Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
Japan (Page 1428)
On November 18, Asahi released its new Fuji-san Vanadium Natural Water Hot, apparently banking on the idea that regular convenience store-going human beings would both a) know what Vanadium is, and b) actually want to consume just plain hot water out of a bottle.
What do loud noises, small shiny balls, and bright lights have in common? Pachinko parlors. Pachinko, which can be described as a cross between pinball and slot machines, is a favorite pastime in Japan, despite gambling being illegal (because it’s not technically gambling). The players, who often spend hours sitting in front of these noisy, bright machines, win shiny steel balls, not money, so it’s not gambling, right? Right. Enter loophole: They can take their baskets of balls to a neighboring, but “separate,” establishment to exchange the balls for cash prizes. How convenient!
Pachinko parlors are often huge, gaudy buildings, common even to countryside towns. If you pass one early in the morning, there will often be a line of people rounding the corner, waiting for the doors to open. Many people, especially men, love pachinko. Some members of the government, however, are starting to believe that their citizens love it a little too much.
Tokyo’s Onna no ko kurabu, or Girls’ Club, has a simple mission statement: it’s a place where anybody can enjoy dressing in girls’ clothing. The bar’s staff aims to help men who may be crossdressing for the first time, providing clothes to choose from as well as a dedicated make-up service.
And now, Girls’ Club is spreading the cuteness a little further, with the opening of a second store in the heart of Osaka’s entertainment district.
While out shopping the other day, I picked up a bag of prewashed rice. The grocery store was having a sale, so it was just as cheap as the unwashed kinds, and I figured, “Hey, there’s no advantage to having to rinse it myself is there?”
But as it turns out, the water left over after you wash the rice, called togijiru in Japanese, is actually pretty useful, as shown by these five ways you can reuse it instead of just dumping it down the sink.
A survey out this week asked 200 salarymen – office workers in Japan – about their work and lifestyle habits. The findings have been reported in the Japanese media under headlines such as “The bad habits of low earners” and “People on a low income pee in the bath – but why?!”
But this kind of survey tells us more about the survey creator’s attitude towards low-income citizens, than it does about the employees who answered it.
If you’ve been on an apple diet, you know the pain of having to munch on nothing but apples all day long. Sure, they are sweet and juicy, but the same old apple can get boring. Just when you’re getting sick of the fruit, it’s time to start exploring more delicious ways of enjoying apples to spice things up a little. We have come up with a super easy way of making delicious apple compote that will satisfy your sweet tooth and not ruin your diet! I personally think this is one of the best discoveries we’ve made so far!
Oita, on the eastern coast of Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, has taken to billing itself as Onsen-ken. And while that title loses a bit of its rhyming appeal once it’s translated into English, it’s hard to deny that it really is the Hot Spring Prefecture, as Oita boasts more hot springs than anywhere else in Japan.
As a matter of fact, Oita has so much geothermal water that it can get creative with its most attractive and relaxing natural resource, as shown by these unique ways locals and tourists can enjoy the prefecture’s hot springs.
A bulk of the anime we know and love are set in real-life locations in Japan. Often, the stories are based on a specific location mentioned in the anime, such as Ikebukuro where popular anime Durarara! and its sequel are set. In other cases, the setting is not mentioned but fans are quick to identify the location using scenes found in each episode. One such example would be the hit franchise The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, which featured scenery from Nishinomiya in Hyogo Prefecture. Avid anime fans have had a long tradition of making pilgrimages to key spots in their favorite series through an activity known as Seichi Junrei. There’s now even a website dedicated to documenting these spots and they have recently released a ranking of the wards in Tokyo that contain the most number of pilgrimage spots.
If you only have a couple of days in Japan to go on a pilgrimage, this ranking should probably come in handy!
Yes, you read that title correctly! As part of their promotional campaign for the “Milk Seafood” flavor of cup noodle, Nissin is giving away a life-size plastic cow water dispenser to one lucky instant ramen fan. Simply fill up your cow with water, wait for the cow to heat up, and then “milk” out as much hot water as you need to fill up your Cup Noodle. Join us after the jump for a look at the amusing commercial behind this wacky promotion!
While people in Japan don’t send Christmas cards to each other, it’s customary to send New Year’s cards to relatives, friends, and work associates. Called nengajo, these are delivered on New Year’s Day, and typically feature whatever the Chinese zodiac animal for the year is.
However, since the end of the year is a busy time for most people, it’s not hard to imagine that some of the artists, distributors, and even buyers of these cards are too busy to really stop and scrutinize them, which is how one nengajo ended up with a very unusual ram on it.
Many of Japan’s tasty regional delicacies don’t exactly qualify as low-calorie dining options, such as Fukuoka’s pork stock ramen, Osaka’s deep-fried kushikatsu skewers, and Nagoya’s miso pork cutlets. However, Yamanashi Prefecture’s local specialty, hoto, is relatively healthy, as it’s primarily a vegetable stew with miso broth.
With that in mind, the fact that a zoo in Yamanashi is home to a raccoon who’s so plump he’s almost spherical is a little ironic…and also pretty adorable.
With such a wide range of delicious and delectable (and, erm, shall we say unusual) snack foods available in Japan, it’s a little hard to understand when people get whipped up into a frenzy over plainer options, such as toast and bread crusts fried with sugar. Now, twitter users in Japan are getting their tastebuds in a twist over the confusingly-named “English Toast”, a sweet snacklet that first became popular in Aomori prefecture and has now expanded into a whole range of conbini sandwiches. But what on earth is it?
No one ever said pizza couldn’t be sweet, right? Well, certainly no one in Japan! We’ve already introduced to you the high-sugar Kit Kat pizza and caramel marshmallow pizza, and now we’ve heard that Aoki’s Pizza, a chain based in Japan’s Tokai Region, will soon be offering up a unique creation of its own: the Pizza Black Thunder!
Could this chocolate and cookie laden creation be the ultimate sweet pizza?
Asian consumers are in love with the iPhone 6 Plus, according to a report published Thursday by AppLovin, a mobile ad network.
AppLovin looked at data from the more than 25 ad requests it processes every day, and found that the global split between iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users is about 80/20 right now.
But in some Asian countries, the 6 Plus is much more popular.
In the mid-nineteenth century, a showman named P. T. Barnum exhibited an oddity named the Fiji mermaid. Barnum’s mummified mermaid, one of the most famous hoaxes of all time, is widely believed to have been the body of a young monkey sewn onto a fish tail, and had been bought from Japanese sailors for $6,000.
Ningyo (Japanese mermaids – the word literally means “person-fish”) have a long and interesting history, but they aren’t the only ancient fake taxidermy on show in Japan. Across the country are all kinds of other fascinating specimens: “mummies” of tengu, kappa and even dragons.
It’s one of the sad facts of life that it generally takes longer to build up a good mood than to tear one down. A quick bit of bad luck can ruin your afternoon (just ask anyone who’s been pooped on by a pigeon), but blissful joy is often the result of building off a string of successes and blessings.
We say “often” because sometimes you stumble across a shortcut to a genuine smile or heartwarming laugh, which is definitely the case with the twist ending to this short video of a hamster having its ear stroked.
There’s no denying that we love our ramen here in Japan. The dish is so well-loved, in fact, that it can be called one of the national comfort foods of Japan, and one of the factors that make ramen so intriguing is the fact that there are so many variations of it across Japan, from the miso-based ramen of Hokkaido in the north to the pork-stock based tonkotsu ramen of Kyushu in the south.
Surrounded as we are by all the different ramens served at countless shops throughout the country, it’s rare that we see a ramen that surprises us with its originality, but when we heard about a ramen with a soup containing stock made from green tea — and expensive gyokuro tea at that — we have to say we were positively fascinated, and we knew we had to try it ourselves. Green tea ramen, here we come!
Last year, we talked about seasoning maker Ajigen’s Magic Powder that Makes Ramen More Delicious. Weird as the idea seemed initially, the more we thought about it, we realized it could be just the thing for people with a desire for a tasty meal but no time or motivation to cook for themselves.
That said, if your schedule is so packed you need to prepare dinner in three minutes, we’re guessing you also can’t spare the time for a trip to the bar and a pour of some flavorful and unique craft brew. Thankfully, Ajigen is back again with more magic powder, this time for your beer.
When living in another country it’s only natural to miss some of the tastes of home. In my case, the extreme rarity of root beer has been a source of sadness. Time to time I’ll come across a supermarket or import shop that carries it and am sure to pick up a can despite its often exorbitant price of around 200 yen (US$1.69).
The reason for the absence of the drink on the Japanese market is obvious though. Although root beer has its share of detractors even in its home of America, the sheer number of people who can’t stand the stuff in Japan is huge. What is it that makes root beer so overwhelmingly disgusting to Japanese people?
Every year, Major League Baseball sends a delegation of players to Japan for a series of games against a team of Japanese all-stars. Since the contests are held after the conclusion of both the World and Japan Series, the players are all technically in their off-seasons, but there’s still some impressive skill on display.
The teams and fans all seem to come away with good memories of the games, but the Major Leaguers also left something behind: a ton of trash in their dugout at Tokyo Dome.
Japan’s final Penguin Suica train cards have already shipped, and when they’re gone, they’re gone
Studio Ghibli unveils new anime calendars and diary planners for 2027
Hikaru Utada sings new song in Shinkansen commercial for Japan’s Supreme Class cabins
Farewell Final Ceremony announced for Tokyo’s life-size Gundam statue, will stream live
Hobonichi unveils new 2027 planners, diaries and stationery with One Piece, Suica Penguin, Hello Kitty and a must-buy Mini Techo
Tokyo’s Haneda Airport opens new Terminal 1 North Satellite next month
Foreign travelers arrested in Japan following smash-and-grab robbery in Tokyo shopping mall
Starting this fall, you’ll be able to take a Pokémon Jet flight to Japan
Pizza Hut Japan creates moon-viewing sukiyaki chrysanthemum pizza for tsukimi season
Anime and Hollywood movies cross over in new Universal Studios Japan merch collection
Japan tripled its departure tax to fund tourism but is using the money on cherry blossoms and bears
Japan approves foreign resident visa renewal fee increases of up to 967 percent, starts soonJapan’s final Penguin Suica train cards have already shipped, and when they’re gone, they’re gone
Sushi Bus: Japan’s first conveyor-belt bus lets you eat sushi while sightseeing around Tokyo
Nike x One Piece collection brings Devil Fruits to sneakers and streetwear in Japan
We recommend not buying one pack of Japan’s new convenience store corn soup-flavor fried chicken
Police in Japan looking for who’s responsible for dumping 80 loaves of bread on side of road [Video]
7-year-old boy left behind on Mt. Fuji by his own dad
Anime fans can now wear a Seiko watch inspired by Japan’s One Piece ShinkansenFarewell Final Ceremony announced for Tokyo’s life-size Gundam statue, will stream live
12-year-old British girl who went missing in Tokyo found safe after visiting anime sites around Yokohama7-year-old boy left behind on Mt. Fuji by his own dad
Air-conditioned dress shirts arrive in Japan to save working professionals from sweltering heatSushi Bus: Japan’s first conveyor-belt bus lets you eat sushi while sightseeing around Tokyo
Pokémon Center Online designates first Pokémon items that will require Japanese ID card to buy
Japanese toilet aims to attract foreign tourists but not everybody is happy about it
Tokyo’s newest viral dessert is like a Japanese parfait inside a bread bun [Taste test]
New Japanese vending machine at Shinkansen station sells cups of ice on platform
Study finds hundreds of people in Indonesia legally named after Naruto, Inuyasha, other anime starsJapan tripled its departure tax to fund tourism but is using the money on cherry blossoms and bears
Japan announces sudden 400-percent increase in visa fees for foreigners entering the country
Japan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in Tokyo
Studio Ghibli has a new anime out, and there’s only one place in the world where you can see it
Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
Starbucks Japan releases new sakura goods and drinkware for cherry blossom season 2026
Japan’s newest Shinkansen has no seats…or passengers [Video]
Tokyo subway installing new ticket gates that don’t accept payment through Suica or other IC cards
Japanese ninja certification exam attracts 131 candidates from Japan and abroad
Salomon releases Japan-exclusive Mt. Fuji hiking gear that doubles as an amazing souvenir
Put sesame oil in your coffee? Japanese maker says it’s the best way to start your day【Taste test】
Tokyo’s Haneda Airport opens new Terminal 1 North Satellite next month
Foreign travelers arrested in Japan following smash-and-grab robbery in Tokyo shopping mall
Starting this fall, you’ll be able to take a Pokémon Jet flight to Japan
Pizza Hut Japan creates moon-viewing sukiyaki chrysanthemum pizza for tsukimi season
Anime and Hollywood movies cross over in new Universal Studios Japan merch collection
Starbucks Japan adds a gooey sweet potato Frappuccino to its menu this autumn
Nonstop flights from U.S. to Okinawa return after 54 years, making travel faster than before
Japan approves foreign resident visa renewal fee increases of up to 967 percent, starts soon
Family Mart reveals new T-shirt uniforms, relaxes hair colour rules for staff… but is it all too casual?
Amid foreign sex tourist rise, Japanese government considering outlawing paying for prostitution
Godiva Japan hops into tsukimi season with bunny and moon-themed chocolate assortments
Tokaido Lumière Express: Stay overnight inside the Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo
McDonald’s Japan reveals exclusive new Tsukimi moon viewing collection for 2026
Nike x One Piece collection brings Devil Fruits to sneakers and streetwear in Japan