Scott Wilson

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 43)

Author Haruki Murakami’s Q&A blog closes, posts hint at his own incredibly sad marriage

Haruki Murakami has answered many questions from readers on his blog since it opened in January, ranging from the meaning of life to nuclear power to TV addiction, but now it has closed up shop. Murakami will be selecting the best questions and answers and publishing them plus some extras in a new book in the near future.

With the full corpus of questions and answers still available online though, some fans have gone through and discovered an interesting part of Murakami’s life that was unknown up until now: his sad marriage.

Murakami makes numerous comments directly and indirectly about his wife and their life together, and after reading all of them you really start to feel sorry for the guy.

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Finish your bowl and your wildest dreams come true: We visit Yume wo Katare ramen shop in Boston

I’m going to be honest: I’m not a huge fan of going out to eat. It’s expensive, loud, usually not very healthy, and the stress of tip calculation gives me nightmares. In order for me to want to eat out, the place has to be special. It has to offer an experience that I would be unable to get anywhere else.

Yume wo Katare in Boston does just that. It’s an authentic Japanese-style ramen restaurant with a unique twist: you’re supposed to eat your massive bowl of ramen with a dream in your heart, then when you finish, you stand up and announce your dream to everyone inside. The waiters then judge your bowl based on how much you finished, and if you ate a lot then your dream just might come true.

Hearing that, we had to give it a try. So come along with us on our visit to Yume wo Katare!

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The five-patty Lotteria burger wasn’t big enough, so we made a 35-patty burger instead!

When we heard last month that Japanese burger chain Lotteria was bringing back their legendary five-patty Tower Burger, we knew that we had to give it a try. Unfortunately we didn’t realize the special was only available until the end of April, so when we finally got around to it there was nothing but boring normal burgers left.

But then we realized something: the Tower Burger is just five patties stacked on top of each other. We could just buy five patties and make our own anytime! In fact… there’s no limit to how many patties we could stack. We could even have something ridiculous, like a 35-patty burger!

And so we did. And we ate it. This is our adventure.

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Hayao Miyazaki joins politicians and CEOs donating millions to protest U.S. military in Okinawa

As you may know, Hayao Miyazaki is one of the most outspoken proponents of anti-war policy in Japan. As you may also know, Okinawa is home to a plethora of American military bases, and has been a hotbed of controversy for decades.

However, what you may not know is that Miyazaki and Okinawa have finally officially teamed up to protest the American military presence. The director announced on May 7 that he will officially join the “Henoko Fund,” a group of politicians and CEOs who are putting their money where their mouths are and donating hundreds of millions of yen to prevent the relocation of the Futenma Air Base.

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Amazing Japan Model Expo shows off creations creepy, cute, and undeniably gorgeous

It’s no exaggeration to sat that Japan is the plastic model capital of the world. There’s a tiny decorative version of pretty much anything you can imagine, from Gundam figures covered in actual moss to build-your-own gyoza.

To celebrate their love of all things models, Amazing Japan Model Expo 2015 invited model-crafters and sculptors from all over Japan to show off their goods built from a variety of materials, not just plastic. “Amazing Japan Model Expo” may be a bit of a silly name, but once you take a look at some of the incredible detail in these models, you’ll see that they easily lived up to the “amazing” part of the promise.

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Japanese Twitter user’s comics depicting office-lady life will hit you right in the feels

The life of a Japanese salaryman or OL (office lady) can be a thoroughly depressing one. Waking up early, working all day, staying out late for (mandatory) drinks with clients and coworkers, and then catching a few hours of sleep if you’re lucky, only to repeat it again and again and again until you finally hit retirement age.

Japanese Twitter user @black9arrows managed to capture this lifestyle perfectly in comic form. While many of the comics are funny, most of them are so dead-on you’ll cry right along with the poor OL protagonist.

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Kanna Hashimoto does “stupid-cool” tricks for commercial, took over 600 takes to get right 【Video】

Have you ever done something stupid then been surprised when it actually worked? Like tossing a screwed-up ball of paper over your shoulder and actually getting it into the trash can, or throwing your hat in the air and catching it perfectly on your head? Well there’s a word for that in Japanese: bakakkoii, a contraction of baka (stupid) and kakkoii (cool).

And it didn’t take long for someone to take bakakkoii to the next level. Kanna Hashimoto, member of the idol group Rev. From DVL, stars in a cup noodle commercial where she helps perform a bunch of bakakkoii tricks. Some of them are quite impressive, which they should be considering it took over 600 takes to actually get them done correctly.

Watch the video and feel oddly satisfied after the jump!

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The character Hestia from the anime Danmachi, known as Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? in English, has been notoriously difficult for cosplayers to pull off. How is a ribbon tied around your chest supposed to make your boobs bigger? And then how do you even move your arms?

But if one cosplayer is up to the task, it’s Taiwanese cosplayer Ma You Rong. She’s well-known for pulling off busty cosplays, and last time we saw her she was causing a controversy online for her portrayal of Naruto’s Tsunade.

Now she’s the center of an online uproar again for her attempt at a Hestia cosplay, but it’s not for the reason you may be thinking.

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Japanese women of Twitter show off legs to encourage men working over Golden Week holidays

It’s Golden Week in Japan! Aside from New Year’s, these precious vacation days at the end of April/beginning of May are the longest stretches of time in a row that most people get off from work. Unless, of course, you don’t get the time off work because you’re too busy. Then your Golden Week is typically spent crying to yourself at your desk and watching people have fun outside your window.

But not this year! Women all over Twitter have teamed up to create a hashtag devoted to cheering up men stuck in the office over Golden Week: #ShowLegToShowSupportForSalarymen. If you’re stuck at work too, then feel free to join the fun and take a look as well… just as long as no one’s watching the slightly NSFW tweets on your computer.

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Worn-out stubby pencils got you down? Bring them new life with TSUNAGO!

We’ve all been there: the pencil that you’ve been using for weeks, maybe even months, has finally been sharpened down to a barely usable nub. It’s a pain to use, but at the same time, it’s an even bigger pain to have to get new pencils. Or maybe you feel bad throwing out a perfectly good, if incredibly awkward to hold, pencil.

But not anymore! Japanese company Nakajima Jukyudo has recently released TSUNAGO, a “pencil rejuvenator” that turns small pencil stubs back into fully functional pencils. How exactly does it work? Check out the video to see how the magic is done!

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YouTube video shows Easter eggs hidden in Ghibli films referencing other Ghibli films 【Video】

What’s not to live about Studio Ghibli films? Great stories, beautiful animation, unforgettable characters, and of course attention to detail that makes you feel like you’re really there.

But sometimes, even the most careful viewer can miss a few details here and there. The YouTube channel Movie Munchies recently released a video showing off a bunch of Easter eggs hidden inside Ghibli films. And what are the Easter eggs references to? Other Ghibli films, of course!

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If you haven’t heard of the Twitter account Anime in History yet, then you need to follow them right away. They put out near-daily pictures of anime characters flawlessly Photoshopped into historical photographs, making you swear that they were actually there.

With over 100 pictures and counting though, we figured it was about time to do a list of the best pictures released so far. So we here at RocketNews24 present to you the top 20 anime photobombs throughout history, as made possible by Anime in History.

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Eight ways to troll your fellow passengers while flying economy class: An illustrated guide

Flying to japan takes a long time. Depending on where you’re flying from and how many layovers you have, it can take 10 hours, 20 hours, or even more. And if you’re not rich, then chances are you’re stuck in economy class, cramped, uncomfortable, and forced to listen to at least three nonstop crying babies going off like sirens.

But no more! We here at RocketNews24 have assembled a list of eight ways to make your next economy flight much more enjoyable. Nothing gets the good vibes flowing like a good trolling, so get out from under your bridges and grab your clubs: it’s time to mildly annoy your fellow passengers.

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Katawa Shoujo visual novel gets Japanese release… Wait, it wasn’t originally in Japanese?!

Back in 2012 when a bunch of 4chan members released a visual novel game based around romantically pursuing disabled high school girls, expectations were low to say the least. But to the shock of the internet, the game received widespread acclaim for its impressive visuals, story, and music, not to mention its sympathetic treatment of its characters.

However, despite being a game in a distinctly Japanese genre and taking place in a Japanese high school with Japanese characters, the game was originally written and released in English. It’s only now, three years later, that Katawa Shoujo (“Disabled Girls”) has finally been released in the language many people thought it was originally created in: Japanese.

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10 of the craziest complaints Japanese people have heard from customers

Anyone who’s worked in a store, restaurant, or pretty much anywhere in the service industry knows the joy of interacting with customers. And it’s not just your country that has crazy customers, it’s a fact of humanity that transcends culture and language, Japan included.

So with that we bring you the top 10 tweets made with a hashtag that’s recently been getting very popular with Japanese twitter users: #ActualCustomerComplaints. We’re not 100-percent sure how true the “actual” part is, but they’re all so hilarious and painfully familiar that you’ll be too busy laughing and commiserating to mind.

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New anti-chikan cellphone stickers let you mark train gropers with sign of shame

As you probably know, Japan is infamous for chikanpeople who grope others in crowded areas, like crowded trains and buses. As you also probably know, Japan has a long history of doing things in bizarre and not-very-effective ways.

So what do we get when the two come together? Ridiculous anti-chikan stickers for cell phones put out by the Saitama Prefecture Police department. And these aren’t just stickers you’re supposed to use to keep potential chikan away, these are stickers you’re meant to use offensively! Ka-pow!

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R-rated movie “Chappie” gets severely nerfed for Japan release, director knew nothing about it

Chappie, an R-rated science-fiction film directed by Neill Blomkamp (of District 9 and Elysium fame), has been out in U.S. theaters for over a month now, but it still hasn’t been released in Japan due to the time it takes to be translated and dubbed.

During that time a storm has been brewing over the film, starting a few days ago when Sony Pictures Japan released a controversial statement: the movie will be censored and edited down to a PG-12 rating.

Japanese netizens who were looking forward to the film are upset over the watered-down version they will be getting, and even though Sony claims to have the support of the director, Neill Blomkamp himself insists he knew nothing about any such cuts.

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Un-un-unbelievable music video by Singaporean actor will leave you stunned like vegetable 【Video】

Do you serenade your loved one by comparing them to a coffee table? Do you imagine being together forever like a cable car and its cable?

Then chances are you’re Chen Tianwen, the Singaporean actor who’s the star in the music video Unbelievable. The video is going viral, and if you haven’t seen it yet, now’s your chance. It’s truly something that needs to be seen… to be un-believed.

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Japanese “minimal house” is both irresistibly cute and surprisingly cheap

With a population of over 100 million in a land area smaller than California, space is not cheap in Japan. Because of that, many people live in apartments stacked on top of each other, and the idea of living in a house is, for many, just a very expensive dream.

But not anymore! The modern-home companies Yadokari and Azumaya have teamed up to release “Inspiration,” a “minimal house” which they advertize as only costing about the same price as a new car. It’s cute, efficient, built to last, and we want one really badly!

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