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Here’s your heart-breaking short story of the day, written on a 1,000 yen bill

Perhaps one of the saddest things ever written is Hemingway’s famous six-word story: “For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” Though short in the extreme, it’s amazing how much emotion and information can be packed into six small words. Of course, Hemingway isn’t the only writer known for brevity, and the last 1,300 years of Japanese poetry have been full of brief but beautiful and poignant verses. But when it comes to terse (some might say inelegant) narrative, Hemingway was certainly a master.

However, we may have found someone who’s outdone the old drunkard! Too bad this one seems inspired by utterly real events…

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Internet Explorer looks to win back fans with new moe/anime mascot Inori Aizawa

About a year ago, Microsoft learned the power of moe mascots when their Windows 8 platform sold in record numbers in Japan. This was largely credited with the addition of the Madobe Sisters, Yuu and Ai.

Now they’re hoping lightning will strike twice and jolt some new life into their web browser Internet Explorer. As more and more people have flocked to browsers like Chrome and Firefox over the years, IE looked as though it was heading the way of Netscape thanks to sluggish speeds and compatibility problems.

However, IE’s newest mascot, Inori Aizawa promises and end to these design flaws along with some lasers and high speed robot battles.

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Twitter user weighs growing kitten over a series of weeks, documents with insanely cute photos

At the risk of becoming an online shrine to all things feline following our reporting of everything from cat sushi, Attack on Titan: cat edition and multiple posts about Japan’s own feline star, Maru, when we discovered this series of 12 photos showing the growth of a kitten as it goes from barely being able to see over the edge of the scales to struggling to fit in, we couldn’t help but share.

Strap yourselves in for some serious cute, boys and girls.

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Cat table manners: Make a mess and get punched in the face 【Video】

Around our house, making a mess at the table might have gotten you a harsh word at most. This feline Miss Manners is a bit stricter about table manners, though. Her dining companion drops a bit of food and is promptly punched in the face!

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Japanese mushroom commercial with erotic overtones nears 3 million hits on YouTube

In Japan, Hokto is to mushrooms what Chiquita is to bananas: a household name that people know but aren’t overly excited by – until now!

The mushroom growers have been releasing an increasingly sexy line of commercials that seem to get pulled from the airwaves soon after debuting. The latest one, titled “Splendid Mushroom Kinkatsu,” depicts a love affair between actors Jun Kaname in the role of the spirit of mushrooms and Sawa Suzuki as the middle-aged woman he continuously haunts and seductively whispers about mushrooms to. As far as mushrooms go, this is pretty hot.

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Hey, you! Perk up and watch this video of baby ducks on a slide

Happy beginning of the week, everyone! We know you’d rather be in bed watching YouTube videos of cats or reading some of our silly articles (maybe that’s what you’re doing at work right now), so here’s a little something to cheer you up: A video of baby ducks sliding down their own personal water slide. 

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Most of us go through life trying to avoid violence and confrontations, but sometimes for whatever reason the tension gets to be too much and fists start flying. Even those within eyeshot of a fight can’t help but watch the raw emotion expressed in acts of physical rage.

Thanks to the advent of phone cameras and the internet the truly surprising fights from around the world can now be witnesses from the comfort of our own homes. With that, we humbly share the video titled “Glorious fight on Shanghai Metro Line 2”, which features two men who should really know better going at it like a pair of angry idiots.

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Shocking new poll reveals that Japanese women love guys with black hair

Here at RocketNews24, we strive to bring you the kind of news that really matters. The worst presents women have ever received; the kind of career you need to drive Japanese women crazy; the things Japanese women find weird about their foreign husbands… Now, you might not think this kind of stuff is actually so important–but don’t come complaining to us when you can’t keep a girlfriend because you choose an unsexy career path or sent your secret crush a box of tissues as a gift. (Seriously, tissues?)

So pay attention, fellas, because we’ve got more breaking news for you: Apparently, Japanese women love guys with black hair.

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  • Nov 3, 2013

Sharp comes out with… a chopping board? — Well, an interactive one, anyway

Electronics maker Sharp recently announced the prototype of a new, unlikely product that has set the Japanese Internet community abuzz …

This story actually has its beginning about six months ago, when Sharp Europe ran a competition called “#GetItDownOnPaper”, which invited students and graduates in Europe to submit ideas for solutions to everyday problems by sharing them on Twitter. The winner would be offered a two-week paid internship at Sharp Laboratories of Europe, a wonderful opportunity for any aspiring inventor.

The lucky winner was Siobhán Andrews, a student of Sustainable Product Design at Falmouth University, England, whose idea for an interactive chopping board apparently impressed the judges as well as the folks at Sharp Laboratories so much that they have come up with a prototype which has been named the Chop-Syc. But now that the prototype has been announced, the response, at least from Japanese Internet users, may not exactly be what the people at Sharp are hoping to hear. Read More

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Singing duo wow us with their a cappella Disney medley

Over on the Japanese side of RocketNews24, we run a lot of article about both Japan and the international world. If you’re starting to feel confident with your Japanese ability, it’s not only a great way to practice your Japanese reading skills, but you can learn a lot of weird and cool stuff. And sometimes you can also find articles that are simply amazing.

Today, we have one of those “simply impressive” articles to share with you!

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Ryu-chan and Chun-kun? Welcome to the weird world of genderswapped Street Fighter 【Video】

Imagine if the characters from Street Fighter, Capcom’s classic fighting game, were born as members of the opposite sex, with the same amount of physical strength and fighting spirit but a decidedly different physiques. Thanks to a fan-made short movie by Really Clever Androids, we don’t have to wonder what to expect from a world like that. This awesome three-minute clip gives us a pretty good idea of the conflict and copious cleavage we might encounter. Let’s just say that these genderswapped Street Fighter folks really know how to bring it!

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Cat tights: Now with toe beans and claws for even more cutsy comfort!

You may have resisted the appeal of our future feline overlords so far, but if their internet popularity is any indication, total world domination can’t be far off. If you don’t want to be first against the wall with the dogs and dog-lovers, you may want to invest in these super-cute cat tights. As the ad copy says, put them on and you’ll “transform into a devil-may-care cat!” You’ll be able to blend right in…

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Was iOS 7 created in Microsoft Word? Czech expert makes us believe so【Video】

Since its release in 2007, the iPhone has taken the world by storm, garnering a massive following thanks to its simplistic design and sleek interface. Along with the gradual changes of its appearance, its operating system, iOS, has also made subtle changes with each update since the first version.

iOS 7, which was rolled out a couple of months ago, surprised users with a revamped look and feel which seemed to challenge the limits of simplicity with a flat user interface and bold colors. Doing away with excessive ornamentation, the explicitly simple design set some people thinking, was iOS 7 created in Microsoft Word? Václav Krejčí from the Czech Republic worked his magical skills with the word processing software to create an image replica of unbelievable quality, and you should really see it with your own eyes.

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Life hacks from Japan: Cancelling a stop on an elevator, amazing curry and more

Have you ever gotten on an elevator in the lobby, pressed the button for the seventh floor, and then groaned with the realization that you needed the sixth? Or had to throw out a pair of scissors grown dull through years of use?

There are millions of small annoyances and frustrations that seem basically unavoidable. They’re not really serious, but wouldn’t it be nice if someone could go around making our lives easier? While that probably won’t happen until the robot revolution (come on, WALL-E!), there are a few tricks that you can use to fix these tiny frustrations, so join us after the break for some awesome life hacks from Japan!

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Is Umaibo housing the architecture of the future?

Everyday it seems that one company or another is producing a new type of building material that will revolutionize our lives and our homes. But it looks like they can all stop now. The ultimate in structural integrity and edible wall paneling has been discovered!

Not many would have thought to do this, but it takes a rare mind to spark a revolution of this magnitude. If you’re looking for the newest hot real estate tip, look no further–all you need to do is invest in the almighty umaibo!

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“Buy from bookstores or they’ll disappear!” Frustrated bookseller implores crowd on final day of business

As you may have heard, e-books and the Internet are leading the charge to burn down libraries, destroying civilization, and generally ruin everyone’s day. While this may be a bit of an exaggeration, there’s no denying the impact that these disruptive technologies have had on how we read and where we buy our content.

This is true even in Japan, which has a rather significant publishing industry and a large pool of eager readers, where physical books and magazines have had high sales well into the 21st century. While the country is known for its technology, Japanese consumers have been slow to adopt new modes of purchasing their texts.

But all that’s starting to change.

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Uber-complicated foreigner-friendly guide to conveyor belt sushi will make your eyes pop out

Oh boy, look at that thing. Just, wow. What is even happening here? There are so many colors, and this Escher-esque perspective trick where you’re looking down at the sushi conveyor belt but seeing the customers head-on all at the same time…

As the title of this bizarro infographic suggests, this is ostensibly a guide to using a kaiten conveyor belt sushi establishment. We’re actually very appreciative someone took the effort to make this since it’s pretty easy to accidentally commit a crime if you don’t follow the kaiten sushi rules perfectly.

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Pokemon smartphones: Why Apple created the colorful iPhone 5c

We were all skeptical when Apple announced the low-cost iPhone 5c. Nothing from Apple had ever been relatively affordable and there had never been a cheaper version of any of their products; it was a totally new turn for the tech giant. But now we get it, these phones were made for Pokemon.

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Honda’s latest ad packs a lot of cool optical illusions into a single minute

Everyone loves a good optical illusion – that immediate shock at what you just saw and that feeling of satisfaction when your brain catches up to figure it out. The recent boom of 3D street art like that we saw from China recently has pushed illusions to a new level.

This sense of amazement has been harnessed and crammed into a one-minute commercial for Honda’s new mid-sized SUV, the CR-V. Having been put up on 17 October it’s been well received by viewers who call the ad “Awesome” and the “Best car commercial ever!”

Honda has been known to put out some clever spots before, so this shouldn’t disappoint. Let’s take a look.

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“Ramen Cake” dessert looks just like the real thing, is probably just as bad for you

An advance word of warning: this recipe seems both extremely difficult and extremely time consuming, so we’d advise you only try it if you’re a master chef or incredibly bored. Or if you need to consume a disgusting amount of calories in a short space of time.

Still, in the spirit of Halloween, this sweet cake and gelatin “Ramen Cake” masquerading almost perfectly as real ramen, is a clever, cute substitute for the usual chocolate eyeballs, brain Jell-o and other grotesqueries of the season.

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