Summer is the season for ghost stories in Japan, and at the end of August we sent one of our reporters to try out the terrifying haunted house from the horror masters and game fans at Obaken. Amazing as that six-room production is, Obaken has since expanded its scale to something even bigger: Zombie Camp, a two-day excursion that combines the majesty of the great outdoors with the threat of rampaging zombies!
Casey Baseel
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 570)
Although he increasingly dealt with heavy themes and narratives as his career went on, legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro is a film of almost non-stop good vibes, with scene after scene filled with childlike whimsy, wonder, and joy. Wouldn’t it be nice to take a break from the worries of the workaday world and live inside the 1988 classic for a day?
Of course, if we’re talking animated flights of fancy, why stop at being just any character in the movie, when instead you can become Totoro himself with this lineup of Totoro apparel.
In addition to such cool things as opposable thumbs and the gift and speech, one of the areas in which we humans are clearly superior to other animals is our development of a sophisticated pooping culture. Not only have we reached an almost species-wide agreement that just leaving our feces lying around is not cool (with the exception of a few exasperatingly inconsiderate holdouts), we’ve also put our scientific know-how to use in developing systems to carry our feces away from our homes.
Now, though, it seems that mankind has a challenger to, and for, the throne, in the form of two cats in Japan that seem to be well on their way to mastering the toilet.
By the way, did you already have a nice, nutritious breakfast? If not, be advised that cats will be dropping deuces after the jump!
You can find some pretty strange stuff in Japan’s gachapon toy capsule vending machines, like futons for your smartphone or doggy bread figures. But one set of gachapon goodies from manufacturer Epoch is so odd because of how amazingly mundane it is: a series of folding chairs and school desks.
But why did Epoch decide on such a down-to-earth muse, and why have people been snapping them up? We went straight to the source and talked with two members of Epoch’s development team to find out.
In Japan, it seems like almost every time I see a dog owner out for a stroll with their pet, it’s wearing some sort of clothing. It always strikes me as a little weird, since dogs are already covered with fur, and for most of the year, Japan doesn’t really get cold enough to warrant an extra layer to keep them warm.
Still, I guess the owners get a kick out of it. I do feel a little sorry for the dog sometimes, though, especially if he’s been stuffed into some cutesy, frilly costume. Wouldn’t he be happier in something more masculine, like a suit of doggy armor?
You could make the argument that Nintendo is the most “Japanese” of the major video game companies. Obviously that’s a label you can’t apply to Microsoft, but even compared to internationally focused Sony, with design studios and production teams all over the world, more of Nintendo’s products are developed domestically, and many in Kyoto, the quintessential Japanese city.
So it’s kind of ironic that the company’s best-known character, Mario, is Italian. Still, the video game hero is one of the best choices for a symbol of Japanese pop culture, and now he’s been combined with Japanese traditional culture in an awesome Mario kimono.
It’s been just a little over a month since the deadly landslides brought about by a powerful storm hammering Hiroshima City. Soon after the disaster struck, rescue crews sprang into action, providing shelter and medical assistance to victims.
We’re sure the residents are deeply grateful for the service of those who came to their aid, and while every man and woman who did is no doubt courageous and caring, the cutest of all was probably rescue dog Yumenosuke.
Back at the start of the year, we all had the urge to go out and fight some monsters when we saw Hollywood blacksmith Tony Swatton recreate the massive sword wielded by Final Fantasy VII’s Sephiroth. Of course, Sephiroth is just one member of the gigantic collective cast of the long-running video game franchise. With so many more iconic weapons to choose from, it was only a matter of time until craftsmen went to work on armaments from the other games in the series, and next up is a real-life version of Squall’s gunblade from Final Fantasy VIII.
Wednesday has to be the least exciting day of the week. Your energy boost from the weekend is likely spent, and you’ve still got a couple more days of work until your next chance to cut loose and have some fun.
At least, that’s how things generally are. This week, we’re psyched about Wednesday, because October 8 is bringing a lunar eclipse to Japan, and as part of the celestial show, the moon is turning red.
In some ways, Sailor Moon is a strange choice for a character to build an anime franchise around. Her natural tendency is to be lazy and whiney, which isn’t exactly what you’d expect from a magical heroine.
But what endears Sailor Moon to so many fans is that, when the chips are down, she’s loyal and brave. Whether you’re being attacked by monsters or just feeling down in the dumps about bombing your math test, she’ll be with you through any rough times.
That’s a promise that even extends to when you’re on your period, thanks to new Sailor Moon menstrual pads. No, seriously.
Recently, Japanese branches of McDonald’s and Burger King have been getting into the Halloween spirit with spooky black burgers infused with squid ink and bamboo charcoal. This is a problem for KFC, though, since both of those ingredients are a little too exotic to mix with the Colonel’s traditional set of 11 herbs and spices.
Since KFC can’t celebrate Halloween by embracing its dark side, the most popular fried chicken outlet in Japan is instead turning to the holiday’s other icon by offering pumpkin biscuits.
Speed is the name of the game in modern entertainment. With thousands of competing channels and websites just a button press or click away, you can’t afford to waste any time delivering the goods, and that goes double for comedy. Get in, do the job, and make your exit before the laughter dies out.
Take this insane Japanese video for example. Woman enters room, sits down, and BOOM – punchline! And we mean that “BOOM” literally.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that a lot of our readers have fond memories of the glory days of the Nintendo Entertainment System. As nostalgic as the iconic piece of 8-bit hardware is for North American and European gamers, though, it’s even more so for Japanese fans, who got the equivalent Famicom years before the NES launched overseas.
Japanese humor website CuRAZY recently stopped to take a look back at all the time they spent with a tiny red controller in hand during their formative years, putting together this video of 13 Famicom experiences pretty much every Japanese gamer had.
What if we told you that Sunday was being discontinued? Like, the day’s just being removed from the calendar forever. You’d be pretty bummed, right? Sure, it lacks the excitement of Friday night, or the pure, 100-percent freedom of Saturday, but most of us still look forward to Sunday as a fun point in our week.
Well, something similar is about to happen for manga fans. Naruto, creator Masashi Kishimoto’s wildly popular weekly ninja series, is just weeks away from its final installment.
When we heard a far-fetched rumor about the release date for the fourth Rebuild of Evangelion film, we suspected it was too good to be true. Sadly, our instincts were right, and the promised date is now long past.
If you’re a long-time Eva fan, you’re probably tapping your foot impatiently as you wait for the purportedly final installment in creator Hideaki Anno’s decades-spanning anime saga. But since there’s nothing to do but wait, that foot may as well be inside one of these stylish Evangelion heeled boots.
Häagen-Dazs already has a pretty upmarket image, what with its high-quality ingredients, premium pricing, and fancy-sounding name. Apparently, though, the U.S.-headquartered ice cream brand’s Japanese division still thinks there’s room to grow in the classiness department.
Two mature treats are being added to the lineup soon, one which uses red wine and another which draws inspiration from a French dessert. And just in case those don’t sound regal enough, they’re topped with gold and silver.
I’ll be honest. When I first saw pictures of the new key chain/cell phone strap that’s become a big seller in Aomori Prefecture, my first thought was, “Wow, that looks like a turd.” The truth is actually a few levels less disgusting, as that brown, lumpy cylinder isn’t a stool sample, but actually a sea cucumber.
However, the truth behind that truth takes things a step back towards gross. When I said the strap is “actually a sea cucumber,” I mean that literally, as that’s really the body of the slug-like marine animal.
Autumn is a great time of year in Japan. The sticky humidity of summer is gone, but it’s still warm enough to enjoy spending time outdoors. Best of all, there’s the spectacular show of the leaves changing to vivid reds and dazzling yellows.
For me though, fall comes with one major drawback, which is that for the whole season, it seems like the mixed tempura set at every restaurant I go to is packed with mushrooms. If you’re a fan of Japan’s many types of edible fungi, this is a major plus, but if you can’t stand the things, you might be feeling a little left-out.
Take heart, though, because there’s still a way to form a deep-fried connection to autumn with tempura maple leaves.
Earlier this year, we stopped by Artnia, the café run by video game publisher Square Enix, to munch on buster sword chocolates and drink material cocktails. Just as you’d expect from the company behind some of Japan’s biggest RPG franchises, though, there’s now an upgraded sequel, the Eorzea Café, with an even larger menu of Final Fantasy themed foods.
Led by our sense of adventure and gnawing appetite, we journeyed to the strange and wonderful land of Tokyo’s Akihabara to check it out.
Back in the spring, we got an eyeful of a series of drawings from manga artist Osamu Tezuka, in which the multi-talented legend showed off his skill at drawing mice and snakes with sexy curves. Being the open-minded creator that he was, though, Tezuka didn’t limit his sensual sketching to rodents and reptiles, and next month fans will get to see what the God of Manga could do with the naked humans, at the Beautiful Women of Osamu Tezuka Exhibition being held in Tokyo.
Heads-up if you’re at work! Manga nipples coming after the jump!
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