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NHK TV worker woken by earthquake, gives viewers a show by accident

As you already know, the third anniversary of the 3/11 Tohoku disaster was remembered this week through a variety of activities, including a fundraiser by Yahoo! Japan which saw the company donating roughly $250,000 to charity. The anniversary was also marked by a powerful earthquake off the coast of Kyushu at around 2 am on March 12, injuring about 14 people and wrecking havoc on innocent anime figures.

It also brought grins to all of the NHK viewers and Twitter users who happened to catch the public broadcaster’s footage of a confused-looking man running around an office in his underwear!

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Misprinted 1-yen coin sells for US$27,500 at auction

I kid you not, dear reader, someone in Japan just paid tens of thousands of dollars for a single one-yen coin–a tiny disc of aluminium whose ordinary street value is just US$0.009.

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Yahoo! Japan donates 5x projected amount to Tohoku after unexpected number of people participate

In tribute of the third anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake on 11 March, Yahoo! Japan held a charity drive pledging 10 yen (US$0.10) for every person who entered “3.11” into their search engine.

Relying on the data that Japan’s most used search engine was privy to, they hypothesized that a maximum of 5 million yen ($48,000) from 500,000 unique IP addresses would be generated and set a limit at that amount. Boy, were they wrong.

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YouTuber becomes internet sensation with gibberish impressions of world languages

Meet YouTuber Smoukahontas, the girl who became an internet star in a matter of days with her video “What Language Sound Like To Foreigners”. In it, the bespectacled brunette runs through a long list of languages from Arabic to Japanese, blabbering nonsense word combinations in genuinely impressive accents, resulting in something that sounds to the untrained ear just like the real thing.

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Yes, of course Sailor Moon dog cosplay exists in Japan 【Photos & Video】

Japan loves anime. Japan loves cosplay. It also likes tiny little dogs. So it was probably only a matter of time until someone decided to dedicate an entire blog to photos of, you guessed it, tiny cosplaying dogs. And not just any cosplay either; Sailor Moon cosplay.

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Cool cat chills out with his mohawk, doesn’t care what you think

This cat is just too cool! A user posted a short video to YouTube, showing off this ginger beast’s totally rocking hairstyle. We’re pretty sure the handsome fellow would be getting kicked out of school for daring to wear such a gravity-defying mohawk!

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Game Review: New dating sim takes you back to school days of flirting with soft-shelled turtles

In a country overflowing with every dating simulator game both imaginable and unimaginable it can be hard to carve a niche. We’ve seen games in the past where players challenge themselves to score a date with an alpaca, pigeon, or T-Rex, but for those who want to play the field of the entire animal kingdom a new player has emerged.

The game is called Kikenna Kare ni Koishiteru (In Love with a Dangerous Boyfriend) and in it you assume the role of a young girl who enrolls in a school of a variety of animals from soft-shelled turtles to Japanese horseshoe crabs. We took the game for a spin and now humbly present this review for your consideration.

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Japan Self-Defense Forces get a fan club, for some reason

The Japan Self-Defense Forces, or JSDF for short, are basically the Japanese military and includes naval, infantry, and aerial branches. Though the Japanese constitution officially forbids the JSDF from acting aggressively and sees them rather as an “extension of the police” than a proper military, the Japanese budget for the JSDF is the fifth largest military budget in the world.

And now they have their own fan club, which was recently announced along with an accompanying website!

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World’s oldest kendo video is part martial arts, part Buster Keaton, all amazing

Kendo is a uniquely Japanese martial art. Like judo, karate, and aikido, this modernized version of a traditional art has numerous practitioners both in Japan around the world. And while some may approach it with more, um, zeal that others, it’s generally viewed as being more like chess than raw fighting.

But if you ever thought that kendo lacked in brutality or purely comedic tomfoolery, this 117-year-old video of a kendo practice session in Kyoto will put you in your place. And then smack you across the head with a big bamboo stick!

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Liven up your Twitter feed with anime-themed “Pair Icons”

We already know that Twitter and Vine are kind of places people in Japan go to make bad life decisions. We’ve seen teens crawl into convenience store freezers and would-be comedians posting really quite racist “comedy” videos, and even the occasional teen openly admitting to a crime on the social networking service.

So it’s a breath of fresh air to see someone finally take to Twitter with a good idea, like this amateur artist that posted a concept sketch for “pair icons:” Twitter profile pictures you can use with friends that, when lined up perfectly in your news feed, play off each other in fun and interesting ways. Here’s the original concept:

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Bring the boiler room of Spirited Away to virtual life with Oculus Rift

The commercial release of the virtual reality headset known as Oculus Rift should be just around the corner, and with the technology looks to be something great allowing you to do everything from being Hatsune Miku to sleeping next to Hatsune Miku, we’re sure that gamers and fans of gadgets alike are positively itching to get hold of it.

Until then, those of us not willing to shell out for a developers’ kit will have to bide our time with YouTube testimonials such as this one done by Cymatic Bruce. In the video Bruce takes us on a virtual tour of none other than the boiler room setting from Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. Even better, the way he presents it allows us all to watch in 3D without the need for an Oculus Rift or any special equipment.

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Dove’s “Real Beauty” commercial a big hit in Japan

Sex, as the saying goes, sells. What exactly that means seems to be somewhat up to interpretation–we don’t think you’d want to buy a couch after watching a couple…um…”frolicking” on it–but it’s hard to deny that a bit of sexiness goes a long way in boosting sales. Even something as boring as shampoo can seem exciting when you film a young, perky model showering.

Of course, not everyone thinks that this is the best way to hock merchandise. Last year Dove earned a bit of respect from consumers with their “Real Beauty” campaign aimed at bolstering women’s self-images and emphasizing seeing the natural beauty we all have. Though the main commercial hit the shores of Japan last spring, it seems that it’s recently gotten a lot of attention over here. Click below to see what Japanese commenters are saying about the video!

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Are you ready to watch the first music performance broadcast via PlayStation??

While North America has had the PlayStation 4 for a few months now, Japan had to wait until February 22 to pick up the (arguably) hottest console in the world. Now that the long wait is over, Japanese gamers can hunker down and get some serious gaming done!

And, thanks to the PlayStation 4’s snazzy new streaming technology, they don’t even need to leave the house to catch a live idol show! This Thursday (March 6) at 6 pm JST, the game-centric group Game Girls will give their debut performance–and be the first to stream a live show via PlayStation 4! Because…umm…well, why the hell not, right?

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Creative pet owner turns Xbox 360 controller into dog leash (with poop bag dispenser!)

Just traded in your Xbox 360 for a shiny new PS4 or Xbox One? Want to clear some clutter under your TV set? Proud of your gamerscore and want the world to know that you eat, sleep and breathe video games? Well if you’re a pet owner we’ve just the thing! Instructables user mikeasaurus has come up with a novel use for an old Xbox 360 controller – turning it into a dog leash, which as well as having multiple fire buttons and twin analogue sticks, even comes with a built-in poop bag dispenser.

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20 yummy animal burritos to satisfy your cute cravings!【Photos】

All right, burrito lovers, step right up! Burritos are perhaps the most convenient well-balanced meals in the world (in my opinion). You get your carbohydrates, meat, vegetables, and a great burst of flavors, all in a handy-sized wrap that you can basically eat anywhere, even on the go. Perfect!

However, if there’s just one thing that’s better than a burrito, it’s gotta be an animal burrito! All you have to do is look at it and it’ll fill up your empty hearts and souls with an irresistible gush of cuteness that will leave you feeling like a better person (hypothetically)! Here are twenty of them, all rolled up and ready to go!

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“Where are ya!? I’ll fight ya!!!” Cat battles air for over a minute in adorable video

All this time, we thought cats knew exactly what they were doing; that they were the calm little centres of the world and were not swayed by puerile whims or emotions. But as this video – which sees one cat sitting atop what appears to be an air purifier, batting and grabbing at nothing for over a full minute – shows, they’re just as clueless as the rest of us.

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Testing English “loan words” on people who don’t speak Japanese (Spoiler: they don’t make sense)

YouTuber and full-time Japan fan Sharla is back this week with a brand new video. After bringing us exploding condom ice cream and giving us a peek inside one of Japan’s typical love hotels, she’s currently back in her native Canada and just for kicks decided to try out a few English loan words that appear in the Japanese language on her non-Japanese-speaking friend.

As we’re about to see, despite the majority of these words originally coming from English, once pumped through the Japanese lexicon and read back to a native English speaker they make almost zero sense. The full, laugh-out-loud video after the jump.

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US Ambassador Kennedy’s comment about pork irritates Japanese netizens

What’s wrong with a little bacon, you say? Pork is one of the most widely consumed meats around the world. But not all pork is the same, as was brought to light recently in Japan.

On a trip to southern Japan a few days ago for a US-Japan joint satellite launch, United States Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy commented that she would like to try a local pork delicacy famous to Kagoshima Prefecture. However, her comment became a hot issue, prompting many Japanese netizens to take their confused and even angry comments online. Keep reading to find out why this seemingly simple comment became such a big deal in light of recent events.

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How to fail at hide-and-seek: A cat’s guide

It’s a well-known fact that cats think they’re cleverer than us. Even when it comes to playing one of our popular childhood games, hide-and-seek, cats think they’ve got us beat. This collection of hilarious photos shows that cats should really come down off their proverbial high horses and take a lesson or two from the human world because when it comes to hiding, these kitty cats really have no idea. Ten points for trying, especially with their creative and body-defying efforts, but no points for hiding because when it comes to hiding, peek-a-boo we see you!

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(Just a few of) the craziest things seen on Japanese trains

Train transportation is both a blessing and a curse. Train networks make getting around extraordinarily easy, and much cheaper than owning a car. Compared to buses – which are well-known haunts of swindlers, witchcraft users and the very smelly – trains are also safe, clean and convenient.

But sometimes they present a problem, especially for those that don’t own private means of transport. Cosplayers, for instance, may have to get from A to B in costume – which, even on Halloween in Japan, can attract stares and scoffs. Or what if you want to hang out with your giant bird friends at the pub but your giant bird heads won’t fit into the car door? Circus performers, extremely drunk salarymen, movie monster extras and more have all faced this dilemma.

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