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Audrey Akcasu

Audrey was born in Michigan, raised in Los Angeles but has felt most at home in Nagasaki, Japan. While teaching English in Omura, she discovered her love of nature, the countryside and ultimately Japan. When not working on her black belt in Ryukyu karate, or mastering her Nagasaki dialect, she wrote for and ran the English language magazine Nagazasshi. She loves traveling, frolicking all over Japan and Asia (with a few stints in Africa and Europe). But her best trip to date was her two-and-a-half weeks hitchhiking from Nagasaki to Aomori. Although she has relocated back to the States, she will probably be out the door to somewhere new in no time. Until then she’s enjoying the great outdoors and the bugs that come with it, doing anything from running to rafting, although her current "boom" is rock climbing.

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Posted by Audrey Akcasu (Page 9)

Gunma-chan is named the champion of the 2014 mascot character contest

Have you ever wondered how Kumamon suddenly burst into the spotlight back in 2011? It was the result of his victory in the national mascot character contest, the Yuru-kyara Grand Prix. The contest has been held every year since 2010 and Kumamon was the first major winner in 2011.

Voting for the annual contest runs from August to October every year and people are eligible to vote for their favorite character (usually the one representing their town or prefecture) once a day for the duration of the contest. Well, the results for the 2014 contest are finally in, and it looks like a certain entrant took the win by a nose.

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How does Britain’s Wagamama Ramen stand up to Japanese taste buds? A culinary investigation

If you’ve ever tried pizza in Japan or even miso soup in America, you probably know not to expect the same quality as in that food’s homeland. That’s perfectly understandable if you ask me; sometimes food is adapted to appeal to local palates, and things that a dish’s original creators may insist on can be considered unappetising or downright odd in its new home.

But then you have countries where even the native cuisine is known throughout the world, whether it’s a fair statement to make or not, as being kind of unappetizing. In such a country, would seeking out non-native dishes be an especially good idea?

When he found himself craving Japanese food after months of living in the UK, RocketNews24 Japan’s writer Gold Hijikata decided to take himself out to well-known British chain restaurant Wagamama, which he heard specializes in Japanese favorite ramen. With over 100 locations across the UK, our man Gold had high hopes for Wagamama’s noodles, but he also knew that it would be hard to come close to his own country’s efforts.

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Become an ultra-cool Ultra(salary)man with these limited-edition neckties

In Japan, black suits are as ubiquitous with salarymen as uniforms are with high school students. Usually, though, the look is pretty unremarkable: black suit, white shirt, subdued tie, black shoes, black belts…and the same thing every day. Suit and menswear chain Aoyama, however, is looking to not only spice up the old suit look, but also help salarymen channel their inner space alien superhero (or villain).

For their 50th anniversary, Aoyama has collaborated with the Ultraman franchise to create a line of Ultraman neckties. In an announcement from Tsuburaya Productions, the company that produced the original Ultraman TV series in 1966, it was revealed that there will be eighteen unique Ultraman inspired designs available for a limited time.

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Three Kyoto sushi shops are sending girls reeling in culinary delight

You’ve probably seen girls (and sometimes guys) taking pictures in restaurants and maybe you read their Twitter or Facebook updates about the good food they eat around Japan. Maybe you’re one of these foodagraphers. I wouldn’t blame you, in fact, I’ve done the same. Japanese food, everything from lunch-boxes to sweets, is often not only delicious looking, but is also often displayed in cute and fashionable ways.

But lately, social media and the restaurant review site Tabelog have been taken by storm by the updates and comments about three Kyoto sushi restaurants, due to their innovative menu and their ability to attract those squealing, cell-phone holding, Japanese women (and men?) by making their food undeniably cute.

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Cupcakes almost too beautiful to eat! Adding a Japanese touch to cake decorating

Art lovers and foodies rejoice! Japan now has cupcakes so beautiful that they should probably be considered works of art, but are in fact delicious hand-made goodies meant for eating.

But could they be SO beautiful, so detailed, so mesmerizingly dainty in Japanese styles and patterns, that it would be a waste or even blasphemous to ruin them through our crude form of consumption, lost forever via our vast digestive tract? I probably wouldn’t go that far, but they are fantastically elegant and a slight hesitation to appreciate the detail before digging in would probably be in order, if not inevitable.

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What’s cuter than a cat? A cat with a cat-mask on

Twitter user ＠kyoxxxxx, aka Kyou, recently posted this picture of a cat with a cat-mask on its forehead that’s weird and extremely cute at the same time.

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Some fans love Pharrell’s “It Girl” video, others call him a pedophile【Video】

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPZDBF0kei0?start=279&feature=oembed&w=640&h=360%5D

Last summer the international pop-star Pharrell Williams rocked Japan with his single, “Happy,” which launched countless fan-made remakes across the country. Joining in with the “happy” Japanese people, he has since collaborated with renowned artist Takashi Murakami to make a remix of virtual star Hatsune Miku’s video “Last Night, Good Night (Re:Dialed).” This time around, however, Pharrell is trying to bring fun Japanese culture to the rest of the world.

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Kobe University study reminds us that Japan could be one volcanic eruption away from annihilation

Feeling a little too chipper today? Here’s something to bring you back to down to earth: According to Kobe University professor Yoshiyuki Tatsumi and his research staff, there is a one-percent chance that a huge, Japanese-civilization-obliterating volcanic eruption will occur sometime within the next 100 years.

One percent may not sound like very much, but when you hear the kind of eruption the professor’s research refers to, you’ll understand why even that tiny number is much bigger than we’d like.

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The toy you’ve always wanted: Action-figure you

Do you ever have those days when you wonder what you would look like with a six-pack, throwing a punch, or literally bending over backwards to do something, but you don’t have enough confidence in your own strength and flexibility to actually try? Have you gotten tired of your usual action figures, wishing it was you fighting the bad guys? Well, you don’t have to wonder or wish anymore with this fully moveable action figure made to look just like you!

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You’ll never want to stop cleaning with this penguin mop topper

There are a lot of things in this world that are better done with a buddy – getting coffee, taking walks, watching movies…cleaning. Yes, I said cleaning! While cleaning is probably the most dreaded chore out there, with a “Penguin SuiSui” cleaning partner you might never stop polishing those floors.

The Penguin SuiSui (suisui is a mimetic word expressing smoothness or unhindered work) is not like a high-tech Roomba, who will do the cleaning for you. He is, however, a low-tech buddy that will just keep you excited for the task at hand. He’s a fabric penguin with a hole in his back so you can slip him over the stick of your sweeper and he can swivel around the floor with you as you clean.

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Are virtual reality schools the future of education in Japan?

Don’t like going to high school? Instead of physically going to campus and dealing with other whiney teens and your annoying teachers, you could send an avatar to go to a virtual school for you! Starting next spring, a private correspondence school in Chiba Prefecture called Meisei Cyber High School is opening its virtual doors!

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South Korean shoppers literally leap off walls for free The North Face goods

Teaming up with the South Korean ad agency Innored, popular outdoor brand The North Face set out to promote their slogan, “Never Stop Exploring,” by challenging unwitting customers to prove that they are worthy of the pricey goods that they were trying on.

Based on their expressions of confusion, shock and utter fear, none of these customers were planning on being especially adventurous that day, but as the floor opened up beneath them and a selection of The North Face goods was dangled before their eyes as they clung to the wall, they soon found their inner adventurer.

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Sun + Magnifying glass = Art? One man’s unique “painting” style will blow your mind

Do you remember when you were a little kid and you used a magnifying glass to look at bugs and leaves? Do you remember when you realized that if you caught the sunlight in the magnifying glass in just the right way you could set the bugs and leaves on fire?

Austronesian artist Jordan Mang-osan (not to be confused with Mango-san) is also using the sun to burn things at this home in the Philippines, but instead of frying bugs, he’s creating massive works of art.

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Time to head north: Tochigi Prefecture’s gyoza-flavored rice topping is nothing short of divine

Tochigi Prefecture doesn’t pop-up in the news often, but when it does it usually involves food. You might remember the “First Love” flavored gyoza or the tomato-milk-lemon drink. I totally understand if you didn’t jump out of your seat to go to Tochigi just to taste those… unique… goods for yourself, but there is a new product in Tochigi that is flying off of the shelves and just might be worth that trip: “Kekeru gyoza.”

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Late to the game, but Japan does Halloween right【Video】

Ask any Westerner what’s so special about October 31 and you will get the same answer: Halloween – a modern-day version of the ancient Celtic harvest festival Samhain. In Japan, however, October 31 was just any old day until fairly recently, with the haunted hijinks never really catching on until a few years ago.

But here’s the kicker: the Japanese might already be doing Halloween better than we do! 

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