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Philip Kendall

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Hailing from Liverpool in the UK, Philip Kendall made Japan his second home in the summer of 2006 after dolefully abandoning his childhood dream of becoming a ghost buster. Setting up camp in beautiful Fukushima prefecture, he brought joy to literally hundreds of junior high school children as ‘that tall, handsome teacher’ or more often ‘the one with the big nose,’ before relocating to Tokyo at the end of 2011.

Writer, foodie, gamer and eternal student of the Japanese language, Philip now works as a freelance writer and translator, submitting to Tokyo Weekender magazine and website and Learn Japanese Pod, as well as co-running Suds, Grub & Joe- a website dedicated to all things beer, food and coffee-related in Tokyo. Follow his ramblings on his personal blog or on twitter.

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Posted by Philip Kendall (Page 32)

Japanese Netizens Mistake Mobile Giant SoftBank’s Proud Announcement for April Fools’ Joke

You know your company has a bad reputation when the general public interprets an official announcement as something so improbable that it could only be an April Fools’ gag.

Japanese mobile provider SoftBank — perhaps most famous for its commercials featuring a talking shiba inu and his human family — announced via its website earlier today that it now officially has the best network coverage in Japan, enabling its users to connect with greater ease than any other mobile phone provider. Alas, the statement was immediately laughed off as a joke by many Japanese Internet users, with cries of “Oh, SoftBank, you guys have a great sense of humour!”

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Presenting: RocketNews24’s First Ever Commercial

That’s right, kids, we’ve hit the big leagues. And it’s all thanks to you. Sure, we began in a tiny one-room office in Shinjuku, bickering with each other about elbow space, missing pencils and who had been using the communal coffee without putting a five yen coin in the jar beside it, but thanks to our wonderful readers and the attention of the Internet masses in general, we’re now a fully fledged news beast stationed in a swanky high-rise where we rub shoulders with some of Japan’s greatest innovators and creative geniuses.

To mark the occasion, we’ve just put the finishing touches to our new commercial, featuring none other than reporter extraordinaire Mr. Sato, and a tremendously catchy jingle. The full video — plus a special bonus version — after the jump!

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As well as providing you with entertainment and up-to-the-minute news, we at RocketNews24 feel that it is also our responsibility to provide our readers with vital tips for physical well-being and emotional happiness. It’s for this reason that, on this fine Friday as we inch ever closer to the moment that we exchange our computer screens for a nice big plate of fried gyoza dumplings and an ice-cold beer, we bring you this video courtesy of our friends at Niconico.

Although the outcome is about as surprising as what happens when you tell your dog not to eat a birthday cake while you’re out of the room, this video serves as a reminder of the stupidity of our fellow man and that open wounds and citric acid do not go well together.

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There’s a new sheriff in town, and his name is Hentai Kamen.

Just two weeks prior to the release of his own movie, the “perverted mask” renegade that is Hentai Kamen has been sighted in a special ad intended to crack down on inconsiderate cinema patrons who use their mobile phones, put their feet up on the seats in front of them or sneakily record the movie with video cameras.

Of course, this being Hentai Kamen, justice comes in usual forms as we see three unsavoury moviegoers get their just deserts, pervert style.

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Google Japan has announced that it is now possible for Google Maps users to access street view images of Namie, a coastal town in Fukushima that was severely affected by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami before being completely evacuated when the nearby Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant went critical.

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The Japanese Football Association has stated that it will be making an official complaint to international governing body FIFA after both forward Yasuhito Endo and goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima had lasers shone in their faces during yesterday’s qualifying match for the 2014 World Cup.

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It’s official: Studio Ghibli’s Kazu Tachinu, or “The Wind is Rising”, will be released in Japanese cinemas from July 20 this year.

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Elementary and high school students from Miyagi Prefecture were given a special send off at Japan’s Narita Airport yesterday afternoon as they set off for the U.S. in order to convey messages of thanks for the efforts of those involved in relief operations following the 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami in Northeast Japan.

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We Use One of Japan’s Cheapest Corn Snacks to Create Delicious Fried Pork Cutlets

Following the enormous success of our cup noodle gourmet experiment, we decided that it was time to give a couple of other cheap and cheerful snacks an image overhaul by turning them into something a little more glamorous. This time around, we opted for Japanese kids’ favourite Umaibō (lit. “delicious stick”), a 10-yen (10 cents) puffed corn snack that’s available in all manner of flavours. With its dry, powdery exterior and rich taste, we couldn’t help thinking that it might go well with chicken or pork, so we decided to use a few in place of the breadcrumb coating for tonkatsu fried pork fillet.

As it turns out, the result was even more umai than we could have possibly imagined.

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Sega Fans Rejoice! Limited Edition Mega Drive, Saturn, Dreamcast-Themed Laptops on Sale Now!

If you’re a video game fan and in the line for a new laptop computer, it might be your lucky day! Japan’s Sega Store is currently accepting orders for specially designed notebooks designed to look like Sega’s late, great home consoles.

Short of dropping our current machines down the stairs or accidentally pouring coffee over them, we don’t necessarily need one per-se, but the more we gaze upon these photos, the more that little tech-loving devil inside us shouts the same word over and over and pumps gaming nostalgia into our bloodstream. Waaaant!

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Catering for men who require a little more titillation than maid cafes can provide but not wanting to step into full-blown fuuzoku establishments, “girls bars” in Japan provide customers with a place to eat and drink while giving them something to look at and plenty of stilted conversation. A cheaper alternative to “hostess clubs”, girls bars are usually staffed by regular college-aged girls who don’t mind showing a little flesh and interacting with customers in an energetic, cutesy manner.

In a slightly different take on the genre, Yokohama’s Sexy Izakaya Natsuko focuses on the theme of summer all year round, dressing its staff in bikinis and sarongs while arming them with tambarines to bash while another member of staff juices grapefruits and serves food and drinks at your table.

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Lawson Convenience Store Goes Dragon Quest X Crazy, Puts In-Game Goodies Up for Grabs

Never shy of running a cool promotional offer or two, Japanese convenience store Lawson has announced that it will be transforming one of its Tokyo outlets into a video game castle to mark the launch of the Nintendo Wii U version of hugely popular game Dragon Quest X. Even better, visitors to the store will be able to bag themselves a whole host of themed goodies and even unlock in-game items during the promotional period.

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Ordinarily, we wouldn’t even bother burning the calories required to click the link when presented with a video titled “Chinese Military Shovel” (especially when it means risking seeing that god-awful Gundam pachinko ad again). But after being recommended it by our Japanese sister site RocketNews24 Japan, we sat down to watch a demonstration of how China’s bravest men make the most of a tool that few of us would think of using for anything more than digging a hole in the ground or patting the tops of sandcastles flat with.

As it turns out, this is one handy little tool to have, with the Chinese military demonstrating some 24 different uses for it in this peculiar video. And we thought Swiss Army knives were versatile…

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Nintendo’s Top Dog Takes Luigi to America Prior to Release of New 3DS Title

No doubt there to promote the release of new Nintendo 3DS game Luigi’s Mansion 2 (known as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon in the West), Shigeru Miyamoto – the creator of Super Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong among others – was spotted hanging out with staff from Nintendo America in New York yesterday, not to mention looking exceptionally green. If only he’d arrived a few days earlier, this get-up would have worked pretty well for Saint Patrick’s Day, too.

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Mixing Business with Pleasure: Take Your Nerdiness to Work with the Itasuit!

Who says the office is no place for scantily-clad girls with blue hair? Now you can look smart and professional while staying true to your animé roots with the latest in clothing for discerning otaku- the itasuit!

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Japanese Resort Announces New Studio Ghibli Diorama Exhibition

Fans of Studio Ghibli’s work who are unable to make it as far north as the Ghbili Museum in Tokyo will no doubt be excited to hear that the Laguna Gamagori Resort in Aichi Prefecture has announced that it will host a special Ghibli diorama exhibition within its amusement park from now until the beginning of March next year.

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Ginza’s David Bowie Café Now Open and in Full Funky Swing

As reported here on RocketNews24, a special, limited-time-only café in honour of legendary British rock star David Bowie opened on March 18 this year. Keen to see if the real thing was as far out as the earlier press release, our reporter headed down to Ginza, Tokyo to check it out.

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It’s a shame that our man Mr. Sato didn’t talk a little more about his own country during his recent visit to Turkey. In a video currently attracting a lot of attention here in Japan, a Turkish television crew hit the streets of Istanbul to ask its residents whether they knew the geographical location of Japan. As it happens, despite the amount of media attention that Japan has received in the past couple of years, the average man on the street in Turkey is still a little off the mark when it comes to the home of sushi and Super Mario…

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In the early hours of Monday morning this week, a truck scattered its nine-ton load of fresh fish across the surface of the road after crashing and flipping over on a freeway in China. As word spread of the terrible accident, droves of people quickly arrived on the scene, causing further traffic jams and making the situation yet more perilous as they descended on the cargo, armed with plastic bags or various sizes.

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According to a story in the South China Morning Post, more than 90 percent of Hong Kong citizens polled in a recent survey said that they wanted the region to return to British rule, stating that they fear much of what makes the region great will eventually be lost.

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