DARPA, the American agency commonly known for its hilarious supervillain-esque laser projects and weaponized dolphins, took time out of its wacky military inventions schedule to hold its Robotics Competition in Miami, Florida, where a humanoid robot from Japanese company Schaft, Inc. took top prize.
Japan (Page 1402)
In the wake of the exciting new video game systems hitting stores this season, our reliable Japanese friend Nintendo is taking us onboard the nostalgia express train with a Wii U game that puts a new spin on 16 well-known NES (or Famicom in Japan) games, like Super Mario Bros. and Excitebike. Besides turning these popular games into mini-game levels where players challenge their own high score, NES Remix changes these games up a bit with new challenges, like playing Donkey Kong in the dark or playing tennis against an invisible opponent.
Tis the season for fried chicken, at least it is according to Japanese Christmas traditions. And if you find yourself with leftovers from your delicious dinner from KFC tomorrow, we have an incredibly easy and tasty recipe to keep that holiday spirit going as long as you have leftover fried chicken in your fridge and your trusty rice cooker. We’ve tried some dubious rice cooker recipes in the past, but this one looks like one of our tastiest yet, so click below to see the recipe for KFC rice!
Even though most apartments in Japan are fairly small, many animal lovers still find room to house a dog or cat. Many pet owners choose to dress up their precious pooch or upload hundreds of videos of their beloved cat. That’s why thousands of cat and dog owners visit online pet photo site, “Pacha and my pet” (pacha is the sound a camera makes) to show off their furry friends. The site has just revealed the most popular dog and cat breeds in Japan for 2013. Let’s take a look at the results!
Twitter is almost universally popular nowadays. While Facebook is seeing declining usage in Japan and among teens in general, Twitter seems to be hanging on to its popularity. It’s hard to say how long this will last–does anyone remember Mixi?–but for now, getting attention on Twitter in Japan is still a big deal.
So when Reika Oozeki’s Vine video got retweeted almost 5,000 times, we had to check it out!
To show the world that young people do not have a monopoly on dancing, a choreography group from Japan has put together a video showing an elderly Japanese woman busting some mean moves on a trendy street in Tokyo. Made in honor of “Respect for the Aged Day,” it shows a kimono-clad woman getting down with her bad self to fast-paced electronic music.
If you’ve ever been in Japan over the New Year’s holiday, you’re probably familiar with the Japanese custom of exchanging nengajo, or New Year’s postcards. People exchange nengajo with friends, coworkers, and others to whom they are indebted or with whom they wish to maintain a good rapport in the coming year. There is a deadline to mail nengajo, usually around December 25, so that they will be delivered to each house on New Year’s Day precisely. If you still haven’t gotten around to sending them out this year, then never fear, because this incredibly cool website lets you design your own nengajo!
For Japanese people, studying English is almost a given. Even folks who may have no interest in actually leaving their home country may feel compelled to study the language for business or simply because they’re supposed to. But it’s hard to enjoy learning a language that you don’t have any interest in–and having fun is one of the best ways to facilitate learning.
This has opened up something of a cottage industry for people trying to make the learning part fun. There are nonsensical textbooks and sexy teachers, but then there are the college textbooks that seem like their authors weren’t even trying.
Well, for any Japanese English-learners who are on the verge of giving up – and perhaps for those of you struggling with learning Japanese – there may be one ray of hope still shining: Majime na Eibunpou, a surprisingly funny English grammar smartphone app!
When discussing Christmas in Japan it would be remiss not to mention the traditional cake that families and individuals buy during this time of the year. RocketNews24 also purchased a cute Santa cake to please our collective sweet teeth and warm our bellies in the cold winter.
However, it wouldn’t be a RocketNews24 Christmas with cooking that bad boy up in a rice cooker. Heck, if Big Macs or Oreos work, then rice-cooker-cooked Christmas cake should be a grand slam. Unsurprisingly (for us at least) the results were both festively pretty and delicious!
You have probably noticed that we here at RocketNews24 are huge fans of Japanese convenience stores. And if you have ever lived in or visited Japan, odds are you too came to love these amazing places. But what exactly makes Japanese convenience stores so different and special compared to those overseas? Click below to see five reasons why we think these “conbini” totally live up to the hype!
There few pieces of cinematic brilliance that come close to matching Captain EO. The star power of Michael Jackson guided by the directing talents of Francis Ford Coppola in a George Lucas Production all come together in a space-operatic masterpiece that taught us all to dream again.
However, the film was taken from us after a fleeting 11-year run at Disney theme parks around the world. Then in a bittersweet moment it was reopened in tribute to the king of pop’s passing in 2010. And now again we in Japan will have to mourn the 17-minute film’s closing in 2014.
With Santa filling his sack and preparing for the annual world tour, pâtisseries and chocolate stores around Japan are marking the occasion with all sorts of cute and delicious dedications to the jolly, red-suited fellow. Now you can join in the fun no matter where you are, with these adorable Christmas treats to make at home. You won’t believe how quick and simple these sweets are!
There’s plenty of standing ramen bars in Japan, but this may be the first standing dashi bar. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, dashi is a soup stock that makes up the base of many delicious Japanese dishes such as miso soup and ramen. Typically made of shaved katsuo bushi (preserved bonito fish), dashi is the lifeblood of traditional Japanese food, adding plenty of umami to even the humblest of dishes. Let’s take a closer look at Nihonbashi Dashi Bar, a shop that specializes in serving hot dashi by the cupful. Read More
Hello Kitty has always been somewhat of a fashion icon. With more costume changes than Cher, she knows how to put an outfit together. Now you can use Hello Kitty’s fashion sense to accent your own and take her wherever your feet may carry you with two styles of limited edition Hello Kitty shoes.
As the end of the year approaches, many foreigners living in Japan are heading back to their home countries for the holidays. Of course, seeing family and friends for the first time in a while is the best part of going home. But many people also have fun stocking up on all the familiar products that are hard to find in Japan. Check out the results from a survey on Japanese website, Madam Riri, asking foreigners to reveal the items they like to buy in their home countries and bring back to Japan.
Ever consider going having a meal with friends or watching a movie on your way to work? While many of us can’t help reaching for the snooze button in the morning, there is a growing number of people who are waking up hours earlier and having a social life before they go to work.
The movement is called Extreme Shussha (extreme going to work) and as of this summer it has been getting increasingly popular in Japan. The rules are simple: Don’t be late for work; don’t bother anyone; and don’t fall asleep when you get there. Beyond that you can do whatever your heart desires.
In May 2011, Nissan was selected to create and supply the vehicle that would be the exclusive New York City taxi.
That plan hasn’t worked out so well. A series of court decisions have blocked the City from approving the NV200 as the only taxi model, in part because it’s not a hybrid, according to the New York Times.
But Nissan still has the right to bring its taxi to the streets of New York, and it sold the first one at the end of October.
This week, the automaker invited me to get a closer look at the NV200 and take a spin around Manhattan.
Sometimes obvious things are hidden right in plain sight and it takes the fresh perspective of someone in another part of the world to point it out. One Twitter user stumbled on such a hidden gem recently when searching the Japanese character for “tsu” , which in the katakana alphabet is written ツ.
As you can probably see from the image above and in the text of the previous sentence, the letter looks quite a lot like a smirking face. This may appear obvious to many Western readers, but according to online reaction most Japanese netizens were taken by surprise at this discovery and had never noticed the similarity. Perhaps even more surprisingly, the character is also apparently getting an unusual amount of use in Middle Eastern countries.
Though it may not be a traditional holiday dish, pizza is often the perfect entrée for the holiday season. After all, between Christmas and New Years, there’s bound to be an opportunity to throw a party for your friends, and for those who’d rather not slave away in the kitchen for a day, pizza is often the best way to provide food to a group.
Well now Pizza Hut Japan has given us a new reason to party: in its latest promotion, the company is giving away actual gold necklaces worth nearly a thousand dollars each.