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Who needs room service? All-night haunted hotel event’s amenities include ghosts and zombies

I used to work in online hotel marketing, and sometimes properties in Japan didn’t mesh up smoothly with our database. The system allowed us to easily trumpet amenities such as sofas and Jacuzzi bathtubs by just pasting in a line of code, but if we wanted to tout things like provided yukata cotton kimonos or onsite natural hot springs, both of which were popular with our users, that took some extra fiddling around.

Since we were a global company, we had to accept that those “only in Japan” features weren’t going to get a spot on the standard, easy-to-use checklist. Still, I sympathize with the difficulties this sort of thing presents for boutique hotel operators, and that’s why today we’re spreading the word about a hotel in Japan with two incredibly unique amenities: zombies and ghosts.

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Wearable “kotatsu parka” is here to keep your whole body warm this winter

Winter in Japan can be pretty brutal. It gets cold, very cold, and most buildings in Japan are only lightly insulated. It’s no wonder, then, that people (and cats!) tend to want to hibernate in one cosy, warm spot during winter. One option is the kotatsu, a table with a thick padded blanket and heater underneath, which you use to toast your legs and feet during those cold winter months. The only problem is that they don’t really do anything to keep your upper body warm. Some people compensate by also wearing a thick padded housecoat inside during the winter, but wouldn’t it be great if you could use the kotatsu’s warmth to heat your entire body? Well, now you can, thanks to this new “wearable kotatsu” designed by Hatra!

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Enjoy latte art at home in seconds with the amazingly easy-to-use Deco Latte strips

We like latte art, and its frothy 3-D variant, as much as the next group of visually stimulated coffee sippers. But as nice as it is to have a trained barista decorate your drink with a kitty or smiley face, most of us don’t have the time, equipment, or manual dexterity to add illustrations to drinks we make for ourselves.

But now those artistic flourishes don’t have to be something you can only have when you go out and pay five bucks for a cup of coffee, with new products that’ll let you enjoy latte art at home for about as much effort as tossing a cube of sugar into your mug.

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“60th anniversary Godzilla Music Festival” will feature film screening and live music

It’s hard to believe that Godzilla is celebrating his 60th birthday this week. The original black-and-white film was released  on November 3, 1954, and has since then spawned a whole franchise of subsequent movies and become a recognizable pop culture icon across the world.

To commemorate everybody’s favorite havoc-wreaking monster, a full screening of the original 1954 film accompanied by a live orchestral performance of the musical score will be held on Sunday, January 18 next year at Tokyo’s NHK Hall. What better way to ring in the new year than with a blast from cinematic history past?

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We try to improve the taste of Tabasco jelly beans by putting them on pizza

Tabasco, with its spicy and tangy flavors, is a popular condiment to put on pizza or pasta in Japan. The writers in our Japanese office love the hot sauce brand so much that they jumped at the chance to taste them in bean form…jelly bean form. That’s right, the Jelly Belly Factory has created Tabasco flavored jelly beans and they’re available in Japan!

But unfortunately, the flavor of Tabasco jelly beans can be summed up in one word: disgusting. At least that’s what our reporter told us after biting into one. He claimed that the flavor was just too close to the original, making for a terrible candy…which got us thinking. If Tabasco Jelly Beans taste too much like the real thing, maybe they’d taste delicious if used as a condiment…on pizza. And so our taste test experiment began.

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There are two things that I think stand out as particularly memorable from my oldest brother’s wedding ceremony. One is the stuttering mess of a toast I gave as his best man. The other is that he and his wife cut their cake with an honest to God sword, since my brother, being a member of the Marine Corps, got married in his dress uniform, complete with Mameluke saber.

It definitely made for a much more dramatic effect than slicing up dessert with some puny kitchen knife, and you might now find yourself wondering how you could incorporate a similar idea for your own wedding reception. Thankfully, you don’t even need an official work blade, just a love of iconic video games, as demonstrated by the couple in Japan that cut their cake with the The Legend of Zelda’s Master Sword.

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Ace Attorney localizer explains alternate-universe Los Angeles

While the Ace Attorney games take place in an urban Japanese city, for the European and North American games, they take place in Los Angeles. Although the games have gotten their fair share of ribbing for this decision, game localizer Janet Hsu posted a blog entry about some of the decisions behind this change, as well as the alternate-universe version of Los Angeles that makes this possible.

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It’s Pikachu! No, it’s Jibanyan! No… what IS that?

Rumored to be the new wave to take over the long-running multimedia kid’s series Pokémon, Youkai Watch and its various colorful characters can be seen all over the streets in Japan. Just as how Pokémon posters and merchandise used to be visible almost everywhere, the streets and shelves are now occupied by Jibanyan and his fellow youkai counterparts from the hit series Youkai Watch.

Pokémon has yet to back out from the race though, as loyal fans who loved the series since they were kids continue to shower their love (and money) on Pikachu and his hundreds of mystical friends. What are fans to do? Cling on to the old, or embrace the new? Check out the ingenious solution Twitter user @umeko_kj8 came up with after the break!

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Kyoto restaurant only sells one dish, features mannequins and gets rave reviews!

In a country filled with countless ramen, udon and sushi restaurants, it can be very difficult to choose. Which one is the most delicious? The most interesting? How do you find the restaurant where you can understand everything on the menu?

If you’re in Kyoto, look no further than Issen Yoshoku, the restaurant that covers all those bases, plus, you never have to dine alone!

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China has become one of the world’s fastest growing car markets. On a macroeconomic scale, this is due largely to demand rising as Chinese consumers enjoy greater prosperity, coupled with more and more automakers putting an effort into building and selling their products in China.

On a microeconomic scale, though, we think at least a few car sales in the city of Foshan are from people who lost their nerve about using public transportation after spending too long waiting at a bus stop that has a demolished building going down around, and even on top of, it.

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Gorgeous animated video shows Hatsune Miku as designed by Final Fantasy’s Tetsuya Nomura

Given the massive success he’s since enjoyed as a video game character designer and director, it’s almost hard to remember how skeptical everyone initially was about Square Enix’s Tetsuya Nomura. When he stepped up to the plate as character designer for Final Fantasy VII, long-time fans were uneasy about his ability to fill the boots of predecessor and renowned artist Yoshitaka Amano. When Nomura announced Kingdom Hearts, a new series that would blend characters from Final Fantasy games and Disney animation, early reactions ranged from puzzled silence to nervous laughter.

Fast-forward 15 years, and Nomura has established himself as the single most influential person behind those two Square Enix franchises. As a matter of fact, his skills are now in so much demand that he’s produced his take on virtual idol Hatsune Miku, which was recently shown off in gorgeous animated form.

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Fantastically bright, green meteor in Japan caught in amazing videos

The evening of Nov. 3 had a big surprise for people in Japan: A big, bright meteor streaked across the sky, giving locals an absolutely stunning light show.

You can see the green and orange light of the meteor as it falls toward Earth. These colors are likely due to the presence of magnesium and sodium in the meteor itself that produce green and orange light, respectively, when subjected to extreme heat.

The celestial event took place over western Japan and was reported within a couple of hours of a series of US meteor sightings across the East coast.

In Japan, cameras at the Fukuoka airport caught this amazing footage:

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  • Nov 5, 2014

This “full-body bear babywear” is just toooo cute not to share!!

Okay, we know baby clothes are supposed to be adorable; that’s simply the nature of their existence. But just take a look at this item we found on online shop Baby Goose. Now, it has got to be near illegal for a piece of clothing to look that cute! And you know us — when we find something this adorable, we absolutely have to share it with you, our precious readers, in the spirit of spreading the joy of kawaii around the world. And boy, I would definitely be ordering one of these in an instant if I had a baby of my own … !

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Growing up, I, like a lot of kids, bugged my parents for a dog. They, like a lot of parents, rightly realized I envisioned myself spending more time playing fetch with it than scooping up its poo, and suggested a much more low-maintenance pet instead.

Eventually, we settled on a hamster, since at the very least the house would stay clean if it was kept in a cage. And while Hamlet (of course we named him Hamlet) never complained about his metal wireframe home, I can’t help but look at these pictures of fellow hamster Ginji and think how much cuter it would have been to make a miniature bar and Japanese-style living room for him.

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Netizens enraged by elementary school’s “No Technology Challenge”

If you didn’t do one of these three things today, you can stop reading this article immediately:

1) Woke up and immediately looked at your phone.
2) Checked Facebook while eating a meal.
3) Played Candy Crush on your smartphone while on the toilet. (Or was that just me?)

Still with us? Okay, well this just shows that a lot of technology is seeping into every momentary pause in our day, which many educators aren’t exactly happy about. One elementary school in Japan decided to do something about it, implementing a “No Technology Challenge,” which asked students and their families to strive to completely eliminate the use of technology in their homes. Netizens were not pleased.

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Manga training kit has pro artist demonstrations and feedback session, all for under 50 bucks

A quick look through the shelves of a bookstore or the inventory of online retailers will turn up tons of guides for how to draw manga. When still getting the hang of the basics of dynamic drawing, a book is the ideal way for many people to learn, since it spares them the embarrassment of having anyone else see their painfully produced yet still subpar early work.

Still, there’s only so much you can learn from on you own through reading and independent practice. That’s why toymaker Takara Tomy is releasing a kit that includes not just the tools of the trade, but demonstrations by a published manga artist and feedback from professional instructors.

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Funasshi’s unofficial mascot Satosshi celebrates Halloween 2014 in his own special way!【Photos】

The inimitable Mr. Sato is such a big fan of Funasshi, the unofficial jiggly pear mascot of Funabashi City, that he even created his own mascot-to-the-mascot, Satosshi. This Halloween, Satosshi decided to head down to the famous Shibuya crossing to make friends with fellow costume-wearing Tokyoites.

Might there be other, kindred spirit Funasshi fans there? Will Satosshi be busted as an unofficial impersonator? Could Mr. Sato’s journalistic efforts be thwarted by a sudden attack of deadline confusion? And worse still, what if no one recognises him? Join us after the jump for a photo report from Satosshi’s big night out.

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This year, Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood made a major push to establish itself as the place to celebrate Halloween in Japan’s capital. Things got off to a pretty low-key but still impressively creative start with a costume contest on one of the local train lines, but that was nothing compared to how jumping Shibuya was on the night of October 31.

Unfortunately, when you funnel that many people into one place, some of them are going to exhibit some pretty poor manners, as evidenced by the mounds of litter some revelers left behind. In response, volunteers sprang into action cleaning up the trash, but instead of a pat on the back for their hard work, some Twitter users decided to take them to task for what they felt was a shameless play for attention.

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Japan gets pretty chilly during the winter, but houses and apartments aren’t designed with centralized heating systems. Since mounting an array of full-blown AC/heater units throughout your home is a pretty expensive endeavor, a lot of people instead opt to use space heaters to warm up a patch of their living room.

The downside to creating this tiny oasis of warmth, though, is that it can be hard to force yourself to leave it. This phenomena isn’t limited to humans, either, as shown by these Japanese cats lounging luxuriously in front of their owner’s space heaters.

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Pretty Indonesian sisters share everything including good looks and sweet style 【Photos】

Sisters Elle and Jess Yamada from Indonesia do everything together, and that includes making a name for themselves on the fashion blogosphere. The lovely ladies are in their early twenties and have a combined total of nearly 250,000 Instagram followers, write for their popular blog on their website, and run a clothing line called Gowigasa. They’re also apparently really awesome at hulahooping, and won their high school’s hula hoop competition.

But we know what you really want is to get a good look at these two beauties, so read on to find a selection of photos after the cut.

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