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Oona McGee

Half-Japanese Oona McGee hails from Sydney, Australia, where she worked as a journalist and copywriter before making the move to Japan over a decade ago. Now she spends her days exploring the streets of Tokyo with her laptop and camera, always in search of new cafes, restaurants, events and stories to share with our readers. As an experienced food and travel reporter, Oona has travelled extensively through all 47 prefectures of Japan, and is constantly researching new destinations and drawing up itineraries for her next adventure.

Posted by Oona McGee (Page 211)

Japanese rock star Yoshiki performs while debuting edgy kimono collection at Tokyo Fashion Week

Oona McGee
Oct 21, 2015
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One of the most talked about collections at Tokyo Fashion Week was the YOSHIKIMONO First Collection, a range of rock star kimonos created by a Japanese rock star so famous he goes merely by his first name, Yoshiki.

As a musician, composer, songwriter, and record producer, Yoshiki has a wide variety of creative interests and now he’s stepping out into the world of fashion with a collection of edgy kimonos featuring unorthodox prints and unusual obi wraps.

During his show at fashion week, the audience was blown away by Yoshiki’s artistic vision as his kimono-clad models walked around him on the runway while he provided the soundtrack to it all with a classical piano recital.

This adorable tubby bunny wants to pole-dance for you【GIF】

Oona McGee
Oct 21, 2015

When we’re down in the dumps, there’s nothing like a cute animal to get us back in a good mood. While cats are the undisputed overlords of internet animal therapy, there’s one little bunny that’s bringing a smile to thousands of Twitter users in Japan with nothing but some adorable dancing skills and a pole.

Cosplay in your sleep with this giant anime-style “pigtails pillow”【Pics & Video】

Oona McGee
Oct 21, 2015

The creative team at Bibi Lab have been at it again. The inventive brand dedicated to bringing weird and wonderful items out into the world have delighted us with life-sized human-shaped pillows, mosquito net jumpsuits and even sailor-style schoolgirl uniforms for men.

Now there’s another item we’ll be adding to our growing collection of Bibi Lab products: the giant anime-style pigtails pillow.

Attack on Titan car navigation system stars Survey Corps, a walled city and checkpoint giants

Oona McGee
Oct 20, 2015

The live-action Attack on Titan movies may have been a bit of a disappointment, but we’ll always have the glorious anime. And now the animated protagonists from the acclaimed series are bringing their world into ours and guiding us around it with an amazing new tablet and car navigation system.

Filled with special extras including the opportunity to “rank up” according to distances travelled, a choice between “return to the wall” or “Survey Corps outer expedition” route views, and an appearance from a Titan when we pass through convenience store checkpoints, it’s bound to make trips to the grocery store much more exciting!

Discovery of Death Note-inspired hit list in New Hampshire school has families on high alert

Oona McGee
Oct 20, 2015

Death Note, the popular manga series turned live-action movie from Japan, follows the story of a bored young genius and his discovery of a supernatural book called the Death Note, which has the power to take the life of anyone whose name is written in it by the owner.

The sinister storyline has now influenced a real-life turn of events at a high school in the United States, where a self-styled “Death Note” was found, containing the names of 17 students, including the dates of their deaths and the manner by which they would be killed.

Hobbyist turns Volks Super Dollfie girls into amazing Dancing Dolls

Oona McGee
Oct 19, 2015

Japanese company Volks has been making Super Dollfie dolls for more than a decade. The ball-jointed doll-figures are designed to be fully customisable, with removable wigs, interchangeable appendages and resin parts that can even be sanded for reshaping.

One Super Dollfie fan has taken the concept of customisation to a whole new level by melding the cute doll parts with robot skeletons, which allows the dolls to dance, play violins, and take part in some awesome samurai-style katana swordplay.

Wear your cats on your hands this winter—They’ll wag their tails with every smartphone swipe

Oona McGee
Oct 19, 2015

We all know how much cats love to be the centre of attention. And when it comes to being the star at home, felines know their biggest competition comes in the form of computer and television screens—those strange boxes that their owners stare at for hours on end when they should be offering tummy rubs and relaxing head scratches.

Cats know the best way to wipe out these distractions is to sit in front of, or sprawl out on top of, said screens. And now there’s a way they can take control of our phone time too: by covering our hands when we go to use our cellphones in winter. In fact, it makes them so happy, they’ll wag their tails in approval every time we swipe the screen!

Dine like a samurai on the night of the Ikedaya Incident at Kyoto-themed restaurant in Tokyo

Oona McGee
Oct 19, 2015

If you’ve ever wanted to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of Kyomachi, the old streets of Kyoto, there’s a special dining establishment in Tokyo that will take you there. The Kyomachi Koishigure restaurant features private dining rooms, red bridges, bamboo corridors and a running stream so you can enjoy all the traditional beauty of Kyoto without having to leave the nation’s capital.

And now, for a limited time only, the restaurant will take you back in time to the late Edo period, with a special “fair” that recreates the infamous Ikedaya Incident, a significant moment in Japan’s history when a group of masterless samurai were ambushed at Kyoto’s Ikedaya Inn.

As part of the experience, diners can enjoy a specially designed menu inside a recreation of the inn, and staff dressed as members of a sword-wielding police force who “ambush” your private room every time you place an order.

Illustrator creates beautiful “Bicycle Boy” watercolour series inspired by Studio Ghibli

Oona McGee
Oct 19, 2015

Studio Ghibli, Japan’s famed animation house, has a remarkable talent for captivating audiences around the world with inspiring storylines and loveable characters. What really brings them all to life, however, are their animated backgrounds; beautiful palettes of light and shade and inky hues that draw us into their magical worlds and have us never wanting to leave.

There’s one background illustrator in Tokyo who knows just how to recreate the atmosphere of a Studio Ghibli movie and now he’s bringing out the beauty of Japan’s narrow roads and suburban landscapes in a series of illustrations entitled “Bicycle Boy”. Using a real-life setting from Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart, the picturesque journey of a boy and his bike through the streets of Japan is so beautiful we’ll happily follow him wherever he goes!

JINS MEME: Award winning glasses track your physical state and concentration levels

Oona McGee
Oct 17, 2015

Thanks to the world of smartphones, we’re now able to connect to ourselves on a physical level in a way we never could before. Fitness apps and wearable devices like the Fitbit wristband allow us to monitor everything from the number of steps we take to our walking speed and heart rate.

While activity trackers usually take physical data from our wrists, Japanese eyewear brand JINS is taking a very different approach by monitoring not only our physical but also our mental state, with the new JINS MEME glasses. Using a number of built-in sensors to gather data from the eyes and body, now you can monitor everything from posture to alertness levels and find out how your body and mind “age” alters throughout the day.

We try cute meals, drinks and sweets from Namja Town’s Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal menu

Oona McGee
Oct 16, 2015

We recently brought you news of the enticing Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon-themed menu at Namja Town, an indoor theme park operated by Namco, in Tokyo. The themed offerings were really quite something, and after spending so much time poring over the unbelievably cute items on offer, we found ourselves itching to stop in for a visit!

And visit we did. Come with us now as we eat everything from Luna P-Ball, Sailor Moon’s Moon Stick, and even Tuxedo mask’s pocket watch. These incredible edibles are absolutely adorable and filled with so many surprising details they’re almost too cute to eat! Almost…

The ultimate hangover cure! Hot canned miso soup, packed with the power of 70 clams

Oona McGee
Oct 16, 2015

One of the most wonderful things about a Japanese winter is the abundance of hot drinks that become available at convenience stores and vending machines on street corners. There’s nothing quite like popping a coin into a machine on a freezing cold night or while making your way to work, only to have a piping hot can delivered into your frozen palms; it’s an experience that’s almost as satisfying as actually drinking the hot beverage and warming yourself from the inside out!

Stumbling across a good hot soup other than corn potage when scouring the drinks display is always a rare bonus and now that’s something we can look forward to, especially after a night of drinking, with the new canned miso soup from Nagatanien. Filled with the power of ornithine, an amino acid abundant in clams, this is a traditional hangover remedy from Japan, now packed in a can!

Sailor-style school uniform outfits for men are warm, fleecy and said to reduce stress

Oona McGee
Oct 15, 2015

Watch out sailor sisters! There’s a new line of sailor-themed clothing on sale and this time it’s the boys’ turn to come out and play. There won’t be any trousers or navy hats here though, because the only thing masculine about these clothes are the bodies that will be going into them.

It’s the Boku Sera (“I’m a Sailor”) range, which uses the Japanese male pronoun boku to highlight exactly what sets the clothes apart from all others we’ve seen before: these are girls’ sailor-style school uniforms, only now they’re built for male bodies.

Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade now showing in Japan with exclusive merchandise

Oona McGee
Oct 15, 2015

Never has there been a more enchanted tale than that of a school of young witches and the small, newly founded animation studio that created them. Their success story reads like a fairytale: two former Gainax employees create Studio Trigger in 2011, release the animated short Little Witch Academia two years later, and thousands of fans across the world immediately fall madly in love with their film, eagerly raising funds through Kickstarter for a follow-up movie, which surpassed its goal of US150,000 in five hours, and ultimately made $625,518 for their next film.

Now it’s time to see what this group of dedicated fans helped to create, as the new film, Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade has finally hit big screens for a limited two-week run in Japan. And to add to the excitement of the highly anticipated release, there’s a line of exclusive merchandise available for film-goers to purchase until the film finishes screening on 23 October.

Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro comes to life with ingenious lasercut paper set from Studio Ghibli

Oona McGee
Oct 15, 2015

Out of all the Studio Ghibli films, My Neighbor Totoro remains one of the most beloved, with the tale of two young girls and their magical forest friends capturing hearts and imaginations around the world.

While the story centres on Totoro, the furry, forest-dwelling giant, his unique mode of transport very nearly upstages him. What’s not to love about a multi-legged bus-shaped cat that bounds over hills beaming trails of light from its huge yellow eyes and carrying mice along as tail-lights?

Now it’s time to take the iconic catbus home and when we do, we’ll be making him entirely from scratch, with a specially designed kit made from lasercut paper materials.

Governor of Tokyo unveils new city logo, internet responds with questions about plagiarism again

Oona McGee
Oct 14, 2015

Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe revealed the capital city’s new logo at a press conference in the nation’s capital on Friday, and the simple design, featuring the one-line catchphrase “&TOKYO”, is already in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

The logo unveiling was met with a heightened level of scrutiny following the plagiarism scandal which resulted in the withdrawal of the official Tokyo 2020 Olympics logo recently, and it turns out that netizens are now worried about a recurrence of events. The distinctive white ampersand enclosed in a circle has been discovered online in a similar black, white and red configuration currently in use by another organisation, an insurance and commercial litigation company in New Zealand.

The Holy Grail is full-sized, features lights, music and the voice of Sailor Moon【Video】

Oona McGee
Oct 13, 2015

Fans of the Sailor Moon anime franchise have been enjoying some extra special items this year; we’ve seen tiny, miniature replicas of the girls’ everyday items, lip balm transformation rods and even Moon Stick pens, and now it’s time to add a life-sized addition to our collections.

The Rainbow Moon Chalice, the magical object that transforms the heroine of the popular anime franchise into Super Sailor Moon, is available now as a 1:1 scale replica from the Proplica series of life-sized props. Featuring lights and music from the series and also the voice of Kotono Mitsuishi, who voices Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon and Chibi Chibi/Sailor Chibi Chibi in the anime, this is one item that can let you play out your fantasies of transforming into a super you!

Wall dogs: Pups poking their heads through holes wanting to join you on your walkies 【Pics】

Oona McGee
Oct 13, 2015

When we recently came across an adorable Shiba Inu peering out of a wall of shrubbery and an Akita dog poking his nose out of a hole in the wall, we figured these were one-off, rare sightings, much like the sight of a hedgehog riding on the back of a rubber duck or a cat dressed in an elegant kimono.

But it turns out we were just scratching the surface of a well-known pastime in the canine world, which involves dogs of all shapes and sizes squeezing themselves into holes in walls to catch a whiff of what’s going on outside. And no dog is immune to the trend, with bulldogs, collies and beagles getting in on the cute act too!

Tokyo Motor Show set to reveal the new concept Toyota SF-R, which looks surprisingly like Pikachu

Oona McGee
Oct 12, 2015

Since Toyota revealed details of its concept S-FR, set to make its first appearance at the Tokyo Motor Show later this month, people in Japan have been picking their jaws up off the floor—but it’s got nothing to do with the car’s impressive specs or surprisingly low price point.

You see, the compact sports car looks astonishingly like Pikachu, the bright yellow electric rodent from the popular anime franchise Pokémon. And what’s even more surprising is that few people in the mainstream media are daring to comment on the astounding likeness.

Meet Orizuru, the origami paper crane that can really fly 【Video】

Oona McGee
Oct 12, 2015

For one special little crane who thought he was destined for greater things than gathering dust on someone’s desk, dreams really can come true. The intricately folded origami bird proved that the sky’s the limit when it comes to development in Japan, as he was released to an enthralled audience of onlookers in Tokyo this week.

So how did the impossible become possible? We take a look at the video of the beautiful bird in flight and the team that gave him functional wings after the break.