Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Casey Baseel spent his formative years staring in frustration at un-subtitled Japanese TV programming shown on Southern California’s international channel. Taking matters into his own hands, he moved to Tokyo to study the language, then found work in Yokohama a decade ago teaching, translating, and marketing hotels he can’t afford to stay in. When not participating in the eternal cycle of exercising to burn the calories form his love of Japanese food, Casey scours used comic and game shops for forgotten classics, drags his wife around the country in a quest to visit all its castles, sings karaoke not nearly as well as he thinks he does, and counts the days until the summertime bars open on Enoshima Beach.
Posted by Casey Baseel (Page 533)
It’s an amazing age we live in, where you can fire up Google Street View and virtually walk the boulevards of many of the world’s cities. But it turns out Google Street View has a bit of a rival in Japan. Granted, its scope is far smaller than Google’s, given that it only covers part of one town, but it shows up the Internet giant by letting you wander its walkways from the perspective of an alley cat, and even provides profiles of all the neighborhood kitties you’ll meet along the way!
Every fall, parents in Japan who have children that are three, five, or seven years old celebrate something called Shichi-Go-San (literally “Seven-Five-Three”). The family heads to a Shinto shrine, where the priest performs a blessing for girls aged three and seven and boys aged five, praying for them to have long and healthy lives.
But since some pet owners will argue that their animal companions are their children, certain shrines now offer Shichi-Go-San blessings for pets, too, some of whom show up wearing delightful pet kimono!
The fighting game community is pretty psyched about Street Fighter V. Even though the title isn’t scheduled for release until early next year, developer Capcom has been regularly updating gamers with a series of preview videos highlighting its cast. So far, there’s been a dearth of new characters, but long-time fans of the series have been happy to see the challengers they know and love rendered in the game’s updated art style.
Well, most of them have been happy. A vocal group of dissenters, though, are the disgruntled gamers who’ve been grumbling that Cammy, Street Fighter’s pigtailed pugilist from the U.K., doesn’t have a particularly attractive face in her reveal video (one displeased commenter even went to far as to call the character “shockingly ugly”). But now new images of Cammy have been released, and it looks like she may have gotten a face-lift months ahead of the game’s actual release.
Some reviewers weren’t exactly kind to the first live-action Attack on Titan movie, and the adaptation of creator Hajime Isayama’s tale of brave youths fighting naked giants didn’t capture the hearts and minds of the movie-going public to anywhere near the extent that the smash hit anime and manga have.
But while the first film is looking like a swing and a miss, the live-action Attack on Titan is still getting a second chance, in the form of its sequel, Attack on Titan–End of the World, which hits theaters in Japan on September 19. Will the film, set to conclude the live-action version of the story, spell redemption for director Shinji Higuchi and his cast and crew?
Not in the eyes of one critic, who after watching an advance screening of the film condemned it as “miserably made.”
The art of illustration is a funny thing, because it relies on using lines and coloring to trick the mind into thinking it’s looking at a three-dimensional object. But if the whole effect is a matter of perspective, changing how you look at a picture will make you think you’re seeing something else.
Sometimes the result is cute, like when cherry blossom petals turn into a litter of puppies. At other times, the result is quite a bit pervier, like what one traveler can no longer unsee in the symbol for Japan’s bullet train.
As a kid, I loved Halloween. My brother and I would go all out decorating the house with tombstones, cobwebs, and corpses made out of old clothes stuffed with newspapers. Plus, how can you not like a holiday that gives you not only free candy, but an excuse to stay up past your bedtime eating it too?
So I’ve been happy to see how whole-heartedly Japan has been embracing Halloween, which each year seems to get bigger and bigger here. Some neighborhood shopping arcades have started inviting trick-or-treaters and passing out candy, and there are now multiple costume parades in the Tokyo area. As a matter of fact, Japan is so psyched for Halloween this year that stores started selling decorations in August.
There hasn’t been a lot of love for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics’ logo, which was officially unveiled by the event’s Organising Committee at the tail-end of July. Almost immediately after getting their first eyeful of it, many in Japan called it unappealing and confusing, and just a few days later some were calling it plagiarized.
In other words, not too many people were looking forward to seeing the emblem plastered all over the city during the Games, as well as the years leading up to them. The good news for the logo’s detractors is that they probably won’t have to, as the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics seem ready to officially withdraw the design for their promotion.
In recent years, it’s become increasingly popular for doting dog-owners in Japan to dress up their pets in little outfits when they head out for a walk. But since their canine companions are already equipped with a natural coat, all doggy fashion is really doggy cosplay, so why not dress your dog up like a member of the cast of smash-hit anime Attack on Titan?
Making the viewer feel good is a time-tested method of crafting an effective commercial. Gather a bunch of attractive people, have them frolic in beautiful surroundings for 30 seconds, and at the end subtly slip in the product, implying “You too could be having this much fun with this brand of car/beer/athlete’s foot medication!”
Thai advertisers, though, sometimes decide to take a different tack, with emotionally devastating commercials that seem designed to reduce all who watch them to blubbering piles of streaming tears and seeping sympathy. Case in point: this new ad with man’s inhumanity to man as its central theme features dialogue such as “What the f*** are you smiling at?”, terrible violence, and a completely unexpected final purpose.
One of the upsides to being a little kid is that you can get presents even on someone else’s birthday. But like getting your food pre-cut into bite-sized pieces and having older people carry you around when you’re tired, you can only expect to receive bags of party favors up to a certain age.
A rare exception to this, though, is the birthday of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Harland Sanders. To celebrate Sanders’ birthday, KFC Japan is offering all-you-can eat fried chicken, but the unlimited bird is just part of the chain’s generosity on that special day.
There’s a huge variety of fees that need to be paid when renting a new apartment in Japan. In addition to an advance payment of your first month’s rent, there’s insurance, the security deposit, the realtor’s fee, and the dreaded “key money,” basically a sign-up cost that you pay to the landlord for the privilege of being allowed to start giving him money on a monthly basis.
Add it all up, and you’ll probably find yourself out several months’ worth of rent before spending the first night in your new home. But there’s a nice upside if you chose to go through one unique realtor, because while you’ll still have some fees to pay, you’ll also get a nice housewarming present in the form of several hundred dollars’ worth of anime merchandise.
After more than a year since the last film from anime production house Studio Ghibli, the paint is rapidly drying on the writing on the wall. At the very least, it looks like animation fans are in for a long wait before the next Ghibli movie, and it may turn out that When Marnie Was There ends up being the last theatrical feature we ever see from the company co-founded by Hayao Miyazaki.
Still, that doesn’t mean that other artists, perhaps working in other mediums, won’t carry on the beloved anime studio’s spirit. As a matter of fact, if you’ve got the necessary video game production skills, that someone could be you, as a U.K.-based Project Morpheus team is looking for an artist to help add a Ghibli-like aesthetic to its game.
Even now, most legal documents in Japan don’t ask for your signature, but rather that you stamp your inkan, or personal seal, to show approval or confirmation. Also called a hanko, the stamp, customarily used with red ink, leaves behind just the bearer’s last name, at least in the case of ordinary inkan.
But if that’s just too solemnly boring for you, you can also spice things up with a personal seal made that’s decorated with characters from hit anime series such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Clannad, and Fate/stay night that not only lets you display your love for those franchises, but is also legally binding.
One of the most infamous aspects of Japanese society are chikan, the men who surreptitiously grope women on crowded trains. One Japanese security company, though, has tweeted about what it says is a new breed of chikan: men who encroach on a woman’s personal space to sniff her scent.
I’m never really sure what I should call the zombie action series that began as a hit PlayStation game in 1996. Resident Evil, its internationally used name, is a lot more colorful than Biohazard, its Japanese one, but only the first of the many games takes place primarily in a home. What’s more, the source of the trouble is science run amok, not dark magic, so the “evil” part seems a touch melodramatic.
On the other hand, there are now five films in the franchise, with a sixth on the way, all of which are produced in English and usually come to Japan only after already premiering overseas, so score one point for Resident Evil.
But in the case of its upcoming stage adaptation, set to open in two months, I really think Biohazard is the most appropriate name, because it looks like every single member of the cast is Japanese.
Spend enough time teaching a foreign language, and eventually you’ll find yourself in a situation where you have to stop and ask yourself whether your job, which ordinarily involves correcting how your students speak, also includes correcting what they’re saying. For example, I once had a teen pupil declare that “Being good looking is the only thing that’s important.” After a moment of consideration, I decided that trying to fix that shallow philosophy was above my pay grade, so I told her, “OK, nice grammar” and left it at that.
Still, when working with kids, it’s nice to impart a useful life lesson when the opportunity to do so relatively gently presents itself, as it did for one expat in Japan who reminded his young English-learning student of the difference between anime and real life.
Though summer vacation is a lot shorter in Japan than it is in the U.S., most tudents here aren’t exactly itching to go back to school once it’s done. Even worse, since it falls in the middle of the Japanese school year, the end of summer break is also the start of the second, and more demanding, semester.
Needless to say, a lot of kids would rather blow off school and kick back with a good manga, which is exactly what one library in Japan is encouraging them to do. The reason, however, is far more important than just finding out what happens to their favorite fictional characters .
In movies, there’s never anything good hidden in the earth under a structure. It’s all Native American burial grounds, Egyptian mummies, and other assorted other corpses of non-specific ethnicities.
In real life, though, there are all sorts of desirable things waiting beneath the surface, such as oil and gold. An excavation crew in Kobe was looking for something just as good as those two valuable commodities, though: a hot spring, and they found one right in the heart of the city.
Back in the spring, we got all weak in the knees when Nintendo decided to forgo hard plastic and instead craft an Amiibo figure of its loveable dinosaur Yoshi out of soft, cuddly wool. But while the yarn Yoshi can help you play through the game and look adorable perched on the palm of your hand, he’s a little too small for a proper cuddle.
So for those gamers who want to give Yoshi a proper squeeze, Nintendo is releasing a jumbo-sized version.
People are often loathe to part with their books, even after they’ve finished reading them. Thick, hardbound editions in particular have a sense of presence that entices literature lovers to hang on to them.
Sure, maybe you’re never going to go back and leaf through that heavy tome again, but doesn’t it look stately as it sits on the shelf? It might, but it would look a lot cooler if you used the pages to make one of these amazing folded paper pieces of art.
Japan tripled its departure tax to fund tourism but is using the money on cherry blossoms and bears
Police in Japan looking for who’s responsible for dumping 80 loaves of bread on side of road [Video]
Nike x One Piece collection brings Devil Fruits to sneakers and streetwear in Japan
Data suggests increased bear sightings have led to a decrease in mountain climbers across Japan
Nephew of Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki serves up Totoro Shaved Ice in Tokyo
Pikachu and other Pokémon evolve into hydration types with Thermos drinkware collaboration [Pics]
Amid foreign sex tourist rise, Japanese government considering outlawing paying for prostitution
Ministop brings bulked up Okinawan-style rice balls to mainland Japan for one week only
We recommend not buying one pack of Japan’s new convenience store corn soup-flavor fried chicken
Winnie the Pooh cosplays as Yuzuru Hanyu for new plushie collaboration
7-year-old boy left behind on Mt. Fuji by his own dad
Sushi Bus: Japan’s first conveyor-belt bus lets you eat sushi while sightseeing around Tokyo
Studio Ghibli unveils new interactive stationery dioramas that bring anime movies to life on your desk
Studio Ghibli composer Jo Hisaishi just set three Guinness Records
Anime fans can now wear a Seiko watch inspired by Japan’s One Piece Shinkansen
7-Eleven Japan brings back best-selling flat croissant that became a hit on social media
Foreign hiker on Mt. Fuji loses consciousness and dies, becoming climbing season’s second fatality
Universal Studios Japan partners with manga horror master Junji Ito’s Tomie
Starbucks Japan releases two new seasonal drinks that blur the line between summer and autumnWe recommend not buying one pack of Japan’s new convenience store corn soup-flavor fried chicken
12-year-old British girl who went missing in Tokyo found safe after visiting anime sites around Yokohama7-year-old boy left behind on Mt. Fuji by his own dad
Air-conditioned dress shirts arrive in Japan to save working professionals from sweltering heat
Pokémon Center Online designates first Pokémon items that will require Japanese ID card to buySushi Bus: Japan’s first conveyor-belt bus lets you eat sushi while sightseeing around Tokyo
Japanese toilet aims to attract foreign tourists but not everybody is happy about it
Tokyo’s newest viral dessert is like a Japanese parfait inside a bread bun [Taste test]
New Japanese vending machine at Shinkansen station sells cups of ice on platform
Study finds hundreds of people in Indonesia legally named after Naruto, Inuyasha, other anime stars
Japanese vending machine sells freshly squeezed lemon juice with a futuristic light show
Japan announces sudden 400-percent increase in visa fees for foreigners entering the country
Japan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in Tokyo
Studio Ghibli has a new anime out, and there’s only one place in the world where you can see it
Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
Starbucks Japan releases new sakura goods and drinkware for cherry blossom season 2026
Japan’s newest Shinkansen has no seats…or passengers [Video]
Tokyo subway installing new ticket gates that don’t accept payment through Suica or other IC cards
Japanese ninja certification exam attracts 131 candidates from Japan and abroad
Salomon releases Japan-exclusive Mt. Fuji hiking gear that doubles as an amazing souvenir
Put sesame oil in your coffee? Japanese maker says it’s the best way to start your day【Taste test】
Pikachu and other Pokémon evolve into hydration types with Thermos drinkware collaboration [Pics]
Amid foreign sex tourist rise, Japanese government considering outlawing paying for prostitution
Ministop brings bulked up Okinawan-style rice balls to mainland Japan for one week only
We recommend not buying one pack of Japan’s new convenience store corn soup-flavor fried chicken
Winnie the Pooh cosplays as Yuzuru Hanyu for new plushie collaboration
Dragon Ball Z theme park, financed by Saudi Arabia, to be built in France
Starbucks Japan adds new Customisation Bar to stores, with free ways to hack your food and drink orders
Nagoya’s famous Shinkansen platform noodle shop has other, better branches nearby
Turn octopus, spaghetti, and more of your favorite foods into crackers with Senbei Maker 2
Studio Ghibli composer Jo Hisaishi just set three Guinness Records
Japan’s double-decker portable rice cooker/bento maker is better than ever with new version
KFC Japan unveils new Tsukimi collection that takes moon-viewing to extreme levels
Universal Studios Japan partners with manga horror master Junji Ito’s Tomie
Ohaw? Ruibe? Pocche? While traveling in Japan’s north, we try Ainu cuisine for the first time