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After Obama’s otaku outing, images surface of Love Liver Joe Biden getting cozy with anime idols

Casey Baseel
Mar 3, 2015
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Late last month, we got indisputable visual evidence (which is by no means to be confused with humorous photoshopped evidence) of something we’ve been suspecting for the last several years: U.S. President Barack Obama is a huge fan of cute girl anime.

Politics being what they are, the vice president tends to follow the president’s lead on major issues such as foreign affairs, economic policy, and what gets watched on the federal property DVD players after all those press conferences are over. So it’s only natural that images, every bit as convincing as those of President Obama, have now surfaced showing Vice President Joe Biden to be passionately infatuated with the teenaged idols of anime Love Live!

Now you can experience getting stopped by the Japanese police on Google Streetview

ロケットニュース24
Mar 3, 2015

Google Maps has been a great boon to me in my time in Japan. In fact, GPS maps were the biggest reason I got my first smartphone in 2009, followed closely by the ability to write unfamiliar kanji by hand into a dictionary I’d always have with me. But Google Maps was definitely the biggest draw.

In the interceding six years, Google Maps has grown from something useful to something indispensable to many people. It’s not just good for helping you find a tiny store in Shibuya, either, since the maps can open up a whole world of digital sightseeing for people. And where there are bored people on computers, there are also bound to be Easter Eggs and creepy pranks to be discovered.

Is Metal Gear Solid V finally getting a release date? Mysterious countdown appears on website

Casey Baseel
Mar 3, 2015

Instant gratification and quick answers aren’t exactly the hallmarks of the Metal Gear video game franchise. Not only does its stealth-based gameplay reward patience over diving head-first into combat, but the events set in motion in 1998’s Metal Gear Solid, most modern gamers entry point into the series, didn’t get any sort of conclusion until the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, a full 10 years later.

There’s been a similarly slowly paced trickle of information about the series’ newest chapter, the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which has been featured in trade show videos for years, and even had its own commercially released, extended-length preview game, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Now, the next tidbit seems to be coming soon, as a mysterious countdown clock has appeared on the official Metal Gear V website.

Japanese watch maker shirks labor law, says “time’s up” on factory in Guangzhou, China

KK Miller
Mar 3, 2015

February 5 was supposed to be like any other day for employees at the Japanese watch company Citizen in Guangzhou, China. But ordinary quickly turned into extraordinarily terrible when over 1,000 employees found out the company was closing the very next day and they would all be out of jobs.

Black Mont Blanc: The most loved ice cream in Japan you can only buy in Kyushu

Preston Phro
Mar 3, 2015

Usually when people talk about “culture shock,” we think of moving to another country–but it doesn’t have to be limited to that. It can be anything from moving from one prefecture to another or even just moving into the city from the country or vice versa.

Of course, you can’t get much more “city” than Tokyo, so, of course, many Japanese people moving here from more rural areas might experience a bit of culture shock. And today we’ll be looking at one such example for one of our Japanese writers who came to the metropolis from Kyushu! Hint: it involves delicious ice cream.

Dutch restaurant’s odd ramen with soybeans has one ingredient we didn’t expect, lacks one we did

Casey Baseel
Mar 3, 2015

As the cuisine of one country becomes popular inn others, sometimes it picks up new ingredients and variations of part of its journey around the globe. For example, spaghetti bolognese is incredibly popular in Japan, but so is pasta with mentaiko (spicy cod roe).

The fact that the latter isn’t something you’d ever find in an authentic Italian restaurant doesn’t make it any less delicious. So when our Japanese-language reporter Yuichiro spotted a restaurant in the Netherlands advertising ramen with one very unusual ingredient, he decided to give it a shot. Little did he know, though, that the surprises were just beginning.

How to double the value of your $10 car: Spend 30 minutes adding racing stripes!

Casey Baseel
Mar 3, 2015

Some of you may remember the fateful day last spring when our Japanese-language reporter Go bought what was probably the cheapest car in Japan by acquiring his current ride for just 980 yen (US $8.30). Nine months later, not only is his 1997 Mitsubishi Minica still firing on all three cylinders under its hood, but it recently passed its mandatory biennial safety inspection, called shaken in Japanese.

In celebration, Go treated the Minica to a wash for the first time since he drove it back to Tokyo from Nagoya. With a fresh coat of wax, it was looking better than ever, but Go still wasn’t 100-percent satisfied with the car’s appearance. See, Go believes the Mini is just an overall cooler car than the Minica, so he set out to transform the latter into the former using the finest vinyl sheets and magic markers he could find.

We follow Twitter recipe to cook “coffee rice”! 【RocketKitchen】

Kay
Mar 3, 2015

As many of our readers are undoubtedly aware, white rice is an essential part of the Japanese diet, a food that we Japanese treat with reverence. It so happens that we also enjoy various flavored rice dishes known as takikomi gohan, in which rice is cooked with different ingredients to give it a distinct taste. Some of the common takikomi gohan flavors that we like to have include kuri gohan made with chestnut and matsutake gohan made with matsutake mushrooms. But a particularly unique kind of flavored rice causing a buzz on the Japanese Internet has come to our attention recently, and as unconventional and unexpected as it sounded, we decided we had to cook and try it for ourselves. The ingredient used in this unusual flavored rice? It’s something you would ordinarily never associate with rice: coffee!

10 things you probably didn’t know about Pearl Harbor

Amy Chavez
Mar 2, 2015

The surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 marked the day the United States entered World War II. Over three thousand Americans lost their lives in the attack and in 1962 the USS Arizona Memorial was constructed over the sunken battle ship USS Arizona to remember those who lost their lives that day.

But you already know that. This article will tell you some other things about Pearl Harbor that you may not know.

Join us after the jump as RocketNews24 visits Pearl Harbor and helps you bone up on your WWII trivia.

Store your Hastune Miku game in a Hatsune Miku pouch!

Hayashi 'Fang' Hougi
Mar 2, 2015

Fans of Hatsune Miku, are you looking forward to the upcoming game Hatsune Miku Project Mirai Deluxe for the Nintendo 3DS? The latest Miku game by Sega will be released on May 28 this year and lots of hype has built up around the game among dedicated Vocaloid fans.

And now, Sega has just announced an adorable Miku-shaped pouch for Nintendo 3DS, so you can have Miku both in and out!

Dress your kids up with this Evangelion children’s fashion line!

Hayashi 'Fang' Hougi
Mar 1, 2015

Evangelion fans in Japan are probably jumping with joy right now over this newly announced series of children’s fashion based on the hit anime. A collaboration project between the Evangelion store, Geewhiz and StompStamp, a series of super-adorable children’s fashion items are now available online for Evangelion-loving parents to dress their kids in subtle yet stylish anime gear!

Cherry blossom beer. Taste test. Need we say more?

Casey Baseel
Mar 1, 2015

After three months of cold weather, I’m ready for spring. Coincidentally, after a long week of work, I’m ready for a beer.

Lucky me, these two desires have dovetailed perfectly in the form of Kanagawa Prefecture microbrewer Sankt Gallen’s newest offering, made with the petals of the harbinger of Japanese spring, cherry blossoms. So strap on your drinking caps, because it’s time for the sakura beer taste test!

Narita Airport shuttle buses – Cheaper than the train, but which bus is best?

Fran W
Feb 28, 2015

Most tourists to Japan will come in and out through Tokyo’s Narita Airport. But like many international airports, Narita is not exactly on the doorstep of a major destination city, and travellers headed for Tokyo will usually make the 60-kilometer (36-mile) journey to the metropolis via the Narita Express, a high-speed rail service with a single-trip fare of 3020 yen (US $25.34).

What’s perhaps less well-known is there are two budget bus services that take you from Narita Airport to Tokyo Station for as little as 900 yen. Tokyo Shuttle and The Access Narita seem to offer similar airport shuttle services, but which is the better option? And can they match the Narita Express in comfort and convenience? We sent one of our Japanese reporters to test out both services and find out!

Apple is hiring engineers to work on virtual reality devices

BUSINESS INSIDER
Feb 28, 2015

Apple is hiring hardware engineers to work on virtual reality products, 9to5Mac reports.

Job listings have appeared on the Apple website listing positions for Optical Display Engineers, Sr. Display Software Engineers, and other similar roles, which all point towards the development of display and projection systems.

Fan film ‘Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope’ – two years in the making, but well worth the wait【Video】

Fran W
Feb 28, 2015

A fan-made sequel to Dragon Ball Z has racked up 3 million views on YouTube, and sent fans into a frenzy of anticipation for the following episodes – if the rest of the series gets funded. The pilot episode of Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope is based on animated special ‘The History of Trunks’, a DBZ sequel that tells the story of (you guessed it!) the young warrior Trunks.

In the words of every fan ever: “It’s better than ‘Dragonball Evolution’!” On the one hand, that’s not saying much, as Dragon Ball Evolution got spectacularly bad reviews. But on the other hand, when a fan-made film is better than one with a Hollywood budget, that’s certainly something to be proud of.

Häagen-Dazs releases new mochi ice cream, and it’s amazing! 【Taste test】

Casey Baseel
Feb 27, 2015

There are a ton of different ways to eat mochi, with roasting it or dropping it into soup or hot pots being some of the more common. Outside of Japan, though, many people’s first encounter with mochi is in the form of ice cream-filled mochi spheres sold at specialty grocers.

But while they make a tasty treat, what would happen if you reversed the process, and instead of putting ice cream in mochi, put mochi into ice cream? That’s the question posed by Häagen-Dazs new kinako kuromitsu mochi ice cream, and we’re here with the answer.

We try one ekiben shop’s three most popular bento boxes- out of a selection of 170 kinds

Audrey Akcasu
Feb 27, 2015

On March 14, the new extension of the Nagano Shinkansen line will open, connecting Toyama and Ishikawa Prefectures to Tokyo. This is exciting news for Chubu region locals and Tokyoites alike, as the trip from the northern central prefectures to Tokyo will take a mere 2.5 hours, so everyone is preparing for some fun day trips!

What’s the best part of Shinkansen day trips (other than effortlessly speeding through beautiful Japanese countryside)? Ekiben! Ekiben are lunch boxes sold in train stations, specifically to be taken on long train rides. One of our Tokyo-based writers visited a famous ekiben shop, which sells over 170 bento box options and ate the top three kinds. Do they deserve their rankings at the top?

North Korean officials, Gaddafi and more get the heavy metal treatment from talented guitarist

ANDRES OLIVER
Feb 27, 2015

A while back, Japanese politician Ryutaro Nonomura captured the world’s attention after a surreal outburst at a press conference regarding his alleged misuse of taxpayers’ money. No doubt seeing fertile ground for comedy, one creative musician then made Nonomura the stuff of Internet legend by setting the man’s sobs to a guitar track.

Guitarist Felix Martin and his talented collaborators operate under a similar concept, setting guitar, drums, and bass to speeches from North Korean officials, Hugo Chavez, and others. This project isn’t for laughs, though. With an ear for the rhythm and pitch of the spoken word, not to mention masterful heavy metal stylings, Martin and company elevate the aptly named Human Transcription project to the realm of art. Politics and propaganda have never sounded so good.

Don’t want to pay your NHK TV licence fee? Beat Takeshi doesn’t think you should have to

Evie Nyan
Feb 27, 2015

In Japan, it’s mandatory to pay for a TV licence if you own a television set or device that can receive a broadcast signal. The money goes to NHK, Japan’s national broadcasting service. It’s much the same deal as in the UK, where your television licence funds the BBC.

But what if you don’t even watch any BBC or NHK channels? Should you still have to pay? Actor, director and outspoken comedian Beat Takeshi doesn’t think so – in fact, he’s calling for the option to “opt-out” of accessing Japan’s NHK’s programming for people who don’t want to pay the licence fee.

Mini bakeable Kit Kats return — this time in cheesecake flavor! 【Taste Test】

Kay
Feb 26, 2015

Some of our readers are undoubtedly aware that we here at RocketNews24 are quite fond of Kit Kats. And while we’re used to seeing the popular chocolate snack in an array of interesting flavors, we have to say we were genuinely intrigued when we heard about “bakeable” Kit Kats last year, as were many other Kit Kat fans across Japan, judging from the fact that the unique sweet attracted enough attention to be turned into pizzas. Now, the bakeabke Kit Kats have returned, and in a new flavor to boot! Of course, we weren’t about to be kept away from such sweetness. Join us as we try the new “Bake ‘N Tasty Mini Kit Kats Cheesecake Flavor” (Kit Kat Mini Yaite Oishi Cheesecake Aji)!