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Just what the heck is the Tokyo Olympics symbol supposed to be?

Back before Tokyo was selected as the host of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, the organizing committee started putting up posters around the capital touting its status as a candidate city. The logo was a circle of cherry blossoms using four of the five colors of the Olympic rings (with purple substituting for black).

You could say it was a clichéd choice, but on the other hand, it’d be hard to come up with a symbol more instantly associated with Japan than the sakura. Mt. Fuji, maybe, but it isn’t in Tokyo, and a piece of sushi would look more like a promotion for a restaurant than a sporting competition.

But perhaps because the cherry blossoms bloom in spring and Tokyo is hosting the Summer Games, the sakura ring isn’t going to be used for the actual 2020 Olympics and Paralympics themselves. Instead, Japan’s Olympic Committee recently came up with two new logos. In the eyes of some people in Japan, however, even though the designs embody a deep message, they’re lacking in aesthetic sense.

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Hakone volcano erupts on small scale

Ōwaku Valley, a part of Mount Hakone with high volcanic activity, has been showing more signs of an impending eruption recently.

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Top 10 acts of customer service that Japanese men would rather do without

In Japan customer service can be pretty unreal. Little things like taxi doors opening or closing automatically and complimentary reading glasses at check-out counters are harmless and go unnoticed by many locals, and are probably under-appreciated. Sometimes, however, the desire to please the customer and attend to their every need is a little over the top and some people find it just down-right annoying. 

Online research group iResearch surveyed a group of 200 male 20-somethings for their thoughts on “Which services do you secretly wish people would stop providing?” Some of the results are pretty understandable, but some of them make you wonder if the guys surveyed just hate people in general!

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Cute miniature collection reveals the everyday items used by Sailor Moon cast

Would you like to know what Sailor Moon and her pals eat for lunch? Or perhaps you’re curious to find out how they study or what they’d take along to the local shrine. Well now you can find out all that and more, with this gorgeous miniature collection!

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We go hands-on with “Pictuarium”, the virtual aquarium that brings your doodles to life!

Fish may make low-maintenance pets compared to cats and dogs, but they are still fragile creatures, and you may find that neglecting to clean the tank, forgetting to feed them, or letting their water get too warm in the summer months will send Bubbles to an early, watery grave. Even with utmost care, some fish don’t have very long lifespans, and no one likes saying goodbye to a beloved pet.

Well, now you can forgo the aquarium maintenance and not worry about the heartache, by creating your own invincible fishy friends and bringing them to life through your iPhone with Takara Tomy Arts’ new Pictuarium!

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McDonald’s attempts to lure back customers with open kitchen concept in Japan

It’s no secret that McDonald’s Japan has been on a slippery slope following several food safety scandals in recent years. In 2014, the fast food giant reported its first annual loss in 11 years, which amounted to 21.84 billion yen (around US$176 million).

In an effort to restore trust and reaffirm their commitment to quality assurance, the fast food chain recently fitted out two stores in Japan with an “open kitchen” design, allowing customers to get an inside view of operations to see just how orders are made, from start to finish.

But will this be enough to bring customers back to the golden arches?

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Just how confusing is Japanese onsen culture for a first time visitor?

Onsen etiquette can be confusing for a foreigner visiting for the first time, and there are many small rules and customs that even many Japanese people aren’t quite clear on. There aren’t usually any written instructions around the baths as it is expected that everyone will already know the basic customs surrounding communal bathing. This means that things people who have grown up in Japan take for granted, such as putting your shoes in a locker when you arrive or knowing which towels to use for what, can be hard to figure out for first-timers, and your supposedly relaxing spa break can become a little bit stressful.

Check out the video below to see how our Japan Wish competition winner Ashley navigated her first ever trip to an onsen and see if she found it relaxing…or stressful!

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Lotteria wins us over with two amazing new potato chip burgers

Lotteria Japan has done it again. Just when we thought nothing could beat their ramen noodle burgers, they bring out these little beauties. No more dreaming of salty, crunchy potato chips smothered in sauce and stuffed inside your favourite burger because Lotteria has finally made our dreams a reality!

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Counting in Japanese just became a whole lot easier with this handy infographic

One of the beautiful (or painful, depending on how you look at it) aspects of the Japanese language is its complex system of numbers and counting methods. For starters, there are two commonly used systems of numbers–often referred to as the Sino-Japanese numbers and the native Japanese numbers–that are used in different contexts, as well as a seemingly limitless number of counter words. Confused yet?

So how the heck do you become a master of Japanese numbers? Well, a good way to start is by checking out this handy-dandy infographic put out by Japanese Video Cast! 

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Collection of retro travel posters proves Japan has always been a cool place to visit 【Photos】

Last year, over 13 million foreign visitors took a trip to Japan. Many of the country’s best attractions, though, are actually hundreds of years old. That means that while they’ve been drawing more international travelers than ever in the 21st century, they were hardly being ignored in the 20th, as shown by this collection of retro-cool travel posters from the early and mid-1900s.

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Four common workplace occurrences that could land you in hot water in Japan

A Japanese website recently published a list of four commonly occurring behaviors at work which are actually considered to be crimes by Japanese law. The scariest thing is that regardless of where you are in the world, you might have been doing them all along!

Perhaps take a moment to check whether you have explicit permission before doing any of the following four things at your place of employment, or else you could find yourself in a legal mess in the worst case scenario.

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Disney selling ultra-premium backpacks for Japanese schoolkids exclusively inside its Tokyo parks

A while back, we talked about adult fashionistas, including actress Zooey Deschanel, who’d become smitten with the boxy Japanese backpacks called randoseru. In Japan, though, randoseru are strictly for the prepubescent set, as they’re exclusively used by elementary school students.

That’s not to say that kids don’t appreciate a nice-looking bag, though, which is why Disney is getting in on the randoseru game, with a line of backpacks that can only be purchased inside its Tokyo theme parks, and cost the equivalent of several hundred dollars.

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In Japanese high schools, it’s customary for the band to accompany the baseball team to important games. Saitama’s Namegawa Sogo High even mixes in some modern musical stylings, as Queen’s “We Will Rock You” showed up on their set list for a recent contest in the prefectural championship tournament.

Of course, such a bombastic tune coming from the stands requires equal flamboyance from the players, and one student athlete responded with the craziest batter’s box warmup we’ve ever seen.

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Japanese Twitter celebrates new “Muslim Lolita fashion” trend 【Pics】

Japanese culture has spread throughout the world with food, anime, video games, and more. But one region that hasn’t taken in as much of what Japan has to offer as the rest of the world is the Middle East and other Muslim countries.

Until now. Pictures of young Muslim women incorporating Japanese Lolita fashion with their traditional hijab head scarves have been exploding in popularity online. Could this start a new trend toward Muslim idol groups and cosplay conventions?

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Square Enix to release Dragon Quest game exclusive to smartphones

Game developer Square Enix, renowned for its number of long-running Japanese RPG series, announced yesterday that a new, smartphone-only entry in the fabled Dragon Quest franchise will hit online stores sometime this year.

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We try Japan’s top-ranked hotel breakfast for ourselves, find out if it’s worth the trip to Kobe

For anyone who has stayed in a Japanese hotel, you know that the breakfast can be a little lacking. We aren’t talking about a ryokan, which is a Japanese-style inn that prepares a special Japanese breakfast for all their guests, because those kinds of hotels are in a class of their own. In most hotels, there are rice balls, miso soup and maybe a cabbage salad mix.

Luckily, TripAdvisor Japan compiled a list of the best hotel breakfasts of 2015, and the same hotel breakfast held its spot at number one again this year. That fact piqued our curiosity, so we decided to head to Kobe and try the breakfast for ourselves.

Does it live up to its reputation? Find out after the jump!

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New anime Gate entertains, tries to recruit you to the Japan Self-Defense Forces at the same time

We’ve seen the Japanese Self-Defense Forces get quite creative with trying to entice new recruits, but never before have we seen them do an all-out official collaboration with an anime.

And Gate is the perfect anime for them to team up with. It’s about the JSDF traveling through a portal to another world, taking down monsters, teaming up with cute girls, and just generally making it look like joining them would be the most amazing thing ever.

You can bet the JSDF is milking it for every last drop they can, starting with posters that are giving us a strange urge to visit our local recruitment center.

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The star chart in Kitora Tomb in Nara is the oldest in the world…but where was it made?

Japan’s kofun are ancient burial mounds that can be found throughout the country in a wide range of sizes and shapes. They’re great sources for learning about the past, covering multiple centuries of Japanese history. Collectively, they offer remarkable glimpses into the life of Japan from the third to the seventh centuries CE.

Kitora Kofun is one of Japan’s smaller kofun, but since its discovery in 1983, it’s proven to be incredibly valuable for historians. With an exhibit focusing on the tomb coming up later this year, some extra work has gone into analyzing the star chart used to decorate one of the walls — and researchers have come to some surprising conclusions about its origin!

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We visit Tokuyama’s Cockroach Fest to take on the “Cockroach Encounter”【Photos】

Late last week, we told you about an event being held by Tokuyama Zoo this summer: the Cockroach Fest. One of the attractions listed was the horrific sounding “cockroach encounter,” but we didn’t have any details about just what kind of encounter it was. Being a naturally curious bunch with a masochistic streak a mile wide, we decided to dispatch a reporter to find out. 

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Pixar alters Inside Out’s visuals for Japanese release, removes broccoli

If you’re an anime purist, you’ve probably watched at least one title with a localization choice that rubbed you the wrong way. Maybe you were irked by Sailor Moon’s Usagi being called “meatball head” on American T.V. instead of “dango/dumpling head.” More recently, you might have wondered why Doraemon’s central family ditched all their chopsticks and now eat their Japanese food with forks in their U.S. appearances.

But localization runs in the other direction, too, and it’s just come to light that Pixar has altered part of the artwork in several scenes of Inside Out solely for the film’s Japanese release.

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