Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
It’s been a big year for Johnson Ting, one of Malaysia’s most celebrated artists. The concept designer won an award as one of his home country’s top ten young artists and a toy company is even releasing a figure based on his work. Despite all this and working as a designer for numerous high-profile companies, he’s managed to also post a host of gorgeous illustrations, paintings and CG images for the whole world to see. This is work that simply must be shared!
The fujoshi (“rotten girl”) subculture is well-established in Japan with its sizable population of girls and women who enjoy the past time of homoerotic fan art. Its members are often a contentious presence on the internet for their particular passion of sometimes corrupting young men’s adolescent heroes into love interests. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not to say Goku and Vegeta cuddling and making out itself isn’t right. It’s just not right for them.
Depending on your own parenting aims you may want to steer your young girl away from drawing pictures of unrealistically well-groomed samurai lying naked beneath the sheets together, or you may find it a relatively harmless pastime compared to something like airplane glue sniffing and thus want to encourage fujoshi tendencies in your young one.
Either way, one Twitter user claims to have unlocked the environmental conditions (seven in total) that make a young girl go fujoshi and presented it for peer evaluation on Twitter. But do they hold up to the scrutiny?
For students all around the world, the day of a big test is one of the most nerve-racking of the entire school year. And when you’re sitting for your university exam in Japan, it’s like the final step of a long journey after months of solo studying, endless reading and many sleepless nights.
The student’s journey to the final exam has now been beautifully captured in a unique two-minute commercial that features the most fitting of canvases: the humble school blackboard. While students around the country have shown us their amazing talent for creating chalk-based works of art on classroom blackboards, this commercial brings chalkboard art to life with a moving animation that will simply blow you away.
As we’ve seen, Japan is really psyched about Halloween. The holiday has been steadily growing in popularity for the last decade, and with October 31 falling on a Saturday in 2015, this year’s celebration is likely to be Japan’s liveliest Halloween ever.
But how did Halloween become Japan’s second favorite foreign holiday, right after Christmas? And also, is Japan staying true to the spirit of the holiday, or is forcefully pressing it into its own domestic mold, as the country is wont to do with cultural imports?
The Tokyo International Film Festival, as per its name, hosts luminaries of the movie world from around the globe. Kicking off the event is a gala ceremony in which guests walk down the red carpet to greet their fans and the press.
Local artists aren’t excluded from the festivities, though, and this being Japan, a number of high-profile anime works are also screened at the festival. But what do you do when your most recognizable star is a cute 2-D girl?
Simple, you walk down the red carpet holding an anime huggy pillow of her.
Japan likes to think of the food it produces as being the highest-quality in the world, and that goes double for rice. As such, many bags of domestically grown rice are decorated with iconic Japanese imagery, such as a crane, the rising sun, or Mt. Fuji.
But in today’s modern age, there’s no surer visual shorthand for Japan than cute anime girls, which is exactly what you’ll find on these bags of rice from Yamagata Prefecture.
In Japan, there truly is an all-singing, all-dancing “idol” group for everything. From plus-sized beauties to macho men and octogenarians, if you’ve got a unique message and a catchy tune, there’ll be a niche audience out there waiting to share your next video and dance along with glow sticks at your next performance.
Just when we thought the happy-go-lucky, free-for-all nature of the amateur idol world had no boundaries, it seems there is one line that can’t be crossed: schoolgirls and religion. Meet the “Num-Num Girls”, a Buddhism-based schoolgirl pop group that has been shut down for becoming too popular.
A lot has been written about Japan’s incredible train culture. From carriages dressed up as anime characters to people who band together to rescue a fellow commuter, you don’t even have to get on a train to experience all the action; you can see it all first-hand from the platform itself.
That’s what one commuter found when they stumbled upon this little guy while waiting for the train in Japan. Caught on video, it shows an adventurous pigeon who doesn’t even flinch when the train arrives, instead walking up to the passenger doors, waiting for them to open and then hopping on board to find a seat.
The company that brought us the Danbocchi—cardboard sound proof cubicles so you can karaoke to your heart’s content without annoying the neighbors—is back with yet another crazy cardboard creation we can’t help but find ourselves wanting.
Yes, gamers, now you can actually build a retro arcade gaming table in your own home!
Last summer, we heard about what sounded like the perfect place for lovers of travel and literature: a hotel in Tokyo designed like a bookstore and filled with reading material. It might sound like a fictitious flight of fancy, but Book and Bed Tokyo is very much real, and with its grand opening just days away, not only have pictures have surfaced of the unique accommodations, we now know how much it will cost to stay there and a little more about what kind of books it will have.
Japanese taxis are pretty nice. They’ve got those cool doors that swing open and shut at the touch of a button, and the lace doilies they usually have across the rear parcel shelf add a nice touch of class.
Still, we’re finding ourselves feeling a little jealous of taxi patrons in Peru, where one company isn’t just providing swift transportation, but entertainment with a fleet of cabs equipped with Nintendo Wii U game consoles for passengers to play in the back seat during their ride.
You probably remember that incredible Raiden cosplay from this year’s Tokyo Game Show—the one with the moving mask that wowed pretty much everyone on Internet. We were always a bit bummed there wasn’t more to all the videos and photos, but now Masazi, the cosplayer behind the amazing outfit, has released a minute-long video showing off her suit in action!
Kawasaki Halloween is one of the largest Halloween celebrations in Japan, with numerous events towards the end of the month. Of course, the main draw is the parade, which was held just this past Sunday.
But this year’s parade featured something special, with cosplayers dressed as their favorite Star Wars characters. The Aomori Star Wars nebuta floats were even there, making their first appearance in the Kanto area! But the perhaps the coolest part was the stormtrooper marching band! Check out all the awesome photos below!
So we all know that Super Mario Maker for the Wii U is awesome. With everything from music levels to ridiculously hard challenges to millions and millions of other courses in between, you can never run out of things to do.
However with so many levels out there, plenty of them are far from perfect, and some of them outright troll the player. So in an effort to try to educate the gaming populace in the art of not making horrible levels, Nintendo Japan has released some helpful comics to help us all become better builders.
Ready to be educated in the way of making Mario by a pigeon? Then read on!
It’s that time of year again! Starbucks Japan has announced their line of holiday beverages and goodies! Yes, it’s amazing how quickly a year seems to go by, isn’t it?
This year, the coffee chain will be offering their customers seasonal goodness featuring caramel and toffee (and plenty of whipped cream), and if that’s how they’re expressing their holiday spirit, well, we have to say, “Bring the holiday sweetness on!!!”
October 31 is quickly approaching and for those of us who don’t have our costumes or decorations ready yet, you’d best hurry. Sure there are plenty of last-minute costumes and decorations you can scrounge up, but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t compare to something meticulously planned out.
A carved pumpkin is one decoration you can complete in a few hours, but if you really want to lure the trick-or-treaters, you have to go the extra mile. Check out this amazing pumpkin that shows us the day in the life of lovable Luigi and his haunted mansion. It would look awesome on your front porch, and even more so with a special little addition.
Paris Hilton took a trip to China last week, hosting outrageously expensive parties in both Shanghai and Beijing. Her whole trip wasn’t as glamorous as we would imagine, or she would have hoped, however, as she got stuck in a crowded elevator for nearly an hour. You can probably imagine her reactions amid the incident, but just in case, here’s a video too.
What surprised us most, though, was what happened when she finally got out…
Cell phone service in Japan isn’t exactly cheap, and if you spend a lot of time on your smartphone talking with clients, chatting with friends, or otherwise keeping in touch with the rest of the world, it’s not hard to run up a monthly bill in the neighborhood of 10,000 yen (US$84). Thankfully, Japanese providers offer a variety of discounts to help soften the blow, with reduced rates for family members being a huge help.
Now, as part of the changing societal concept of what constitutes a family, Japan’s largest telecommunications provider has begun offering family discounts to same-sex couples who present documentation of their union.
Given a map, could you name an iconic dish from every country in the world? We’re guessing probably not.
Some foods are now so famous globally they practically stand as symbols for their country as a whole (think “sushi” and you think “Japan”), while others are instantly recognizable on smaller regional or local scales (unless you’re familiar with Icelandic culture or study Viking lore, you’ve probably never heard of “hákarl” before). If you’re fascinated by the intersection of food and culture, you’ll definitely want to check out this cool new infographic on the topic!
Selfies are a controversial topic these days with some groups arguing they’re evidence of this generation’s descent into self-absorbed vanity, and others saying they’re an expression of one’s self-identity. But whether you care about “selfie culture” or not, you’ll want to at least give this one a glance.
Pokémon Center Online designates first Pokémon items that will require Japanese ID card to buy
Japanese vending machine sells freshly squeezed lemon juice with a futuristic light show
Pokémon comes to McDonald’s Japan for new Happy Meals toys, brings every generation’s starters
Air-conditioned dress shirts arrive in Japan to save working professionals from sweltering heat
Tokyo’s Haneda Airport airlines announce stricter luggage check-in deadline for domestic flights
Toyota Museum’s international retro vehicle parade returns to Aichi this autumn
Yoshinoya gets into fancy fish, but is the cheap beef king reaching too far? [Taste test]
Is covering your entire upper body with cooling strips enough to fend off Japan’s summer heat?
7-Eleven Japan rethinks convenience store sandwiches with a wild new choc-mint variety
Coco’s Japan is very confident in their chilled ramen, but should they be? [Taste test]Air-conditioned dress shirts arrive in Japan to save working professionals from sweltering heat
Tokyo’s newest viral dessert is like a Japanese parfait inside a bread bun [Taste test]Japanese vending machine sells freshly squeezed lemon juice with a futuristic light showPokémon Center Online designates first Pokémon items that will require Japanese ID card to buy
Starbucks Japan releases first-ever gacha capsule toys, featuring iconic menu items as plush coffee charms
7-Eleven Japan adds new chocolate fruit gummies to its sweets range, but are they worth the hype?
7-Eleven Japan now offering baked-in-store pizza by the slice with two very different topping sets
Starbucks Japan opens new store inside historic seaside quarantine station near Tokyo
Studio Ghibli’s No Face twirls to sound of Spirited Away’s theme song in beautiful accessory box
Live-action Princess Mononoke is coming to streaming as a live event, previews look amazing [Video]
Studio Ghibli has a new anime out, and there’s only one place in the world where you can see it
Tokyo subway installing new ticket gates that don’t accept payment through Suica or other IC cards
Japan now has human refrigerators inspired by Japanese vending machines
Hatsune Miku collaborates with Hokusai’s art in new Vocaloid ukiyo-e illustration series [Pics]
New Shinkansen luggage drop-off system begins in Japan, making train travel even easier
Studio Ghibli releases anime T-shirts that pay homage to one of Hayao Miyazaki’s most personal films
Family Mart opens new “Famima” flagship store in Tokyo that’s like a tourist attractionAir-conditioned dress shirts arrive in Japan to save working professionals from sweltering heat
Uniqlo looks back to the very start of Pokémon with new black-and-white pixel art T-shirts[Pics]
Japanese Shinkansen becomes an overnight hotel for three nights this summer
Japan announces sudden 400-percent increase in visa fees for foreigners entering the country
Japan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in TokyoStudio Ghibli has a new anime out, and there’s only one place in the world where you can see it
Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
Starbucks Japan releases new sakura goods and drinkware for cherry blossom season 2026
Japan’s newest Shinkansen has no seats…or passengers [Video]Tokyo subway installing new ticket gates that don’t accept payment through Suica or other IC cards
Japanese ninja certification exam attracts 131 candidates from Japan and abroad
Salomon releases Japan-exclusive Mt. Fuji hiking gear that doubles as an amazing souvenir
Put sesame oil in your coffee? Japanese maker says it’s the best way to start your day【Taste test】
Toyota Museum’s international retro vehicle parade returns to Aichi this autumn
Yoshinoya gets into fancy fish, but is the cheap beef king reaching too far? [Taste test]
Is covering your entire upper body with cooling strips enough to fend off Japan’s summer heat?
7-Eleven Japan rethinks convenience store sandwiches with a wild new choc-mint variety
Coco’s Japan is very confident in their chilled ramen, but should they be? [Taste test]
Studio Ghibli’s No Face twirls to sound of Spirited Away’s theme song in beautiful accessory box
Sanrio characters join forces with your favorite Japanese snack mascots as prizes at Family Mart
U.S. government reportedly planning to close Nagoya consulate
Japan’s favorite popsicles add multilingual packaging to better connect with foreign tourists
Sweet dreams are made of cheese at this all-you-can-eat cheese and doria restaurant
7-Eleven Japan adds new chocolate fruit gummies to its sweets range, but are they worth the hype?
Akita Kanto Festival, one of Japan’s most spectacular summer festivals, gets an anime twist this year
Japan’s Super Volunteer, 86-year-old Haruo Obata, heads to the Kumamoto earthquake site
Live-action Princess Mononoke is coming to streaming as a live event, previews look amazing [Video]