Featured

September, 2015 (Page 4)

Traditional Japanese fundoshi loincloths are both functional and fashionable, providing modesty for the modern man while still allowing a healthy influx of air around one’s nether regions. In fact, fundoshi are currently enjoying a revival of popularity in Japan, perhaps as a result of some men rebelling against constricting tighty whities and boring boxer shorts.

Our Japanese writers love them, and now some of the players from J-League division 2 football team V-Varen Nagasaki have lent their talents to advertise a range of crotch drapery designed to make fundoshi fun for football fans.

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Japan: one of the few countries in the world where married couples must have the same surname

With Japan consistently appearing in the lowest ranks for gender equality in industrialised nations, the adoption of Prime Minister Abe’s recent bill to promote the role of women in the workplace has been a welcome development in what remains a traditionally patriarchal society.

What the headlines fail to mention, however, are the archaic laws entrenched in the country’s Civil Code that continue to hold women back, including same surname requirements upon marriage, and differences in the minimum marriageable age and re-marriage prohibition period for both sexes.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has again called for a revision of Japan’s current laws, slamming the country for being one of the few industrialised nations where it remains illegal for married couples to have different surnames.

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Kim Jong-un visits North Korean women soldiers, internet Photoshop battle ensues【Pics】

It has to be pretty good being Kim Jong-un. You’re the supreme dictator of a whole country, you’ve got the most fashionable haircut ever, and women flock to you and faint in your presence.

Unfortunately being so handsome and popular has one downside though: the internet. When the online hivemind got its hands on a photo of Kim Jong-un visiting the female division of his divine army, they created some hilarious Photoshop masterpieces that are truly fitting for such a respected leader.

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Japanese actress Mina Fujii is the most searched keyword in Korea and it’s not hard to see why

When it comes to women, we have a pretty good idea of what Japanese netizens like. They like young shogi players, dancing streamers, and… women who use poop makeup? Sure, why not.

But what about Korean netizens? What do they like? According to search engine results in Korea, right now the number one most searched topic in Korea is Mina Fujii, a Japanese actress. Why is this Japanese actress the current hot topic in Korea? Read on to find out!

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Be a magical girl this fall! LIZ LISA and Madoka Magica’s collaboration fall line is here

The dream collaboration has come true! The popular television anime series, “Puella Magi Madoka Magica” has collaborated with the popular girls’ fashion brand, “LIZ LISA.”

Orders for the collaboration items are now being taken through anime goods webstore Super Groupies, with orders being delivered around the beginning of October. There are five different items and each will come in two different colors. Check them out after the jump!

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Ever dreamed of spending the night in a bookstore? Junkudo offering the chance to do just that!

A little over a year ago, someone in Japan tweeted that they would “love to live in Junkudo”, one of the country’s largest book store chains. Little did they know that someone at that very company would not only see the tweet, but decide to make that pipe dream a reality, inviting a small band of book lovers in Tokyo to spend the night in the giant bookstore with sleeping bags, giving them entirely free rein to pick up any book or magazine they pleased.

This year, the company is bringing the “Try Living in Junkudo” project to an even bigger three-story shop in Osaka—and on Halloween, no less!

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Not just Sailor Moon, but Sailor macarons as anime combines with elegant confectionaries

The recent release of fine porcelain Sailor Moon cups and saucers has anime fans ready to add a touch of elegance to their table. Of course, what’s tea time without some equally posh snacks, right? So if you’re looking to keep your refreshments in the same anime family, why not pair your pour of Darjeeling or Lady Grey with some Sailor Moon macarons?

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Watch this magical cloth return to its origami form after being stretched out

Origami is one of Japan’s most well-known art forms. At its simplest, even children can enjoy it, and at its most complicated, it can be used for commercial purposes and designs. Now, one company has created special pieces of cloth that will automatically refold into their original origami forms after being stretched out. There doesn’t seem to be any particular, unique benefit to these pieces of fabric, but we sure want some!

Check out the mesmerizing video below!

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Coin laundries in Japan are now more popular than ever, but what makes them so good?

If you’re used to using a dryer when you do laundry in your home country, you might be in for a surprise if you ever move to Japan. Despite the country’s numerous technological advancements to make your life easier, clothes dryers here pale in comparison to many overseas models, and they aren’t something you’ll find in your average Japanese household. Instead, most Japanese people prefer to hang their washing outside to air dry.

Sure it’s a more affordable and ecological way of doing things, but what do you do when the rainy and typhoon seasons make drying clothes outside impossible or you have too much laundry to hang outside all at once? It’s time for a trip to the laundromat, or what Japanese like to call a koin randorii (coin laundry).  In fact, they’re becoming so popular that over the past 10 years the number of coin laundries across Japan has almost doubled, despite little growth in the laundromat industry world-wide.

But why is the coin laundry business suddenly booming? We decided to find out!

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Stop-motion Attack on Titan/Godzilla crossover is disturbingly awesome 【Video】

Attack on Titan’s adaptations to other forms of media have been sort of hit-and-miss. Sure, the animated TV series that followed up on the success of the original manga is the anime industry’s biggest hit in decades, but kind words for the two live-action movies have been few and far between.

Still, the upcoming video game version looks pretty cool, and as further proof that the series can still be cool in new formats is this awesome fan-produced stop-motion video that’s a crossover between Attack on Titan and Godzilla.

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The musical rhythm games that are fixtures at Japanese arcades blur the line between video games and public performance. Even those who don’t see what’s so special about a 10-hit Tekken combo or one-credit shooter play-through can find themselves enthralled with tempo-perfect drumming or dancing, and expert rhythm gamers often garner a crowd of impressed onlookers watching them play.

The audience for this arcade dancer, though, didn’t consist of a throng of people, though, but instead a single kitty.

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Sweet omelette-flavored gummies? Famous Japanese YouTuber tries it so you don’t have to!

Tamagoyaki– best described as a fluffy, sweetened rolled omelette that’s often served chilled is a staple in typical Japanese bento lunches. A gummy candy flavor it is not…until now! Adding to an ever-growing list of odd flavors coming from Japan, tamagoyaki-flavored gummies are now a thing, and well-known Japanese YouTuber Hikakin has gotten his hands on these rare odd gems and given them a taste. The verdict? Watch and see for yourself!

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Think you’re a “super player”? Test your gaming habits against this Nintendo relic from the 80s

A rare legal video game document was unearthed recently by a Twitter user which outlines the eight laws that true “super players” must follow to be certified as such by the makers of the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, still known to this day as one of the most difficult games ever made.

However, like many constitutions this was made during different times and might not apply too well to modern life or in this case modern gaming. Still, if you want to see if you’re a true old-school super player take a look at the eight articles you must adhere to.

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There’s a restaurant in my neighborhood that I ate dinner at shortly after I moved to Yokohama. Since in those days I worked night shift, I walked through the door around 9:30 p.m., asked for a table for one, and ordered my food.

It turned out to be one of the blandest, least satisfying meals I’ve ever had, but that restaurant is still in business, more than a decade later, so the food can’t be that bad. In hindsight, I think the fact that it was about the 20th meal in a row I’d eaten alone was affecting my sense of taste. Spending too much time by yourself can mess with your head, and the social aspect of eating with a friend can really add a lot to your enjoyment of the meal, which is why a researcher in Japan says that if you’re going to be eating by yourself, you should put a mirror on the table.

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That moment when Google Maps tells you there’s a crab claw somewhere…and there actually is!

Japan is full of places with unusual names, like Kinugawa (“Angry Demon River”), which caused all the flooding earlier this month. So, it’s understandable that when someone sees a place marked Crab Claw (“カニの爪” pronounced “kani no tsume”) on Google Maps, they might think it’s the name of a hill or some quirky little fishing village.

But one Japanese Twitter user decided to investigate and went to get a look at what this “Crab Claw” actually was. It turns out Google Maps wasn’t being coy or silly — it was being 100 percent literal!

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Yoshinoya studying what happens to the body after three months of eating beef bowls

In a lot of ways, Japan’s equivalent to the hamburger is the beef bowl, or “gyudon” as the locals call it. Tasty, fortifying, and cheap, beef bowls are so prevalent and popular in Japan that they essentially have their own strata in the personal food pyramids of many college students and bachelors.

Realizing that much of its customers’ bodies are literally made out of beef bowls, Japan’s largest gyudon chain is now embarking on a research project to investigate what happens after three months of eating the dish.

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Japanese entertainer getting laughs and friends overseas with hilarious English performances

Japan has an incredibly rich history of traditional performing art forms that have lasted through the centuries. It has noh, kabuki and bunraku, all of which provide classical entertainment even if you have no idea what is happening. Another popular form of Japanese entertainment is rakugo, which involves a lone storyteller sitting on a stage, telling comical stories with only two props traditionally: a fan and a small cloth. So while the rest of the world has stand-up comedians, Japan has sit-down comedians. All of these performances though have one small problem for foreigners, though: they’re almost always in Japanese.

That’s where Showko enters the scene. A brilliant entertainer who has traveled the world with her hilarious Rakugo performances and ventriloquist acts has been taking the comedy world by storm. Learn more about some of her performances and where to see her after the jump.

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These Edo-period sketches of human skeletons are oddly adorable despite being totally creepy

The Edo Period was a time of great change for Japan, in just about every way possible. Perhaps one of the areas of biggest change, though, was science and medicine, thanks to the numerous scholars who spent years learning not only from Western sources but also from their own work.

One of the pioneers of medicine in the Edo Period was Toshuku Neguro, an ophthalmologist who sketched the first Japanese diagram of the human skeleton. While it was likely a fairly gruesome job, Neguro’s sketches are somehow almost…cute?!

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Adorable Kikkoman ad from 1900s shows even a soy sauce company knew cats entertain

Kikkoman is one of the most famous brands of soy sauce, especially since it comes in such unique container that is open on two sides and can never be closed. The company has been around since 1917, so they’ve had a lot of years to think of ways to advertise for the salty sauce around the world. One of their cutest ads comes from 1933 and features a crew of dancing cats in black skirts that make us squeel “KAWAII!”

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Play with fluffy alpaca mascot Fuwapaca in two free mobile games【TGS 2015】

It wasn’t just gross and scary games on show at Tokyo Game Show this year; there were also some really adorable games to try out, too. When we saw this booth with its sweet, fluffy alpacas we made a beeline for the cuteness. We got to chat with the dev and try out their two alpaca-themed mobile games, taking some snaps of the alpaca-ified booth and merch as we did for you at home.

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