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Mac Denny

Writer / Translator

Mac Denny is a freelance Japanese-English translator and interpreter. Mac enjoys writing/translating for RocketNews24 because it gives him a chance to turn Japanese media writing on its head and use puns, sarcasm and double entendre in English at will.

Mac evaluated baseball players throughout Japan for Major League Baseball organizations for several years from a base in Kochi Prefecture and later from Tokyo. He specializes in translating and interpreting involving sports, tourism, transportation and environmental issues. He currently resides in California.

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Posted by Mac Denny (Page 2)

Akihabara Restaurant Serves Up Three Squares in One

Many Japanese restaurants serve a “yama-mori,” or “mountain-sized,” serving of rice and other main dishes, but Adachi’s in Akihabara may boast the biggest one in the country.

Adachi’s claim to fame has always been its large portions. The first Adachi’s operated out of the Kanda Market, and its clientele were people who worked in the fruit and vegetable market. They worked up huge appetites by performing manual labor from the early morning hours, and regular portions would not fill their bellies. It was then that the elder Adachi decided to provide huge portions.

The affable younger Adachi told me all about it during my first visit to the restaurant. The restaurant is famous for letting its patrons eat to their hearts’ content, and anyone who has ever dined there knows that the “regular” portion of rice is five to six times larger than normal. Read More

New Organizer Keeps Devices and Cords Away From Each Other

Smartphone? Check. Digital camera? Check. Electronic dictionary? Check. Chargers and cords for all of the above? Check. Hope of finding them amidst the mess they will undoubtedly become in your handbag? Uncheck.

We are carrying more and more electronic products around with us these days, and it gets tougher and tougher to find them in our bags and untangle them from each other. It’s like untangling Christmas lights, except what used to be reserved for one day a year is now happening almost every day.

The GRID-IT purports to solve this problem with rubber bands arranged horizontally and vertically across its pocket-less surface. Read More

In soccer, the goalkeeper is the essence of defense. No matter what happens elsewhere on the field, you have to get it past the keeper, and that’s no easy task.

Or, it shouldn’t be easy. With the help of Youtube, keeper Virgil Vries of the Golden Arrows of the South African soccer league showed the world a new way to allow your team to score on itself. Read More

Five American Candies Guaranteed to Gum Up Your Gut

When I think of American candies, I think of sickening confections splashed with garish colors. I went to the United States and checked out a candy store, and I found exactly what I thought I’d see!

These are treats I would never even think of giving my kids (if I had them). Forget the lack of nutritional value; no matter how safe the candies are thought to be, those colors alone make me worry.

Here is my list of the Top Five American Candies Guaranteed to Gum Up Your Gut: Read More

Boy Drowns iPhone4S, Ginza Apple Store Rights Ship

The iPhone4S had been on the market nary a month when I got my hands on mine. I’d had my beloved 16 GB dream machine for nary a week when my three-year-old son got his hands on it and dunked it in the bathtub.

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Add “Night at The Windsor” to List of Things to Do Before You Die

The Windsor Hotel Toya put itself on the map by hosting the G8 Summit in 2008, but the appeal of the Hokkaido resort and spa remains today. The mountaintop hotel offers expansive views of the vast Lake Toya in addition to unparalleled entertainment and amenities.

I had the good fortune to stay at The Windsor this summer, and I’m going to share seven things that show that visiting this resort belongs on everyone’s bucket list. Read More

Attention, gluttons on holiday in Japan: RocketNews24 has compiled a list of five restaurants that feature signature dishes with gut-busting, imagination-defying, comically-oversized portions.

First, some vocabulary to help you enjoy your eating spree. You probably already know to ask for o-mori when you want a large portion of rice and an extra helping of the main dish, but there’s still one level to go: deka-mori.

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Free Admission – Twelve of Tokyo’s Best Kept Secrets

Expensive Tokyo living got you down? Are you staring another three-day weekend in the face and wondering what havoc it will wreak on your wallet?

There are places to enjoy yourself for free all over Tokyo, if you know where to look. RocketNews24 has sifted through the many options and has come up with 12 suggestions that will not disappoint. Try them next time you have a last-minute date or cobwebs in your billfold! Read More

Timeless Fukuoka Ramen Shop Serves Up Good Memories, Cheap Eats

Part the curtains at the simple storefront of Shoryuken, wrestle the creaky, swollen sliding door open, and step back in time to 1972.

A worn, handmade menu at the Fukuoka City ramen shop advertises ramen bowls for 100 yen, and it is clear that that price has persisted through the restaurant’s 39 years of existence. Read More

Beer. Shochu. All-You-Can-Drink. 299 yen. Yakitori Marukin. Shimbashi. Now.

Tired from a long day at work? No money in your wallet? You’re headed straight for Yoshinoya for a beer the beef bowl and salmon set, aren’t you? That’s about 1,000 yen out of your pocket right there.

Fear not, we’ve found a better way for you to stretch that thinnest of Japanese bills. Yakitori Marukin in Shimbashi offers an all-you-can-drink special you can’t afford to pass up – 30 minutes for 299 yen! Marukin rolls out Kirin Ichiban Shibori as well as “Kuro Kirishima” imo shochu, “Kumeshima no Kumesen” awamori and a host of other popular shochu drinks. It’s possible to get pretty plastered in just one half-hour session. Read More

Noboribetsu Onsen is a veritable department store for hot springs lovers, with many different kinds of springs bubbling forth from one of the best onsen regions in Hokkaido. Located in Noboribetsu City, Hokkaido, it is overflowing with sights to see, from Jigokudani (“Hell Valley”) with its spouting gas and high-temperature onsen to the century-old hot spring pond “Taisho Jigoku” and the giant hot spring pond “Oyunuma.”

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Ensky Co., Ltd. has fashioned a set of playing cards based on the famous lines of Takeshi “Gian” Goda, a bully character from the hit anime and manga “Doraemon.” In the series, Gian spends most of his time making outrageous demands of other children and bullying main character Nobita, but there are times when he shows his courage and displays true friendship.

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A Day in the Life of a Cosplay Photo Buff

I slung my camera over my shoulder, ready to invade the world of cosplay for the first time at this year’s summer Comic Market 80 at Tokyo Big Sight.

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When Mr. Satoh needs to get his heart pumping, he walks. He runs. He jogs, and he does a wealth of other physical activities.

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Everyone knows JAL and ANA, but have you heard the name “StarFlyer” while strolling through Haneda Airport? StarFlyer boasts a fleet of fashionable aircraft featuring all-black exteriors and cabin interiors. The first sight of a bitchin’ all-black airplane zooming down the runway will take anyone’s breath away.

StarFlyer planes travel most between Tokyo and Kita-Kyushu, but the airline added flights between Tokyo and Fukuoka on July 1. I flew to Fukuoka on business last month, so I figured I’d give StarFlyer a try. Other than the stunning black of the body and interior, I took note of six features of StarFlyer planes:

 

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An acquaintance of mine visited Ulleungdo Island, a volcanic island in the Sea of Japan over which Japan and Korea are locked in a territorial dispute. Three Japanese politicians aiming to visit Ulleungdo last month were denied entry into Korea, but Japanese are normally able to tour the island. There is even a tourist website for the island that targets Japanese.

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“Beer Hour” Portable Server Enjoys Heady Success

Once I heard the Takara Tomy “Beer Hour” portable beer server, I just knew I had to have one. It works with both 350-ml and 500-ml cans and produces more foam than you can get from a can without shaking it up first. It looked perfect, so I ponied up the 1,995 yen and took one home to try it out.

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Luxman Unveils Luxury USB Cable

High-end audio electronic product manufacturer Luxman has announced its sale of the JPU-150, a high-definition reference USB cable that purports to improve the sound quality of the digital audio data it transfers. Read More

Tokyo Chikara Meshi Takes Beef Bowl to New Level

I finished my “special” beef bowl at Tokyo Chikara Meshi and immediately called for the cook.  I wanted to grab his hand, shake it, and thank him for the absolute best beef bowl I have ever had the pleasure of eating.

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It’s already late August, and there are but a few more fireworks shows left in the summer season. I don’t know about you, but when I try to take pictures to help remind me of summer memories, they never turn out as beautiful as the memories themselves.

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