Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
After getting bored with high school French, Scott came to a crossroads in life whether to study Japanese or Native American Mohawk instead. Mohawk's lack of kanji was its ultimate downfall, and Scott hasn't looked back since. After years of non-stop sweating while working as a translator in sweltering Okinawa, he moved back to his native, delightfully frigid Massachusetts to work as a private Japanese tutor. His hobbies include re-reading One Piece for the hundredth time, dreaming about Shakey's Pizza, and getting feedback on stories he's written from both his wife and cat.
Posted by Scott Wilson (Page 37)
Ah, summer. In Japan that means festivals, barbecuing on the beach, and smashing watermelons while blindfolded. It also means going on exciting camping trips in the wilderness with your friends… or maybe with Pokémon friends instead!
Camping with Pokémon is now totally possible, thanks to a new line of adorable sleeping bag plushies. Want to roast some marshmallows and tell ghost stories with Pikachu? Find out how after the jump!
We here at RocketNews24 like to think of ourselves as gurus of internet love advice. From bird boyfriends to bringing virtual girlfriends to your own wedding, one might say that we’ve got almost everything covered. But what happens when you’re hungry for something new? Well, isn’t it obvious?
When you’re feeling down in the dumps, which mass-produced wonder is always there for you? Sliced bread. Which food is readily available world-wide, and will always be there to absorb your tears? Sliced bread. Which food will never leave you for a younger, toastier love interest? Sliced bread!
Of course just like people, not all breads are created equal. We assigned our brave but heartbroken Japanese reporter to test out the top five Japanese breads for cuddling. So read on and see if your favorite loaf makes the cut!
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that North and South Korea used to be the same country. On the one hand, you have South Korea, plastic surgery and cute baby capital of the world, and on the other hand you have North Korea, which is apparently constantly on fire, possibly due to “gasoline clams.”
However, many would love to see the two Koreas reunited once again, among them South Korea’s president, Park Geun-hye. In a speech that she gave at a recent meeting, she said that the two Koreas might even be reunited as soon as 2016.
This of course set off a chain of reactions from South Koreans online, some praising the idea of immediate unification while others criticized it – and not necessarily for the reasons you might think.
Oh summer vacation. For little kids (and big kids too!) it’s a time to finally throw off those backpacks, forget about homework, and have fun all day long running around outside or playing video games. If you’re the mom or dad of one of those kids, though, you’re often left to clean up in their wake.
And the same is true in Japan too. For the most part it’s moms who’re left to run after kids giddy with the freedom of no school. They’ve even started a Twitter hashtag for it: #SummerVacationStupidKids.
What kind of things do Japanese kids do to drive their parents crazy? Are they the same as the rest of the world or completely different? Read on to find out!
Japan loves showing off the reasons why it is the king of the plastic model world. Two months ago we saw some amazing creations at the Amazing Japan Model Expo 2015, and now this month that tradition is continuing with Wonder Festival Summer 2015, an exhibition for artists to show off their sculpted creations.
But there’s something special about Wonder Festival. Whereas other plastic model exhibits focus on scantily clad female figures, Wonder Festival was completely dominated by sculptures of male characters, ranging from the dashing and handsome to the outright seductive.
Curious to see what an exhibit full of these plastic hunks is like? Read on!
Groups of people moving to a new country often settle in the same area together, creating a little neighborhood reminiscent of their old lives in their new homes. In the U.S., we have a Chinatown or Little Italy in almost every big city, and Japan has the same thing too. They even have something you may have never heard of: Little America towns that used to house U.S. military personnel.
But what happens when the military decides they don’t want to live there anymore? Then you get a place like Johnson Town in Saitama Prefecture, where you’d swear you were walking around rural America, if not for the fact that it’s entirely populated by Japanese people.
What is one of these Little America towns in Japan like? And, most importantly, do they have good American-style food? A reporter from our Japanese sister site went to investigate and bring you all the answers, some of which may surprise you.
Japanese culture has spread throughout the world with food, anime, video games, and more. But one region that hasn’t taken in as much of what Japan has to offer as the rest of the world is the Middle East and other Muslim countries.
Until now. Pictures of young Muslim women incorporating Japanese Lolita fashion with their traditional hijab head scarves have been exploding in popularity online. Could this start a new trend toward Muslim idol groups and cosplay conventions?
We’ve seen the Japanese Self-Defense Forces get quite creative with trying to entice new recruits, but never before have we seen them do an all-out official collaboration with an anime.
And Gate is the perfect anime for them to team up with. It’s about the JSDF traveling through a portal to another world, taking down monsters, teaming up with cute girls, and just generally making it look like joining them would be the most amazing thing ever.
You can bet the JSDF is milking it for every last drop they can, starting with posters that are giving us a strange urge to visit our local recruitment center.
Why do we love Japan so much? What drives us to obsess over its culture, language, food, and everything else? Why do we keep coming back day after day to read articles about a country that, for many of us, is on the other side of the planet? For some the answer is easy, but for others, not so much.
One group for whom foreigners’ love of Japan is especially difficult to comprehend is the Japanese people themselves. Many of them have no idea why so many of us would bother to take an interest in Japan, much less learn its intimidating language. In an effort to try to figure this out, one of our RocketNews24 Japanese writers who lives in England did some investigate journalism and interviewed three students studying Japanese at the University of Cambridge.
Do their reasons for loving Japan match yours? Read on to find out!
Japan has gone through a lot of changes in the past half-century. It emerged from the end of World War II willing to become a part of the international community, but not willing to give up some of its stranger quirks, some of which are part of the reason that we love it for today.
But some of those quirks are more annoying than others, and they’ve slowly faded away as people have realized they’re not really necessary. So with that in mind here’s the list of five things that were once taboo in Japan, but are now (mostly) okay today. Read on and find out if something you do would have once been frowned upon!
Regular readers will remember that we recently reported about an exhibit featuring life-size recreations of sets from the most recent Studio Ghibli film, When Marnie Was There. Well, the exhibit has proved to be so popular that they’ve decided to do it all over again, this time in Aichi Prefecture.
But being Ghibli, they can’t just do the exact same exhibit twice. This time, in addition to featuring life-size sets, they’ll also have artwork and props from every single Ghibli film, going back 30 years all the way to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
Last December, we here at RocketNews24 gave you the scoop on manga and anime smash One Piece being adapted into a fully-fledged kabuki play. With the performance dates coming up within a few short months, the official kabuki website Kabukibito has released a Laboon-sized amount of new details.
Although a warning before you click ahead: if you have not read or watched One Piece up until the time skip, be aware that thar be spoilers ahead!
Do you like Japanese snacks and drinks? Can you never get enough of some sweet, sweet Pocky washed down with a nice cold C.C. Lemon?
Well guess what? It goes the other way too! Some Japanese people love certain Western products that are super rare in Japan. Case in point, two of our SoraNews24 Japanese writers have an unhealthy obsession with Diet Dr. Pepper. Both of them have tried to track it down in Japan for years to no avail, finally giving in to lesser drinks.
But not anymore. Something rare and beautiful has been found in Japan, and its name is Diet Dr. Pepper.
Japan is well-known for its creative flavors when it comes to soda, snacks, and candy. Some are epically delicious. Others not so much. And this latest collaboration between Japanese candy company UHA and Hello Kitty’s Sanrio probably falls into the latter camp.
For those unaware, Sanrio has a wide variety of characters other than Hello Kitty, including KIRIMI-chan, a cute slice of sassy salted salmon. We’re not sure why an anthropomorphic fish fillet was chosen to be made into a UHA Puccho flavor, but it’s already happened so there’s nothing we can do but try it!
To see if this flavor is tasty or trash, we assigned our own brave RocketNews24 reporter P.K. Sanjun to try a few pieces for posterity. Does he savor the salty salmon goodness or does he spit it out? Read on to find out!
Back in April we saw legendary Japanese singer Gackt face discrimination while abroad in France. He managed to handle a frustrating situation with class, and his incident sparked a conversation online about racial discrimination.
Emiko Kaminuma, a well-known Japanese media personality, found herself in a similar spot while in France. She faced discrimination in a Paris restaurant, and she has been making a huge deal about it on her TV shows. However, her story seems to be a little different from Gackt’s….
Are traditional bars a little too bland for you? Do you try to strike up conversations about anime with your fellow drink enthusiasts, only to get weird looks and asked to leave?
Well then you should check out Otarabo the anime bar! Not only does it have a large assortment of alcoholic beverages to enjoy, but it’s packed to the rafters with anime posters, figures, and toys. And best of all if you want to argue about Goku vs. Vegeta, or which Love Live! girl is the cutest, you’ll have plenty of inebriated otaku friends to discuss with.
We’ve seen pictures of creepy abandoned places in Japan before, but what about creepy abandoned places that are still open for business?
Wonderland is an amusement park in Fukui Prefecture that by all accounts should not exist. There’re no cars in the overgrown parking lot, locks on all the condemned buildings, and all the signs are rusted and discolored. And yet, they’re still open, pretending as if nothing is wrong.
Oh and did we mention they’re hiring?
It’s quite the summer of 90s nostalgia at the movies this year. Just this past month we had a new Jurassic Park movie, an original Pixar movie, and next month is bringing us the latest Terminator outing in the form of Terminator Genisys.
Anticipation for the film has been high in Japan, but one group you may not expect to be fans of machines killing each other seems to have taken a special liking to it. The Japanese National Bunraku Theater took the poster for the Terminator movie and transformed it into an advertisement for their traditional puppet theater, making it one of the most confusing yet oddly satisfying collaborations we’ve ever seen.
Japanese horror films are their own special brand of awesome. Movies like The Ring and The Grudge will sometimes make you roll your eyes with their cheesy acting and special effects, but at the same time contain certain horrifying scenes that will stick with you in your nightmares for weeks to come.
The latest installment in The Grudge series, Grudge: The Final has just come out in Japan, advertised by commercials airing all over. However, one commercial received so many complaints about it being “way too scary” that it was taken down and replaced with something more tame.
Are you brave enough to watch the original commercial? Then read on to get your chance.
What do you like to do when you travel? Eat local cuisine? Visit famous landmarks?
Sure, those are all fine. But for me, one thing I always look forward to doing whenever I travel somewhere new is getting a haircut there. I know it sounds crazy, but each place really does have its own distinct style, different atmosphere, and unique way of getting your hair from head to floor.
Wasai, one of our Japanese writers, is a man after my own heart. He recently went on a trip to Cuba, and while he was there, one of the top items on his to-do list was to get a haircut. Did it end up as a failure or fabulous? Read on to find out!
Foreigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
Japanese city loses residents’ personal data, which was on paper being transported on a windy day
Mt. Koya planning to instate visitor’s tax to cope with huge tourist numbers
Seaside scenery, history, and so many desserts on Yokohama’s Akai Kutsu【Japan Loop Buses】
Japan’s summertime towelket pillowcases are even better with the addition of Ghibli stars【Photos】
Red light district sushi restaurant in Tokyo shows us just how wrong we were about it
Smash Bros. director Sakurai stabs Kirby in the face, has delicious justification for it
Ultra-realistic cat latte art blows us away, puts us off our coffee
We tried Korea’s way-too-big King Tonkatsu Burger at Lotteria 【Taste Test】
Ghibli Park now selling “Grilled Frogs” from food cart in Valley of WitchesForeigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Japanese ramen restaurants under pressure from new yen banknotes
French Fries Bread in Tokyo’s Shibuya becomes a hit on social media
Studio Ghibli releases new action figures featuring Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind charactersRed light district sushi restaurant in Tokyo shows us just how wrong we were about it
New private rooms on Tokaido Shinkansen change the way we travel from Tokyo to Kyoto
Tokyo Tsukiji fish market site to be redeveloped with 50,000-seat stadium, hotel, shopping center
Beautiful Ghibli sealing wax kits let you create accessories and elegant letter decorations【Pics】Japanese city loses residents’ personal data, which was on paper being transported on a windy dayMcDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goodsForeigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
Studio Ghibli releases Kiki’s Delivery Service chocolate cake pouches in Japan
New definition of “Japanese whiskey” goes into effect to prevent fakes from fooling overseas buyers
Our Japanese reporter visits Costco in the U.S., finds super American and very Japanese thingsJapanese ramen restaurants under pressure from new yen banknotes
All-you-can-drink Starbucks and amazing views part of Tokyo’s new 170 meter-high sky lounge
More foreign tourists than ever before in history visited Japan last month
New Pokémon cakes let you eat your way through Pikachu and all the Eevee evolutions
Disney princesses get official manga makeovers for Manga Princess Cafe opening in TokyoMcDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Sales of Japan’s most convenient train ticket/shopping payment cards suspended indefinitely
Sold-out Studio Ghibli desktop humidifiers are back so Totoro can help you through the dry season
Japanese government to make first change to romanization spelling rules since the 1950s
Ghibli founders Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki contribute to Japanese whisky Totoro label design
Doraemon found buried at sea as scene from 1993 anime becomes real life【Photos】
Tokyo’s most famous Starbucks is closed
One Piece characters’ nationalities revealed, but fans have mixed opinions
We asked a Uniqlo employee what four things we should buy and their suggestions didn’t disappoint
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
Red light district sushi restaurant in Tokyo shows us just how wrong we were about it
Smash Bros. director Sakurai stabs Kirby in the face, has delicious justification for it
Ultra-realistic cat latte art blows us away, puts us off our coffee
We tried Korea’s way-too-big King Tonkatsu Burger at Lotteria 【Taste Test】
Ghibli Park now selling “Grilled Frogs” from food cart in Valley of Witches
Pokémon Sleep camping suite and guestrooms coming to Tokyo Hyatt along with giant Snorlax burgers
We try out “Chan Ramen”, an underground type of ramen popular in the ramen community
Should you add tartar sauce to Japanese curry rice? CoCo Ichi makes diners an unusual offer
Shinjuku izakaya’s all-you-can-eat-and-drink plan is one of Tokyo’s best secret cheap eats
This green tea soda from Shizuoka in a sense betrayed us, but also placated us【Taste test】
We try five menu recommendations from a clerk at CoCo Ichibanya and almost fall in love
Studio Ghibli adds magic to your matcha with new tea ceremony whisk and bowl
Tea with free Pokémon bottle covers at Japanese convenience stores charm, then break, our hearts
Akihabara pop-up shop sells goods made by Japanese prison inmates