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May, 2015 (Page 10)

Even after living in Japan for more than a decade, I still get excited when I see a restaurant with paper lanterns hanging out in front of it. The mix of vibrant colors and bold calligraphy is just so uniquely Japanese that it instantly fills me with a sense of excitement.

Of course, just a bit of the eroticism has faded over time, especially now that I can read the calligraphy and tell that it usually doesn’t say anything more dramatic than “draft beer” or “grilled chicken skewers.” But while those lanterns are usually giving the menu highlights in Japan, at this Japanese restaurant in Thailand, they’re instead plastered with non sequiturs, gags, and the occasional philosophical declaration and/or love letter to women’s breasts.

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Got a great recipe that requires soy sauce? Enter this competition to win 100,000 yen!

If you fancy yourself as a bit of a soy sauce connoisseur or if you enjoy dabbling in Japanese fusion cooking, we’ve found a perfect way for you to earn some easy prize money.

The Japan Soy Sauce Association is currently accepting entries for two special contest categories: Washoku, for Japanese-style recipes and Your Country’s Cuisine, for food that incorporates the use of soy sauce into traditional dishes from your homeland.

With the top prize being 100,000 yen (US$834.87), if you’re a foreigner living in Japan, now’s the time to get that apron on and get cooking!

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Ghibli Easter eggs are good, but Pixar Easter eggs are even better【Video】

Studio Ghibli and Pixar are two of the most successful movie companies in the world. They’ve released over a dozen memorable movies that can be enjoyed over and over again. The connection doesn’t end there, as Japan loves Pixar movies as much as the rest of the world loves Ghibli.

There are dozens of hidden gems to be found in Ghibli movies, which pay homage to beloved characters, and Pixar is also well-known for having a slew of Easter eggs that not only give a nod of respect to past characters, but also give clues about future characters and movies! Disney has released a new video of some of their favorite hidden treasures, and fans in Japan couldn’t be more excited about it.

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Tokaido ukiyoe series by Hiroshige now free to share, we celebrate with five favourites

Lovers of Japanese art and history will be familiar with the world-famous set of ukiyo-e woodblock prints known as “The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido.” Created in the 1800s by famed artist Utagawa Hiroshige, the collection is a series of landscape paintings from each of the post stations on the ancient coastal walking route from Edo (Tokyo) to Kyoto and is frequently praised for the way it captures the spirit and essence of old Japan.

While the masterful works have garnered fans around the world, when it comes to sharing the images online, things haven’t been so easy. Now, limitations have been lifted and the beautiful series is free to share without copyright restrictions. What better way to celebrate the good news than to share some of the best with you, our dear readers?

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  • May 11, 2015

Holes in your clothes? Not a problem for this amazing kaketsugi mending craftsman!

Isn’t it just a bummer when you get a tear or hole in one of your precious clothes? It’s terribly sad when you have to say good-bye to your favorite piece of clothing because of that small hole … or do you really have to?

What if  the hole could be almost magically repaired? Well, one Japanese craftsman who was featured in a Korean television program seems to be able to do exactly that, and his mending technique is amazing — just take a look and see if you can tell where the material was repaired!

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Eren and Levi drive Colossal Titan heads in Attack on Titan Takara Tomy cars

If you thought you’d seen all the weird and wonderful Attack on Titan collaborations on the market, you may want to think again because now Takara Tomy have jumped on the wagon with two special versions of their very popular and highly collectible Choro-Q toy cars.

These pullback-spring racer cars are known for their manga-inspired designs and cutely inaccurate proportions. However, this is the first time they’ve featured the likes of Levi and Eren. And just to add to the weird cuteness, they’re seated in the driver’s seat of an angry, disembodied Colossal Titan.

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Shut up and take our money! This awesome dress combines lolita and traditional Japanese fashion

If you’re anything like us, there’s a good chance you like both lolita and traditional Japanese fashion. Many of us here at RocketNews24 love those lolita skirts, even if we can’t really pull off the fluffy look, and we definitely appreciate the beauty of a well-crafted kimono.

So the news that the Kaga Lolita Project, which combines traditional Japanese fashion with the lolita style, finally has a dress available for sale online has us reaching for our wallets! You might not see any of us actually wearing one, but you can bet we’ll be admiring the dresses from afar, dreaming of twirling parasols on our shoulders.

Check out the dress below and get ready to dig out your credit card!

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Enjoy the taste of 1-UP and invincibility stars with new Lotte Super Mario gum

Joining in the 30th anniversary celebrations for the Super Mario Bros. video game series is popular Japanese gum brand Fit’s. Thanks to this unique collaboration, we’ll now be able to chew our way into the game with the awesome-sounding tastes of “Mario’s Invincibility Star flavour” and “Luigi’s Infinite UP flavour“.

So what does invincibility and an unlimited 1-UP taste like? And what type of gorgeous inside packaging do we have to look forward to? We check out the details ahead of this much-anticipated release.

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The five-patty Lotteria burger wasn’t big enough, so we made a 35-patty burger instead!

When we heard last month that Japanese burger chain Lotteria was bringing back their legendary five-patty Tower Burger, we knew that we had to give it a try. Unfortunately we didn’t realize the special was only available until the end of April, so when we finally got around to it there was nothing but boring normal burgers left.

But then we realized something: the Tower Burger is just five patties stacked on top of each other. We could just buy five patties and make our own anytime! In fact… there’s no limit to how many patties we could stack. We could even have something ridiculous, like a 35-patty burger!

And so we did. And we ate it. This is our adventure.

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Taiwanese man waits outside train station for his date for 20 years – she still hasn’t shown

When you hear the story of Hachiko, the dog who waited for his owner outside of Shibuya Station for 10 years, your heart wrenches in pangs of sadness, yet is warmed by the thought that such love and dedication exists in this world. But, what if Hachiko had been a man and his owner was some girl who stood him up, is your heart still warmed?

You don’t just have to imagine this situation, because it actually happened, or, should we say, is currently happening. A Taiwanese man has been waiting outside of Tainan train station for his date who never showed up… 20 years ago.

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What do you see when you look at the Batman logo? To most people, it’s clearly a black bat, spreading its wings against a yellow background. But others interpret the design a little differently. To them, it’s a set of yellow teeth and tonsils staring back from the inky darkness of a gaping mouth.

Surprisingly, what works with bats apparently can work with sakura, too, as one Japanese Twitter says that instead of a single cherry blossom, the etching on this manhole cover looks like a cluster of five cute surprises.

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Breathe easy – Toyota redesigning Prius plug-in hybrid to double car’s all-electric range

Toyota’s Prius is designed for one purpose, and it’s not to deliver the sort of exciting performance that will seduce you into taking a spirited drive through a moonlit mountain pass (that’s another car’s job). No, the Prius promise is that it will get you from Point A to Point B in the most energy-efficient way possible.

But while the standard hybrid Prius remains a popular choice for eco-conscious motorists, sales of its plug-in variant have been stagnant. Toyota is hoping to change that, though, with an updated Prius that can travel roughly twice as far under purely electric power than the current model.

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Upgrade your tuna sashimi to chu-toro with a mayo marinade? We test the theory 【RocketKitchen】

Being one of Japan’s two favorite types of fish to eat raw, Japan takes its tuna pretty seriously. As a matter of fact, tuna sushi and sashimi gets different names depending on which cut of the fish is being served. While just about everyone loves ordinary tuna, either maguro or akami in Japanese, it’s the extra-fatty tuna belly, called chu-toro or o-toro, that people really rave about.

Of course, those same premium cuts that get gourmands’ mouths watering can leave your wallet crying, as the price of the extra-creamy toro can be more than double that of lesser cuts of tuna. That’s why we decided to test a theory we’d heard that you can unlock the full potential of akami with mayonnaise. But does marinating your ordinary tuna in mayo turn it into toro, or is this rumor just a bunch of bull?

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Super Mega Important Debate – Natto: is it nom or vom? 【Poll closed】

Sometimes our modern lives lack conflict. Let’s remedy that today by having a massive fight about something that doesn’t really matter.

This week, we’re talking about the fermented soybeans known as natto, and there’s one question we need you all to answer: is this dish “nom” or is it decidedly “vom”?

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Pro gamer reveals the unexpected activity that takes up to 15 hours a week

Diego “Quas” Ruiz, 23, plays video games professionally for Team Liquid, where he specializes in League of Legends — the world’s most popular competitive game.

He also spends a chunk of time promoting products like Red Bull, HTC, and Alienware.

Ruiz competes in the League Championship Series (LCS), the top professional league in North America, earning between $60,000 and $100,000 per year from his base salary, product sponsorships, and revenue from streaming on live-steaming video platform Twitch.

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You know what? An Alice in Wonderland/Spirited Away mashup actually kind of works!

Artist and T-shirt designer Saqman, who, despite his pen-name inadvertently reminding this writer of genitals, actually seems like a pretty wholesome guy, recently put together this spiffy and kind of spookily appropriate-looking mashup of Spirited Away and Alice in Wonderland, and it really works on a level we never really thought about!

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Exclusive video! RocketNews24 interviews Tokyo’s elderly residents about their love lives! 【Video】

If you’re feeling a little jaded on romance in these days of impersonal dating apps, casual hookups and seeing who can pretend to be the most indifferent, then pull up a chair and watch this heart-warming video! RocketNews24’s intrepid team of reporters hit the streets of Sugamo, Tokyo to interview some of the shopping district’s oldest and wisest residents on matters of the heart, touching on topics such as money vs looks, where to find hot guys in Tokyo, and why you’re never too old to fall in love.

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Pikachu will hook you up with some free tunes with this cool-looking Pokémon music smartphone app

There’s a unique art to making video game background music. It has to be engaging enough to produce an emotional response, but not so much that it becomes a distraction from the gameplay. Each piece has to quickly establish its tone, but can’t be so simplistic that it becomes repetitive on the many occasions where the music loops around for a second play during the hero’s journey across the map or epic boss fight.

For years, the Pokémon franchise has been hitting the nail on the head with its soundtracks, and if that musical accompaniment adds a special something to your quest to catch ‘em all, why can’t it do the same to a late night of studying or your commute to work? So not only will a new app let you play Pokémon music on your smartphone, it’ll even give you a regular batch of free listens.

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  • May 8, 2015

Japan celebrates birth of royal baby, brings Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to shop in Omotesando

We can just imagine how immensely excited all of England must be about the birth of the new princess (and we’ve all swooned over the darling pictures, haven’t we?) … because we’re pretty excited here in Japan too! It seems the Japanese public has always had a fondness for the British royal family, perhaps because we have our own well-respected and loved imperial family, and the new royal baby has received huge attention on the Japanese media.

We’ve been so delighted with the birth of Princess Charlotte, in fact, that a British themed boutique in Omotesando, Tokyo, has welcomed to their store the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge — well, their very life-like figures, actually, and we visited the shop to join in the celebration!

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Boxers in the Philippines fight blindfolded, show us why they shouldn’t 【Video】

One of the best scenes in any martial arts movie is when a skilled fighter shows off just how powerful he is by fighting blindfolded. After all, a true master of hand-to-hand combat should be able to utilize his other senses to defeat his opponent.

But if one blindfolded pugilist is cool, two blindfolded combatants going against each other must be even more awesome, right? Not always, but it does make for plenty of physical comedy, as this video of blindfolded boxing shows.

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