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In Neo Tokyo this weekend? Check out the bizarre “Bartkira” project exhibition

Mike
Mar 5, 2015
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Think of the two greatest animation achievements in history least likely to go together, and you might come up with an incongruous mishmash of The Simpsons and Akira.

Perhaps precisely because of the way these two animated works (with the exception of “Treehouse of Horror”) couldn’t be further apart from each other in style and execution, the “Bartkira” project – which mixes characters from the series and anime film into each others’ universes and animation styles – has been a huge success.

And it’s coming to Tokyo’s Gallery Hakusen on March 7 and 8; this very weekend at time of writing.

Don’t forget: Yahoo! Japan to make disaster relief donation for every person who searches for “3.11” today

Casey Baseel
Mar 4, 2015

Four years on, the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis that befell Japan’s Tohoku region on March 11, 2011 have very little effect on the day-to-day lives of most people in the country. The rolling blackouts have stopped. Batteries and bottled water are once again readily available. Trains are running, and whole cities aren’t spending hours walking home from work or school.

But while a return to normalcy is a desirable, and ultimately necessary, part of recovery, it’s also important to remember what happened. To stem the forgetfulness that often accompanies the later stages of coping with tragedy, on March 11 Yahoo! Japan will be making a donation to the Tohoku recovery efforts for every person that searches for “3.11” through the company’s search engine.

Girls & Panzer tank vase is appropriately elegant

Anime News Network
Mar 4, 2015

Some of the gals from Girls und Panzer would tell you that tanks can be pretty cute. And what better way to gussy one up than to use it as a vase? Made using traditional Kasama-yaki pottery techniques, heralding from Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture, the tank is a reference to a scene with series protagonist Hana Isuzu, who is highly skilled in ikebana, or Japanese flower arrangement.

From lotus root to alcohol: Are powdered foods the next big boom in Japan?

Krista Rogers
Mar 4, 2015

What’s that crumbly brown stuff on the rice pictured above?

If you guessed that it was some combination of spices, you’re (mostly) wrong. It’s actually the powdered form of a common cooking ingredient that you can find in any Japanese home. In fact, powdered foods in general have recently been drawing a lot of attention in Japan, so we wanted to share some interesting tidbits about them with you. And like the powder in the picture above, you might be surprised by what you find!

Disney characters cosplay as adorable edible Easter bunnies for cake maker Cozy Corner

Casey Baseel
Mar 4, 2015

If you were fighting the temptation to dig into confectioner Cozy Corner’s selection of cakes inspired by the leading ladies of the Disney animated canon, congratulations. Your struggle is over, since as of March 4, they’re no longer available.

If, on the other hand, you were hoping to try the stylish sweets for yourself but just couldn’t find the time, you have our sincere sympathies. Don’t feel too bad, though, because no sooner has one set of Cozy Corner Disney desserts bowed out than another has appeared on the scene, this time featuring the studio’s beloved characters cosplaying as Easter bunnies.

We visit a reasonably-priced sushi shop so good you’ll forget all about that “Jiro” guy

Mike
Mar 4, 2015

With a whole documentary devoted to him and a coveted place in the Michelin Guide, the (reportedly) rather ornery owner of renowned sushi shop Sushi Jiro has ruled the sushi world with a nori-wrapped fist for some time now. Jiro’s tiny shop, located in an underground mall in Ginza, commands about US$300 per 30-minute “omakase” meal and reservations need to be made months in advance – which is a pretty huge investment for a meal.

That daunting investment seems downright silly, though, when you realize that you can get incredible, world-class sushi in your maw for around a third of the cost just down the road!

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

Casey Baseel
Mar 3, 2015

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.