Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
SE Asia (Page 15)
Our recent meal in Bangkok of a five-and-a-half-pound hamburger may make Thailand seem like a wonderland of unparalleled decadence, but it’s only one facet of life in The Land of Smiles. Not everyone in the Thai capital spends their days chowing down on massive piles of beef, as we visited a neighborhood with a train line running right through the middle of it.
Our Japanese-language correspondent Kuzo is currently making his way through Thailand, and while we’re happy he had such a good time at the country’s famous water festival, frankly we’re a little worried about the guy. We think all the excitement may have frazzled his brain, since he recently sent us a batch of pictures of himself eating what appears to be a hamburger-shaped novelty pillow.
Wait, that’s a real burger?!
From the ball drop in America, to the first shrine visit in Japan, each culture rings in the New Year in their own special way. Thailand’s Songkran, or commonly known as the water throwing festival, may be the most carefree and fun tradition though. RocketNews24 has brought you the story from last year’s festival, but we couldn’t resist sending a crew back this year. Click on through to see if they were able to avoid getting wet this year, and the plight of their electronic equipment!
Here are a few things you should NOT include when making videos to promote your country as a tourist destination: a cheesy script, terrible voice-overs, and music that seems strangely detached from everything else. Oh yeah, and a completely random pregnancy announcement. In a BOX.
Unfortunately, a recent cringe-worthy video by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has managed to nail all of the above requirements. The video received such a critical bashing that the STB was actually prompted to remove it from their YouTube channel and admit that it was awful. Don’t believe that an official promotional video could really have been so bad? Just wait until you’ve seen it for yourself.
Cup Noodles are an iconic part of the Japanese food landscape and of course they’re no stranger to the Japanese custom of adding unusual new flavors to stuff. This time around their maker Nissin has been inspired by some of their international partners and developed two flavors in the “Ethnic Series” of Cup Noodles based on Thai and Indonesian dishes.
The first one is modeled after the spicy Thai soup tom yum goong, and the other is said to resemble Indonesia’s savory noodles mie goreng. Having just been released on 14 April we went straight to the supermarket and picked them up to bring you the Asianiest taste that only a Chinese food made by a Japanese company based on South East Asian dishes can provide.
Approaching Wat Rong Khun, Chiang Rai’s so-called White Temple, is a surreal experience. It looks like a massive sculpture of ice and snow shimmering through Thailand’s tropical heat. But that effect barely scratches the surface of the weird at this Buddhist wat, where Doraemon hangs out with the Buddha, bushes are decorated with the decapitated heads of Freddie Kruger and Pinhead, and the penalty for smoking is eternal damnation.
You know it’s a cynical sales technique, so you try to be sensible and hold yourself apart, but sometimes commercials really know how to pull the heartstrings. We dare you to watch this spot for a Thai life insurance company and not get a little misty eyed.
As an avid anime fan, I sometimes wish my favorite characters were real humans, but the logical fangirl in me warns that if anime characters existed in real life, they probably wouldn’t be as awesome as they were in the original works. Just take Kuroko’s Basketball as an example, it would be impossible for Kuroko’s unbelievable skill, “Misdirection Overflow”, to happen in real life.
In such situations, I’m glad there are talented artists who create realistic looking fan art of anime characters, such as these amazing portraits!
Danny Choo, founder of Culture Japan and inexhaustible ambassador for all things moe, announced the collaboration between his mascot Mirai Suenaga and the Thai airline Asian Air on his website this week. Read on to find out just how far their plans for anime-themed air domination go.
It seems Google Maps and Google Street View is truly unending in their quest to walk around and take panoramic photos of some of the Earth’s most beautiful locations. So far we’ve witnessed the eerie wonder of Gunkanjima and the spectacular sights of Mt. Fuji’s summit all courtesy of Google. And now we are treated to a place found on many people’s bucket list: Angkor, Cambodia.
If you are visiting Laos, this is probably not your first rodeo in Asia, so I’ll skip the squat toilets and fleets of bicycles and get to seven things that this little SE Asian gem has to surprise even seasoned travelers.
Underwater operations company Phoenix International has a contract with the U.S. Navy to use a robot called Bluefin-21 to search the Indian Ocean for signs of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370.
The 21-foot-long robot is capable of staying submerged for 25 hours at a time, deploying its sensors to search and map 40 square miles of sea floor per day.
We spoke to David P. Kelly, President and CEO of Bluefin Robotics, the Massachusetts-based company which manufactures Bluefin-21, to learn more about it.
“It’s a 4,500-meter-rated vehicle, so it can descend to 2.5 miles underwater,” he told us. “Once it goes down, it ‘flies’ above the seabed and uses sonar acoustics to image the ocean floor. It also moves in a ‘mowing the lawn’ pattern, running in parallel lines that overlap and cover the entire bottom to form an image of the sea floor.”
Recent studies have warned that, for all their convenience and the social interaction they allow, our mobile devices and anywhere, any time wireless internet access could potentially be hazardous to our health. But what if you just can’t bear to power down your iPhone, tablet, laptop or games console?
If you’re in need of a getaway, and want to assure yourself that the negative effects of your array of gadgetry will be entirely offset by your relaxing surroundings, there’s probably no better place than this luxurious beach villa on the Thai island resort of Ko Samui, which is fitted with pretty much every modern convenience from iPad-controlled shutters to remote-operated pool thermostats and top-of-the-range cooking equipment – available to rent for a cool US$650 a night.
Join us after the break for a photo tour.
One of the top tourism draws around much of Asia is all the adventurous eating. East Asian countries in particular all seem to have a plethora of extreme foods that you’d never be able to get back home. These dishes run the gamut from super spicy to super sweet, may have gooey but oddly pleasant textures, or may come from some animal you’ve never heard of.
Most of the time, while exotic and possibly a little off-putting in appearance, these quirky dishes taste great. But then there are other so-called “delicacies” that a lot of locals won’t even go near, let alone doe-eyed tourists. So put down that burrito; you won’t be needing (or wanting) it, because here’s a list of stomach-churning delicacies from around East Asia:
This is one of the most surreal cable news segments you’ll see.
There have been many different conspiracy theories thrown out about the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, but on Wednesday night CNN speculated whether a “black hole” could be involved.
Chinese authorities have released satellite images which show what they believe could be debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished without trace last Saturday.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been missing for four days with more than 200 people on board, and the country’s military now thinks the Boeing 777 turned around over the Gulf of Thailand and flew at least 350 miles away from its destination, Beijing.
People all over Asia wait with bated breath today for news about the Malaysia Airlines jet which disappeared without trace on Saturday last week. Earlier today, debris described as possibly from a plane was spotted in the sea off the coast of Vietnam, but it has yet to be confirmed as belonging to the missing aircraft.
The plane, which was carrying some 239 passengers, was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it suddenly disappeared. No distress calls were made and weather conditions were thought to have been good, leading the global media and internet masses to propose numerous theories regarding what might have happened, including an (as-yet entirely unsubstantiated) report that authorities in China ordered its military to shoot down any “suspicious passenger planes” coming close to Beijing on the same day the Malaysia Airlines flight vanished.
Meet Jannine Parawie Weigel. Like any 13-year-old girl, she enjoys lemonade, pizza, the color pink, and Hunger Games (the movie not, you know, actual hunger games). She also speaks five languages, plans to get a bachelor’s degree by the time she’s 16 and was already signed to GMM Grammy, Thailand’s largest media company.
And if you don’t feel like you’re underachieving enough yet, she also has the face and voice of an angel, and by all accounts seems like a genuinely well-mannered young woman. Now before you pick up that revolver, enjoy the song-stylings of this up-and-coming Thai-German wunderkind.
You may have been under the impression that McDonald’s has already taken over the world. But even though it has already succeeded in introducing the Big Mac to over 120 countries or territories around the globe, it still has a few places left to conquer. Up until now, Vietnam was, perhaps surprisingly, one of those places. But not anymore with the grand opening of Vietnam’s first McDonald’s shop, which also happens to be Vietnam’s first drive-through restaurant and first 24-hour chain store. Opening day proved to be a smashing success with hordes of people flocking to sink their teeth into a juicy burger. Interestingly, due to the prevalence of scooters in Vietnam, the drive-through line was almost completely composed of people driving not cars, but scooters! Join us for a look at some opening day scenes with pictures taken by people who were there.
Let’s go open a Lego Japan lucky bag…o
Square Enix releases a Final Fantasy fukubukuro lucky bag for New Year’s in Japan
Is the Krispy Kreme fukubukuro lucky bag in Japan good value for money?
Animate Akihabara releases a lucky bag for the first time in years, and it’s amazing
Second-hand video game fukubukuro lucky bags reveal nostalgic surprises
Family Mart releases a fukubukuro lucky bag packed with cool Convenience Wear
McDonald’s Japan has a fukubukuro lucky bag that everyone wants to get their hands on
What’s in Starbucks Japan’s fukubukuro lucky bag for 2025?
Creating an open-air hot spring bath (without a hot spring) at our cheap Japanese country house【Vids】
Hayao Miyazaki says Happy New Year to Studio Ghibli fans with new art for Year of the Snake
The top 10 annoying foreign tourist behaviors on trains, as chosen by Japanese people【Survey】Hayao Miyazaki says Happy New Year to Studio Ghibli fans with new art for Year of the SnakeWhat’s in Starbucks Japan’s fukubukuro lucky bag for 2025?McDonald’s Japan has a fukubukuro lucky bag that everyone wants to get their hands on
Pokémon fans aren’t happy with the Mister Donut fukubukuro lucky bag for 2025
Kura Sushi has secret menu items in Japan, and here’s how to find them
After being snatched up by scalpers, Sailor Moon chocolate returns in officially marked-up complete box
Bear breaks into house in Japan, quickly begins spending winter exactly like Japanese people do
Why are there so many Hokkaido food fairs in Japanese department stores these days?
The perfect budget-friendly hot spring hotel near Narita Airport
J-pop mega star Ado reveals she’s been living in the U.S., may not understand language acquisitionBear breaks into house in Japan, quickly begins spending winter exactly like Japanese people doThe top 10 annoying foreign tourist behaviors on trains, as chosen by Japanese people【Survey】
Starbucks Japan is calling it quits with paper straws
Japan’s most popular castle raising ticket prices by up to 200 percent for non-local touristsHayao Miyazaki says Happy New Year to Studio Ghibli fans with new art for Year of the Snake
Japanese company develops classy heavy metal band frames for glasses
This downtown Tokyo cafe is like a time machine that takes you back 50 years into the past
Station of despair: What to do if you get stuck at the end of Tokyo’s Chuo Rapid Line
Starbucks Japan reveals new winter holiday goods to wrap up 2024
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Foreign tourists on Shinkansen bullet train break suitcase etiquette, angering local passengers
Possessing Harry Potter’s Sword of Godric Gryffindor is now illegal in Japan
[Deleted] Article written for April Fool’s Day 2018
Japanese government to make first change to romanization spelling rules since the 1950s
Foreigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
Japanese convenience store Family Mart announces abolishment of eat-in spaces
Life-size vibrating Legend of Zelda Master Sword for sale from Nintendo【Photos】
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
Studio Ghibli releases free-download board game — Here’s how to play it without reading Japanese
Family Mart releases a fukubukuro lucky bag packed with cool Convenience Wear
McDonald’s Japan has a fukubukuro lucky bag that everyone wants to get their hands on
What’s in Starbucks Japan’s fukubukuro lucky bag for 2025?
Creating an open-air hot spring bath (without a hot spring) at our cheap Japanese country house【Vids】
Hayao Miyazaki says Happy New Year to Studio Ghibli fans with new art for Year of the Snake
What’s so special about Japan’s Muji “Fukukan”?
Haunted hospital near Mt Fuji re-opens after renovation at Fuji-Q Highland, and it’s terrifying
We beat two crane games at a Japanese arcade and take home two lucky bags
Yoshinoya has a semi-secret chicken bowl you won’t find anywhere on its website【Taste test】
What’s the best way to spend 1,000 yen at Muji Japan?
Chainsaw Man coming to Universal Studios Japan with Pochita chow, plushies, and thrill ride music
Foreign resident of Japan sentenced to eight months in prison for vandalizing Tokyo shrine
Adorable cat sandals from Japan welcome new arrivals to their feline footwear litter【Photos】
What’s inside the Disney Store’s 10,000-yen Lucky Box? This year, actually useful items!