For those times when the train is too crowded to keep your hands where everyone can see them.
While the stories for Final Fantasy games generally have nothing to do with each other, there have been a few threads that tangentially tie the games together, such as magic, a character named Cid, and an airship. Another popular element is a set of characters that have been around since the third installment of the game, the humble Moogles.
So when the official Final Fantasy XV Twitter account polled its followers to see if they wanted the beloved Moogles in the franchise’s newest game, the obvious answer was a resounding, “Of course, kupo!”
After the sun sets in Japan, new landscapes emerge, with twinkling lights on land and at sea creating night scenes so stunning a “night view summit” is held every year to rank the best sights around the country.
While cityscapes continually take the top spots year after year, there’s one talented photographer who’s drawing our attention away from the twinkling lights of the city and towards two surprising new locations: factories and airports. While the places might seem ordinary, the images are the most stunning we’ve ever seen.
We’ve seen all kinds of maid cafes all over Japan, from ones that specialize in zombie girls to ones where the girls seductively make rice balls right in front of you. But one type of maid cafe that has been sorely lacking is one dedicated to girls with a fuller figure, the kind of girls known in Japan by the playful monicker of marshmallow girls.
But all that changes now! Shangrila is a maid cafe that recently opened in Akihabara, and it will be staffed completely by more well-rounded young women. What kind of stuff does a cafe like this have in store for its customers? Read on to find out!
Our Japanese-language reporter Meg sets out to defend the honor of her favorite ice cream flavor by eating a breat mint sundae, and also makes her English RocketNews24 video debut.
We’ve all got that song that really moves us, gets us caught up in its beats and has us tapping our feet or nodding our head. But are the pleasures of music limited only to the human species? Most would argue that yes, music is an art unfortunately lost on animals. Or, at least, that they can’t enjoy it on the same level as us Homo-sapiens.
To you nay-sayers, hold that thought, because we found one groovy cool cat who begs to differ!
Tough economic times can and do happen everywhere in the world. Even in wealthy, developed countries like Japan, some folks struggle every day to make ends meet. Sometimes, those people are families with young children.
Childhood hunger is a worldwide problem, and while no one deserves to go hungry, it is an especially sad situation for children. For one thing, they can’t really do anything to help better their situation, and secondly, they need the food and nutrition to help their bodies continue to grow properly. In Japan, approximately 16 percent of two-parent families are financially unable to provide enough food for their children, and that number jumps to 32 percent for single-parent households, according to a 2012 survey. But there are some who refuse to stand by doing nothing and are dedicating themselves to feeding the hungry children in Japan.
If you like your sushi with a side of crazy psychedelic, this new music video from long-serving Japanese band Orange Range will definitely whet your appetite.
Called “Sushi Tabetai – featuring Soy Sauce”, the catchy tune and mesmerising images are the perfect blend of cute and bizarre that we’ve come to love from the Japanese music scene.
Just when you thought “anime girls with boobs so big they can’t stand up” was going to walk away with the award for this week’s most exaggerated character design, here comes a new challenger.
The Japanese have a knack for doing things in such a way that are just satisfying to watch. Whether it’s traditional Japanese carpenters putting together pieces of wood perfectly or a grown man in a pink bunny suit bonding with rabbits, there’s no shortage of videos that make you feel like everything is right in the world.
And the next video to add to the list of things to make you go “ahh:” a Japanese knife-sharpening master turning a rusted kitchen knife into what could pass for a brand new tool. Prepare to feel like the air around you tastes a little sweeter as you watch the rust melt away with his delicate yet masterful technique.
‘Tis the season to eat Pocky! Celebrate Pocky Day with these amusing (and tantalizing) tweets from Japan!
A collaboration between video game giant Konami and prostheses expert Sophie De Oliviera Barata aims to give an amputee gamer a new arm inspired by Metal Gear Solid.
Who knew the seemingly specialized kitchen gadget was so multitalented?
If you love Japan’s bite-sized Pino ice creams as much as you love Disney’s range of adorable Tsum Tsum characters, then this special collaboration is sure to bring you joy this holiday season.
The Japanese government has asked the UN to retract its recent statement that claims 13 percent of girls in Japan are involved in compensated dating.
Living abroad is fun and exciting; hardly a day goes by when something doesn’t surprise, humor, or baffle you. Living in another country also gives you a chance to understand your own native nation and evaluate the good and the bad from an outsider’s perspective.
So today we want to share with you some things that we miss from our own countries—that is to say mainly the US and UK—that we never realized we’d miss! Because, you know, they just seemed so normal, we thought Japan would have them too.
English language proficiency is a tricky subject with Japanese people. There’s always an excuse about why they can’t understand it, from, “I’ll never use English,” and “It’s not interesting,” to the catch-all, “It’s too hard.” Well, it’s a good thing the Ministry of Education isn’t looking to adopt any new fonts for their textbooks as a little-known computer font developed back in 1998 is gaining some notoriety for being absolutely impossible to read by native Japanese. You might be able to read it, but can your Japanese friends?
Who isn’t fond of a little eye candy, right? Yup, we all like to take a look at good-looking guys (and gals) from time to time. But now, Japanese brand and product promotion company ESSPRIDE is giving us the chance to enjoy ikemen (hot guys) in a completely unexpected way…by pulling one out of a bag of chips!
That’s right, we present to you Ikemen Chips, a unique snack that comes with a special “hot guy card“, each featuring a picture and profile of an ikemen. And what makes the product especially interesting is that they’re actually regular guys working at various Japanese companies who have submitted their pictures and information to be made into the ikemen cards!
Speakers of certain languages sometimes get a leg-up when learning Japanese. For example, Japanese includes Chinese characters, which means Chinese speakers can often get the gist of a text even if they don’t understand the grammar. Similarly, Korean speakers might find that Japanese grammar is kinda similar to theirs. And we native English speakers get a huge helping hand from the hundreds of English loan words that have been adopted into modern Japanese.
But sometimes, these loan words aren’t really our friends at all. Instead, they’re what’s known as false friends – words that sound similar in two languages yet have a completely different meaning. In co-opting English words into Japanese, sometimes our crafty Nihonjin pals have assigned our words to things that actually mean something totally different. It’s almost like they’re trying to trick us!
Join us for a quick primer on some Japanese loanwords you might have heard before, and what they really mean!
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