Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
Japan (Page 1245)
Getting a fancy new computer is always fun, but then you’re left to get rid of your outdated clunker. Sure you can send it off to be recycled, but think of all the good times you’ve shared with your old computing buddy.
One Japanese Mac Pro user couldn’t part with his desktop, so he decided to give it a second life − as a stove. A rocket stove, to be precise. By adding a burner to the top and an exhaust pipe at the bottom, behold the “yakiringo” (grilled apple).
We thought people were dedicated when they lined up in droves to wait for the release of the iPhone 6 earlier this year, but that’s nothing compared to what these people had to endure while waiting for New Year’s lucky bags outside of the Apple Store in Sapporo, Japan!
Would you wait outside in the freezing cold for over a day and risk catching pneumonia in order to score some spiffy Apple products?
We’re all used to seeing those before-and-after photos of plain jane (or even, let’s be honest, um, “conventionally unattractive”) Asian girls transforming themselves into gorgeous swans through the use of cosmetics. But did you ever stop to think about those girls’ lives? What kind of bullying and social pressure drove them to devote themselves so entirely to relying on the contents of their makeup bags?
Today we’d like to introduce you to a young lady whose “before” face has made her the victim of a barrage of cruel tweets. But is she bothered? Not one bit!
Japanese people have a reputation for being polite and well-mannered, so the frequent sight of so many people, rather than giving up their seat as they should, suddenly becoming engrossed in their smartphones or pretending to sleep when a pregnant woman or elderly person boards always comes as a bit of a surprise to me.
Of course, there are still plenty of kind and courteous people who offer up their seat without fail. On such occasions, the elderly passenger will often decline the offer, either because they will be getting off in a couple stops, or because despite appearances they still feel young and genki enough to stand for the journey. One elderly man in particular, though, took offense at a young boy who kindly offered up his seat recently.
Learning a foreign language is hard. Even if you master all the vocabulary and grammar, there’s still no guarantee that you’ll ever achieve a native-like accent. For Japanese learners of English, differentiating between the “l” and “r” sounds and pronouncing the “th” sound correctly can be tricky them no matter how many years they’ve been practicing.
But have you ever wondered what it’s like the other way around? What sounds do we English speakers make that sound strange when we speak Japanese? Well it turns out the sound that we mess up the most is one you might not have expected: “fu”.
One of the best things about Comiket, or any kind of convention really, is just wandering around checking out what everyone else is wearing. In Japan especially, you can expect to see a high level of polish and detail when it comes to the outfits dedicated cosplayers wear for the benefit of everyone else’s aesthetic appreciation. But, as in life, it seems like those cosplayers who are naturally blessed with beauty tend to be the ones drawing everyone’s eye. Just ask this incredibly cute young lady, who was one of the unofficial stars of Comiket 87.
Whether you’re coming to Japan as a tourist or a new resident, getting into the island nation usually means taking a plane. With luggage space at a premium, odds are you haven’t packed more than two or three pairs of shoes, which is fine for a running start in the country. With all the walking involved in public-transportation-embracing Japan, though, wear and tear are going to set in before long, and you’ll find yourself in need of a new pair of kicks.
Odds are, though, that you didn’t come all the way to Japan to blow your travel budget on new shoes. If you’re just getting started as a working professional here, you’re probably also a little light on cash. So to keep your feet comfortable, outfit stylish, and wallet happy, today we’re taking a trip to one of Tokyo’s best-kept secret bargains, the Tokyo Shoe Distribution Center, to pick up a selection of footwear at less than 990 yen (US$8.40) per pair.
Ah mochi, the delicious Japanese sweet. It can come in all different shapes and flavors, from the loveable daifuku with sweet bean paste filling, to hot zenzai soup with azuki beans and white mochi, to such delights as mochi ice cream and even chocolate cow poop mochi.
Since mochi is a traditional New Year’s treat in Japan – you can even reserve your New Year’s kagami mochi at Baskin Robins – more of it is consumed around this time of year than any other.
But all that mochi-eating has a dark side to it. With its incredibly sticky texture, mochi causes the most choking-related deaths of any food item in Japan. Last year it killed two people during the New Year season, and after just two days into 2015 it has already claimed nine lives and hospitalized 128 others.
Do you like a good laugh, free stuff, and also stuffing your face with sushi and yakiniku? Then you might be interested in this new promotional campaign that’s going on in Japan right now!
Stamina Taro, an all-you-can-eat sushi and yakiniku chain in Japan, has enlisted the help of female comedy duo Nippon Elekitel Rengo to help drum up extra business over the New Year period. All you have to do to score majorly discounted or even FREE sushi and grilled meat is dress up like one, or both, of these super-funny ladies.
Every New Year’s, people across Japan flock to stores for special bargains, and in particular, the “Lucky Bags” known as fukubukuro. From electronics and chocolate shops to up-scale department stores, Japanese shops and businesses of all kinds come up with original Lucky Bags at the beginning of each year to tempt those of us out for some new year’s shopping. Now, these bags are supposed to offer good value, containing products worth more than the price you pay for the bag. Well, the bags may be a good value, but the catch is that you can’t choose what you get in your bag, and each year there ends up being much online discussion on whether the Lucky Bags from different shops are a particularly good or bad deal.
Not to miss out on the action, the team at the Japanese RocketNews24 site has also joined the Lucky Bag rush, and as we’ve already started reporting, we’ve taken a look at the contents of quite a few of the bags being sold this year. And one of them happens to be a bag from none other than … Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan. Let’s see what “finger-lickin’ good” items were included in their Lucky Bag for 2015!
How is your mental state? How likely do you think you are to commit a crime? If it were the year 2112 in the dystopian Japan of the popular anime Psycho-Pass, it would be no secret; your mental state and “Crime Coefficient” would be read, monitored and recorded by the Sibyl System. What’s more, if you were to go a little crazy, then you would be “taken care of” by the Public Safety Bureau.
With the new Psycho-Pass movie coming out on January 9, Fuji TV and their anime program Noitamina have come out with an ingenious advertising event. Why wait until 2112 to get your Psycho-Pass index when you can just go to Shinjuku Station next week! But watch out, if your mental state reading is muddy or your crime-coefficient is too high, you might get eliminated.
Many of you will undoubtedly have heard about the social phenomenon that is Youkai Watch. Indeed, the game, manga and anime series has been so immensely popular that some may even say that it has taken over Pokémon’s role as Japan’s favorite character franchise. Naturally, with that kind of popularity comes an abundance of fan art, so Japanese social trend and information compilation site Naver Matome has put together an article introducing selected works found on Twitter that stand out for a specific reason — for giving us an idea of what Youkai Watch may look like in the hands of some famous manga artists!
We’ve been bringing you all the the details on the year’s best fukubukuro – or “lucky bags” – today, but no roundup of these wonderful New Year’s goodie bags would be complete without a visit to ice cream purveyor Baskin Robbins Japan. Let’s find out what frozen delights were hidden in their bag!
With people generally getting married at a later age than in our parents’ generation, it sometimes feels like we have to throw out the whole rule book on marriage and starting a family in order to write a brand new one. But what do you do when your potential partner already has a bunch of crossed-out pages? Japanese website MyNavi Woman conducted a survey of 111 women between the ages of 22-34 and asked them, “Would you marry a man who’s been divorced”?
With its classic, minimalist style and unbranded goods, Muji is a popular and enduring brand. And whereas its international stores tend to mainly sell household goods and furniture, Muji in Japan has dipped its toe in a wide range of sectors, from show houses to cafés to a Muji car.
While Muji’s Lucky Bags always sell out, the store also sells this Fortune Can for, appropriately, 2,015 yen (around US$17)! As well as a 2,015-yen gift card – that’s right, every can contains a gift card that’s the same value as the retail price of the can! – each one also contains a traditional Japanese ornament from the Tōhoku, Kansai or Chūgoku regions.
Well, when our Japanese reporter Sachi Ojiya heard about that, he rushed down to Muji and bought not one but three Lucky Cans! This is his report.
As you’ve probably already gathered by browsing our front page today, fukubukuro season again! And for the 99.999999999 percent of us who couldn’t get the robot suit, every other store in Japan has something up for grabs.
This time we’re going to take a peek inside a lucky bag from leading fast food chain Lotteria as purchased by our own Hattori GO. Even though he’s not particularly a Naruto fan, he found himself very satisfied with his 2,000-yen (US$17) paper bag, so let’s take a look inside and see why!
New Year in Japan means family time, food with very specific meanings, and of course shopping. And one of our favourite things about this time of year is the opportunity to buy Lucky Bags (fukubukuro). As the name implies, these are bags containing a lucky dip of items from your store of choice – so you don’t know what loot you’ve got until after you’ve parted with your cash.
Sometimes, you can hit the jackpot with fukubukuro – last year, for example, our very own Mr. Sato was ecstatic to get his hands on a MacBook Air. But here at RocketNews24 we like our tech to come with a side order of luxury chocolate, so when we heard that upmarket chocolatier Godiva were selling Lucky Bags for 5,400 yen (US$45), we sent our reporter P.K. Sanjun down to buy one. Here’s what he got!
Meeeeh! Baaah! In Japan, it’s tradition to send friends and family New Year’s postcards called nengajo, thanking them for everything from the year before and wishing them well in the year to come. The cards often feature the animal of the new year’s zodiac; if you haven’t guessed yet, 2015 is the Year of the Sheep.
While usually sent in the mail, with the onset of the digital age, many people are turning to the non-traditional medium of social networking to deliver their nengajo. This year, some ever-creative manga artists took to Twitter to share their hand-drawn New Year’s greetings with fans around the world. Join us after the jump for a look at the best.
Anime and manga fans will soon have even more reason to visit the country that offers the opportunity to eat Pikachu-themed meals at the Pokémon restaurant or gaze up in awe at an 18-foot tall giant Gundam. The long-awaited world’s first One Piece amusement park will be arriving on March 13 2015 in Tokyo!
Happy New Year! At the start of the new year in Japan many stores release fukubukuro, or lucky bags, where you can get a selection of goodies for less than they usually retail for, as well as limited edition items. People rush around the stores picking up fukubukuro from all their favourite brands, but often the items inside are a secret. We’re here to reveal some of them so you can make an informed decision on which to go for.
Here we have Starbucks Coffee’s offering, which sells for 3,500 yen (US$29). Read on to find out what’s inside!
One of Japan’s most beautiful hot spring towns announces new limits on number of day trippers
Japan’s new frozen sushi DIY kit – Great foodie fun, or cold-hearted abomination?【Taste test】
Made In Japan Fender Limited Edition Hello Kitty Stratocaster now on sale in Japan
Snuggle up to a Japanese Shiba Inu that looks real but is actually a cute hot water bottle cover
Flying dango: Unique tourist site where Japanese sweets are flown to you over a gorge
Cheeseburger rice bowls arrive at Japanese beef bowl chain Matsuya, and in our stomach【Taste test】
Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke teams up with Foxfire for outdoor apparel collaboration【Photos】
The Japan Poop Society is making movements to protect people’s health
Japanese job-quitting service contacted by other job-quitting service because employee wants to quit
Do bears strike first with their left paw when attacking people? Japan wants to knowOne of Japan’s most beautiful hot spring towns announces new limits on number of day trippersGhibli’s Princess Mononoke teams up with Foxfire for outdoor apparel collaboration【Photos】
After cancelling Halloween, Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood cancels New Year’s Eve tooJapanese job-quitting service contacted by other job-quitting service because employee wants to quit
Sanrio and magical girl anime PreCure join forces for new merch line【Photos】
Mario Kart Happy Meal toys arrive at McDonald’s Japan, and SoraNews24 has the whole set!【Photos】
New Ghibli papercraft kit gives you a little Princess Mononoke forest on your desk【Photos】
Beautiful Japanese garden green tea crepes waiting in Tokyo’s historical Asakusa neighborhood
Tokyo park’s sea of clouds, nighttime illumination, and cosplay days make now perfect time to visit
Samurai ritual suicide contest cancelled by organizer in west Japan
Nintendo’s controller capsule toys are so cool, even the machine you buy them from is awesome【Pics】
Tokyo Disneyland loses top-attendance crown for Japanese theme parks for second year in a rowOne of Japan’s most beautiful hot spring towns announces new limits on number of day trippers
Ghibli Park debuts first winter illumination display with Howl’s Moving Castle themeGhibli’s Princess Mononoke teams up with Foxfire for outdoor apparel collaboration【Photos】
Pringles releases a limited-edition sweet flavour in Japan
What’s the deal with akebi, the perfectly purple, alien-like fruit that’s in season now in Japan?Sanrio and magical girl anime PreCure join forces for new merch line【Photos】After cancelling Halloween, Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood cancels New Year’s Eve tooJapanese job-quitting service contacted by other job-quitting service because employee wants to quit
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Foreign tourists on Shinkansen bullet train break suitcase etiquette, angering local passengers
[Deleted] Article written for April Fool’s Day 2018
Japanese government to make first change to romanization spelling rules since the 1950s
Foreigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
Ghibli founders Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki contribute to Japanese whisky Totoro label design
Japanese convenience store Family Mart announces abolishment of eat-in spaces
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
Life-size vibrating Legend of Zelda Master Sword for sale from Nintendo【Photos】
Studio Ghibli releases free-download board game — Here’s how to play it without reading Japanese
Cheeseburger rice bowls arrive at Japanese beef bowl chain Matsuya, and in our stomach【Taste test】
Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke teams up with Foxfire for outdoor apparel collaboration【Photos】
The Japan Poop Society is making movements to protect people’s health
Japanese job-quitting service contacted by other job-quitting service because employee wants to quit
Do bears strike first with their left paw when attacking people? Japan wants to know
Mario Kart Happy Meal toys arrive at McDonald’s Japan, and SoraNews24 has the whole set!【Photos】
American jackass tourist arrested after carving name into gate at Tokyo’s Meiji Shrine【Video】
11 different ways to say “father” in Japanese
History’s highest sumo wrestling and geisha dance to take place at Tokyo Skytree observation deck
Domino’s Japan has all-you-can-eat pizza isn’t an Internet rumor, but it is hard to find
Enjoy viewing Kyoto’s cherry blossoms from above on a guided zipline tour
YouTube goes crazy for “Bubbly” high school girls’ amazing retro ’80s dance routine 【Video】