Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
Japan (Page 1656)
AKB48, the darlings of the Japanese pop scene, may have danced one step over the line sweet Jesus with their newest commercial for Puccho candy. The commercial first aired on 25 August and seems to have drawn a collective “yuggghhh” from the nation.
In it the girls dance away brandishing the product as only they can do. Except this time, all but one of their bodies have been digitally replaced by 5 and 6 year olds.
After the recent switch from analog to digital terrestrial broadcasting in Japan, more and more people are making the switch to flat screen units. And as the streets find themselves more and more littered with discarded boxy cathode ray tube model TV’s, Japan may have accidentally thrown something else in the trash – a piece of their culture and heritage.
French fries, or “furaido potato”, as they are called here in Japan, are the standard side order to all kinds of fast food. Which fast food shop has the best tasting fries in Japan? My Navi News decided to find out by canvassing 1000 working men and women from the ages of 22 to 32 on Japanese social networking service Mixi.
The results show the top fast food shops ranked by their french fries along with a few select comments from those polled. Their occupations and genders are also shown and although there may not be any direct correlation in occupation to french fry tastes, their education does suggest a discerning taste in french fry eating. The gender of the people taking the survey appears to have absolutely no significance except that ‘gender role-happy’ Japan cares about such information.
The survey was conducted by simply asking, “Which fast food restaurant makes the best french fries?”
And the winners are… Read More
Interested in investing in Japanese historical real estate but don’t have quite enough to afford a medieval castle town?
Right now there’s a 150-year-old traditional Japanese thatched-roof farmhouse for sale on Yahoo! Auction for the unbeatable price of 1 yen (about 1 penny)!
Though by judging from the pictures, it may be a bit of fixer-upper…
Following in the tradition of Japan getting all the cool Resident Evil stuff, Universal Studios Japan has announced they will be converting a portion of the theme park into a zombie-infested Raccoon City this Fall.
The sea is too clean for the fish!
Efforts to clean up the sea have caused an adverse reaction giving the fishing Industries in Hyogo, Okayama, and Oita Prefectures along the Setonai Seaboard a major headache. The irony being that the sea is too clean for the fish to thrive.
An analysis of the sea water by researchers found the natural levels of Nitrogen and phosphorous in the salt content of the sea water needed for the nutritional growth of healthy plankton have diminished to the point that it has effected the natural eco system of the sea. Without enough plankton, the major nutrition for many small sea animals, the whole food chain is disrupted to the point of great loss to the fishing Industry.
A few weeks ago the Pokemon Company revealed the 3DS LL Pikachu Yellow, a limited edition version of the handheld console purchasable by preorder at Pokemon Center stores from August 25 to September 14.
To the surprise of no one, Japanese customers lined up outside and waited for over 4 hours to purchase the device, clearing out stocks at Pokemon Centers in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka on the first day.
People often ask me why I moved to Japan and I say “to be with people like me – with blonde hair and blue eyes.” Japan is a homogenous country to be sure, but a recent advertisement from clothing chain COMME ÇA ISM boldly challenges this mistaken stereotype that Japan is full of Japanese people.
It’s actually full of white people!
About 95-97% of the population of Pakistan is Muslim, which means there’s not a lot of pork eaten in the country. Pakistanis do, however, eat a lot of sheep. And when they eat sheep, they eat all of the sheep — meat, heart, genitals, brains, you name it and Pakistanis have a recipe for it.
If you know where to look, you can even find Pakistani restaurants here in Japan that serve dishes using some of the more exotic parts of the animal.
One such restaurant is Maruhaba in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, which serves sheep brain curry.
We recently sent reporter Mr. Sato to Maruhaba to try the dish out; after all, he looks like he could benefit from a little more brain.
His report follows below:
While manga is ubiquitous in Japan — just ride the subway in any major city and you’ll see people from all walks of life flipping through a comic book — many Japanese people are surprised to hear how popular manga has become overseas. After all, aren’t Westerners only interested in macho superheroes or short comic strips?
Perhaps that was the case in America before, but in recent years many major bookstores have begun to reserve more space near the front of the store for Japanese comics and in some European countries like France and Germany manga occupies a large portion of overall comic sales.
But why?
Earlier this month, we sent one of our Japanese reporters to Comic Market (or “Comiket“), the world’s largest self-published comic book fair and otaku mecca, to interview real live foreigners and ask them why they like Japanese manga so much.
If you weren’t in the know (and by the know we mean Japan), Japanese convenience store chain Family Mart and Hatsune Miku are running a promotional campaign from August 14 to September 10 to celebrate the Vocaloid’s 5th birthday.
To spread word of the campaign, Family Mart created a 15-second television commercial featuring Miku singing the store’s signature jingle and posted it to YouTube on August 17, though a ripped version had been posted to Japanese video sharing site Nico Nico Douga a few days earlier.
One group of enterprising viewers saw the video and immediately got the idea for a parody, which he posted to Nico Nico and YouTube on August 19. The parody, titled “Miku LOVES Seven Campaign [Fiction]”. features a super deformed Hatsune Miku singing the Japanese 7-Eleven jingle and is absolutely terrifying.
It seems there’s never a shortage of character-themed steamed buns (niku-man in Japanese) coming onto the market in Japan. In the past, we’ve seen buns modeled after Hatsune Miku, Spiderman, slime from Dragon Quest and Puyo Puyo to name a few. So who’s the newest character to be steamed into a tasty little bun? It’s none other than our beloved “cat of all trades”, Ms. Kitty! Read More
Tokyo Electric Power Company has lost a considerable amount of goodwill following last year’s nuclear disaster. While the level of blame that should be placed on the company as a whole is still to be determined, low level employees of the company often face the immediate brunt of the hostility.
It appears now that even the children of TEPCO employees are having to answer for the choices their parents’ employers made by their classmates. But how are elementary school students so up to speed on the nation’s energy situation?
The world’s most venturesome ramen shop, Musashi Noodles, fearlessly created a cold ramen dish with soy milk soup and rayu, or chili oil, ice cream. Musashi Noodles is a Japanese noodle shop franchise. Their Shinjuku branch held a Valentines special promotion back in February featuring Unique Chocolate Ramen.
Summer in Japan is when ramen shops do a booming business in cold noodle dishes like hiyashi chuka. This new creation dubbed ‘tonyu hiyashi men’ or soy milk cold noodles, is available for a limited time only. Notice the scoop of red rayu ice cream floating in the white soy milk soup. A timely creation, full of national pride for all those medals won in the Olympics! But what about the taste? One of our reporters went to check it out. Read More
According to a report published by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Japanese high school students have markedly lower self-esteem and self-confidence than students in America and other Asian countries.
We all love cafes, don’t we? They provide welcome respite from the hassles of daily life while you relax over a nice cup of coffee or tea, whichever you’re in the mood for. Well, one of our reporters at Pouch website learned of an interesting cafe located near Ikebukuro Staion in Tokyo and decided to investigate.
According to the shop website, the Sakura Cafe Ikebukuro is an open terrace cafe located on the first floor of the Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro, where guests from approximately 110 countries around the world stay each year. Open 24 hours every day of the year, the cafe offers a breakfast, lunch, afternoon (tea time), dinner and late night menu, and in particular, they have a breakfast buffet (called the “morning set”) that costs only 320 yen (about $4). That certainly caught our attention! They also offer a weekly selection of 4 lunch plates, each offering a dish from a different country. Sound interesting? Let’s hear what the reporter, Yayoi Washinomiya, had to say after making a visit to the cafe. Here’s her account: Read More
Shuho Sato, the writer of Burakku Jyakku ni Yoroshiku, which commonly translates to “Say Hello to Black Jack,” is planning to make the award winning, 10 million copy selling manga available for free “second use.”
This means that after 15 September anyone in the world will be free to novelize, televise, create merchandise, or in any way adapt the original work for either commercial or non-commercial purposes without having to pay royalties. This is the latest move in the writer’s quest to find alternatives to the “outdated” model of intellectual property rights.
Love Hatsune Miku and wish you could create your own Vocaloid music and music videos?
Digital Hollywood, a Tokyo-based school offering degree and certification programs in IT and digital media, announced they will be holding a 6-month course on CG animation and music video production using Vocaloid software and characters.
What kind of person are you attracted to? Good looking and intelligent may be at the top of many people’s list of attractive attributes, but not all of us are blessed with an abundance of physical beauty and/or high intelligence.
Self sufficiency and outspokenness would normally be good characteristics to have but are also widely overlooked by the male species when searching for a female to spend time with. ‘Ah she doesn’t need me’, would be a likely initial reaction. This could be one of the great universal truths: cultural boundaries disappear in the need for us to be needed.
Alright, so something has to be done and since it takes time for someone to find your ‘inner beauty’, you may want to try these sure-fire tactics, courtesy of our female Japanese editorial staff, for getting someone you’re interested in to be interested in you. Ladies, arm yourselves!
Injuries on stairs in Tokyo highlight an overlooked design flaw
Japan’s popular bead bonsai kit is as beautiful as it is gruelling to make
Final version of Sanrio: Beginning of Kawaii exhibition opens in Tokyo[Photos]
Japanese bento shop sells croquettes for 13 cents, but are they any good?
What’s inside Japan’s super-rare, super-popular Nara bread?
Japan has new rules for bicycle riders, and these 14 things could get you a fine or a court date
Japan’s best conveyor belt sushi restaurant of seven years ago has now, finally, come to Tokyo
You’d never guess this strange bubble house village is located in Japan
Wisteria season starts early with blooming of Japan’s Great Wisteria in its beautiful garden
Advice from Japanese women on dealing with your boyfriend’s anime girlfriendWisteria season starts early with blooming of Japan’s Great Wisteria in its beautiful gardenJapan’s best conveyor belt sushi restaurant of seven years ago has now, finally, come to Tokyo
Mt. Fuji decorated with a 500,000-flower pink carpet is Japan’s ultimate spring view
Lawson convenience store at popular tourist site is one of the most unusual in Japan
Japanese trains in Sapporo might be better than those in Tokyo, thanks to one special feature
30 Pikachus want to share a Tokyo hotel room with you that has separate Grass, Water, Fire spaces
Japanese government wants overseas anime market to roughly triple in 10 years, but are they crazy?
Japan reportedly adding Japanese language skill requirement to most common foreigner work visaJapanese bento shop sells croquettes for 13 cents, but are they any good?
Starbucks Japan releases FIVE new Frappuccinos in a day, and we try them all in 90 minutesJapan reportedly adding Japanese language skill requirement to most common foreigner work visa
Pokémon and Ikea Japan cross over into each other’s worlds with collaboration events
Japan now has a special desk for people who work at home with a pet cat[Photos]Wisteria season starts early with blooming of Japan’s Great Wisteria in its beautiful gardenJapan’s best conveyor belt sushi restaurant of seven years ago has now, finally, come to Tokyo
Famous Tokyo cherry blossom spot installs view-blocking screens to fight overcrowding[Video]
Uniqlo announces new T-shirts for One Piece, Naruto and more for manga publisher’s 100th birthday
Starbucks Japan releases new My Fruit³ Frappuccino at only 34 stores around the country
Krispy Kreme releases Super Mario doughnuts in Japan for a limited time
Japanese onsen egg maker from 100-yen store Daiso needs to be on your shopping list
Survey asks foreign tourists what bothered them in Japan, more than half gave same answer
Japan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in Tokyo
Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
We deeply regret going into this tunnel on our walk in the mountains of Japan
Starbucks Japan releases new sakura goods and drinkware for cherry blossom season 2026
Studio Ghibli releases Kodama forest spirits from Princess Mononoke to light up your home
Japan’s newest Shinkansen has no seats…or passengers [Video]
Major Japanese hotel chain says reservations via overseas booking sites may not be valid
Put sesame oil in your coffee? Japanese maker says it’s the best way to start your day【Taste test】
No more using real katana for tourism activities, Japan’s National Police Agency says
Japan has new rules for bicycle riders, and these 14 things could get you a fine or a court date
Japan’s best conveyor belt sushi restaurant of seven years ago has now, finally, come to Tokyo
You’d never guess this strange bubble house village is located in Japan
Wisteria season starts early with blooming of Japan’s Great Wisteria in its beautiful garden
Advice from Japanese women on dealing with your boyfriend’s anime girlfriend
Video shows “mutant” crawling on the side of a building in RussiaMan calls girlfriend a pig for not looking like his anime crush, still not done being a jerk
Japanese Godzilla looks set to attack New York in teaser for Godzilla Minus Zero[Video]
Godzilla-shaped ice cream on sale in Tokyo near the sight his most adorable rampage
Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki says the anime industry’s problem is that it’s full of anime fans
Better know a train nerd: 36 different classifications for Japan’s “densha otaku”
Japanese chain Bikkuri Donkey’s enormous salad almost beats Mr. Sato, but not because of its size
Magikarp now appearing in Japan as a traditional taiyaki sweet 【Taste Test】
Starbucks Japan’s New Year’s lucky bag: One of the rarest fukubukuro of 2024