Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
We recently dug into a plate of bright blue curry inspired by Dragon Quest’s mascot monster (and almost motor vehicle), slime. It tasted surprisingly great, but what if blue’s not your color or you’re in the mood to dine on something with a more traditionally feminine hue?
If that’s the case, how about some pink curry instead?
Heads up, gamers and audiophiles! Datel Japan has just announced that its latest gaming hardware-themed accessory, dubbed the “Retro GB earphone mic”, will go on sale next month. And it is truly a thing of tremendous, geeky beauty.
Before the tragic day when the sushi restaurant in my neighborhood closed down, I went there often enough that a few of the guys behind the counter recognized me when I came in, and even remembered that I liked my tuna rolls heavy on the wasabi. A little bit of personal service always makes a meal more enjoyable, so while I’m sad my local place is gone, I’m happy for Twitter user Okappasama, who still has a kaitenzushi joint where she’s a regular.
Not only does the staff remember her favorite type of sushi, they recently whipped up something for her that you won’t ordinarily find on any menu: a special birthday sushi bear!
Dry ice is some pretty handy stuff. Aside from keeping shipments of groceries and other perishables nice and cold, it’s perfect for producing billowing smoke, which is always nice to have if you’re throwing a high school dance.
Dry ice doesn’t just have the power to compel teens to shake their bodies, though, but coins and spoons too, as shown in these awesome videos.
See this two-layered red box decorated with a lovely drawing? Well, this is an item that is currently on sale from major Japanese department store Mitsukoshi, and much to our surprise, the eye-catching illustration on the box is a work that was created nearly 90 years ago!
But as pretty as the drawing is, that’s not the best part about this product, because this isn’t just an ordinary box — it has a very specific use. The box is actually an osechi item that is sold with many types of special New Year’s food inside! (And they really do fill up the box with all sorts of colorful, interesting food, as we’ll show you in the pictures below.) What a stylish way to brighten your New Year’s meal!
Baskin Robbins Japan is known for their quirky ice cream creations centered around major foreign holidays, and this year they’ve rolled out a half dozen smiley face frozen treats for Christmas. Featuring familiar characters and adorable animals, these special sundaes in festive cups will get anyone into the holiday spirit. Let’s take a closer look at this cute Christmas lineup:
We recently looked at the physical and psychological benefits of sleeping with hug pillows, or dakimakura as they’re known in Japan. But while that discussion was limited to plain, undecorated dakimakura, it’s no secret that a large number of jumbo-size pillows in Japan are adorned with drawings or photos of the owner’s anime or celebrity crush.
Sometimes these dakimakura end up being used for relatively chaste purposes, like a romantic train ride. We don’t think it’s going too far, though, to speculate they’re also put to more lascivious means as stand-ins for obsessive fans’ lust towards their unattainable objects of desire. As a result, one new dakimakura allows you to tear the clothes off a rock star.
With their global popularity showing no sign of waning, One Direction have had a busy year, and are set for more of the same in 2015 after already announcing their On The Road Again Tour 2015. The band first visited Japan in January 2013, and since then floppy-haired tween sex symbol Harry Styles seems to have become quite taken with the country. Now it looks like he has made it his mission to spread a little bit of Japanese culture to his millions of adoring fans.
The end of the year is the prime party season in Japan, when groups of coworkers and friends gather to celebrate Christmas, the end of the old year, and the start of the new one. Generally, most attendees are conent to chat, eat fried chicken or other broadly popular grub, and drink far more than would be socially acceptable in most other countries.
At some gatherings there are games to be played, too. Bingo and quizzes are both pretty common, but if neither one of those is quite exciting enough for you, maybe you’d like to spice things up by having you and the people you see every day at the office ask each other potentially embarrassing questions. And just to make sure the atmosphere of awkwardness is 100-percent genuine, why not bring along one of these handy head-mounted lie detectors from toymaker Takara Tomy?
Maruyama Zoo in Sapporo, Hokkaido was the scene of awkwardness on 26 September when it was learned that two spotted hyenas slated for making babies were actually both males. At first this might seem like a major oversight of really basic biology, but in the unique case of the spotted hyena it’s actually fairly understandable.
Resident Evil 4 director Shinji Mikami’s upcoming survival horror title Psycho Break (The Evil Within in the West) is now just a couple of weeks away from release, and its makers have just announced a pair of limited edition PlayStation 4 consoles featuring the game’s title and an image of the insane asylum in which it is set.
With bookstores in Japan overflowing with manga, novels and non-fiction, it takes a lot to stand out and get noticed. However, with the advent of the three styles of book stacking we’re going to show, it’s impossible for passersby not to stop and take a gander at these literary works.
Japanese city Matsudo, located in Chiba prefecture, is encouraging cosplayers to visit on the weekends, billing its Yabashira district as a cosplay-friendly environment.
The city decided to launch a promotional campaign, noticing that cosplayers have been congregating at nearby 21 Seiki no Mori to Hiroba Park for photoshoots for several years. Together with the Yabashira Ekimae Chuo-Shotenkai shop owners association, which spearheaded the promotional efforts, the city has been posting posters of two girls, one in fantasy garb, with the phrase, “On weekends, I transform myself.” Incidentally, the girl on the left is wearing an outfit modeled after the actual Matsudo High School uniform.
Today in the most unsurprising non-news possibly ever: Yes, Japan is working on yet another creepy, borderline pedophilic virtual reality “game” where you interact in new, sleazy ways with a possibly underage girl.
This time, the new program in question is an Oculus Rift (the newer DK2, of course) game where the goal is to blow into a microphone and upturn virtual reality hottie Hatsune Miku’s skirt with your comically powerful virtual breath.
It might not be the most obvious choice for a Hollywood blockbuster, but ’80s classic Tetris will be getting a movie adaptation “sometime in the near future”, the Wall Street Journal reports. And Larry Kasanoff, chief executive of Threshold Entertainment, says the film will be a “sci-fi epic”!
Threshold Entertainment is the movie company behind Mortal Kombat, and they’ll be working together with The Tetris Company to develop a sci-fi film based on the classic game. “Everyone knows that Tetris is one of the best known, most beloved brands in the world,” Kasanoff said. “What everyone doesn’t know yet is this epic sci-fi story that we’re going to tell. That’s what’s really exciting.”
Japan is known for its succulent wagyu beef, but most people familiar with the meat probably wouldn’t expect it to be served as … a hamburger! But that’s exactly what Japanese fast food chain Lotteria is doing. And it’s not just a one-time promotion either; they’re serving a different kind of wagyu hamburger each month as a campaign over a period of about a year. And since the new hamburger they just released at the end of September involved a highly interesting ingredient for a hamburger, we simply had to go out and try it! Yes, it’s the “Tochigi Wagyu Steak Hamburger with Tochiotome Strawberry Sauce” (Tochigi Wagyu Hamburg Steak Burger (Tochiotome Sauce)), and we couldn’t wait to see how strawberries and wagyu mix!
Coca Cola is such a popular brand that it seems unnecessary to even have to explain the taste. Love it or hate it, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who’s never tried it. But how many of us have experienced the true essence of Coca Cola’s flavor and aroma?
Apparently, Coca Cola is like our brains in that we only make use of a faction of its true worth. By drinking it out of ordinary plastic cups, bottles made of ice, or gutters, precious flavor is squandered leaving you with a substandard product.
Enter premium wine glass maker Riedel and their glass designed to heighten the Coca Cola experience to new levels. We sent our resident Cokehead Mr. Sato down to the Japanese release of the Coca Cola + Riedel glass for a taste test.
Traditionally, Japanese resumes are handwritten on a special form. Recently, however, typed resumes are becoming more common – and one recruiter is not happy about this. Writing anonymously on Japanese website Hatelabo, the blogger, who works for a chain restaurant in Japan and is involved in recruitment, sets out his reasons for why an applicant who submits a typewritten resume should be the first to find their application on the “no” pile.
“You young people, don’t you have any common sense?” he asks of applicants with the typed resumes. “Are you crazy? In my day, this would have been unimaginable!” Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the handwritten CV.
Manga fans will probably be familiar with Shonen Jump, the weekly manga publication by Shueisha that has brought to us some of the hottest manga titles of all time, including One Piece, Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star), Slam Dunk, Naruto, and more recent hits such as Kuroko no Basuke (The Basketball that Kuroko Plays) and Haikyuu!!, just to name but a few.
Being the indisputable leader of the manga industry, Shueisha continues to mesmerize manga lovers with new titles, and now, online manga that moves. Ridiculously large, bouncing boobies after the break!
What would you get if you crossed the ancient capital of Japan with the massively successful Dragon Quest series of video games? Nope, it’s not a silly question, since this collaboration has already been realized in the form of “Nara Quest,” the funny title for a handful of amusing souvenirs from Nara Prefecture that parody the famous game franchise. Read on for a look at the clever goods!
Pizza Hut adds a “Guilty Secret” sandwich to its menu for a limited time
Studio Ghibli releases new Totoro and Jiji blankets to keep you cosy this winter
Game over for Classic Mini Famicom and Super Famicom as Nintendo announces end of repairs
Japan’s super-cheap corn snacks apologize for second-ever price increase in 45 years
New Jimmy Choo x Sailor Moon collaboration brings anime magic to bags, shoes and accessories
Eat Japanese prison food at this unique cafeteria in Abashiri
Right now is the peak time to go to Tokyo’s most-beautiful-view beer garden【Photos】
Kyoto temple suffering from littering tourists claiming not to understand Japanese verbal warning
Japan’s cooling body wipe sheets want to help you beat the heat, but which work and which don’t?
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goodsNew Jimmy Choo x Sailor Moon collaboration brings anime magic to bags, shoes and accessoriesRight now is the peak time to go to Tokyo’s most-beautiful-view beer garden【Photos】
Starbucks Japan releases a new Matcha Latte with Reusable Cup for the tourist market
Japanese cat island reveals all its cats will soon be gone
New Japanese Food Sample Making Cafe opens in Asakusa, Tokyo
The perks of drinking root beer at A&W in Japan
Disney young adult novels get new beautiful shojo anime-style covers for Japan
Some of the best Japanese fried chicken in Japan comes from this shack in the middle of nowhereJapan’s super-cheap corn snacks apologize for second-ever price increase in 45 years
New Hello Kitty x McDonald’s Japan collaboration is like a life lesson to live by 【Video】
Studio Ghibli releases free-download board game — Here’s how to play it without reading Japanese
Studio Ghibli lets you cosplay as Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle with cosy anime fashion range
New Hello Kitty McDonald’s Japan Happy Meal toys are here, and Kitty’s sister is part of the set
Starbucks teams up with the oldest of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns to create a Bizen ware coffee mug
Japanese government suspends plan to pay Tokyo women 600,000 to move away to get married
One of Tokyo’s most beautiful gardens gets its own moon for moon-viewing season
Starbucks Japan unveils new limited-edition Frappuccino for autumn
Matsushima restaurant offers all-you-can-eat sashimi in as many ways as you can dream it【Photos】
Super budget-friendly retro Tokyo hotel feels like having your own 1960s Asakusa apartment
Support Hayao Miyazaki’s real-world Totoro forest with hoodies featuring exclusive anime artMcDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Foreign tourists on Shinkansen bullet train break suitcase etiquette, angering local passengers
[Deleted] Article written for April Fool’s Day 2018
Sold-out Studio Ghibli desktop humidifiers are back so Totoro can help you through the dry season
Japanese government to make first change to romanization spelling rules since the 1950s
Foreigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
Ghibli founders Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki contribute to Japanese whisky Totoro label design
Doraemon found buried at sea as scene from 1993 anime becomes real life【Photos】
Tokyo’s most famous Starbucks is closed
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
Eat Japanese prison food at this unique cafeteria in Abashiri
Right now is the peak time to go to Tokyo’s most-beautiful-view beer garden【Photos】
Kyoto temple suffering from littering tourists claiming not to understand Japanese verbal warning
Japan’s cooling body wipe sheets want to help you beat the heat, but which work and which don’t?
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Kyoto becomes City of Yokai, with Night Parade of One Hundred Demons festival this autumn
Studio Ghibli releases giant Totoro plushies in Japan
McDonald’s ad in Japan causes controversy overseas
Expensive Japanese nail clippers: Are they worth it?
The results are in! One Piece World Top 100 characters chosen in global poll
Manga artist raises question online about false perspective in Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro
Tokyo’s famous Lost in Translation hotel is closed
New Pokémon Gaming Headset for Nintendo Switch will turn you into Pikachu