Trivia

Studio Ghibli reveals surprising secrets hidden in My Neighbour Totoro

Director Hayao Miyazaki shares a number of revelations, including the real reason why there’s only one girl in the Totoro poster.

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Ginza: Where the streetlights are specially designed to make women look beautiful

Little known fact makes this Japanese neighbourhood a great place to go for a romantic date. 

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Studio Ghibli’s Porco Rosso: Behind-the-scenes trivia and secret Easter eggs revealed

Insider revelations shed new light on the beloved anime film.

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Test your knowledge of Ghost of Tsushima’s geography and enter a drawing for a mystery prize

Flex what you know about the game and its real-world location.

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What time appears most in Japanese and English song lyrics?

Seven p.m.? Eight in the morning? What time of day inspires the most crooning?

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Original model for Dragon Ball Z’s Android 16 resurfaces, sends Japanese Twitter into a frenzy

This small backstory may add a touch of sympathy to your thoughts about one of the series’ most genius villains.

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Twitterer explains cool factoid about goat eyes with cute illustration, blows internet’s mind

Whether you’re creeped out by or love goats’ rectangular pupils, you probably didn’t know this about them.

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Official Pokémon site reveals bizarre yet amusing secrets about Fighting-type Pokémon Machamp

The official Pokémon website recently shared two surprising revelations about Generation I Fighting-type Pokémon Machamp which may leave you blushing!

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Even more interesting facts to complete your Hello Kitty knowledge!

Hello Kitty was a hot topic for a while last year when news suddenly broke that Kitty-chan wasn’t a cat! Of course that subject was cleared up by Sanrio representatives, but it got us wondering, what other sordid secrets does Hello Kitty hide behind that cute veneer? One of the writers for our Japanese-language sister site Pouch is a huge Hello Kitty fan and she’s compiled a list of factoids about the lovable Kitty-chan. You will definitely learn something new after reading this 33-item list!

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Pac-Man ghosts were almost all the same color — red

The four different-coloured ghosts are immediately recognizable characters in “Pac-Man,” but Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde could have been all one shade if the president and cofounder of the video game company that created Pac-Man had his way.

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Pokémon’s Ash Ketchum is crazy strong, can easily carry creatures twice his body weight

No one really minds when the creators of movies and TV disregard the laws of the universe a little in the name of producing quality entertainment. Would the space battles in Star Wars have been anywhere near as fun if they had all taken place in complete silence due to the lack of air required to carry sound waves? Not a chance. Does anyone really mind that a lit cigarette doesn’t actually produce enough heat to ignite a puddle of gasoline if it results in those epic, “casually walks away from burning building” shots in action movies? Not in the slightest.

But sometimes such use of artistic licence can slip by entirely unnoticed, and it takes someone to point out a few key facts before the reality of the situation hits home. Case in point: Ash from hit anime series Pokémon seemingly possesses super-human strength, and is able to carry pokémon that weigh vastly more than he does without even breaking a sweat.

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What’s this little green dinosaur’s name? If you said “Yoshi” we’ve got news for you…

Nicknames can be confusing things, especially when they’re the only name by which you’ve ever known someone. I can clearly remember the moment when my friend’s Japanese wife looked at me with a mixture of surprise and betrayal, for example, when she found out that Phil (or “Firu” as it’s awkwardly pronounced in Japanese) is in fact short for Philip.

But after learning that the same green dinosaur that I’ve traversed hundreds of levels, raced go-karts and carried baby Mario back to his parents with since I was about 10 years old isn’t actually called Yoshi, I can kind of understand why she was so shocked.

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16 facts about China that will blow your mind

The vast scale of China’s landmass and its population means that China produces and consumes copious amounts of natural resources and food. It also means that China houses a large chunk of the world’s billionaires. We dug around to find some interesting statistics. Did you know that China’s railway lines could loop around earth twice? Here are some interesting facts about the world’s second-largest economy, which could soon eclipse the U.S. to become the world’s largest this year.

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Sturdy enough to survive a bomb and 9 other facts about the Game Boy【Video】

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!

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We know the human names of Dragon Ball’s Androids 17 & 18!

When I was in middle school, I used to watch Dragon Ball Z every single day. I’ve seen all 291 episodes of the series and without a doubt can say that my favorite story arc begins with the arrival of future Trunks until the end of the Cell Games. Why? Because the villains are awesome, of course (sorry, Frieza)! Everyone loves Cell and the attractive-but-deadly android siblings, known as Numbers 17 and 18.

Speaking of the androids, Akira Toriyama, the author of Dragon Ball, has recently released an interesting bit of trivia for the first time ever – Number 17 and 18’s true names! Even cooler is how their names combine to create something new. Do you have any guesses?

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Well I never knew that! Video shows secret sleeping quarters for night bus drivers

Most haulage vehicles have snug little sleeping compartments for their drivers to crawl into after many hours on the road, but if you take a look around an average Greyhound or overnight bus you’ll notice no such place to hunker down.

So if a driver needs a little shut-eye between trips, where do they get it? Motels? Some kind of depot? Sitting up in their seat with a neck pillow? According to the following video, night bus drivers in Japan actually have another alternative, and it’s a lot closer than we thought.

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17 Mind-Blowing Facts About Russia

Russia has been all over the headlines recently. Earlier this year, it was for the Sochi Winter Olympics. More recently, it’s because president Vladimir Putin has been flexing his muscles again, this time in Crimea.

As the world’s eighth largest economy Russia can’t be ignored. The sheer scale of its pipelines, for instance, its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, or its population decline are mind-boggling.

We put together some key facts about Russia.

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Quiz of the Week: Round 9 (It’s like a comb-over for your soul)

You’re back! Lovely to see you. Now shut up and face the corner.

Yes, that’s right boys and girls, it’s time for another multiple choice quiz where we throw random bizarre questions at you and see how much you learned this week about news from Japan and Asia. Don’t dilly-dally now; Hitler, Donald Trump’s hair, and a manga about love eggs are all waiting for you after the jump!

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Quiz of the Week: Round 8 (More fun than a swift kick in the nuts)

Happy Friday, everyone! We trust you’ve all had a fun week and, if you happen to be one of the poor souls stuck in the snow in Kanto and Northeastern Japan this past seven days, that you’re gradually thawing yourselves out.

We have 10 more Asian news-based multiple-choice questions for you this week, touching on everything from nipple chafing to popular TV drama. So let’s not waste any time; let’s get right into it!

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Test your might with our weekly quiz of weird and wonderful news from Japan and Asia

So, you think you know your quirky Asia news, huh? Visit our site every single day, do ya? (Thank you!) Well let’s see how closely you’ve been paying attention! Starting this week, we’ll be running a multiple choice quiz each weekend, based on 10 of our writers’ favourite articles from the week, asking you one question about each of them.

Do you know your Japanese cultural traditions? Have you been paying close attention to the adventures of our beloved Mr. Sato? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if he had the required paperwork for the job? Take our quiz and find out!

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