One of the great debates about child development is over nature versus nurture—are we the product of our DNA or our environment in which we grow? Most scientists seem to come down somewhere in the middle, suggesting that both play an integral role in who we become.
We’re not about to start arguing with folks who have PhDs, but we have discovered one of the most adorable examples of how nurture plays a role in the wild—or, at least, out in someone’s home. This cute cat has mimicked its way into Twitter’s collective heart and elicited far more than its fair share of “D’awwwwwww!”
It’s no secret that we’re fans of Wagakki Band here at RocketNews24. We’ve been sharing their music with you since 2013, and you can bet we’ll keep sharing their music until they get old and retire! So, as you can imagine, we were eager to get our hands on their new album Yasouemaki. And, now that everyone has had a few days to enjoy all the new tracks, let’s find out what Japanese fans are saying about the album!
The last few years especially have seen a notable increase in the number of western-developed narrative-driven video games. Notable entries include Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and of course Game of Thrones, which deliver their respective stories in downloadable chunks once every few months, leaving players itching to play the next episode and find out what happens.
Telltale pretty much cornered the market on this genre until French development studio DONTNOD Entertainment released the absolutely captivating five-part supernatural high school story game Life Is Strange. The game has been a surprise hit, selling over a million copies to date,with players falling in love with the endearingly complex characters, time-travelling mechanics, mellow game atmosphere, and killer soundtrack. In fact, the game has done so well for itself that publishers Square Enix have decided it’s time Japan got a piece of the photo-snapping, heavy decision-making, time-rewinding fun for themselves. Yep, Life is Strange is being released in Japan, and it’s getting an entirely new Japanese voice cast, too!
Check out the reveal trailer to hear Max, Chloe and the rest of the characters speaking Nihongo!
Music is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful artistic mediums humankind has. It can move us in ways that are hard to understand or even describe, eliciting everything from tears to vicious mosh pits. Of course, one of its most renowned powers is helping people concentrate.
Take, for example, classical music, which seems to help students focus while cramming for finals or aid tired workers in getting through a long day. So, to promote their new drink Shuchu Regain (集中リゲイン), Suntory has released a series of YouTube videos demonstrating the power of concentration. Today, we’ll be looking at “the world’s fastest orchestra,”The Extreme Minuet, played by having 43 men toss coins into beakers from several feet away.
MegaBots couldn’t back down from a challenge they issued first, so it was back to the drawing board in preparation for next year’s battle for national pride. They have some ideas, but are going to need your help to “kickstart” an American victory.
Summer in Japan can be brutal if you’re not used to the humidity. At least one of the writers here at the RocketNew24 office has melted into a puddle of and had to be reconstituted in a meat locker last month. Fortunately, the heat is starting to abate and autumn is in sight!
But while we’re happy we won’t have to worry about being liquefied anymore, there is one thing we’ll miss: Playing in the pool. We can’t do that once winter has set in and we’re missing the summer sun, but at least we’ll have this insanely adorable video of a dog whose owner steals its every attempt to get a shower.
When a stray kitten began following Japanese Twitter user @Kawasaki_Hina around like a little duckling, he decided to take her in and keep her for good. Within a short time, it became obvious the feline had made herself completely at home and had taken up a few of his ‘hooman’ hobbies to boot — including watching anime and playing the guitar.
Warning: Melt-in-your-seat adorable feline photos are coming up right after the jump!
Of all the cool dance videos we’ve seen this summer, the one by the Dancing Strawhats and Koharu Sugawara was perhaps our favorite. The video did an excellent job of mixing contemporary dance and music with traditional scenery and clothing, and it was this juxtaposition that really captured our attention.
A new video by another group of contemporary dancers has captured our attention today, but this time it features Kiyomizu-dera, one of Japan’s most famous temples, and some lovely music by an incredibly talented koto player. We are in love with this video and we bet you will be too!
Online console gaming has been thriving for over a decade now, and ostensibly it should have brought gamers from all over the world into contact with one another as competitors and co-op teammates. In practice, though, regional differences in preferred genres, aesthetics, and overall play styles have meant that Japanese and Western gamers haven’t crossed paths all that terribly often.
At least until Nintendo released Splatoon this year for the Wii U, that is. Combining the team-based shooter Western gamers have so embraced with the colorful quirkiness that their Japanese counterparts have always been fond of, Splatoon’s popularity is bridging the oceans. This is giving overseas Inklings a chance to play with gamers in Japan…or to complain about them online and devise strategies to avoid them.
It’s an amazing age we live in, where you can fire up Google Street View and virtually walk the boulevards of many of the world’s cities. But it turns out Google Street View has a bit of a rival in Japan. Granted, its scope is far smaller than Google’s, given that it only covers part of one town, but it shows up the Internet giant by letting you wander its walkways from the perspective of an alley cat, and even provides profiles of all the neighborhood kitties you’ll meet along the way!
Japanese raccoon dogs, or tanuki as they’re known over here, are animals with great significance in Japanese folk-lore. Among their many supernatural attributes such as giant scrota and swift speeds, the tanuki are also known for their purported shapeshifting abilities.
And though the above picture clearly dispels the size of their manhood, there appears to be some truth to their art of disguise. As the Twitter user who posted the photo explains, this little guy is actually pretending to be a stray cat so he can get some of the food laid out for him.
Some of you may recall that this particular franchise had made a poster promoting their oden sale which bore a striking resemblance to the former Olympic emblem. After a request was made to the TOC, they had denied the poster’s commercial use and likeness to their intellectual property. However, now that the emblem will no longer be used, is the poster back in play?
It’s amazing how much technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives. Companies continually strive to outdo one another by bringing us the latest modern conveniences and seeking to create new and unique gizmos that we won’t want to live without. That said, there are times when we seem to rely on technology more than we need to, and when it feels like companies release new devices without much of a goal in mind besides trying to be different..
Typically, nail art in Japan is bold and colorful or just plain huge, but it turns out neither are requisites to being impressive! Sometimes small can be just as amazing as big (at least that’s what we tell ourselves), and one Twitter user has gone a long way to proving that with her diminutive and delicate nail art, created by literally carving the tips of her nails!
For reasons we will never fully appreciate or ever be able to fathom, wearing plastic convenience store bags as clothing is inexplicably trending in Taiwan right now. It appears the trend is being spurred partially by the convenience and life-hacky money-saving of cutting two leg holes in a 7-Eleven bag and wearing it around like pajamas, and partially by the fact that a lot of objectively good-looking women are posting their plastic bag-clothing photos on social media.
But until now, it seems no one really thought to actually take the style for a spin outside, until one crazed Taiwanese Netizen dared himself to ride around on a motorcycle wearing nothing but a plastic bag outfit if 10,000 people “liked” his initial comment.
Sony has been in the mobile business full force since its merger with Ericsson in 2001. Microsoft partnered with Nokia in April 2014 and there have been phones bearing the Microsoft’s logo since November of that year. Notice a name missing from this short list?
Nintendo has never been in the mobile business and for years they refused to even consider games for cell phones. However, that hasn’t stopped Nintendo fans mocking up and dreaming of a mobile phone made by their beloved game company. Most have been hilariously bad, but a recent design by the tech website Curved has plenty of good things going for it.
Those dog days of summer are turning into sweet school days as students around the world are getting ready to go back to school for fall. In Japan, their summer vacation has already finished and a familiar scene is probably playing out in high schools across the country.
But don’t take our word for it, ding dong ding dong, there goes the bell. Here comes our teacher, Iron Man sensei!
Everyone’s favorite Muppet frog once sang about the difficulties of being green, but there were a few points he left out: being dumped by your boyfriend, for example, or being mistaken for a green traffic light and in turn getting hit by a car—both things this poor girl from China claims happened to her after a facial mask she used turned her face a glowing, fluorescent green.
A video of the interview with the unfortunate young lady has gone viral across Chinese social networking sites, with many just as skeptical of the wild story as you probably are this very minute…
A Yokohama area immigration office has apologized for mistakenly serving a Muslim man, who is interned there for unknown reasons, a meal that included pork, the consumption of which is forbidden by Islamic law.
For its part, the Yokohama immigration office says it attempted to accommodate the man’s requests for pork-free meals, but unknowingly served him a salad spiked with bacon pieces in an administrative foul-up.
A little while back, we brought you news of Electrical Udon developed by Kurare of Arienai Rika (“Unbelievable Science”) for an event to be held in Osaka. Well, that event has come and gone, and we were fortunate enough to be there to get a taste of his technicolor noodles along with some other off-color foods like blue rice topped with even bluer curry and fried chicken with a secret green sauce.
We also got to see some of the DIY science that made Arienai Rika a cult hit with science and tech enthusiasts in Japan.