Which anime characters do you share a birthday with? This website will tell you

A pretty major difference between anime and western animation is the amount of detail Japanese productions put into character profiles and backstories. For just about any significant anime character, you can be sure the creators have decided on things such as a family name, exact height in centimeters, favorite food, and, in the case of sex-appeal female characters, bust, waist, and hip measurements.

If nothing else, characters almost always have an official birthday, even if there’s never an episode highlighting it or any other part of the story affected by, for instance, Attack on Titan’s Levi being born on December 25. Now, a fan-produced website has compiled a database of anime birthdays, allowing you to plug in your own to see which characters you could conceivably share a cake with.

Read More

YouTube channel recreates emoji in real life with hilarious, horrifying results 【Video】

Have a convention coming up and you’re scrounging for last-minute cosplay ideas? Perhaps you’re on a super tight budget and need to make a costume out of the bare minimum.

Well we have the answer for you! Hong Kong-based YouTube channel DigitalRev TV recently put up a video where they tried their best to recreate several of the most popular emoji in real life. Some of the results are ridiculous, others are scary, but all are truly inspirational to the lovers of minimal costuming out there.

Read More

The Shinkansen image that’s got Japanese Twitter users giggling

The N700 series Shinkansen trains have been in operation since 2007, and reach maximum speeds of 300km/h (186 mph). While not quite as speedy as Japan’s upcoming maglav train, these babies can get you from Tokyo to Osaka in just 2 hours and 25 minutes – they’re basically a miracle of modern engineering.

But it seems that some people out there do not respect the beauty of the Shinkansen. In fact, they look at all that shiny, white metalwork and see only one thing.

Can you guess what it is? Join us after the jump to find out if you, too, have the mind of an eighth-grader…

Read More

We try serving a steak in 8.6 seconds, turned out to be surprisingly erotic

The steakhouse chain Ikinari! Steak! is all the rage in Japan right now thanks to its unique method of cooking your steak immediately after you tell them how you want it. Combined with standing tables, it provides regular steakhouse quality meat at speeds that rival fast food joints.

It got our staff to thinking about how the speedy service of Ikinari! Steak! is so popular. If we, too, could get steak into the mouths of customers within just a few seconds of them ordering, then maybe we could get into the restaurant game and be even more successful.

And so, research into such a steak service was underway, but as often is the case with our research, things somehow devolved into a cheesy porno starring one of our male writers in a bikini.

Read More

One Piece ship to anchor at Japanese theme park

Ahoy, landlubbers! The Thousand Sunny, the preferred vessel of the Straw Hat Pirates in One Piece, is paying a call at the port of Laguna Ten Bosch, a theme park in Gamagori, southeast of Nagoya. Interested fans are invited to board the ship for a few hours to partake in a cruise. They will be treated to a stage show, music and a toast to the Straw Hat crew. Commemorative mugs and certificates will be given as souvenirs.

Read More

These 19th-century Japanese miniature landscapes show that size isn’t everything

The Tōkaidō is perhaps the most important road in Japan’s history. Built in the 17th century, it connected the country’s two powerhouses: it runs from Kyoto, the imperial capital, to Edo (now Tokyo), the seat of the Shogunate. As well as being an important political and trade route, depictions of the Tōkaidō in art in literature were abundant and popular.

The best-known of these is Utagawa Hiroshiges’s series of ukiyo-e woodcut prints, The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō. Ukiyo-e woodblock printing like this continued to flourish in Japan until the 19th century.

Less famous than Hiroshige is the relatively unknown ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Yoshishige, who produced his own prints of the 53 stations along the Tōkaido – by depicting each station in the form of a potted landscape.

Read More

Watch “Sh*t Koreans Say” for an interesting take on Korean stereotypes about foreigners

In the past we’ve brought you Sh*t Japanese Girls Say and Sh*t My (Japanese) Mom Says, both of which really hit home for me as a former Japanese home-stay student and expat in Japan. Still, I often find myself wondering what life is like for other expats around the world, especially those living in other Asian countries like Korea.

Thanks to Sh*t Koreans Say, the latest addition to the ever popular Sh*t ___ Say meme by Korean Junkies, I feel like I now have a slightly better idea.

Read More

7-Eleven really does sell everything in Japan, even Attack on Titan 3-D maneuver gear

As we’ve mentioned before, Japanese convenience stores are pretty awesome. Since so many people do their shopping on foot in urban and suburban Japan, convenience stores often function like small grocery stores for the immediately surrounding neighborhood, not just a place to buy junk food, beer, and dirty magazines (although they stock all three of those in abundance, too).

Because of this, Japanese convenience stores sell a lot of stuff that you might not expect, like a fairly extensive array of low-calorie dining options, or, as 7-Eleven is now offering, a life-size replica of hit anime Attack on Titan’s 3-D maneuver gear.

Read More

Taiwan’s Ice Monster brings monster shaved ice, monster lines, and monster brain freeze to Tokyo

Popular Taiwanese kakigori (shaved ice) chain Ice Monster opened on Omotesando, the main boulevard of Tokyo’s trendy Harajuku neighborhood, at the end of April to five-hour waits. Even now, waits regularly extend over an hour, but the scuttlebutt was that it was worth it for the mountains of delicious, delicious shaved ice.

We braved the lines and the brain freeze to find out the truth for you, dear readers.

Read More

No plans for the weekend? Free CG animation festival is going on in Tokyo 【Videos】

If you were just looking at the clock and smiling because you’ve reached the end of your workweek, but have since switched to frowning and looking at the Tokyo weather report (clouds or rain all week long), cheer up, because it just so happens there’s a great indoor event going on.

Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2015 kicked off earlier this week, and until June 14 will be showcasing the works of talented short film makers from around the globe at venues in Tokyo and Yokohama. Best of all, admission is free, and today we’re taking a peek at some of the festival’s amazing computer animated shorts that are screening this weekend.

Read More

Ninja Parka’s hidden pockets, special material let you battle bugs and UV rays like a shinobi

Do you ever get the feeling you were born too late in history? I mean think about it, if you’d come into the world, say, five centuries sooner, you could have been a ninja, plying your trade by offering your shadow warrior skills to one of the warlords of Japan’s Sengoku period.

But hey, that doesn’t mean there are no fights left for would-be shinobi! It just means that instead of taking on enemy armies, your adversaries are instead harsh UV rays and annoying mosquitos, and what better way to gear up for such modern battles than with a Ninja Parka?

Read More

Japanese dog accidentally reveals his secret superpower! Oops, now it’s on the Internet

Have you ever heard about how dogs and cats seem to know that their owners are coming home from as far a mile away? That’s pretty weird. It raises questions about what other special and secret talents our pets possess.

Recently, one Japanese Shiba Inu accidentally revealed one of is special talents: The ability to float. All other floating dogs should be wary because his picture was taken while in action!

Read More

Young inventor dreams big to cleanup ocean plastic, will launch test in Japan

What did you accomplish by the time you were 20 years old? Did you answer, “inspired an entire world to get behind your idea to clean the ocean”?

A Dutch engineering phenom has done just that with his project The Ocean Cleanup. In 2016, he and his team will launch a pilot program that will eventually lead them to tackle the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that lies between Hawaii and California. However, any idea has to start somewhere, and that somewhere will be Japan.

Read More

Actor transforms into horses, eats himself in new ad-Can you think of a better way to sell ramen?

When I was first exposed to Japanese commercials, it seemed like every one of them was off-the-rails insane. Filled with breathless rapid-fire speech punctuated by seemingly pointless pauses for some unknown dramatic or comedic effect, each ad seemed to be end as soon as it began, often giving little, if any, mention of its product.

Things seem to have calmed down considerably in recent years, though, with a trend towards a bit more restraint and comprehensibility, under the solid logic that if the audience is left paralyzed from their minds snapping as they try to process what they just saw, they won’t be able to go to the store and buy your products.

Still, every once in a while, a marketing team decides to just go for broke and tries to raise the bar for commercial craziness, and this new Cup Noodle ad, featuring one of Japan’s most popular actors, is about as weird as they come…and that’s before the horses with human faces and ramen on their heads show up.

Read More

Running out of time on your assignment? Take some advice from the Internet

Juggling school life and regular life isn’t always easy. Sometimes you’ve got a million things to do and deadlines are coming down on you hard and fast, and you just need that little bit of extra time to finish up your paper. If you are this sneaky Japanese student, though, you’ve found a way to make technology seemingly going wrong make everything all right.

Read More

Sing, my angel of Big Mac! McDonald’s Hong Kong scores epic win with 90s parody ballad【Video】

Some weeks ago, we saw how the McDonald’s fans in Korea professed their love for the Big Mac with their humorous and refreshing performances of the Big Mac Song. But sometimes the best way to express your ardent feelings is by serenading your object of affection with a heartfelt love song.

The creative masterminds behind McDonald’s Hong Kong’s recent advertising stint came up with a ballad that serenaded the franchise’s iconic burger and won the hearts of Cantopop fans at the same time! Hear it after the jump!

Read More

Japan Basketball Association considering prohibiting zone defense to minors

As much as I sometimes wish I were young again, there’s no denying the fact that youth has its drawbacks. For example, just think of all the things someone under the age of 15 can’t do in Japan: they can’t enjoy a glass of elephant poop beer, vote for some naked, sword wielding guy standing in municipal elections, go to an Edo period erotic art show, or buy a carton of Marlboro and exquisite steak curry at the same place.

And if the muckety mucks in the Japan Basketball Association have their way, anyone under 15 may soon be prohibited from playing zone defense. However, the JBA would like to remind youths that it’s for their own good, and hurts the association more than it does them.

Read More

We check out world-first Pikachu cup clingers ahead of their release date

Have you ever wished you could stick to your long-lost New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, kick those bad habits and take better care of your mental and physical health? Well, June might be the time to turn things around because Pikachu is here to help kick you into shape!

Whether it’s getting your eight glasses of water a day or downing that bright green shot of spirulina, this special series of Pikachus will cling to the side of your cup and keep you company while you stay healthy and hydrated this summer.

With six different poses available, we’ve been lucky enough to catch ’em before their official release in Japan. Come with us as we take a very special sneak peek at the coveted little critters after the break.

Read More

We visited the new JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Café and really liked the elevators

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fans, listen up! Or don’t because you might walk away a little disappointed. Tokyo’s Tower Records Shibuya location has collaborated with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders to create a café dedicated to JoJo for the month of JuJune.

Read More

Japanese Twitter claims that if you can answer this question, you have an IQ of 150+

So you’ve memorized thousands of kanji, you can name all the members of AKB48, and you actually understand the ending to Evangelion. You’re probably pretty smart, but are you smart enough to take down a question from Japanese Twitter?

Japanese Twitter user @yabazin_gazou, an account with over 250,000 followers, recently posted an unusual math problem, claiming that if you could solve it, that would prove you have an IQ of 150 or higher. While we’re not exactly sure on the science behind that claim, check it out to test the overlap between your math and creativity skills.

Read More

  1. 1
  2. ...
  3. 1247
  4. 1248
  5. 1249
  6. 1250
  7. 1251
  8. 1252
  9. 1253
  10. ...
  11. 1733