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What are Tokyo trains at rush hour really like? Check out our eyewitness account!【Video】

Evie Nyan
Jul 21, 2015
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Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station is the Guinness World Record holder for busiest transport hub in the world, with an average of 3.64 million people passing through the station, which has 36 platforms and over 200 exits, each and every day. And it’s never busier than during the morning rush hour, with commuters from all over Tokyo and its neighbouring prefectures pouring through the station on their way to work. No wonder the trains are so crowded!

Since Ashley, our “Japan Wish” competition winner is currently in town soaking up as much Japanese culture as she can, we thought it would be great if she could experience the rush hour crush for herself and share her thoughts with her fellow RocketNews24 readers.

Check out the video we took of Ashley being squished like a sardine and see for yourselves how she rates the experience!

Two dead, five injured after being electrocuted by electric fence

Japan Today
Jul 20, 2015

Two men died and five other people, including two children, from two families were injured after they were electrocuted by an electrified fence set up by a local resident to keep out deer and other wild animals from hydrangeas in Nishi-Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Sunday.

Does arriving in Japan meet Ashley’s expectations? Our lucky winner gets emotional

Cara Clegg
Jul 20, 2015

Ever imagined yourself stepping off the plane onto the Land of the Rising Sun for the first time? If you’ve not had the chance to experience it for yourself yet then you can do so vicariously with our competition winner Ashley in the video below. Warning: things get a little bit emotional!

McDonald’s opens fancy pop-up restaurant in Tokyo for one night only

Oona McGee
Jul 20, 2015

Around the world, fast food chain McDonald’s prides itself on its trademark menu, designed to feed the needs of busy customers on the go.

For one night only, though, the giant company will slow down the pace by taking a step into luxury dining, with a special multi-course meal that includes a platter of patties, a vichyssoise made from French fries and a gelée made with McDonald’s vegetables.

The Zenyaren restaurant in Otemachi offers water jelly for the summer … with chicken inside it!

Kay
Jul 20, 2015

In the mood for some cool, refreshing jelly to beat the summer heat? Well, that’s certainly what the clear, Jell-O-like item in the picture here looks like, right? But you won’t find this delicate-looking item in a cafe, or any regular restaurant for that matter, as a dessert. From the same folks at Zenyaren who brought us “cool yakitori” last year, which were basically chilled chicken skewers in collagen blocks, we now have the “water jelly yakitori“, another visually interesting dish that involves grilled chicken encased in a transparent jelly!

Japan is bracing itself against the typhoon, finding strange underwear on their porches

Meg Murphy
Jul 19, 2015

Those in the Kyushu and Shikoku regions of Japan have already been hit with the brunt of Typhoon 11, and the rest of us in western Japan are sitting out the torrential rains and winds inside. Typhoons are a yearly happening here, and bring with them flooded streets, mudslides, toppled street signs, and apparently very interesting underwear…

You can take this 33,000-pound robot for a virtual test drive, watch it dance to J-pop 【Video】

Casey Baseel
Jul 19, 2015

Now that we’re living in the age of giant fighting robots, it’s time to update the list of things a fully capable member of society needs to be able to do. And while many anime make piloting a huge mecha as simple as falling into the cockpit and learning as you go, it’d be irresponsible to assume things are so easy in the real world.

That’s why we sent one of our reporters to check out a 15,000-kilogram (33,000-pound) giant robot that’s on display in Tokyo right now. Not only is it awesome to look at, its creators will even let you take it for a virtual test drive.

Japanese woman arrested after drugging dates with chocolate, robbing them blind

Casey Baseel
Jul 18, 2015

Although online dating services allow you to peruse profiles of potential paramours from the comfort of your home, they can also be a prime opportunity for fraudsters who pray on the lonely. Last month, for example, we took a look at a ring of dating sites which claimed 2.7 million “users,” only one of whom turned out to be an actual female.

Thankfully, a man from northeastern Japan who joined a dating site actually got to go out with a real girl, and probably thought she was quite the catch, seeing as how she’s decades younger than him and a medical student. Regardless of whether he was looking for something serious or just a fun dinner out, we imagine he was having a great time right up until she drugged him right there in the restaurant and robbed him blind.

Civilian home struck by bullet fired at nearby Japan Self-Defense Forces training ground

Casey Baseel
Jul 18, 2015

No matter what your job is, it’s important to be skilled with the tools of your particular trade. That’s especially true if those tools happen to be firearms, which is why being part of Japan’s police or Self-Defense Forces means you’re in for a lot of time on the firing range.

It seems at least one member of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force needs a little more practice, though, since one of his shots missed the target he was aiming for and hit a civilian home instead.

Sayonara, stadium! Tokyo tosses out design for 252 billion-yen Olympic site, starts from scratch

Casey Baseel
Jul 18, 2015

I’ve got nothing but love for Tokyo, and I’ve spent a good chunk of my adult life working and playing in Japan’s city of cities. Still, I remember having mixed emotions when it was announced as the site of the 2020 Olympics.

Like everyone at RocketNews24, I truly believe Japan is an awesome place, and I’m happy whenever something happens that gets people to take a peek at what’s going on here. But I was worried that in the run-up to the 2020 Olympics, Japan would embark on a glut of overly extravagant construction projects, building needlessly expensive stadiums that would fall into disuse or disrepair soon after the Games ended, as has happened in so many other host cities.

That certainly seemed to be what was happening with Tokyo’s New National Stadium. Every few months came a new report that cost estimates had been revised up yet again, and the expected price tag recently soared to 252 billion yen (US$2.02 billion). Finally, though, the Tokyo Olympics organizers have said enough is enough, and they’ve decided to toss out the existing design completely and start over from scratch.

Website lets you make yourself into a Sanrio character for a virtual parade with Hello Kitty!

Preston Phro
Jul 17, 2015

Do you love Hello Kitty? Of course, you do! Everybody does! But have you ever wanted to be as cute and adorable as Hello Kitty? If so, we have some excellent news for you: Sanrio recently unveiled a website that you can use to automatically make yourself a Sanrio character! It’s cute and easy, our two favorite things.

Japanese cat and dog clocks with swishing tails make clock-watching more adorable than ever

Casey Baseel
Jul 17, 2015

Honestly, I’ve never really seen the point in hanging a clock on the wall in your home. Between the time displays on my PC, phone, TV, DVD player, PlayStation, and microwave, I’ve got plenty of ways to tell the current hour and minute without a dedicated timepiece taking up space where I could hang other things, like the California license plate in my living room that simultaneously makes me miss my home state and driving whenever I look at it.

I’m just not convinced that having a wall clock makes your home that much more convenient. However, it can make it a lot cuter, if it’s one of these adorable Japanese dog or cat-shaped clocks with an amazingly lifelike wagging tail.

Diesel’s new underwear campaign seeks topless selfies – Our Japanese writers are happy to help!

SoraNews24
Jul 17, 2015

The world of fashion and models is one that I have zero understanding of. My wardrobe mostly consists of jeans and black shirts just so I never have to worry about what matches. And as for modeling, well, let’s just say I probably love the camera more than it loves me.

But not our Japanese writers P.K. and Nakano! They are beautiful men with eyes for sexy and looking good doing…sexy? Or, if nothing else, they have the confidence of a pair of male models at a pool party. So, when they heard that fashion brand Diesel had put a call out for selfies, they were more than happy to respond with photos of themselves in nothing but their undies!

But are the pictures more win than cringe? Click below to find out!

The clean otaku only needs one thing to remove grime from an anime keychain, and it’s not soap

Casey Baseel
Jul 17, 2015

If you’re an anime fan with a treasure trove of merchandise from your favorite shows, you probably take certain precautions to keep your collection looking nice. Putting DVDs or Blu-rays back in their cases when not in use is a no-brainer, as is storing manga and art books in a place where they’re not being bathed in color-fading direct sunlight. You may have even picked up a few advanced techniques, like turning anime T-shirts inside out before washing to extend the life of the print, or using thumb tacks with a large enough head to sandwich the edge of a poster against the wall so you don’t have to put a hole in the paper itself.

But what about the dirt and grime that anime character-shaped rubber keychains and straps accumulate though daily use? Actually, it turns out there’s a simple trick to get them looking like new, and it doesn’t involve any soap.

Tokuyama Zoo celebrates summer with Cockroach Fest!

Jessica
Jul 17, 2015

The Tokuyama Zoo in Yamaguchi Prefecture has come up with a novel way to attract visitors this summer. And by novel, I mean probably insane. Would you buy tickets for a Cockroach Fest?

Why squash bugs when you can trap them in this cool vacuum gun?

Casey Baseel
Jul 17, 2015

Humidity-loving bugs are just as much a part of a Japanese summer as fireworks festivals and barley tea. Dealing with the creepy crawly intruders in your home isn’t always easy, though, especially if you’ve got an aversion to touching them. Sure, you can use bug spray instead of doing the dirty work of squashing them yourself, but you’ll still have to use your hands to pick up the carcass and dispose of it after the poison takes effect.

Luckily, though, your options aren’t entirely limited to sharing your living space with bugs or touching them, in the form of this bug-sucking vacuum gun.

“Nintendo president assassinated by Freemasons” conspiracy theory floats around social networks

Master Blaster
Jul 16, 2015

It has been five days since Satoru Iwata, the much beloved president of Nintendo, tragically passed away, and fans have been dealing with the sudden loss in numerous different ways – some with written messages, some with heartrending art.

They say there are five stages of grief that people may go through in times like this: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However, according to an anonymous dissertation circulating around Line, someone found the magic whistle and warped all the way to grief stage 6: accusation of an omnipotent clandestine society.

Japanese Twitter user illustrates the difference between how men and women define a “cute girl”

Casey Baseel
Jul 16, 2015

What do you think of when you imagine a “cute girl?” The term seems like it should be straightforward enough, whether you’re using the English word “cute” or the Japanese equivalent, kawaii. But one Japanese Twitter user claims that guys and girls use the word to mean vastly different things, and has even shared an illustration diagraming what she feels is the difference between what men and women mean when they talk about a “cute” girl.

Hayao Miyazaki speaks out against relocation of Okinawa U.S. base, criticizes Prime Minister Abe

Kay
Jul 16, 2015

Internationally renowned Studio Ghibli co-founder and director Hayao Miyazaki, who announced his retirement from feature films in September of 2013 but is now reported to be working on a computer generated animated short, pretty much attracts attention for whatever he does or says. And while it’s nothing new, this time, it’s Miyazaki’s anti-war and anti-military statements, and not his animated works, that have recently been making headlines on the Japanese internet, especially as he referred to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in his statements, and not in a positive light.