RocketNews24 / Bringing You Yesterday's News From Japan and Asia, Today (Page 116)

[Video] How to Extract an Egg Yolk Using a Plastic Water Bottle

Aug 28, 2012 by Steven
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Chinese DIY site Jifenzhong has uploaded a video showing a nifty little trick for separating an egg yolk using only an empty plastic water bottle.

Check the video after the jump.

Aug 28, 2012 by Steven
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Many Japanese people lament their inability to carry out a proper conversation in English despite studying it for 10 years in junior high, high school and university.

Some people blame the education system, some people blame the lack of transparency between Japanese and other languages; but there just seems to be something about Japanese people that makes them terrible with foreign languages.

Continuing from yesterday’s post, we’d like to share the last part of Japanese columnist Ryuuji Haneishi’s discussion of why he believes they are.

Aug 28, 2012 by Karen Bremer Masuda
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The sea is too clean for the fish!

Efforts to clean up the sea have caused an adverse reaction giving the fishing Industries in Hyogo, Okayama, and Oita Prefectures along the Setonai Seaboard a major headache. The irony being that the sea is too clean for the fish to thrive.

An analysis of the sea water by researchers found the natural levels of Nitrogen and phosphorous in the salt content of the sea water needed for the nutritional growth of healthy plankton have diminished to the point that it has effected the natural eco system of the sea. Without enough plankton, the major nutrition for many small sea animals, the whole food chain is disrupted to the point of great loss to the fishing Industry.

Aug 27, 2012 by Karen Bremer Masuda
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According to recent Chinese market reports, a patron of a McDonald’s in the city of Guangzhou of the Canton Province, took his grievances over his overly spicy burger to the police, causing quite a commotion.

The disturbance took place in mid-August when a man went into McDonald’s for his dinner, ordering a Spicy Chicken Burger. On finding it much more spicy than the previous one he’d had, he reported it to the police!

The spicy chicken burger is supposed to be spicy, but its spiciness must have been so very unbearably distressful—a breach of his civil rights, even—that he felt he had to make a police report. Read More

Japanese Charity Breast-Squeeze!

Aug 27, 2012 by Bruce
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A charity breast squeeze took place last weekend in Shinjuku, Tokyo as part of the “Erotica will Save the World” event.

Is this a typical reward for donating to charity in Japan? We go hands on… I mean… just read on for more details.

Aug 27, 2012 by Steven
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Many Japanese people lament their inability to carry out a proper conversation in English despite 10 years of study during junior high, high school and university.

While anyone who has taught English at a public school in Japan would probably be quick to point their finger at a curriculum still largely grounded in rote memorization and strange textbook phrases, it’s also important to realize that Japanese has absolutely nothing in common with any of the European languages and most other languages in the world.

But aside this inherent disadvantage, there just seems to be something about Japanese people that makes them terrible with foreign languages.

Aug 27, 2012 by Steven
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A few weeks ago the Pokemon Company revealed the 3DS LL Pikachu Yellow, a limited edition version of the handheld console purchasable by preorder at Pokemon Center stores from August 25 to September 14.

To the surprise of no one, Japanese customers lined up outside and waited for over 4 hours to purchase the device, clearing out stocks at Pokemon Centers in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka on the first day.

Aug 27, 2012 by Master Blaster
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I could never really get into those CGI animated movies like the ones Pixar makes. For some reason the 3D animation always appeared stilted no matter how well it’s done. Traditional 2D animation always had a much smoother and strangely more lifelike quality to it but it’s not without its limitations either especially in the realm of video games.

Live2D, developed by Cybernoids seems to have successfully taken the superior aesthetics of 2D art and rendered it into the superior flexibility and efficiency of 3D more smoothly than ever seen before.

Aug 27, 2012 by Master Blaster
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People often ask me why I moved to Japan and I say “to be with people like me – with blonde hair and blue eyes.” Japan is a homogenous country to be sure, but a recent advertisement from clothing chain COMME ÇA ISM boldly challenges this mistaken stereotype that Japan is full of Japanese people.

It’s actually full of white people!

Aug 26, 2012 by danielnishina
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You think mugshot, you probably think of some haggard, seedy character looking back at you. It just goes to show, even cute girls end up in jail sometimes. Below are an assortment pretty faces and some not-so-tasteful comments from the peanut gallery in Japan.

And just because we know you’re wondering, apparently none of them were arrested for prostitution. Those gems are saved for the end.

Aug 26, 2012 by Steven
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About 95-97% of the population of Pakistan is Muslim, which means there’s not a lot of pork eaten in the country. Pakistanis do, however, eat a lot of sheep. And when they eat sheep, they eat all of the sheep — meat, heart, genitals, brains, you name it and Pakistanis have a recipe for it.

If you know where to look, you can even find Pakistani restaurants here in Japan that serve dishes using some of the more exotic parts of the animal.

One such restaurant is Maruhaba in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, which serves sheep brain curry.

We recently sent reporter Mr. Sato to Maruhaba to try the dish out; after all, he looks like he could benefit from a little more brain.

His report follows below:

Aug 25, 2012 by Master Blaster
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Hot dogs and summer go hand in hand. They’re perfect for barbeques, ballgames, and camping. But when the heat just doesn’t let up for months on end, many in Japan can’t tolerate a piping hot frank any more.

A small bakery in Kobe, Boulangerie Marui, has found the solution by combining the cooling effects of cucumbers with all the fun or eating a hot dog. You can probably see where this is going.

Aug 25, 2012 by Steven
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While manga is ubiquitous in Japan — just ride the subway in any major city and you’ll see people from all walks of life flipping through a comic book — many Japanese people are surprised to hear how popular manga has become overseas. After all, aren’t Westerners only interested in macho superheroes or short comic strips?

Perhaps that was the case in America before, but in recent years many major bookstores have begun to reserve more space near the front of the store for Japanese comics and in some European countries like France and Germany manga occupies a large portion of overall comic sales.

But why?

Earlier this month, we sent one of our Japanese reporters to Comic Market (or “Comiket“), the world’s largest self-published comic book fair and otaku mecca, to interview real live foreigners and ask them why they like Japanese manga so much.

Aug 25, 2012 by Master Blaster
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This summer is shaping up to be a strange one with all the lightning lasers, glowing squid, and shed insect skin fashion. This time dozens of photos were taken of this most recent phenomenon that appeared over the Shonan Coast of Kanagawa Prefecture.

This blue streak is quite easily explained but to appear in this kind of location is still a bit of a mystery.

Aug 24, 2012 by Bruce
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Turning on lights, air conditioners, and other things only using your voice has long been a thing of movies and dreams. Now a Japanese company has made that possible, and only for a few hundred dollars! (Youtube video of the action included!)
Read More

The Top 9 Things That Surprise Foreigners the Most About Japan

Aug 24, 2012 by Karen Bremer Masuda
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If you have ever been outside your own country, you most likely have experienced some form of culture shock. In fact just visiting another city or town can make you aware of how things are done differently all over. In Japan, some things are so surprisingly different for foreigners that there is some uniformity in the shock value. Any Japanese with their eyes and ears open can be aware of what is most shocking to many foreigners. It is makes for fascinating conversation, “What is most surprising about Japan to foreigners? I heard…” This riveting subject matter prompts reflection, a moment of feeling good about one’s culture, sprinkled with the ability to and laugh at oneself.

Here is a list of 9 things foreigners experience when first visiting Japan (according to Japanese columnist Ryoko Kozakai over at Excite, at least):
Read More

Hatsune Miku 7-Eleven Parody Video Will Give You Nightmares

Aug 24, 2012 by Steven
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If you weren’t in the know (and by the know we mean Japan), Japanese convenience store chain Family Mart and Hatsune Miku are running a promotional campaign from August 14 to September 10 to celebrate the Vocaloid’s 5th birthday.

To spread word of the campaign, Family Mart created a 15-second television commercial featuring Miku singing the store’s signature jingle and posted it to YouTube on August 17, though a ripped version had been posted to Japanese video sharing site Nico Nico Douga a few days earlier.

One group of enterprising viewers saw the video and immediately got the idea for a parody, which he posted to Nico Nico and YouTube on August 19. The parody, titled “Miku LOVES Seven Campaign [Fiction]“. features a super deformed Hatsune Miku singing the Japanese 7-Eleven jingle and is absolutely terrifying.

Aug 24, 2012 by Kay
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It seems there’s never a shortage of character-themed steamed buns (niku-man in Japanese) coming onto the market in Japan. In the past, we’ve seen buns modeled after Hatsune Miku, Spiderman, slime from Dragon Quest and Puyo Puyo to name a few. So who’s the newest character to be steamed into a tasty little bun? It’s none other than our beloved “cat of all trades”, Ms. Kitty! Read More

Japanese Man Arrested For Squirting Mayonnaise on Unsuspecting High School Girls

Aug 24, 2012 by Steven
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On August 24, Sapporo (Hokkaido prefecture) police arrested 32-year-old care worker Takeshi Furusawa on suspicion of 12 accounts of assault with tasty condiments.

Aug 24, 2012 by Steven
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When you live in a country with long, cold winters and short summers, you do what you can do make the most out of the warm weather. In Russia, they hold a racing event every August called the Bubble Baba Challenge, where hundreds of contestants ride inflatable sex dolls down the Vuoska river rapids.

At least, they did: the event, which was supposed to celebrate its tenth anniversary this year, was shut down by authorities just days before.