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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.

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Posted by Oona McGee (Page 213)

Scandal as hospital staff take selfies, play games & hold parties while patients lie unconscious

If you’ve been reading up on our international medical news recently, you may have stumbled upon the shocking story of staff posing for photos during surgery on a patient at a hospital in China. While the news was disturbing to say the least, it seems they’re not the only ones fooling around in the operating room, with a new set of images from a clinic in South Korea showing medical staff enjoying birthday cake, games and unabashed selfies, even with the patient lying unconscious in the medical chair.

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See the world as it should be with a pair of Disney Princess glasses

Disney Princesses are continuing to sway their influence on the fashion world in Japan. From umbrellas to lingerie and perfume bottles, fans can’t get enough of the elegant offerings from their favourite royal stars.

Now lovers of Disney can channel the object of their affections with a pair of spectacles from well-known Japanese eye-wear chain Zoff. There are six designs to choose from: Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Rapunzel and even Elsa the Snow Queen, each featuring frames, cases and cleaning cloths with gorgeous details.

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Make your business memorable with a license plate phone number

There’s a lot to be seen and learned from your car seat while driving on the roads around Japan. While cat-patterned tail-lights, unique modes of communication and building your own Batman bike are some of the more obvious ways to get noticed, there are also more subtle yet equally effective ways to create an impact in traffic, and do a bit of advertising while you’re at it!

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Transform your cat into DJ Scratchalot this holiday season

If the thought of a cat spinning tracks fills your heart with immense joy, then this will be the gift that keeps on giving this holiday season.

With a rotating turntable and a deck covered in trash-talking stickers, even demure felines can try their paw at scratching tracks, thanks to this hilarious cat DJ deck. Now any cat can be the cool cat who makes all the humans smile and all the kittens bounce.

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New Guess ad campaign features Japan in all her stunning glory

If you’ve ever visited Japan and fallen in love with its beauty and culture, prepare to be swept off your feet again with the latest ad campaign from Guess.

Shot by famed Chinese photographer Chen Man, the photos take us on a journey through cherry blossoms and tea houses, featuring girls with samurai swords and parasols.

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What happens when you mistake the brake for the accelerator in Japan

Parking can be tricky sometimes, but when you’re trying to manoeuvre a large vehicle around tight spaces in a Japanese carpark, things can get a little scary.

Thankfully nobody was hurt in the accident pictured above, yet after the photo was posted on Twitter there was one thing everyone wanted to know: how come the rear wheels were hanging in mid-air?

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Choose your own toaster at the specialty toast restaurant in Tokyo

There’s a lot of freedom and innovation when it comes to dining in Japan. For every Michelin-starred restaurant in Tokyo, there’s an equally impressive place where you can dine with maids, hang out with cats or even watch boys make out.

Now there’s another must-visit eatery to add to Tokyo’s ever-growing list of unique cafes and this time the star of the show is the humble slice of bread. At Centre the Bakery in Ginza, you can choose your own toaster, take it back to your table and enjoy freshly made toast.

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Grated white radish cat spices up traditional Japanese home cooking

Japan has some awesome food pairings: sushi and wasabi, red beans and green tea, and fish and grated white radish. While these food combinations tickle the tastebuds, they’ve actually been eaten for centuries to offset negative health effects and promote healthy digestion. But that doesn’t mean things have to be boring!

One creative twitter user has taken inspiration from their pet cat to show us just how amazing a staple Japanese dish can be. Gone is the obligatory mound of plain, grated radish that sits beside grilled fish dishes and in its place is an adorable white cat lovingly caressing a fishy prize from the sea!

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I Won’t Let You Down: new music video from OK Go wows us with Honda drones and unicycles

OK Go, the alternative rock band who blew us away with their unique treadmill choreography in the music video for their 2006 hit Here It Goes Again, have come out with an even more impressive video, this time featuring dozens of Japanese girls, a drone and a motorised unicycle from Honda.

Filmed in Japan and inspired by the group’s trip to the Robot Restaurant in Tokyo, this latest music video was released on October 27 and has already reached close to two million views on YouTube. Check out the video after the break to see just how awesome these boys can be when they team up with a leading director and choreographer from Japan.

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We test the new “walking bicycle”, find out how it feels to walk and cycle at the same time

Japan has come out with some pretty awesome ideas over the years. Pocket calculators, instant noodles, even CD players were all born here, and while they were developed in response to the needs of the local market, their popularity quickly spread far and wide around the globe.

Now Japan is set to revolutionise the way we travel with a new product called the Walking Bicycle Club. Touted as the first big breakthrough in 200 years of the cycling industry, the new vehicle is powered by stepping, rather than pedalling, and is designed to make walking more fun. But how does it feel to ride a bicycle that looks more like a mobile step machine? We dropped by the store to find out.

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Meerkats draw large crowds as they play in the streets of Ginza

If you thought you’d have to travel to the African continent to rub ankles with a meerkat, you’ll be happy to know that they’re closer than you think. Just take a stroll down the Ginza boulevard on any given weekend and chances are you’ll run into three friendly meerkats soaking up the sun on the side of the street.

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Le Jardin de Tweed: Lunch on the roof terrace at Chanel Ginza

Ginza is well-known for its high-end boutiques and exclusive brand name designer stores. Armani, Hermes, Gucci, Bvlgari and Chanel all have signature outposts here and the most surprising thing about them is they offer the unique opportunity to dine inside their buildings.

The iconic Chanel building has one of the most impressive locations of the lot, with a laid-back, resort-like setting up on their roof terrace overlooking the busy Ginza shopping street below. Featuring tweed accents and a lunch box put together by acclaimed French chef Alain Ducasse, you’ll have to get in quick for a chance to eat here as the outdoor area is only open for a limited time until October 31 every year.

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New exhibition at Tokyo National Art Museum comes with excavated chocolate souvenirs

There’s so much to love about Japanese customer service. Whether you’re shopping at an expensive department store or perusing the shelves at the local supermarket, you can rest assured that everything has been thought through and tailored to meet your needs and desires.

The same attention to detail will be there for visitors to the upcoming National Treasures of Japan exhibition at the Tokyo National Art Museum in Ueno this month. Clearly aware that visitors will want to dig up a national treasure of their own after viewing the exhibition, the gift shop has some unusual souvenirs for customers to take home – including chocolate artefacts.

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Cat man from Kyushu walks nine cats in a stroller, draws crowds in Tokyo

Japan is known for having a unique culture that perfectly balances two extreme worlds of tradition and fun. From cat cafes to cosplay-clad posers in Harajuku, it’s the light-hearted, anything-goes attitude on the streets of Tokyo that brightens the serious, traditional side of society which likes to rein in anything different and out of the norm.

It’s little surprise then, that people have been drawn to one of the newcomers to the street scene in Tokyo, a recently retired man who goes by the name “Kyushu Neko Ojisan” (lit. The Cat Man from Kyushu). Retirement for this gent means he’s now free to walk his nine adorable cats in a baby buggy around Tokyo. And his crowds of admirers are growing with every stroll he takes.

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Lotteria offers burger towers of USB power

Fast food chains are always on the lookout for ways to steer us into their open arms, with limited edition burgers, unusual collaborations and exclusive accessories all weakening our will at some point, despite quiet pleas from our inner selves to look the other way.

Lotteria is one of the unabashed leaders in the field, offering us burger towers of mammoth proportions that have us handing over money just to lay eyes on the meaty beasts. Now they’ve unveiled two life-size versions of their famous multi-patty behemoths. But this time, they’re adorable USB memory sticks.

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Creative mum brings amazing character bentos to the dinner table

While some of us may recall our childhood lunches as a series of soggy sandwiches in boring brown paper bags, two lucky children in Singapore are bound to look back on all their meals as miniature worlds of cute and delicious fun.

It’s all thanks to their mother, who decided to expand her skills beyond the humble bento lunchbox, and bring the cute to any meal of the day. Check out her amazing collection of healthy meals after the jump. It’s the best collection we’ve seen yet!

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We road test the new Digital Image Stabilization on the iPhone 6 Plus – with a vibrator

Apple iPhone releases have been known to make people do crazy things. Whether it’s dressing as a blue slime and sleeping on the street for days or using your nipple to unlock your phone, there’s a sense of excitement and ceremony surrounding each new model that makes us want to push the boundaries and just have fun.

The latest release on the weekend was no different, and in our excitement to test out the much-anticipated ‘Digital Image Stabilization’ (DIS) on the iPhone 6, it seemed entirely sensible to line up two different models side-by-side and give them both a good shake. And how better to do that than by strapping them onto a vibrator?

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10 things foreigners do that Japanese people find amusing

Ah, the wonders of learning a second language. There’s much to be said for the sense of satisfaction and achievement that comes from communicating effectively in another tongue. There’s also much to be said about the head-scratching and sense of humility that comes from tripping up and sounding like a buffoon.

We’ve found 10 tweeted tales of confusion from Japanese people who’ve had amusing encounters with foreigners in Japan. Some strike such a chord with Japanese that they’ve been retweeted and shared hundreds, sometimes even thousands of times.

So what is it that we foreigners do that’s so amusing?

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Use your rice cooker to bake delicious cinnamon honey apples

Life can be tough in Japan when the weather starts getting cooler and cravings for baked comfort foods start taking hold of our thoughts. With full-size western ovens an absolute rarity in the common Japanese home, roast dinners and home-baked pies become more like lost friends from a bygone era; somewhere else but still etched in our hearts and never quite forgotten.

If the Japanese kitchen is lacking in the stove department, it makes up for it in volumes with a marvellous piece of wizardry known as the rice cooker. Its mettle has only recently been put to the test with some surprising recipes like fast food dinners and enormous pancakes of epic proportions. And now as the weather cools, there’s another easy recipe to try – soft baked cinnamon honey apples.

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Artistic éclairs featuring Japanese woodblock print by Hokusai available for a limited time only

Fauchon, the long-established luxury food brand from Paris, is well-known throughout Japan as a purveyor of high quality teas and cakes, but it’s their famous éclairs that are considered the créme de la créme of the sweet world.

To celebrate Éclair Week, Fauchon has opened a pop-up café for a limited time in Shibuya, Tokyo. Pictured are two of the éclairs on offer, one celebrating the deep pink colour that’s come to be associated with the French brand, and one that’s a jaw-dropping edible rendition of a traditional woodblock piece by famous Japanese artist Hokusai.

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