed and hungry!
Luigi has always played second fiddle to his brother Mario and it seems all those years of pent-up jealousy and anger have surfaced in Nintendo’s eighth edition of Mario Kart. Scores of English-language sites have already reported on what many are calling “Luigi’s Death Stare,” and all that news coverage has finally made it over to Japan, inspiring a multitude of comments by surprised Japanese gamers.
Most of us have been to a zoo at least once. As children, it’s often the highlight of a weekend–watching the prowling big cats, hearing the bellowing elephants, and petting the adorable rabbits–it’s almost too good to be true. Unfortunately, “too good to be true” may be more accurate than we want to admit.
In fact, a certain Japanese video that has recently gone viral due to its “cute” footage shows just how traumatizing zoos can be for their animal residents.
I’ve played my share of weird and psychedelic video games over the years. I’ve flown through space firing beams of energy to create musical beats while every colour of the rainbow zips by my face, played games that have sporadically erased the contents of my inventory to make me think I was losing my mind, and intentionally touched more fuzzies to get dizzier than most would ever dare.
But One Way Trip, an indie game coming to PlayStation 4 and Vita next year, looks like it’ll be one of the craziest rides I’ll ever have the pleasure of taking without giving the police cause to visit my home.
Advertising agency Dentsu recently released the results of its annual Japan Brand Survey, in which it asks people from around the world for their opinion on the country. This year’s study involved 3,600 men and women living in 17 different countries, whose responses were used to compile a list of 10 things they feel Japan does better than anywhere else in the world.
We’re not entirely sure who invented child leashes, but they have found their way to Japan and the controversy that surrounds them has been imported right alongside. Discussed widely on Japanese online parenting forums, the disputed child gear are dubbed maigo himo (literally, “lost child cord”) and have become increasingly available at online shopping sites such as Rakuten.
But no matter what you call it – be it lost child cord, leash, harness, tether, or reins – one thing’s for sure: No one can agree if they are an embarrassment or proper parenting tool.
While thoughts of the Roaring 20s typically conjure images of flappers and raucous parties, now it can also remind you of Super Mario Bros. Los Angeles jazz musicians, The Handy Dandy Boys, recently recorded a mean, jazzy version of the “Overworld BGM” theme from Super Mario Bros., complete with banjo plucking, a brass section, and a silent film-inspired, mustachioed music videothat will put a pep in your step.
Approximately 25 years ago the world was blessed with the Game Boy and the ability to play Tetris practically anywhere. And while video game technology has far surpassed the loveable green-and-black display (though Twitter is still fair game), it’s hard not to hold a soft spot in your heart for the humble Game Boy. To celebrate this quarter century-old game system, the trivia masters at DYKGaming/Normal Boots put out a video recently highlighting some pretty interesting facts about the Game Boy. Click below to read 10 Game Boy facts and watch the video about the origins of the portable machine, its creator and how much a gold-plated Game Boy costs!
Does your country have everything you need? If it doesn’t, usually the internet can provide for you. But in some specific cases, there are certain products or contraband that just aren’t allowed in a particular country. Here’s a list of 15 things that are currently not allowed, or weren’t allowed at some point!
The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil is almost upon us, folks! And if you’re a manga fan, just pick your poison to get properly revved up: the first volume of the Captain Tsubasa remix has been available since May in convenience stores all over Japan, Volume 1 of the new series Captain Tsubasa: Rising Sun just came out, and then there is the comic’s upcoming exhibition in Tokyo.
As if that weren’t enough, the Japan Professional Football League (J. League for short) has been collaborating with the über-influential soccer manga on a project called “Dream Shoot”. In it, as the name suggests, J. League players take on the challenge of bringing to life the dynamic and often over-the-top soccer moves featured in the long-running comic.
So today, we bring to you Part Three of the collaboration, in which three athletes from the Cerezo Ōsaka team reenact the “Twin Shoot”. Read on to view all three awesome videos, as well as to learn a little more about the manga series and its exhibition (because let’s face it, Flash Kicker, as it’s known in the U.S., never made it big here unlike the rest of the world). Even for a soccer newb like me, the “Dream Shoots” are a sight to behold!
While we’ve seen plenty of Attack on Titan cosplay over the past year or so, we’ve certainly never seen anything like this.
Samsung and Facebook’s Oculus VR unit are working together to create a virtual reality device powered by Samsung’s Galaxy S5 line of phones, Engadget reports. You literally plug your phone into the headset and you’re inside a “shockingly good” virtual world, the site reports.
Anyone who is a serious Star Wars fan knows that George Lucas drew heavily on old Japanese Samurai movies, mainly Akira Kurosawa, when making his space opera. Even if you aren’t that into Star Wars, just from watching the movies you can see the samurai imagery screaming out at you. Just take one look at Darth Vader and his stormtroopers and you can see it. But it isn’t simply that Lucas drew his inspiration from those movies, the whole story behind it actually has a few more moving parts then that. A new video from the YouTube channel Film School’d has illustrated that connection with some pretty sweet white board art to boot!
The E3 video game trade show is now just a couple of weeks away, and gamers the world over are getting excited. Will Rockstar Games come clean about its next project? Will Sony announce a launch date and pricing info for its new streaming service? Will the guys from Valve surprise us all by walking on stage, saying: “Episode 3. November 1,” and dropping the mic? Maybe not, but it’s fun to dream, right?
Sure, we all want to hear news of the games that have been teased over the past few months, but wouldn’t it be fun if a few more games came completely out of left field and blew us all away? With that in mind, we set our creative minds to work and came up with five video games that we wish existed, but are quite sure – perhaps for good reason – will never, ever happen.
Now, as a site that features a large amount of quirky news from Japan, we have a feeling that a fair number of our readers may be interested in anime and comics. As such, it is always a pleasure to share on our site beautiful artwork inspired by anime or comics in various forms. This time, we’ve found a collection of stunning work that combines modern anime/comic characters with a bit of antique taste — in the style of stained-glass windows! But these aren’t actual windows, although they certainly look lovely enough to be made into real works of colorful glass. They’re prints that look like stained glass, and there’s a whole lovely series of them!
Meet CHAO, the stage name of successful Japanese break dancer and member of the international extreme unicyling Team Unicycle TV. You read that right; extreme unicycling exists!
Over the course of one year, CHAO traveled to 42 countries and 121 cities, capturing footage of himself unicycling and his interactions with the locals in each spot. At the end of his journey, he put together some brilliantly-edited videos of his trip. After seeing them, you might just be inspired to start your own epic journey across the globe.
“Minecraft” is a huge, open-world sandbox game, which was released for the PC in 2009. Since then, it’s been released on other platforms, and as of February 2014, it has sold over 14 million copies on the PC, and 35 million across all the other platforms.There are various activities you perform in the game: combat, exploration, crafting, gathering items, and building things. There are no specific goals to accomplish, but there are different modes. For example, there’s Survival mode, where players have to craft items in order to build certain things. There are baddies that come out at night, and there’s a health bar that you need to check up on.
Then there’s Creative mode, in which players have the freedom to use their imaginations and build things, without worrying about health meters and bad guys.
Building in “Minecraft” is easy. You get tools, like shovels and axes, to chop down trees and cut through stone. And without a time limit or a place to go, some players have taken their creative freedom to the next level.
Red light district sushi restaurant in Tokyo shows us just how wrong we were about it
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Japanese ramen restaurants under pressure from new yen banknotes
Japan’s massive matcha parfait weighs 6 kilos, contains hidden surprises for anyone who eats it
Sandwiches fit for a sumo served up in Osaka【Taste Test】
Tokyo Tsukiji fish market site to be redeveloped with 50,000-seat stadium, hotel, shopping center
Anime girl English teacher Ellen-sensei becomes VTuber/VVTUber and NFT
Pokémon Sleep camping suite and guestrooms coming to Tokyo Hyatt along with giant Snorlax burgers
Beautiful Red and Blue Star luxury trains set to be Japan’s new Hokkaido travel stars
Haku is…Chihiro’s dead brother? Studio Ghibli fans blown away by Spirited Away theoryMcDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
All-you-can-drink Starbucks and amazing views part of Tokyo’s new 170 meter-high sky lounge
More foreign tourists than ever before in history visited Japan last monthJapanese ramen restaurants under pressure from new yen banknotes
French Fries Bread in Tokyo’s Shibuya becomes a hit on social media
Studio Ghibli releases new action figures featuring Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind characters
New private rooms on Tokaido Shinkansen change the way we travel from Tokyo to Kyoto
Starbucks reopens at Shibuya Scramble Crossing with new look and design concept
Studio Ghibli glasses cases let anime characters keep an eye on your spectacles
Beautiful Ghibli sealing wax kits let you create accessories and elegant letter decorations【Pics】McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Studio Ghibli releases Kiki’s Delivery Service chocolate cake pouches in Japan
New definition of “Japanese whiskey” goes into effect to prevent fakes from fooling overseas buyers
Our Japanese reporter visits Costco in the U.S., finds super American and very Japanese things
Studio Ghibli unveils Mother’s Day gift set that captures the love in My Neighbour Totoro
New Japanese KitKat flavour stars Sanrio characters, including Hello KittyAll-you-can-drink Starbucks and amazing views part of Tokyo’s new 170 meter-high sky loungeMore foreign tourists than ever before in history visited Japan last month
New Pokémon cakes let you eat your way through Pikachu and all the Eevee evolutions
Disney princesses get official manga makeovers for Manga Princess Cafe opening in Tokyo
Sales of Japan’s most convenient train ticket/shopping payment cards suspended indefinitelyMcDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Sold-out Studio Ghibli desktop humidifiers are back so Totoro can help you through the dry season
Japanese government to make first change to romanization spelling rules since the 1950s
Ghibli founders Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki contribute to Japanese whisky Totoro label design
Doraemon found buried at sea as scene from 1993 anime becomes real life【Photos】
Tokyo’s most famous Starbucks is closed
One Piece characters’ nationalities revealed, but fans have mixed opinions
We asked a Uniqlo employee what four things we should buy and their suggestions didn’t disappoint
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
Tokyo Tsukiji fish market site to be redeveloped with 50,000-seat stadium, hotel, shopping center
Anime girl English teacher Ellen-sensei becomes VTuber/VVTUber and NFT
Pokémon Sleep camping suite and guestrooms coming to Tokyo Hyatt along with giant Snorlax burgers
Beautiful Red and Blue Star luxury trains set to be Japan’s new Hokkaido travel stars
Haku is…Chihiro’s dead brother? Studio Ghibli fans blown away by Spirited Away theory
French Fries Bread in Tokyo’s Shibuya becomes a hit on social media
Mt. Koya planning to instate visitor’s tax to cope with huge tourist numbers
The day our male reporter used a women’s restroom with other dudes and they learned about otohime
Nara unveils new vending machines that sell deer crackers
We try out “Chan Ramen”, an underground type of ramen popular in the ramen community
McDonald’s Japan releases a pancake pie for new retro kissaten coffeeshop series
Starbucks Japan adds a Motto Frappuccino to the menu for a limited time
