Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
Internet (Page 99)
Recently a new game developed for Android devices, Era’s Adventures was turning heads for its main character, Era’s slight resemblance to Nintendo’s famous dinosaur Yoshi. The attention had gotten so big that it caught the eye of Nintendo’s legal team who decided to have a chat with the developer, Botond Kopacz.
Hatsune Miku is now coming to a bento near you (that is if you have to time and patience to make her). The folks over at Japanese culture website, Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi, have just created a step-by-step video explaining how to make an edible version of everyone’s favorite vocaloid.
Yahoo! Japan president Manabu Miyasaka announced at a press conference on the 25th that the company would introduce a new system by the end of the current fiscal year which allows employees to take up to one year off from their jobs. The system, which is based on the concept of sabbaticals, allows employees to spend up to one year freely pursing whatever they desire, albeit without pay. Though fairly common in the west, offering such a system of leave is very rare for a Japanese company.
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Recently a video titled Where is Dobayashi’s Ball Going… Home Run Girl Stares as She Waits Her Turn was uploaded onto the official YouTube channel for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Central League. Within days it became the most watched video on the channel with 286,249 views and counting. The reason why this video of a failed home run became so popular is clear from the image above.
However, you might be wondering what this stunningly beautiful woman is doing in full uniform clutching a doll of what appears to be the Phillie Phanatic and intensely staring at player, Shota Dobayashi.
How do you usually cook a sunny side up egg? We’re guessing most people plop an egg into a frying pan with a little oil and hope for the best. However, our reporter Kuzo has just discovered a new way to eat eggs thanks to the “Rollie EggMaster.” Straight from, you guessed it, the USA, the Rollie EggMaster works like a toaster to cook an egg in minutes. Although the Rollie EggMaster is sold in North America and cannot be shipped to Japan, Kuzo was able to get his hands on one and proudly made an “egg on a stick” for the entire RocketNews24 office, delighting our Japanese editorial team.
He slinks through the trees, scanning from above for his next victim and waits, sword unsheathed, as his prey draws near. Plummeting down, death from above, he pounces and fells his target with a single swipe of his glinting blade. No one is safe when the killer samurai leaf attacks!
For quite some time a blog had been lying dormant in the recesses of the internet featuring a group of young guys – presumably students – elevating the art of asshattery to bold new levels.
However, recently this internet artifact as unearthed and spread through Twitter like a virus of stupid and justly incinerated by the indignation of the masses.
In an effort to remember this event and perhaps teach future generations that being completely ignorant is no way to go through life, we present: A Group of Huge Jerkoffs Riding Big Thunder Mountain in Tokyo Disneyland.
A storm of boos has flooded Japanese forums in response to the invention of fake knee-high stockings. This piece of clothing makes a woman appear to be wearing long socks when she is actually wearing fully sealed tights. As a product, fake knee-high stockings greatly help women to comfortably achieve a cute look. But for some men, the lost opportunity to catch a glimpse of an exposed leg that is brought on by these full-coverage stockings is too much to handle.
Foreigners who live in Japan quickly learn that sliced bread is not this country’s bread and butter. Being a country that relies on rice for daily meals it’s near impossible to find a reasonably priced full-length loaf of sliced bread.
Instead most supermarkets offer small packs containing four to eight slices each of which can be monstorously thick. For people like me who like to make sandwiches every day, this means constant trips to the store to refill on bread.
However, one recipe that made it big on Twitter by Japanese user Yu Tsukari handed down by her mother thankfully can reduce my bread shopping by half. It’s an extremely simple yet clever way to take advantage of Japan’s thicker-sliced bread. You too can give it a try by following our illustrated guide.
A widespread discussion was ignited among Twitter users of Japan recently over the act of delivering pigeons through delivery services such as Yu-Pack, the courier of the Japanese post office. It started – as these things often do – with an award-winning manga writer taking a hike through the mountains.
The life of an IT professional is a hard one. Grueling hours are spent late into the night working out solutions to complex problems.
For these hardworking people Hitachi has come up with a unique solution: “Server Fairies Shin & Shin” who are a pair of magical 20 cm tall girls who dispense valuable network solutions to exhausted IT workers.
The OKO is an “advanced filtration water bottle” that features a filtration system developed by NASA. It’s so powerful that the makers claim it can filter cola into transparent, colorless liquid. The original promotional video is pretty convincing, but there were plenty of people on the internet crying foul. How can this mere water bottle turn dark brown cola into what appears to be water?
We here at RocketNews24 knew what we had to do: go on a quest for this magical bottle and try it out ourselves. Ladies and gentlemen, we have indeed succeeded in turning cola into transparent, colorless liquid. It looked good enough to drink, but as we held the liquid to our quivering lips, we could only image what it might taste like.
A new service is gaining popularity among Chinese gamers. For the small fee of 15 yuan an hour (about US$2.40), you can play your favorite online game with a beautiful woman. Strait News reports that male game fans are calling it “good news.” Read More
I’m sure there are many of you who like to bake your own bread. (I, unfortunately, lack the culinary skills to do so and have to resort to store-bought goods.) But bread doesn’t always turn out the way you intended, does it? It certainly didn’t when Twitter user korpi baked a batch of what was supposed to be harmless, wholesome cheese bread, and the pictures she shared on her account have apparently caught the attention of Japanese Internet users — with their shock value. But what could be so alarming about some pieces of bread? Read More
Facebook, possibly in an attempt to outpace Asia’s reigning chat program king LINE, updated their iOS Facebook Chat program on April 17, adding “stickers” that can be used in chat conversations much like LINE’s “stamps” (also called “stickers” in English language versions).
Anyone familiar with the hit Japanese comic and animation Doraemon will likely know the character Nobita. Cursed with terrible luck, the schoolboy receives help from an earless robotic cat sent back in time by his own great-grandson in the future. Nobita is a lovable character, but “cool” is rarely a word that people use to describe him.
Throwing caution to the wind, however, one young man was spotted riding Tokyo’s trains yesterday dressed exactly like the hapless character. Cosplay or just quirky fashion sense, we don’t know, but the Internet had plenty to say about the rare sight.
And here we were feeling smug about our regular fibre optic Internet connection…
Sony Corporation announced yesterday that its own Internet service provider So-net Entertainment has launched what is thought to be the world’s fastest Internet connection for home use, with download speeds clocking in at a massive 2 Gbps, on average twice as fast as competing high-speed fibre connections in Japan.
Fox Sports Japan is offering a freely downloadable “Foul Ball Armor” papercraft helmet for people with a lot of free time and an iron will (papercuts are serious business and you should expect a lot of them building this thing).
You’ll also obviously need access to a printer, or if you have no sense of shame, a nearby Kinko’s.
Fox Sports introduced the Foul Ball Armor in a new television ad campaign to coincide with the March 29 start of the 2013 baseball season.
Mr. Sato, you are quite literally the man! As our most trusted source of all things bizarre in Japan, you never disappoint. From the time you went in for a trim at a pet salon (on all fours mind you) to the time you tried to train your eyelids, the laughs (almost always at your expense) kept coming.
The following is a list of five reasons why we love our crazy reporter, Mr. Sato. We’re sure you won’t be disappointed.
Maturing into adulthood while sharing a roof with our parents can be tough. We start to become sexually aware, have boyfriends or girlfriends, and secretly store racy photos, magazines or DVDs where we think/hope/pray that no one will ever find them. And then there’s the Internet…
When our parents openly discuss things that we’d much rather they didn’t even know existed, however, words cannot even begin to describe the feelings of shame and embarrassment.
Foreigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
Bad tourist manners at Mt Fuji Lawson photo spot prompts Japanese town to block view with screens
Studio Ghibli unveils massive T-shirt collection featuring top anime movie characters
McDonald’s Japan’s new pancake pie is a taste sensation
Two things to do, and two things not to do, when leaving a traditional Japanese inn
One of Japan’s oldest castles now lets travelers spend night on the grounds, drink in its keep
Hatsune Miku comes to Magic: The Gathering with official crossover cards【Photos/Video】
Bear attacks car in Japan, breaks windshield with its paw【Video】
Who wins in a battle of McDonald’s and Komeda Coffee’s chicken tatsuta burgers?【Taste test】
Japanese-style accommodation at the new Premium Dormy Inn hotel in Asakusa will blow your mindForeigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
Japanese ramen restaurants under pressure from new yen banknotes
Red light district sushi restaurant in Tokyo shows us just how wrong we were about it
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Tokyo Tsukiji fish market site to be redeveloped with 50,000-seat stadium, hotel, shopping center
Japanese city loses residents’ personal data, which was on paper being transported on a windy dayBad tourist manners at Mt Fuji Lawson photo spot prompts Japanese town to block view with screens
Beautiful Red and Blue Star luxury trains set to be Japan’s new Hokkaido travel stars
Ghibli Park now selling “Grilled Frogs” from food cart in Valley of WitchesMcDonald’s Japan’s new pancake pie is a taste sensationMcDonald’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
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 Tokyo
We try out “Chan Ramen”, an underground type of ramen popular in the ramen communityMcDonald’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 disappointForeigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
One of Japan’s oldest castles now lets travelers spend night on the grounds, drink in its keep
Hatsune Miku comes to Magic: The Gathering with official crossover cards【Photos/Video】
Bear attacks car in Japan, breaks windshield with its paw【Video】
Who wins in a battle of McDonald’s and Komeda Coffee’s chicken tatsuta burgers?【Taste test】
Japanese-style accommodation at the new Premium Dormy Inn hotel in Asakusa will blow your mind
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
A visit to the ordinarily forbidden hall of Nara’s Hasedera Temple【Photos】
Do Hi-Chew-flavor Hi-Chews have a reason to exist?【Taste test】
FUK COFFEE?!? Japanese cafe has a perfectly innocent reason for its startling-looking name
Where are all the beautiful women in Japan? Survey investigates
Beyond sakura: How to tell a cherry blossom from a plum or peach flower
Japanese breast size study shows rapid growth in previously smallest-busted region of county
Man arrested for throwing dog at police officer in Japan
Real-life Spirited Away train line found in Japan?
