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Culturally confusing Vietnamese Burger King found selling Japanese food

Master Blaster
Jun 16, 2015
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Recently our Southeast Asia correspondent Kowloon Kurosawa took a trip from his current residence in Cambodia to the neighboring country of Vietnam. Following standard RocketNews24 foreign travel protocol he soon made his way to a Burger King in Ho Chi Minh City.

However, what he found surprised even our cholestorol-hardened reporter. This Burger King has a special combo menu called Rice King. Not only that but it contained a teriyaki tonkatsu combo!

Is any “fowl” play involved? Nope, Morioka Zoo’s animals just like to sleep in weird positions

Krista Rogers
Jun 16, 2015

Morioka Zoo in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture has a host of both fierce and cuddly animals on its premises. Among the zoo’s current highlights are opportunities to see a baby giraffe, make dinner for the elephants, and feed raw meat to a lion. Oh, and did we mention that the animals there seem to have a penchant for looking dead while simply taking a snooze?

Japan’s 30 best travel destinations, as chosen by overseas visitors

Casey Baseel
Jun 16, 2015

Just in time for the peak summer travel season, website TripAdvisor has released its annual list of the highest-rated spots in Japan from its foreign users. With 30 amazing locations on the list, you’ll want to start your journey as soon as possible if your goal is to see them all, so let’s dive right in and take a look at this year’s picks.

Pissed-off company president sues building owner for pee splash-back from urinals

Master Blaster
Jun 16, 2015

Earlier this week, what is being hailed as Japan’s “trial of the century” by many (in our office) has come to an abrupt end. The Osaka District Court handed down some rough justice in the case of a company president who sued the building he was renting office space from to the tune of 840,000 yen (US$6,800).

The president’s claim that the building’s urinals had caused excessive splash-back of pee were dismissed due to several reasons including the president’s own “pee experiments” being deemed inadmissible by the courts.

Was the president a quack who didn’t know how to urinate correctly? Or was he a victim of greedy cost cutting landlords and toilet moguls? This is their story based on court documents.

Sailor Moon sundresses, skirts, and more are here to help you have fun in the sun

Casey Baseel
Jun 16, 2015

Summer is here, and with its warmer temperatures it’s the perfect time of year for stepping out in a lightweight dress. Of course, summer also means it’s time for summer vacation, thus removing the school uniform from the clothing options of fashionistas, anime fans, and monster-fighting magical girls alike.

There is an elegant way to combine the two looks, though, with these new Sailor Moon sundresses, which are part of a new line inspired by the anime hit that also contains blouses, cardigans, and skirts.

We find out if one trending phrase can make people from Osaka flip out

Master Blaster
Jun 15, 2015

Recently a certain greeting has become popular over Twitter in Japan. According to internet legend these two sentences will cause someone from Osaka to “punch you in the face.”

It sounded like an outrageous claim and yet people seem to be latching onto it. The story goes that by approaching someone from Osaka with “Heee, Kimitte Osaka Hito nanda. Yoroshikudenganamangana” will cause them to lose their minds with rage.

Has this Twitter user stumbled upon an exposed nerve in the fabric of Japanese society, or is this just another drop in the bucket of specious internet claims? We conducted a small experiment to find out.

Wear Pikachu or a Poké Ball on your arm and be fashionably on time with Pokémon × BEAMS watches!

Kay
Jun 15, 2015

There’s no denying that Pokémon and the series’ adorable Pikachu are loved around the world. The international franchise has been around long enough that there are now several generations of former kids who grew up infatuated with the fantastic monsters but who may feel they can no longer openly show their affection for Pokémon, on account of supposedly being all “grown up”.

Well, you may be a grown-up in age, but if you still have a tiny bit of that Pokémon Master left in you, you might be delighted by the newest collaborative item being offered by fashion and culture brand BEAMS and the Pokémon Company. Check out these Pokémon×BEAMS watches that combine fashionable design and accurate time-keeping with your love of the Pokémon world!

We made Sailor Jupiter’s out-of-this-world bento, and you can too! 【RocketKitchen】

Scott Wilson
Jun 15, 2015

Recently we’ve been seeing a lot of ways for you to express your inner sailor scout. There’s Sailor Moon pajamas, Sailor Moon cellphones, and even Sailor Moon designer bags and, um, menstrual pads.

But what about when you want to eat like one of the sailor scouts? Well that’s something we at RocketNews24 have been wondering ourselves, so we decided to try making one of Sailor Jupiter’s legendary bento boxes. How did it turn out? Let’s just say we ran into some interesting characters along the way….

Horse meat sushi restaurant opens up in Tokyo, becomes sushi’s latest craze 【Photos】

Jamie Koide
Jun 15, 2015

Those of you familiar with Japanese cuisine might have heard that horse meat, called basashi or sakura niku (cherry meat) due to its pink color, is a popular delicacy in Japan. Horse meat has been praised time and time again by many in the country for being low in calories and fat but also high in protein, all on top of a great taste.

Considering the meat’s popularity, and how more and more conveyor belt sushi, or kaitenzushi, restaurants have been adding non-traditional items like hamburger and roast beef sushi to their menus, you could say it was only matter of time before a horse meat option appeared.

Kagurazaka Nikusushi, a new trendy sushi restaurant between Shibuya and Ebisu in Tokyo, is now offering this new sushi sensation, and one of our Japanese writers, P.K., has the scoop!

How to protect your umbrella from rampant umbrella thieves in Japan

Scott Wilson
Jun 15, 2015

Japan has a reputation for being home to some of the safest cities in the world. Having your dropped or lost items returned to you is not uncommon, and the police have enough free time to create life-like ice sculptures outside their offices.

So it comes as a surprise to many Japanese people when they suddenly realize they’ve been the victim of a most heinous crime: umbrella theft. Most buildings in Japan ask you to leave your wet umbrellas in a stand right at the entrance, and people finding their umbrellas missing when they leave is becoming more and more frequent.

How can you protect yourself from these shameless thieves? Read on to find out!

RocketKitchen: A simple and delicious recipe for cooking tuna

Aleisha Riboldi
Jun 14, 2015

Tuna. It’s definitely a fish most of us all grew up with. And if you’re anything like one of our RocketNews24 crew, P.K., then you may have grown up believing that tuna only comes from a can!

Though you may associate tuna with cans, that need not be the case. You can actually use fresh tuna in your meals, and today we’ll show you how with a simple recipe that’s sure to impress, even though it requires only five ingredients. Read on to learn how to make this delicious yet simple tuna recipe!

Just how clean are Japan’s high-tech public restroom bidet-equipped toilets?

Casey Baseel
Jun 13, 2015

After cars and video game consoles, fancy toilets just might be Japan’s best-known technological achievement. In a society that prizes cleanliness, it’s no surprise that being able to push a button and have a warm stream of water wash your backside has become one creature comfort many can’t do without.

As such, just about everyone in Japan is happy to have a washlet, as bidet-equipped toilets are called here, in their home. Some people can’t help but wonder, though, if they’re spraying someone else’s fecal matter back up on themselves when they use a washlet in a public restroom.

Store your captured cards and other belongings in these Cardcaptor Sakura handbags

Casey Baseel
Jun 13, 2015

Being in elementary school, Sakura Kinomoto, heroine of magical girl anime and manga franchise Cardcaptor Sakura, can cram everything she needs for the day into her randoseru, the boxy backpack kids across Japan start wearing when they enter first grade. But assuming you’re not a primary school student (or Hollywood actress Zooey Deschanel), odds are you want something a bit more mature to hold your belongings.

That doesn’t mean you have to give up on sporting some Sakura style, though, as two new Cardcaptor Sakura handbags are being offered from anime fashion company Super Groupies.

Japanese Internet users amused by CIA Twitter feed, led there by United States Forces

KK Miller
Jun 13, 2015

Public programs and government agencies are going out of their way to reach and connect with people as much as possibly, creating mascots and getting on social media like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) joined Twitter a year ago, and while many may fear the agency, the CIA saw this #Twitterversary as the perfect occasion to reach out and try to find common ground with the people of the Internet. So, they compiled a list of five reasons why you should be following them on Twitter, and it didn’t take long for Japanese users to find the tweets! Can you guess which one caught their attention and got them all aflutter?

Who needs fast food? Tokyo restaurant has awesome cutlet lunch sets for less than five bucks

Casey Baseel
Jun 13, 2015

Given Tokyo’s reputation as one of the most expensive cities on the planet, you might think that dining out in Japan’s capital requires either a large fistful of yen or the fortitude to put up with a growling stomach after an undersized meal that leaves you only half-full. That’s not always the case, though, and it’s not like budget dining restricts your options to Yoshinoya or 7-Eleven, either.

We recently found a restaurant right in the heart of Tokyo that has filling, delicious lunches that are so cheap, we sort of felt guilty eating there.

Japan has a pill to cure your pre-speech jitters, and it’s got carrots in it

Fran W
Jun 13, 2015

Agaranzai is a new Japanese herbal medicine which claims to lessen headaches and anxiety brought on by public speaking. Basically, it’s marketed as a cure for the jitters. The makers suggest taking it before making a speech at a wedding, giving an important presentation at work, or going to a job interview. But what’s in it, anyway? And should we buy it?

There’s a reason why there are fewer green Lego bricks than any other color

KK Miller
Jun 12, 2015

Lego building blocks are a fantastic toy for growing kids and adults alike. These snap-together bricks allow you build pretty much anything, regardless of whether you follow the instructions included in the box or throw caution to the wind and build whatever pops into your head. With the success of The Lego Movie and a sequel and spin-off movies in the works, the outlook for this 65-year-old toy has never been better.

But there is an alleged little-known secret hidden in the core of Lego’s sensibility. If you take a random sampling of Lego bricks, you will notice that there are far fewer green ones than any other color. The reason why may surprise you.

30 random things Japanese girls say that annoy Japanese men

Evie Nyan
Jun 12, 2015

Sometimes, girls say the darndest things… but you’d be surprised at the variety of utterances that get Japanese men’s eyebrows twitching in rage. We rounded up some of our Japanese male writers to compile a list of 30 things Japanese girls say that really grind Japanese guys’ gears!

Any guesses what made the list? Trust us, some of these came straight out of left field.

Our Japanese writer tries the “hold a coke with your boobs” challenge

Evie Nyan
Jun 12, 2015

If you spend a lot of time on the internet, like all of the RocketNews24 team does, then you can’t help but notice when a new “do this stupid thing” challenge starts going aroud. Whether it involves chugging cinnamon, blowing up your lips, or scarfing hot peppers, it’s all pretty silly stuff that normally we’re way too sophisticated to have a go at.

But something about the “hold a coke with your boobs” challenge captivated the attention of our Japanese writer P.K. So much, in fact, that he decided to have a go for himself! Warning, this post is potentially NSFW for everyone who doesn’t work in the RN24 office!

Math-solving phone app is the quickest way to self-study, skip homework, and/or fail your tests

Casey Baseel
Jun 12, 2015

I think we can all agree that math is a pretty handy thing to understand, right? A basic concept of things like fractions and algebraic equivalents is what keeps us from getting taken advantage of by con men who make such tempting offers as trading two of their shiny monies (or even three!) for our one paper money when the latter is actually of greater value.

Still, basic math is all about following the proper procedures to arrive at the one true solution, which is why you don’t get partial credit for having the wrong answer on your math assignment just because you took a novel approach and wrote the numbers with nice penmanship. As such, you can program a machine to spit out the answer in a fraction of a second, and with a new smartphone app, all you have to do is snap a picture of the math problem, and let the app take over from there.