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July 1, 2014

Our recipe for green tea rice-cooker pancakes: amazingly tasty, ridiculously easy

We recently found out that you can use a rice cooker to make awesome, gigantic pancakes. Our first reaction was surprise, as we’d honestly never even thought to try. Soon enough, though, our surprise faded and was replaced by something even stronger: hunger.

So we decided to get off the culinary sidelines and whip up a batch for ourselves. Since we were using Japan’s most beloved kitchen appliance, we decided to take another cue from our adopted country and spruce things up a bit by making matcha green tea pancakes.

We’re going to spoil the ending right now and tell you that they taste amazing. Want to make them yourself? Read on and we’ll give you the whole incredibly easy recipe.

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Social experiment puts public to the test in “Do Singaporeans have a heart?”【Video】

A hidden camera show has tested the kindness of strangers, asking Singapore shoppers to help a poor tissue seller. While the cameras rolled in secret, members of the public were asked to complete a short survey, for which they received five Singapore dollars (about US$4). They were then approached by a man in a wheelchair, who asked them to buy a pack of tissues.

While some commentors on YouTube praised the heartwarming video, which claims that the majority of people chose to give the man the money, others expressed disappointment that some people ignored him and kept the cash for themselves. Some viewers also criticised the video itself, which promotes a contest open to those who spend over 20 dollars in the mall.

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  • Jul 1, 2014

We attend Sailor Moon’s birthday bash — and watch a preview of Sailor Moon Crystal!

Do you know what June 30 is? Well, it may be the day where you say to yourself, “Oh my gosh, half the year is over! How could it have gone by so quickly?” but you just might find yourself being punished in the name of the moon if you don’t remember one other important event that takes place on that day. Yes, June 30 is Sailor Moon’s birthday, or Usagi Tsukino’s birthday if you prefer to call her by her “human” name.

With the new Sailor Moon Crystal anime series soon to be released, this year’s birthday was bound to be a special one for our Usagi-chan. And special it was! A huge birthday event in honor of our beloved warrior princess, including a preview screening of the first episode of Sailor Moon Crystal, was held in collaboration with fashion magazine ViVi on June 30 in the Tokyo Odaiba area. And since it was supposed to be kind of a girls’ night out, the event was apparently only open to women, or men accompanied by women.

We definitely couldn’t miss out on this party, and we promptly sent one of our reporters from our Japanese sister site — we couldn’t wait to see what the huge do would be like!

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Netizens balk at Ibaraki Prefecture town’s sea life-encrusted mascot character

Anyone who has ever visited Japan or spent any amount of time browsing our pages will know that the country is home to literally hundreds of mascot characters, or yurukyara, each weirder than the last. From developmentally challenged sushi to the nightmarish Okazaemon, there’s certainly no lack of originality and quirk to be had.

But one small Ibrakai town has a new mascot character that, according to Japanese net users and our own Japanese staff, “even a mother couldn’t love.” This, ladies and gentlemen of the internet, is Araippe, a creature with bird-like feet, a shell for a nose, and dangling locks of hair that are actually fish fry.

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Anime Expo stuffs four tons of Nature Valley granola into attendee goodie bags

As the natural culmination to a brilliant social media move by Nature Valley to endear themselves to anime fans, attendees of Anime Expo will be able to sink their teeth into some granola bars come next weekend.

The convention recently tweeted a photo of several pallets piled high with boxes of granola bars.

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China tried to build a replica of Manhattan… and it’s not looking so great

Yujiapu, in China’s Tianjin Binhai New Area, was modeled on Manhattan and expected to become the financial center of the world. But it languishes as many wasteful Chinese ghost cities have. At one point it was reported that the Juilliard School had signed an agreement to set up an institute in Yujiapu. And there were plans for a Rockefeller and Lincoln Center as well. But construction in this Manhattan hopeful has ground to a halt.

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Our Japanese reporter talks to a stranger on Skype…things get awkward

Skype is known around the world as a convenient, free video calling service and enjoys widespread popularity in Japan. As with any online communication website, you’re bound to be contacted by someone you don’t know. If you simply ignore the contact request, nothing will come of it, but what if you didn’t? What sort of mischief would come about as a result of your imprudent actions?

This brings us to the first and hopefully last installment of what our Japanese correspondent likes to call “My English battle with a foreigner who suddenly decided to contact me on Skype”.

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Bibbidi bobbidi boo, wonderful new Disney accessories for you!

Summer is here! The days are long, the evenings are muggy and we can’t wait for these hot and humid days to pass. But nothing helps get the weather off a girl’s mind more than stories of princesses. Escape to a fairy tale wonderland with the all new Disney Jewel Summer Collection!

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Homeless in Japan and still earning a decent salary

When we picture homeless people, the images that usually come to mind aren’t exactly pleasant. While the social stigma of homelessness is brutal to say the least, the fact remains that being homeless is not something most people would choose for themselves.

And while most homeless people probably haven’t “chosen” their life, they’re not all necessarily suffering either. Some homeless men in Japan have a yearly “salary” that is down-right respectable!

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South Korean government blamed for incompetent response to Sewol ferry disaster

After the initial dust settles on the scene of a tragedy there comes the more protracted, but often less news-worthy, battle for answers and accountability. From the outset Korean authorities have come under fire from the public as well as government officials who claim that the immediate response to the incident was not good enough, and the accusations of incompetence continue to mount.

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Attack on Titan star Levi graces cover of Japanese women’s magazine

Well, the public has already come forward and said that Attack on Titan‘s abrasive, but secretly caring Levi is one the most dateable anime characters of all time (the public also said they love boobs… a lot), so it’s no surprise that Levi is getting the star treatment even outside of anime circles.

On June 27, Levi graced the cover of the popular women’s magazine, FRaU, for the magazine’s book and manga special edition that included a manga awards page – several of which, no doubt, Levi is now the proud owner of.

Artist and Attack on Titan creator Hajime Isayama drew the cover especially for the issue, which features Levi reclining in a fancy office chair, with a manga and a pair of classy loafers; a look the youthful hero probably doesn’t get to sport too often in the world of Attack on Titan.

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Saudi Arabian TV tempts would-be thieves in Tokyo to test Japan’s honesty

Besides great sushi, great customer service and ubiquitous vending machines, another great thing about living in Japan is the relatively low crime rate there. Although the country certainly has its criminals (including very cute and cuddly ones), visitors, tourists and expats in Japan routinely extol how Japanese culture has created a society where even a wallet full of cash will be returned to its owner most of the time. After hearing about Japan’s reputation for being an honest, rule-abiding country, a Saudi Arabian TV show created a social experiment to see what would happen when they left a very conspicuous wallet on the busy streets of Tokyo.

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After spending a year in college studying in Tokyo, I moved back to Los Angeles for about two years before coming back to Japan for work. Having always prided myself on my familiarity with Japanese slang (partly to distract myself from my terrible penmanship when writing kanji characters), I was surprised to find out how many new terms had sprung up in just the 22 months I’d been away.

At the same time, it turned out that a few of the vocabulary words I’d picked up while studying abroad had since passed their expiration dates and become obsolete. This wasn’t a one-time transition, either, as language is constantly evolving, and today we bring you a list of eight words that’ll at best make you sound like a senior citizen, and at worst simply won’t be understood by anyone under the age of 25.

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