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Japan (Page 1438)

Taiwanese Weather Reporting Idol Group to Take Japan’s Grueling National Weather Forecasting License Exam

From their humble beginnings on Taiwan’s video series Weather Girls, a seven-girl idol group by the same name that specializes in bringing you the week’s weather, have been building a solid fan base in their new home of Japan.

Though a variety of theme months and a constantly improving grasp of the Japanese language, these girls have steadily shown that they are willing to work hard for their place in the spotlight.  However, the next step is a doozy.

It has come to light that all seven girls (one for each day of the week) are studying hard to take the extremely strict National Weather Forecaster Exam next year. The test, which was established in 1994, reportedly has a 5 percent pass rate.  However, if the girls succeed they will become full-fledged weather forecasters.

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Calling All Evil Billionaires: The Dream of Space Flight Can be Yours for a Fraction of Your Fortune

It used to be that to go to space you needed to join NASA and become an astronaut. But you’re an evil billionaire, and you’re far too busy being evil for all that training in the gravitron.

Lucky for you and whatever evil space plans you’re hatching, SXC (Space Expedition Corporation) offers the dream of space travel to any commoner with US$100,000 lying around, a pittance that will barely put a dent in your underground chamber of dubiously acquired gold bricks.

There are also a number of other aerospace companies offering a variety of space travel flavors, from a few minutes in orbit to a full 9 days at the International Space Station (ISS), complete with space walk. Let’s take a look at the different space travel packages offered, including one that costs US$150 million. 

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In 1597, Japan was reaching the end of the Warring States period and starting to unify under the rule of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. At the same time, which was 15 years after the Tenshô embassy (the first Japanese embassy to Europe), three Japanese men were completing their (unwilling) journey to Mexico, of all places.

Using records from the Inquisition found in the National Library of Mexico, Lucio de Sousa (University of Evora in Portugal) and Oka Mihoko (University of Tokyo) have discovered conclusive proof of the men’s journey to the New World. They’ve also managed to piece together a few details of their stories.

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J-World Tokyo: One Piece, Naruto and Dragon Ball Attractions at Shonen Jump Manga Theme Park!

Fans of the iconic manga periodical Weekly Shonen Jump should be clearing their schedules and marking down July 11 on their calendars. For on this day, the clouds will part and a shaft of light will appear as the doors to a new manga paradise will open, offering five Naruto, One Piece and Dragon Ball attractions, along with stacks of merchandise and themed food to save us all.

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Let It Rip with Japanese Company’s Stress-Relieving Notepad

The company Edit, based in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward, produces a variety of notebooks. Most of them come with specialized forms on each page, such as a cooking notebook with separate boxes for ingredient names, amounts, and cooking directions. The company’s more unique offerings include a pitcher’s notebook with a three-by-three grid to mark each throw as high or low, inside or outside, and a horse racing journal to record bets, wins (hopefully), and losses (inevitably).

The pages of Edit’s newest big seller are completely blank, though. What’s more, if customers follow the instructions for using it, they’ll never be able to refer back to what they wrote, because the pages are designed to feel good as you rip them into shreds. Read More

Last year, Japanese electronics company, Pioneer, finished development on its small size full color hologram printer and has now decided to use this technology to create 3-D holographic prints of babies’ faces while they’re still in the womb. According to a YouTube video detailing this brand new service, “When expecting mothers receive ultrasounds during physical examinations, 3-D images of the unborn child are taken. We can translate that data into a physical form and create a commemorative photo for parents to keep, in anticipation of the upcoming birth.” Read More

Tales of subway groping are unfortunately commonplace in Japan, and anyone committing such a pathetic and cowardly act deserves every punishment given. But what happens if you are falsely accused? Often filled well beyond capacity, there is a real possibility of such a thing happening if you ride the trains running throughout Japan’s major urban centers. No matter your innocence, with a 99 percent conviction rate should the case go to court, one Tokyo lawyer says the best thing to do if wrongly accused is, run…

Attorney Takashi Nozawa provides the following advice to anyone who might find themselves caught up in this nightmarish, no-win situation.
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The Saudi Arabian television program Hawatel Kaizen (a combination of the Arabic word for “thoughts” and the Japanese for “improvement”) is a series of reports by Arabic reporters in which they share things they have been impressed by in Japan. A Japanese TV show in turn did a feature on Hawatel Kaizen, in which the panel of Japanese TV personalities were amused by the enthusiastic responses of Saudi reporter, Ahmad, to things Japanese citizens take for granted.

So in an effort to be as international as possible, RocketNews24 brings you an English recap of a Japanese TV program reacting to another program in which a Saudi Arabian reporter reacts to Japan. Read More

Gas Attack! Can Holding In Farts Be Bad For you?

You’re on a date with the most amazing person you’ve ever met. It’s all going well, and you know you’re not going home alone tonight. But as you finish up your meal, it hits you out of nowhere: the stomach rumbles of a vicious fart. Your mind races: what to do?! Should you hold it in or break wind and try to blame it on the waiter?

Well, today we have a translation of a Japanese article about this very topic! Now you’ll know what happens when you hold in those Silent-But-Deadlies.

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GungoHo Online Entertainment Continues Upward Surge, Market Cap Exceeds Nintendo in Morning Trading

On the morning of May 13, GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc. (JASDAQ Standard) rose by its maximum allowable single day limit of 300,000 yen (approx. US$3,000). The stock increased 28.79 percent to 1.342 million yen (approx. US$13,420). The rise comes on the heels of a 17 percent gain on Friday, May 9.
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The Yomiuri Giants of Tokyo have long been the powerhouse team of Japanese Baseball. Through highly effective promotion and the acquisition of top players they often draw parallels with the New York Yankees.

So it’s no surprise that a month and a half into the 2013 season the Giants are sitting in a familiar first place spot in the Central League standings.  However, things have begun to take a turn for the worst after a comment made by model Aki Higashihara in her supernatural “death blog.” Over the past decade people, places and businesses have all suffered some form of misfortune shortly after being mentioned in her blog Higashihara Desuga?

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Hatsune Miku Project mirai 2 Expected Fall 2013

Hatsune Miku Project mirai 2 for the 3DS is expected to be released in Japan this fall. The latest rhythm game is the predictably-named sequel to the Hatsune Miku Project mirai, featuring the rest of the Vocaloid Crew alongside the ever-popular Miku-chan. The game promises to be fun for both casual and serious players alike, and who can resist those super-cute Nendoroid character designs? Check them out at the official site.

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Original Japanese Kirby Was Even Less Hardcore

No discussion of the pantheon of video game heroes is complete without mentioning HAL Laboratory’s Kirby. Including his recently-released 20th anniversary collection, the adorable pink puffball has close to two dozen appearances under his belt, which is an impressive feat for someone who lacks a waist.

Kirby has also gotten a bit of free publicity from website TV Tropes, with its “American Kirby is Hardcore” entry, which catalogues how the images of Kirby and other fictional characters are “toughened up” in marketing to make them more appealing to U.S. audiences.

In recent years, Kirby’s earned enough gamer goodwill to be as cute as he wants to in any market. Even still, we’re guessing he would have had a tough time of it initially in overseas markets if HAL had stuck with the character’s original name. Read More

New School Swimsuit in Japan is Conservative and Surprisingly Cute

The worst time in P.E. for many girls is the few weeks when everyone is forced to learn how to swim. When you’re a self-conscious young lady, having to wear a bathing suit in front of a bunch of guys can be mortifying. To make matters worse, most swimsuits are very low-cut on the top and high-cut on the bottom, making for a very embarrassing garment for girls who are uncomfortable with their bodies to wear.

Good news for shy girls and fashionistas alike! Japan-based swimsuit maker, Footmark, seems to have achieved the impossible by releasing a one-piece girls’ school swimsuit that is both conservative and absolutely cute.

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Earlier this week, we reported on a rumor that suggested McDonald’s Japan would be bringing back the “Mega Potato,” which packs in double the French fries in one container…two large orders of fries in one container to be exact. Well folks, the Mega Potato is finally here (if “here” means Japan for you).

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How to Make Gundam Using Microsoft Excel 【Video】

How many of you actually know how to use Microsoft Excel? Unless you need to make spreadsheets on a regular basis, Excel acts as the forgotten stepsister of Word and PowerPoint. Even those who claim to be able use Excel, don’t actually know how to use it. So you can imagine our surprise when we found out that with a lot of creativity and even more time, you can make amazing works of art using the most boring of all the Microsoft Office programs.

The following video shows each painstakingly detailed step to creating Gundam using Microsoft Excel (in super high speed).

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Evangelion Director Shocks the Anime World Without Making a Movie Where Everyone Turns Into Tang

With two feature films set to debut before the end of the year, you’d have thought Studio Ghibli grabbed as much media attention as possible. But the venerated anime production house managed to put itself even more squarely in the spotlight with the announcement regarding its upcoming feature film Kaze Tachinu, or The Wind Rises.

The film’s main character will not be voiced by a veteran voice actor. That in itself isn’t so surprising, considering Ghibli’s past casting of singers and Japanese drama stars, Takuya Kimura and Junichi Okada, for the heroes of its previous movies, Howl’s Moving Castle, Tales from Earthsea, and 2011’s From Up On Poppy Hill. Like them, the lead male voice actor for The Wind Rises is a famous member of the entertainment industry with hordes of fans. However, many of them don’t know what he sounds like, because the main character will be played by Evangelion director Hideaki Anno. Read More

Inquiry Regarding Doctor Fish Results in Bizarre Yahoo! Answers

Generally, when looking for information, I avoid Q&A websites such as Yahoo! Answers at all costs. But recently I’ve been rethinking that policy. There are a lot of freaky people floating around these places that I’m missing out on.

One such freak gave the “best answer” to a simple request on buying doctor fish, a popular name for those fish in spas that remove the dead skin from your feet. It’s surprising though since while this response does give some fascinating insight into how a doctor fish eroticism addiction can affect the family unit, it seemed to lack any hard facts like a price or specific location.

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In recent years, the use of law-evading hallucinogenic herbs has been becoming more popular among young people in Japan. These herbs have properties similar to those of illegal drugs like cannabis, however due to their synthetic nature, many users fail to see the real dangers lurking behind them. As an initiative to prevent widespread misuse, the government produced a comprehensive list of chemicals that are banned in the sale and use of law-evading hallucinogenic herbs on March 22, 2013. The chemical substances on the list recently rose from 92 to 851. However many shops are selling a modified version of the banned herbs in attempt to evade the issues of legalities and keep profits alive. In this way, it is a cat and mouse game where once one chemical has been outlawed, a similar substance carrying slightly altered chemical properties is quick to make its way on to the market. While effects of inhaling these herbs are similar to hallucinogenic drugs, shopkeepers claim that they are solely for aromatic purposes. Of particular concern is that the number of online law-evading herb shops is also increasing.

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Who Needs a Cherry on Top? Osaka Café Crowns its Parfaits with Cake

Tokyo’s restaurants may have more Michelin stars, but for many Japanese foodies, the real culinary action is in Osaka. Particularly if your tastes run more towards good honest grub than haute cuisine, Japan’s second largest city is the place to be.

The people of Osaka enjoy a good meal so much that they coined the phrase kuidaore, to eat until you collapse. But even with this image firmly entrenched in our minds, the city has found a new way to surprise us with its gastronomic decadence.

On a recent day out in Osaka, our reporter stopped by a café and ordered a truly hard-core parfait. It wasn’t that the parfait was so big, and no, it didn’t contain any shocking ingredients. What blew our minds about this parfait was its topping.

It was a slice of cake, and it was so big it wasn’t even trying to fit into the glass.

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