Man arrested for buying beef bowl with bloodstained cash, might also like his steak extra-rare

One unique feature of the Japanese restaurant scene is what’s called the shokken, literally “meal ticket,” system. At a shokken system restaurant customers select their meal and pay in advance at a vending machine near the entrance. The machine spits out a slip of paper which is then handed to the restaurant staff in exchange for the food.

Shokken are especially common at restaurants that specialize in budget-friendly fare like ramen and beef bowls, because they allow the restaurants to operate with a smaller staff to keep costs, and in turn the prices they charge, low. The shokken system eliminates the need for workers to spend time taking orders, ringing customers up, and giving change.

There are other upsides too, in that it’s often speedier and more accurate than placing an order with a waiter. Plus, the reduced amount of human interaction makes it a lot easier to pay with bloodstained bills, at least for a few months until someone catches on and the police haul you in.

Read More

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.

Read More

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

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.

Read More

Although it’s not necessarily wrong to call Tokyo’s Akihabara neighborhood the anime capital of Japan, that’s actually a little bit of a simplification. Akihabara isn’t only the place to get your hands on the latest animation, but also video games, idol music CDs, printed comics, and a whole array of audio and video electronics.

In other words, Akihabara isn’t just about anime, but about media, and several forms came together when one Twitter user took a photograph of otaku taking videos of another video of real people dressed as anime characters to promote a new movie.

Read More

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

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.

Read More

Mystery spot in Japan with strange noises and flying object has us baffled 【Video】

In a scene reminiscent of  something out of the X-Files, there was a report earlier this year of an undisclosed place in Japan where strange loud noises were heard from the sky. Video footage was captured of what appears to be a rainy night where mysterious noises are audible there’s even an unidentified object in the sky.

Personally, I’m not a believer of UFOs, but this video footage certainly has my skin crawling and my mind wondering. We can’t quite figure out whether it’s a sound of nature (some kind of natural phenomenon or a beast in hiding) or a man-made noise.

You be the judge after the jump.

Read More

Video trailer brings us a city overrun with terrifying Miffy zombies

Miffy, the adorable fluffy white rabbit from Holland, has several reasons to be angry. Not only has she been to court to kill off Cathy, the doppelgänger bunny character created by Sanrio, she also has to put up with people confusing her for Hello Kitty, and then to top it all off, her creator, Dick Bruna, announced his retirement last year. Sometimes, it’s all too much for a bunny to bear.

So it’s not hard to imagine that Miffy would one day be out for blood, especially if she were to become a flesh-eating zombie. And when you multiply one zombified Miffy with an army of hundreds, things become genuinely terrifying. Take a look at the bunny apocalypse that’s threatening to take down the citizens of Hong Kong and cheer for the group that fights them after the break.

Read More

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

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.

Read More

Teacher at a Henan university continues to raise money for impoverished students

They say that the best teachers inspire students, but how about the teacher who is willing to stake their financial well-being on impoverished students? That’s exactly what a teacher at a Henan university is doing. He has raised a large sum of money and helped thousands of students all over China. His heart-warming story has been an inspiration to people all over the world and it proves that even a single person can make a difference in people’s lives.

Read More

Dragon Ball Super’s first anime clips are right here 【Video】

It’s still a little hard to believe that the all-new Dragon Ball Super anime is real. It’s not that hits of yesteryear never get new content, as we’ve seen both Sailor Moon and Ghost in the Shell make recent comebacks. Usually, though, big-name sequels or reboots are unveiled well in advance, with a gradual rollout of tantalizing informational tidbits to help slowly build up excitement. Sailor Moon Crystal, for example, kept fans waiting for roughly two years between its initial announcement and first episode.

That’s why it’s sort of shocking that Dragon Ball Super was only revealed at the tail-end of April, but is on schedule to begin airing in July. The latest animated installment of the Dragon Ball saga really does exist, though, and to prove it, here are the first clips from the show.

Read More

Man creates series of videos documenting his attempt to walk from China to Germany

You may not realize this, but the English version of RocketNews24 (there’s a Japanese site too!) has only been around for a mere five years! Believe it or not, cool and quirky things happened around Japan and Asia before we started writing about them, so there are years worth of interesting things that we didn’t get to tell you about. Sometimes, like today, we bring you stories from the past, because they are so cool, they should see the light again.

Today we take you back to a story that started on November 9, 2007, when Christoph Rehage, a 26-year-old German, started his 45,000-kilometer (27,962-mile) walk across China. He documented his adventure in various mediums, but most notably, in a five-minute time-lapse.

Read More

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

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!

Read More

Chinese women proudly show off natural look for “2015 Armpit Hair Competition”

Believe it or not, the practice of women shaving their armpit hair in the United States is only about a century old. Before, apparently, around 1915, society didn’t really expect women to shave their underarm hair at all. This had a lot to do with the fact that razor companies weren’t shaming women into doing it yet, but also because, according to sources, back in 1915, even the mere mention of female underarm was enough to give men of the time an extreme case of the vapors.

Perhaps even more surprising, though, is the fact that the shaving of armpit hair among women didn’t catch on in China until the 1990s – a mere two decades ago! And despite, or perhaps because of, the practice’s relative newness, Chinese women are taking to the Internet in droves to proudly post photos of their armpit hair as a show of gender empowerment in the 2015 Armpit Hair Competition!

Read More

Hilarious diving fail or solidarity between teammates?【Video】

As an amateur athlete there is nothing more worthwhile and thrilling than representing your country at a major competition. However, there is also nothing more heart-wrenching than failing on such a big stage. For this pair of Filipino divers, they might have scored 0.0 on their dives, but they scored a perfect 10 in Internet comedy. Their performance has unfortunately brought up the question of whether or not these horrendous attempts were intentional.

Read More

Taiwanese YouTube video shows how to de-clog a drain with straws, no sucking involved 【Video】

We’ve been seeing a lot of amazing innovations coming out of Asia recently, with real-life emoji created in Hong Kong, and the no-spill bento bag invented in Taiwan.

But the latest discovery to take the internet by storm is a simple lifehack: using a straw to clear clogged drains. It may sound disgusting at first, but don’t worry; there’s no sucking up of hair and garbage here. How does it work? Watch the video to find out, as well as a bunch of other uses for straw you never imagined.

Read More

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

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….

Read More

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

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!

Read More

How to protect your umbrella from rampant umbrella thieves in Japan

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!

Read More

Where pimples appear on our face may indicate which organs need help

This above image was posted onto Twitter recently and maps out the human face divided into regions where pimples may emerge. Labelled on each section is one or two body parts that connect to it. The idea is that the presence of zits in those regions would indicate an excess of toxins in their corresponding body parts.

Now unless you’re somewhat proficient in Asian languages it might not make a lot of sense so let’s take a look at an English version of it, shall we?

Read More

RocketKitchen: A simple and delicious recipe for cooking tuna

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!

Read More

  1. 1
  2. ...
  3. 1241
  4. 1242
  5. 1243
  6. 1244
  7. 1245
  8. 1246
  9. 1247
  10. ...
  11. 1733