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November, 2015 (Page 13)

Living in Japan: 10 “normal” things you won’t find here

Living abroad is fun and exciting; hardly a day goes by when something doesn’t surprise, humor, or baffle you. Living in another country also gives you a chance to understand your own native nation and evaluate the good and the bad from an outsider’s perspective.

So today we want to share with you some things that we miss from our own countries—that is to say mainly the US and UK—that we never realized we’d miss! Because, you know, they just seemed so normal, we thought Japan would have them too.

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Video claims that if you can read a certain font, you are probably not Japanese【Video】

English language proficiency is a tricky subject with Japanese people. There’s always an excuse about why they can’t understand it, from, “I’ll never use English,” and “It’s not interesting,” to the catch-all, “It’s too hard.” Well, it’s a good thing the Ministry of Education isn’t looking to adopt any new fonts for their textbooks as a little-known computer font developed back in 1998 is gaining some notoriety for being absolutely impossible to read by native Japanese. You might be able to read it, but can your Japanese friends?

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  • Nov 11, 2015

Like good-looking men? Now you can get your own ikemen hot guy in a bag…of chips!

Who isn’t fond of a little eye candy, right? Yup, we all like to take a look at good-looking guys (and gals) from time to time. But now, Japanese brand and product promotion company ESSPRIDE is giving us the chance to enjoy ikemen (hot guys) in a completely unexpected way…by pulling one out of a bag of chips!

That’s right, we present to you Ikemen Chips, a unique snack that comes with a special “hot guy card“, each featuring a picture and profile of an ikemen. And what makes the product especially interesting is that they’re actually regular guys working at various Japanese companies who have submitted their pictures and information to be made into the ikemen cards!

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Learning Japanese? Beware these 19 loan words—they’re not what they sound like!

Speakers of certain languages sometimes get a leg-up when learning Japanese. For example, Japanese includes Chinese characters, which means Chinese speakers can often get the gist of a text even if they don’t understand the grammar. Similarly, Korean speakers might find that Japanese grammar is kinda similar to theirs. And we native English speakers get a huge helping hand from the hundreds of English loan words that have been adopted into modern Japanese.

But sometimes, these loan words aren’t really our friends at all. Instead, they’re what’s known as false friends – words that sound similar in two languages yet have a completely different meaning. In co-opting English words into Japanese, sometimes our crafty Nihonjin pals have assigned our words to things that actually mean something totally different. It’s almost like they’re trying to trick us!

Join us for a quick primer on some Japanese loanwords you might have heard before, and what they really mean!

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Travel around Japan with stunning videos from the 4K ultra HD video library

There are many beautiful videos of Japan floating around on YouTube, but there’s one special channel that’s aiming to stand head and shoulders above the rest. Called TokyoStreetView – Japan The Beautiful, this is an ongoing project that’s working towards compiling a library of high definition 4K videos, showcasing unique aspects of Japanese culture and featuring beautiful locations all around the country.

We take a look at four of their stunning videos, filmed within the nation’s capital, at Akihabara and the famous Senso-ji temple in Asakusa, and in its more picturesque regional areas, at Nikko and Ise Grand Shrine in Mie Prefecture. The superb, high quality of the images is so remarkable, you’ll feel as if you’re seeing the country not through a lens but through your very own eyes!

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Sailor Moon Honey Salon accessories releasing in Japan this holiday season

Sailor Moon and fashion shop Honey Salon are collaborating to release a string of new products in time for the holidays to be sold at Honey Salon locations in Japan.

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Japanese boat racing turns to fantasy sports to boost fanbase, may have turned too far

Despite being one of the few legal forms of gambling in Japan, boat racing (kyotei) is not enjoyed by most people. Many Japanese people have never been to a race and would struggle to give you directions to one of the large-scale venues across the country where they take place.

So Boat Race Biwako has taken the daring move of implementing a new promotional campaign of hardly even acknowledging the existence of boats and instead starting a fantasy sports system based on a quintet of doe-eyed moe girls…because it just wouldn’t be Japan if they hadn’t.

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Sony to stop selling Betamax video cassette tapes in March

Sony announced on Tuesday that after four decades, it will stop shipping Betamax (or Beta) and MicroMV video cassette tapes next March. The company explained that it is ending sales in these formats in light of the changing marketplace, due to the end of analog television broadcasts in Japan in 2012, the decreased demand, and other factors.

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Japanese comedian shares hilarious “magical poses” that make you look like you’re naked【Video】

If you sit down to watch Japanese TV during the evening, you’ll be inundated with talk shows filled with celebrity antics, riotous laughter and an array of stand-up comedians.

While the majority of comedians like to poke fun at each other with puns and verbal gags commonly seen in traditional straight-man/funny-man manzai routines, others like to get a laugh by simply taking their gear off. That’s the route chosen by Tonikaku Akarui Yasumura, whose known around Japan for appearing onstage in nothing but a skimpy thong and a number of hilarious “magical poses” that make him look like he’s completely naked.

Now Yasumura is set to conquer the world, by enthusiastically sharing his ‘naked’ poses in several new videos with explanations in various languages, including English. With tricks you can try at home or in an inebriated state at a party, “Don’t worry, I’m wearing” is the next new thing from Japan everyone will be talking about!

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Nissan builds an origami car to celebrate the fifth birthday of its Juke crossover 【Video】

It’s been five years since Nissan launched its compact Juke SUV/crossover, and the company is celebrating with a very special fifth anniversary edition: a full-size origami model.

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“I want to be the street” — Man arrested AGAIN for hiding in drain to take upskirt photos

 A 28-year-old man has been arrested in Kobe after allegedly hiding in a drain to take up-skirt photos of women. This is his second arrest for the same crime.

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Japan may not be cold enough for a three-dog night yet, but the season is just right for a one-cat nap, as these heartwarming photos prove.

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Final Fantasy fan art with a Western touch creates illustrations just right for any Disney fan

Just as languages around the world are each unique yet beautiful, art has also developed its own flavor depending on where you are from. When comparing Western and Asian animation, there is a distinct style difference when it comes to the shape of faces, size of facial features, and the overall aesthetic. Both styles are very appealing, but when push comes to shove, all of us probably have a preference between the two.

Art is also a conversation though, and it can be transposed between two different worlds, such as Western art with an Asian flair or vice versa. One artist’s rendition of Final Fantasy characters drawn with a Western touch is making us super-excited because they look like they are ready for their Disney close-ups.

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The “Nintendo PlayStation”: a look at the console that could’ve changed gaming history【Video】

For most modern gamers, the idea of rival video game giants Nintendo and Sony collaborating on a project is pretty much unthinkable. But believe it or not, back in the day when the Super Nintendo was king, Sony and Nintendo were supposed to team up to make a new console. Unfortunately the deal went sour, and it was thought that all prototypes of the mythical Sony-Nintendo console were gone.

Until now. A working copy of what has been dubbed the “Nintendo PlayStation” was recently brought to light and shown off online for the world to see. Join us after the jump to witness what could’ve been…

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Farting sheep set plane’s alarm bells ringing during flight to Malaysia

We all have different ways of getting through long flights, like settling down for some inflight entertainment, reading a good book, or possibly trolling fellow passengers. But one thing everyone tries not to think about is what might happen if the plane were to suddenly experience an emergency while thousands of feet up in the air.

For one unlucky group of passengers last month, they experienced just that, and for what might be the strangest reason we’ve heard yet: some very gassy sheep.

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Adorable Avengers, assemble! Marvel’s heroes getting the Tsum Tsum treatment in new mobile game

Earth’s mightiest and cuddliest super-deformed heroes are set to assemble in a new smartphone game follow-up to the Disney hit.

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New cushions let you achieve the dream of sitting on your anime crush’s face

Do you love you anime crush enough to sit on his face?

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The big biang theory! How the “most complicated” Chinese character keeps students from being late

Most schools expect their students to attend classes punctually and students are commonly penalized when they fail to do so. At a certain school in China, a teacher used to punish his students by making them write English sentences when they were late for class, until he came across the “most complicated” Chinese character, which now has become an effective measure in keeping his students on the ball where punctuality is concerned.

If you’ve ever faced such a punishment and felt that writing “I will not be late for class again” over and over again was a dreadful experience, try writing this!

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Young martial artist slices through the competition, takes the internet by storm

Female fighters in Japan and all across the globe and are inspiring a whole new generation of young women to take up martial arts in what has traditionally been considered a male-dominated domain, like this adorable pint-sized warrior who’s starring in a new music video.

But another young female athlete found herself suddenly in the spotlight for her proficiency in multiple martial arts, catching the attention of viewers all across the world by channeling her inner ninja with an amazing video of her performing her best sword fighting techniques.

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