Our reporter was walking through downtown Tokyo on Christmas Eve (alone, of course) when suddenly from behind a large posse of Santas on motorcycles came riding up from behind, filling the streets with the sound of roaring engines and holiday cheer.
Japan (Page 1462)
When it comes to mixed bathing in public, it is an experience that perhaps most of us are unfamiliar with. In many respects the aspect of unfamiliarity is only just the beginning; acting naturally around not only strangers, but those of the opposite-sex — whilst baring all, no less — is undeniably something that requires great courage! It is with such bravery that our female reporter, Tomoe, entered into a Japanese “konyoku” to experience what all the fuss was about first hand!
“Admittedly, the male bathers’ glances were something that played on my mind a little, however this in itself had its own element of fascination,” admits Tomoe.
“Hamsters are watching you.”
Before, when I said this to people on the streets they would run away and get the police involved.
Well who’s laughing now? Thanks to this video documentation uploaded on YouTube, my paranoid delusions have been proven to be real. In it, the brave camera person captured a hamster stakeout in progress.
My delirium was further validated by Yahoo! who chose this shocking footage as the “10th best animal video of 2012.”
So this is Christmas. The time where we all sip eggnog by the open fire enjoying the gentle blanket of wet snow covering a meadow as a deer scampers by, right?
Of course not, it’s raining here now and my glasses are broken. Still, I’d consider this an average holiday season for myself. For many out there, Santa has little more than a big bag of suck to stuff in your stocking.
Don’t sweat it though. Every year can’t be a winner. For those having a blue Christmas, the website MyNavi has compiled a list of Japanese men’s worst Chirstmas experiences.
The Japanese love their insurance. According to the weekly tabloid Shukan Post, the average household in Japan pays 454,300 yen (approx. US$5,393) a year in life insurance premiums in an effort to feel safe and protect loved ones. Comprising just 2% of the global population, Japan pays 18% of the world’s total insurance premiums, this which works out to average insurance spending of US$3,500 per capita, the highest level in the world.
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If you were to ask me to go out at midnight in the middle of December and look for meteors, I would say “No way, I’m watching a Very Brady Christmas. Get out of here.”
However, in the evening around December 14, while many of us were warmly tucked away in our cat capes, an annual celestial event took place above.
One brave photographer spent a chilly night in a Nagano park to capture these meteors for us all to see.
Yuru-kyara, those lovable mascots of urban and rural districts all over Japan, have finished their annual yuru-kyara Gran Prix with Bari-San the chicken clinching a long awaited first place.
But that doesn’t mean these men and women in giant animal costumes have time to rest. No sir. Just as the last Gran Prix closed yuru-kyara it’s now time for the hundreds of mascots to begin campaigning for next year’s vote.
This brings us to Takibou, the Tanuki Monster of Shaolin Temple (not the kung-fu one) in Hachioji, Tokyo. Takibou had finished 58th place (top 6%) in 2012 and is hoping to improve on that performance. So, for the first time – probably in the world – a mascot is releasing their scent for the public to buy.
Robotic Firm Boston Dynamic working with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) made a splash with a demonstration video of a highly functioning quadrupedal robot called LS3 (Legged Squad Support System).
When many internet fiends in Japan laid eyes on it they couldn’t help but think of Homo, a parody of girls into homoerotic art (fujoshi). It was developed on Twitter from ASCII art (┌（┌＾o＾）┐ﾎﾓｫ). Since then it has become something of a subculture phenomenon spawning various merchandise.
A few months later, has the US military improved LS3 enough to quell the giggling of otaku everywhere? Let’s see.
From January 4 to January 31, McDonald’s Japan will run a marketing campaign they’re calling “Enjoy! 60 Second Service”, where customers who are made to wait any more than a minute for their order during the hours of 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM will receive a coupon for a free McDonald’s burger of their choice.
Even if staff are able to prepare the order within a minute, all customers who visit during the 4-hour time frame will receive a coupon for a free small-size ‘Premium Roast Coffee’.
To prove that the campaign isn’t all talk and no substance, staff at each of the 3,300 participating McDonald’s restaurants will be required to flip over an hourglass measuring one minute each time an order is placed.
Recently the image of a Dragon Quest style floor mat was released on Twitter caused many long-time role playing fans to rise up as one and say “Take my money!”
Unfortunately for me and for thou, this mat, dubbed “Quest Mat”, cannot be bought by conventional means such as gold. In true Dragon Quest fashion it can only be found by searching the urban dungeons known as “video game shops” and then wrested from the clutches of the evil “staff” who are keeping them locked away from us.
With Christmas closing in, many people struggle to check off those last few names on their shopping list. It’s always those people who seem to have everything.
Luckily, Japanese decorative goods maker kraso has released a great new item we guarantee that difficult-to-buy-for person doesn’t have!
Consider this scenario, familiar to all of us: You’re reading a book of sheet music without any instrument around. You’re sitting on the floor beside a glass of milk while your book of Chopin’s Prelude is propped up on a box atop a chair.
What’s missing from this everyday scene?
That’s right. A cape in the shape of a furry cat hanging off your back.
One of the the things people find most charming about food in Japan is how creative the presentation can be. From adorable panda rice balls to over the top bento lunchboxes, the Japanese have perfected the art of making food something that you can enjoy with both your eyes and your mouth.
If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at food presentation à la Japan, six Japanese YouTube channels are holding a giveaway for a set of cute sandwich cutters, as well as introducing six creative ways to use them.
Want to get your hands on a Hokkaido Meowth eating a melon? Or how about a Fukuoka Oshawott in a bowl of ramen? Our favorite is Osaka Pikachu holding okonomiyaki, Osaka’s signature dish.
Hurry up! Pokemon Centers across Japan are now offering adorable regional Pokemon goods for a limited time only!
Those of you who abhor the very idea of eating food that’s been anywhere near a creepy-crawly may wish to look away now.
Here at RocketNews24 we like to pride ourselves on our willingness to take up unusual food challenges. If we’re not baking Big Mac bread or gorging on bacon, we’re fighting our way through a kilo of curry and rice for your enjoyment. So as soon as word reached Rocket Towers that a nearby restaurant was serving up genuine insect cuisine, our reporter Mr Sato immediately sprang into action and boarded a train to Takadanobaba.
Who’d have thought that deep-fried imomushi (hairless caterpillars or hornworms) could be so delicious that they could bring smiles to our reporter’s face?
Saying customers were complaining about its cups being too full, Starbucks Japan started reducing the amount of java in each pour of drip coffee this month. According to the company, feedback pointed out their full-to-the-brim cups left no room for adding milk and were too easy to spill. Some customers, however, are voicing displeasure about the unannounced reduction to their caffeine fix.
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On 13 May, 2012, 66 year-old Osaka resident Masafumi Tsuruhara was visiting Mount Koya in Wakayama Prefecture. While there, he thought he might help himself to a ten-yen coin (US$0.12), which was left at a statue as a religious offering.
For this, Tsuruhara was apprehended for stealing and brought before the Wakayama court, which sentenced him to one year and eight months in prison.
He later appealed to the Osaka High Court, which agreed that the sentence was too heavy for ten yen. The judge reversed the original sentence and imposed a new one of one year in prison.
You could be fooled into thinking that this is some enormous new add-on for the current Playstation 3 console, but what you’re actually looking at here is a multi-layered wooden bentō lunchbox sculpted and assembled by a master craftsman for Sony Japan.
Presented to staff at Square Enix and Konami in celebration of 25 years of Final Fantasy and Metal Gear games, these stunning lunchboxes are designed to look identical to Sony’s home console, featuring everything from the ridged top to the tiny silver Playstation logo on the front, all the while leaving plenty of room inside for a delicious lunch.
These things are so beautiful that it almost makes us want to trade in our plastic Playstation 3 for a wooden one…
Tired of mowing down pedestrians and scratching up your car while cruising around town? You, my friend, need a supersoft cushion car!
Developed by Hiroshima University, this electric car is completely surrounded by ultra-strong air-filled cushions that protect both those inside and outside the car, meaning that as well as being environmentally friendly it transforms life-destroying collisions into mere belly bounces from the Stay Puft Marshmallow man.
With only a few more days until the end of the world as we know it, surely everyone has their survival gear all packed and ready to go. But for those lazy-bones last minute disaster preparers Panasonic feels they have developed the “ultimate disaster survival flashlight”, called Any Battery Light.
As the name suggests, this flashlight can run on any common battery you find lying around, regardless of its size, from AAA to D.
Peek through the pages of either of these two wonderful “360° Books” from any angle and you get treated to an intricate view of a fantasy world like you’ve never seen. All you have to do is keep opening the pages until you’ve created a circle and the scene inside has taken shape. Read More
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