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Japan (Page 1440)

Hatsune Miku + Rika-chan Collaboration Coming Soon!

Exciting news for both Vocaloid fans and doll collectors – the first details of a collaboration between Japan’s version of Barbie, Rika-chan, and otaku idol Hatsune Miku have been leaked online. Read More

Man Sells the Spoils of his Six Year Gaming Career for Thousands of Dollars

The online role-playing game, Final Fantasy XI has garnered tremendous popularity within Japan, not to mention the rest of the world. Love of the game has grown steadily in the 11 years since its Japanese release in May of 2002.

Unfortunately, as gamers grow older and become busy with real-life responsibilities, they sometimes must set aside their virtual buster swords and magical mage staffs and focus on the tangible things in life. Luckily, there’s always a circle of lazy gamers ready to take their places! These impatient players are wide-eyed and eager to buy your character’s levels and loot off of you. Read More

I think I speak for all of the male writers here at RocketNews24 when I say that we have no trouble finding dates. For example, I’m so attractive that I have to beat women off with a stick. Or, was it that the last woman I asked out beat me with a stick? Sorry, my memory is a little fuzzy these days. Probably from being hit in the head with sticks.

But for our loyal readers who lack my powerful pheromones (B.O. is a kind of pheromone, right?), we present seven tips for attracting girls in Japan, as originally compiled by Niconico News.

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Tokyo Robot Can Think, Learn, and Apply Knowledge: Nothing to Fear Here!

It seems every time a news story about robots appears, someone inevitably freaks out, screaming about Skynet or the Matrix. Well, this time, they might be right!

While it lacks the dexterity and sweetness of other robots, this one can not only assess and comprehend its surroundings but also learn through the Internet! (Oh, please keep it away from Wikipedia. It’ll conquer the world in a month.) Read More

 

Desperate to master the power moves we’d seen so many times in our favourite anime (Japanese animated cartoon), we practiced them day and night. Nothing impresses friends and destroys enemies like a well-timed “Turtle Destruction Wave”. Sure of our eventual success and rise to glory, we eagerly followed in the footsteps of heroes, mimicking their warrior cries and poses. Our best efforts were doomed to fail, but we kept on trying. You did too, right? Probably. Hadouken!

MyNavi News asked 286 men and women in Japan which moves they practiced as children. Here are the most common (and surprising) responses.

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3-D Mickey and Minnie Cakes are Too Cute to Eat!

Disney toys are a dime a dozen, but there’s something special about this Mickey and Minnie – they’re entirely edible! Read More

Fujiyamashita Station: Crushing Dreams Since 1928

It looks like Mt. Fuji is well on it’s way to becoming an official piece of World Heritage, which means the area can expect an upswing in tourism. Around 200 km away in Gunma Prefecture, workers at Fujiyamashita Station are also bracing for an increase in foreigners mistaking the tiny station for the closest stop to the majestic mountain.

For Hirokazu Nagumo, the operator of a single car train for Jomo Rail, this is bad news.  The disappointed faces of heartbroken visitors over his 18 year career is an image he has trouble shaking from his memory.

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Which is More Loved in Japan: Cats or Dogs?

It’s the eternal struggle of pet preferences. There’s no question that the top two choices for pets are cats and dogs and the human race is ultimately divided between so-called “cat-people” and “dog-people.” Since there can only be one animal to take the number one spot as “favorite pet,” large scale surveying website Research Planet asked nearly 30,000 Japanese people straight up, “Which do you like better, dogs or cats?”

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No Kisses For You! Cute Shiba Inu Refuses Owner’s Persistent Advances【Video】

Meet Mari, the cute Shiba Inu who likes to play hard-to-get. If Mari looks familiar, it may be because she’s a bit of a movie star on the Internet. She’s appeared in dozens of short films with her owner, playing the roles of train passenger, religious sect founder and even tambourine player in her master’s two-piece band. She’s also spent time as a strict homework supervisor.  Now Mari seems to be showing her true colours, refusing her owner’s requests to pucker up for a smooch, with all the scorn and indignation of a displeased cat. This clip is one of their cutest and most hilarious pet-owner collaborations to date! Check out their video after the jump.

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Fantasy Art: Amano Yoshitaka Art Gallery

Should you happen to be in Tokyo this Golden Week, you have until Tuesday (May 7) to check out a free (!!!) art gallery displaying some beautiful works by Amano Yoshitaka. If the name doesn’t ring any bells, some of the projects he’s worked on surely will: Final Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, and the incomparable Sandman: the Dream Hunters.

And if you happen to have a few extra yen laying about, you can also pick up some original pieces! The least expensive one we found was only about 40,000 yen (US$402), and the most expensive we spied was about 3.8 million yen (US$38,381). Even if you can’t pick up the original art, you can still get postcards, posters, notebooks, and calendars with Amano’s brilliant art. And! You’ll get a poster just for coming by!

Photo and event information below! (Some of the photos are not safe for work!!!) Read More

Looking for Love? Break the Ice Over Red Meat at this Barbecue Joint Famous for Turning Patrons into Couples

Typically a heaping plate of raw meat isn’t exactly the type of food you’d picture putting people in an amorous mood, but this tiny watering hole-slash-barbecue joint in Kanda (one station over from Tokyo) is famous for bringing patrons together through the magic of a hot grill, cold drinks, and very, very close quarters.

The interior of the restaurant, Rokkakai, is only 6.6 square meters, meaning complete strangers are pretty much forced to crowd around and share a single, rectangular table. We can see where this might result in the odd coupling, but that’s apparently not the only secret behind the location’s uncanny ability to bring people together.

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Say ‘sushi’ and you automatically think ‘Japan’. But a recent taste test by the experts suggests that the perfect sushi may not be 100 percent Japanese. Read More

According to rumors on a 2ch thread and “confirmed” by a current “McDonald’s employee,” the Mega Potato is coming back to Japan and it’s just as awesome as the name implies. Consisting of the equivalent of two large orders of fries, the Mega Potato is said to arrive in a specially made doublewide vessel on May 17.

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Local Group’s Plan for “I Conquered Nation of Japan” Certificates Dashed by Protest

A group of local residents around the Nation of Japan had established a plan to issue “I Conquered Nation of Japan” certificates to people for 500 yen (US$5) a copy.  The plan was a small way to help promote tourism to the area. However, when the news broke, people from all over the country wrote in, protesting the scheme and calling it “inappropriate.”

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Cute Kyoto! We Taste Hidden Delights From a Traditional Sweet House in Pontocho

Pontocho is one of Kyoto’s most beautiful geisha districts. With traditional tea houses, restaurants and bars all crowded together along atmospheric, stone-paved narrow lanes, this area breathes the air of an old, timeless Kyoto. Within its maze of weaving, intersecting alleyways, there are plenty of secrets to discover and hidden areas to explore. Walking through Pontocho, you might notice one of its many mysteries: the area is dotted with Japanese paper lanterns, all bearing the mark of the chidori, the plover bird. They’re incredibly beautiful, but why would a cute chidori design come to be on such traditional products?

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Across the globe there seems to be this stereotype that Japanese men are feminine and weak-willed. You can see it in the slang term for this new generation of young Japanese men, “herbivores,” implying that they have absolutely no craving for womanly flesh. A Chinese journalist even went so far as to say that the sex drive of a Japanese male is as underdeveloped as a third world country. Harsh words from a writer in a country full of virgins.

But is there any truth to this claim? And more importantly, does this mean that Japanese men are bad in bed?! Japanese media decided to get a better perspective on the matter by asking foreign women to dish about their Japanese boyfriends’ bedroom performance. Their responses spoke only of satisfaction and should serve to stroke a lot of Japanese male egos. Read More

Students in Japan Create a Robot That Can Balance on a Ball

Oh Japan, you never disappoint in the robot department. This one in particular may look a little plain compared to the femme bots in Shinjuku or a $1.25 million giant robot, but it’s still really cool. Created by two students at Tohoku Gakuin University in Japan, this little guy is able to perfectly balance on a ball while carrying a load and moving.

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Virtual Reality: Taste the Sound Effects From Your Favourite Comic Book Moments

Your drink’s icy cold but the manga ice cubes in your glass are h-h-hot! Now taste the palpitating sound effects from your favourite comic books thanks to these new Manga Kōri, Comic Ice silicone molds from Runa Corporation.

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For Butter Lovers: Easy, Greasy Japanese!

Toast in Japan is taken seriously. If you order the “breakfast set” at a restaurant in Japan, you will probably be confronted with one of the thickest slices of toasted bread you’ve ever seen. If you manage to peer over it, you might spot a boiled egg and a small, sad amount of salad cowering there.

At the supermarket, some popular toast spreads which come in a squeezy tube are chocolate, cinnamon, melon and “french toast” flavour, but for many people, toast means butter, and the more butter, the better. For butter-lovers, the new Easy Butter Butter-Former will transform hard butter straight from the fridge into soft and cotton-like butter threads, ready and easy to be used. Sound too greasy to be true? It probably is.

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Subway Japan to Offer 290 Yen Bran-Tastic Breakfast Sets

Jumping into an increasingly crowded morning menu market, starting May 15, some Subway’s in Japan will start selling bran muffin sandwiches and breakfast sets for the morning crowd.

Three different types of sandwiches using healthier, high-fiber bran muffins will be offered: soft-boiled egg, tuna and mayo, and ham and cheese.

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