Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
March, 2014 (Page 6)
A photo of what appears to be an entry in a Japanese textbook tweeted by Kurita as been surprising netizens across the country. It shows a list of foreign loan words that had been turned into Japanese during the early 1940s. Most surprising of the list, as pointed out by netizens, was the word for “saxophone,” which was transformed into an awkward 19-character-long mouthful. Let’s take a closer look at why this happened and the results of English being deemed an “enemy language” during WWII.
It’s not every day you get to see an enormous robot being lifted up to tower above you. That’s why fans of science-fiction series Mobile Police Patlabor were excited to see an 8-metre high humanoid robot from the series being put up in the Toyosu area of Tokyo’s waterfront.
The robot in question is the AV-98 Ingram, which appears in the latest movie addition to the franchise, a live action series called The Next Generation Patlabor. Fans gathered to watch the robot, which is built “actual size” at just over 8m high, being raised into place on March 17th.
Late last year we watched as a new island was born and started growing off the Pacific coast of Japan. Boy did it grow fast, as a little later that year it assimilated (to form the face of loveable hound, Snoopy, no less) with another nearby island, Nishinoshima.
This kind of event doesn’t happen every day, but unfortunately the Japanese Coast Guard is advising all ships to stay well clear thus torturing the curious souls who want to catch a glimpse of it. Then by a sheer stroke of luck, someone from the Ogasawara Tourist Board was able to capture a brief but interesting look at these eruptions in action and generously posted it on YouTube for all to see. It’s seriously impressive.
When you think about all the power our modern devices burn through each day, particularly when some of us leave our gear switched on when it really needn’t be, it seems like a tremendous waste. So why not put some of that lost heat energy to good use and keep your pets warm?*
We’ve officially found the world’s coolest dad…and he lives in Brazil! Animator Robson Menezes dos Santos began working on a special animation video last August for his son Rasdael’s 9th birthday on February 9. And let’s just say that the results will blow you away faster than if you got hit by a Kamehameha. He even got the official Brazilian voice actors to dub a special birthday message for Rasdeal! Be sure to watch this awesome birthday present yourself- it’s over 9,000 one million levels of coolness!!
Anything that gets published is prone to typos at any stage of the process, and manga is no exception. From using the wrong kanji to misprinting page numbers, any number of mistakes can happen. Readers haven’t always proved to be understanding of these, but when it comes to a matter very dear to many hearts — bra sizes — errors can be especially unforgivable.
Tsukuba is a small, planned city nestled in the mountains of Ibaraki, which has a reputation for being a pretty chilled out place to live. The small population size and abundance of surrounding nature give the city a slow-paced, laid back feeling compared to the bustle of major cities like Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka.
We hear there are also a lot of great places to eat in Tsukuba, provided your restaurant or cafe of choice isn’t closed for the day because they couldn’t decide on the day’s menu items or the manager has a hangover.
Or at least, that may be the case if you choose to drop in on the popular privately owned cafe, Ajiyoshi. The staff over there seem to take their easygoing lifestyle to the next level, frequently closing up shop on a whim; but never without “good” reason.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says satellite photos taken over the Indian Ocean may show parts of the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370. The plane has been missing for 12 days and it had 239 people on board. There are numerous theories about what happened to it.
The satellite photos show two objects located about 1,400 miles off the coast of Perth, Australia. The larger object appears to be 75 feet across.
A couple of weeks ago, we brought you news that Japanese toy maker Takara Tomy Arts had just released a revolving sushi kit for home use, which comes complete with miniature sushi train and sushi making tools. Aimed primarily at kids it looked like tremendous fun, but having seen the promotional video for the product we’d like to take this opportunity to upgrade the product’s status in our estimations from “tremendous fun” to the more scientifically accurate “OMFGWANT!”.
Full video after the jump.
Ah, high school. Acne, gangly limbs, and enough rampaging hormones to give you more shakes than a full pot of coffee. Can’t say I miss it. But by the looks of things, kids in Japan are totally owning high school, and today, hot on the heels of last month’s photo collection, we bring you a selection of photos of high school kids who clearly know how to have a good time.
May we present, in photo form, A Day in the Life of a Japanese High Schooler.
This is one of the most surreal cable news segments you’ll see.
There have been many different conspiracy theories thrown out about the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, but on Wednesday night CNN speculated whether a “black hole” could be involved.
Thanks to the patient translation efforts of AltJapan Co., Ltd. co-founder Matt Alt, readers can now read, in English,most of the 90-page study on robot anime made available by the Japanese government. Titled “Nihon Animation Guide: Robot Anime-hen,” the original document was written by anime critic Ryusuke Hikawa, Sunrise head of cultural promotion Koichi Inoue, and writer Daisuke Sawaki, and compiled by Mori Building Co., which has previously also compiled reports on Japanese live-action special effects shows, movies, and other pop culture topics. In addition to these reports, the company also promotes media arts information, hosts symposiums, conducts surveys, and works on archive projects.
Commercials in Japan often portray Japanese products as being far and away the best in the world, and are so overly earnest in doing so they frequently make no sense. Anime is packed with cute characters who, again, make no sense. And a lot of J-pop songs are hyperactive melodies with lyrics that, you guessed it, make no sense.
So how is it combining all three makes for just about the perfect ad for Japanese meat?
Okay, if you haven’t guessed already, we admit that at RocketNews24, we’re extremely fond of tasty sweets, and we’ve featured in our past articles quite a few amazing creations by talented confectioners, from exquisite character-themed cakes to adorable Totoro macaroons. Now once again, we’ve found a magnificent piece of baked art that we just had to share with you. This time, it’s a tart inspired by the video game Kirby’s Epic Yarn, and we have to say, it’s one epic-looking treat!
If you asked people to pick the most innovative Japanese company, most of the responses you’d get would probably be from the automobile and consumer electronics industries. Toyota and Honda are responsible for some of the biggest strides in production techniques and robotics. Nintendo and Sony revolutionized digital entertainment through their game systems and portable music players.
Our vote, though, just might go to snack maker Calbee, for the way the company is constantly pushing the potato chip envelope. In the past, they’ve brought us both fresh-fried and Kentucky Fried Chicken flavor versions, and now they’re set to expand the medium even further with triple-thick, gift-quality gourmet potato chips.
It’s been a week and a half since Malaysia 370 disappeared, and the theory du jour comes from a former pilot.
In a Google+ post, Chris Goodfellow argued that smoke filled the cockpit, maybe from a burning tire on the front landing gear.
The pilots turned the plane toward an airport that could handle the 777, turned off the transponder along with other electronics in an effort to isolate the source of the fire, and were then overcome by smoke, he theorized.
The plane’s autopilot kept the course until it ran out of fuel and crashed hours later.
Goodfellow’s theory is appealing, we noted, because it fits the facts we have on MH370. It impressed The Atlantic’s James Fallows, himself a pilot: “His explanation makes better sense than anything else I’ve heard so far … It’s one of the few that make me think, Yes, I could see things happening that way.”
Despite all the lavish attention RocketNews24 has laid upon the altar of the Golden Arches at the cost of our Adonis-like six packs, it seems there’s a fast food chain Japan loves even more than McDonald’s. According to a recent Niconico News survey of adults, the reigning king of fast food in Japan is the country’s own native Mos Burger – although McDonald’s runs a close second.
Since our diets consist of almost nothing but the lard, chicken goo, sawdust and other mystery substances that go into a fast food meal, a win for any fast food is a win for humanity in our book, but let’s take a moment to look at Niconico‘s ranking and examine some of the possible reasons the results:
Most of my early trips to Japan involved visiting my brother, back when he was living in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. One day while waiting for a train at the station, I passed the time by staring out at one of the many lotus farms the town is known for.
“Ah, Japan!” I thought as the plants swayed almost hypnotically in the hot summer breeze. “So appreciative of the beauty of nature!” The lotus must be so highly prized that it’s economically worthwhile to use large tracts of what little arable land the country has to cultivate and sell the flowers, I concluded.
I found out later that I was only half right. While it is true that Japan tends to get more excited about blossoming flora than other nations, all those lotuses weren’t being grown for aesthetic reasons. Lotus root, called renkon in Japanese, is edible, and not only is it delicious, it can also help you cope with one of the absolute worst parts of life in Japan: hay fever.
No, you didn’t just step back into the ’90s; there’s a brand new Game Boy game on the horizon.
It would seem that my decision to doggedly avoid smartphone games and PS Vitas has paid finally off, because a new game just for my favorite console set to be shipped out this coming April. It’s a medieval-themed puzzle game going by the name of Airaki and will work with many of the old Game Boy units. It’s about time!
Karate has always been one of those martial arts forms that never really had much appeal to me. The idea of repeating the same kata routines – with names like “Black Dragon Karate Chops 20 Weasels at Midnight” or whatever – to commit the moves to muscle memory always seemed kind of boring and counter-intuitive to me.
And now, upon learning that at least one school has students train half naked, in freezing water, in the dead of winter, I’m even less inclined to try the sport. I’d rather go four rounds in the Octagon with Brock Lesnar.
Studio Ghibli lets you cosplay as Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle with cosy anime fashion range
Studio Ghibli releases free-download board game — Here’s how to play it without reading Japanese
Kyoto becomes City of Yokai, with Night Parade of One Hundred Demons festival this autumn
Pizza Hut releases a turtle pizza that looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
Taste testing 7-Eleven Japan’s five frozen curries to see which ones nail it
Bob’s Big Boy is alive and well, and also a cute robot, in Japan【Photos】
Pikachu/Game Boy manhole cover installed at Nintendo Museum, not viewable by general public
How to use Japan’s new self-checkout supermarket carts
How to make a Japanese convenience store bento look like a meal from a restaurant
Spice up boring Japanese classroom vocab with the cooler words in this cute video【Video】
Support Hayao Miyazaki’s real-world Totoro forest with hoodies featuring exclusive anime art
Matsushima restaurant offers all-you-can-eat sashimi in as many ways as you can dream it【Photos】
McDonald’s Japan’s new Tsukimi Moon-Viewing Pie receives mixed reviews online
Starbucks Japan releases special range of drinkware goods to celebrate the moon and the siren
These beautiful Studio Ghibli 10,000-year calendar figures are actually good forever【Photos】
Wrong Exit Exploring – The serene solitude of taking the wrong exit at Tokyo Disneyland’s station
7-Eleven combines two Japanese convenience store sweets into one for an epic treat
Japan’s cat testicle calendar is here for nyantama fans to go nuts with
Tiny chocolate croissants cause a big stir at popular bakery cafe in Japan
Ice cream in fried tofu? Taste-testing ice cream inari, a substitute for ice cream cones【Taste test】
Foreign tourists on Shinkansen bullet train break suitcase etiquette, angering local passengers
Japanese government suspends plan to pay Tokyo women 600,000 to move away to get married
Japanese government wants to remove tax-exemption limit for foreign tourists on consumables
Starbucks Japan unveils new limited-edition Frappuccino for autumn
The heartwarming story of Japan’s “Weakling Gundam” and the fans who supported it in its hour of need
Foreign tourist in Japan arrested for having sex on shrine grounds in broad daylight
Japan’s Mt. Fuji convenience store view-blocking screen has finally been taken down, on one conditionMatsushima restaurant offers all-you-can-eat sashimi in as many ways as you can dream it【Photos】Support Hayao Miyazaki’s real-world Totoro forest with hoodies featuring exclusive anime art
Japanese public toilet in Tokyo has windows that change colour when you use it
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goodsForeign tourists on Shinkansen bullet train break suitcase etiquette, angering local passengers
[Deleted] Article written for April Fool’s Day 2018
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
Foreigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
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
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
Bob’s Big Boy is alive and well, and also a cute robot, in Japan【Photos】
Pikachu/Game Boy manhole cover installed at Nintendo Museum, not viewable by general public
How to use Japan’s new self-checkout supermarket carts
How to make a Japanese convenience store bento look like a meal from a restaurant
Spice up boring Japanese classroom vocab with the cooler words in this cute video【Video】
Japanese gamers’ heads explode as they learn Super Mario’s Goombas are mushrooms, not chestnuts
Japanese explorer to attempt harrowing solo trek to North Pole
“I will continuously compliment you” – Buying praise from Tokyo’s street complimenter【Video】
Senkoji: The Japanese temple that’s more like a theme park to heaven and hell
New Attack on Titan theme park attraction coming to Fuji-Q Highland
Sukiya celebrates Tsukimi Moon-Viewing season with limited-edition gyudon beef bowls in Japan
Japan’s fourth-biggest prefecture eyes four-day workweek, but will that schedule work?
Anime and video game backgrounds now free to download for video conference calls
Japanese government plans to pay women who move out of Tokyo to get married 600,000 yen【Report】