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From the mouths of babes – Kids share their thoughts on love, war and everything in between

Philip Kendall
Aug 18, 2014
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Last week, we shared a rather unusual ad from Ryugin, an Okinawa-based bank whose approach to selling loans involves robots, doe-eyed anime girls and more pink hearts than you can shake a stick at. As it turns out, this same banking corporation has quite the eye for attention-grabbing ads, as we’ve just discovered an older TV spot from the same company, titled Children and Philosophy, which poses a series of mostly abstract questions to a group of elementary school kids.

Responding to questions about everything from love and war to what it means to be free, the kids’ answers are at once refreshing, thought-provoking, and painfully sweet, to the point that we’re starting to wonder if they’re the ones who ought to be in charge of the world. Full video after the jump.

Lamborghini Murcielago was such a hot ride it burned to death on the Tokyo expressway

Casey Baseel
Aug 18, 2014

With Tokyo’s extremely efficient public transportation system, there really isn’t much need to ever drive anywhere in downtown. Still, if you’re the owner of a sweet sports car, we imagine you’d be itching to take it out for a spin whenever you get the chance, especially on a day like last Sunday, when the city was blessed with perfect driving weather. The skies were clear, the humidity was remarkably low for a Japanese summer, and the temperature was pleasingly warm.

Things got a little too hot for the driver of one Lamborghini, though, whose exotic Italian car went up in flames on the Tokyo expressway.

Space retro to steam punk: Sailor Moon girls get awesome makeovers

Oona McGee
Aug 18, 2014

They might appear cute and doe-eyed in the original Japanese animated series, but we all know Sailor Moon girls are bad-ass. From a girl who throws flames to a chick with the power to annihilate an entire planet or star system, this is definitely a group you don’t want to mess with.

Fans are now taking the warrior characters out of the Japanese school yard and re-designing them with costumes, expressions and rendered environments that portray them as alternative, post-feminist, pop culture heroes. Take a look at the team as you’ve never seen them before – bruised after a battle or hanging out in cyber worlds, these are girls who fight, love and never run away.

Last night, a fast food delivery guy gave me 10 yen and it made my day

Philip Kendall
Aug 18, 2014

After living here for any decent length of time, it’s easy to grow tired of the seemingly endless slew of blogs either singing Japan’s praises or celebrating its weirdness. But the thing is, there’s a reason so many of them exist. While many of the claims bloggers in Japan make are somewhat exaggerated or simply rehashes of the same experiences foreigners arriving in the country decades earlier had, there are nevertheless times when living in Japan can make you realise that the country is actually quite special.

Just last night, for example, I found myself the recipient of a tiny but powerful gesture that made me feel – after more than eight years of living here – that Japan is pretty damn cool sometimes.

Last night, dear reader, a fast food company gave me 10 yen. That’s about US$0.09.

If you were in a circus, what would you be? Your choice reveals your weakness!

Joan Coello
Aug 18, 2014

It seems like the Japanese are not the only ones crazy about personality tests. According to this one introduced by Weekly Pass, a Korean blog powered by Naver, the roles in a circus can unveil your hidden weakness!

First, imagine you’re a member of the circus. If you could choose between an entertaining clown, a beast tamer, a tightrope walker and a popular magician, which role do you imagine yourself taking on?

Have you decided? Now, read on to find out what your Achilles heel might be!

We try a “half-raw chicken cutlet” at Suda Shoten, it’s even rawer than advertised!

Master Blaster
Aug 18, 2014

Always on the pulse of new restaurant openings, Mr. Sato hit the streets of Kabukicho to try out a new grilled chicken (yakitori) establishment. It was opened in conjunction with Jiromaru, a barbecued beef place much loved by our reporter for its small portions but interesting variety of cuts.

Because of the association with Jiromaru, Mr. Sato’s expectations were high for Sumibi Yakitori Suda Shoten. However, as he approached the menu posted in front, one item in particular shocked the man whom we thought unflappable after attempting to eat a cheeseburger with over 1,000 strips of bacon.

It was a breaded chicken cutlet but written in parentheses was “half-raw.” Sure, steaks are often ordered in such a way, but chicken?! And so Mr. Sato, who doesn’t know the meaning of “salmonella,” went in to try some out.

A gourmet family restaurant? Six reasons why you should go to a Denny’s in Japan

Kay
Aug 18, 2014

Have you ever been to a Denny’s in Japan? If not, Yoshio, one of the reporters from our Japanese site, thinks it would be worth your while to make a visit to the family restaurant when you’re in Japan. Why? Well, Denny’s in Japan has quite a varied and tasty menu that’s quite different from what you can get in the United States. In fact, Yoshio says that one of his American friends even calls Denny’s in Japan the “gourmet Denny’s”! So, today we bring you six reasons from Yoshio why Denny’s in Japan is a great eatery that you should visit if you have the chance, and may even be the first restaurant you should go to in Japan.

Welcome to the cosplay scene at Comiket…wait, what’s going on there??

Krista Rogers
Aug 18, 2014

It’s that time of the year again! Comiket, the world’s largest dōjinshi fair that’s held twice per year, is currently in full swing again at Tokyo Big Sight on Odaiba, the artificial island located in Tokyo Bay. Manga fans from around the world are lining up in droves and enduring hour-long waits in the hot sun just to get into the exhibition rooms that are jam-packed with merchandise.

Naturally, a comic festival as big as Comiket draws a ton of cosplayers, and while there are some truly impressive costumes out there, there are some other, shall we say, more unusual sights to be seen. Take the above picture, for example–what on earth is happening here??

Enjoy some Shan cuisine with a side order of caterpillars at Tokyo’s Nong Inlay restaurant

Master Blaster
Aug 17, 2014

Recent studies have been suggesting that the human race would be far better off adopting an insect diet in order to preserve the environment. However, anytime we see a culture who partakes in edible insects they always look incredibly unappetizing.

Why is insect the one food that people refuse to cut up when eating? When I order a salad the restaurant doesn’t toss a head of lettuce on my table, and yet order a plate of crickets and it’d be a miracle if they even pull the antennae off before serving.

Still, if mass insect consumption is on the horizon and chefs refuse to make them not look like insects while eating, we’re going to have to get used to it. That’s exactly why a couple of our writers, Felix Sayaka and Ikuko Kawamura went down to Nong Inlay in Shinjuku to try out some caterpillars along with some other dishes out of the Shan State of Myanmar.

Travel Warning: Beware Taiwan’s creepy zombie bus driver

Mike
Aug 17, 2014

I can only imagine what it would be like for a tourist from some far off country to inadvertently disembark in the United States right in time for the Halloween holiday. Stepping off the plane to be surrounded by blood-covered nurses, mad scientists and cackling witchcraft wielders would be extremely traumatizing for someone not specifically told that people are going to be walking around in costume like it’s no big deal.

Well, now I sort of have an idea of what that might feel like now that I’ve watched this YouTube video of a Taiwanese bus company that decided to replace its bus driver with a creepy zombie for Taiwan’s annual Hungry Ghost Festival.

“Office lady in heels walking on tatami”: The mysterious world of Japanese fetishism

Fran W
Aug 17, 2014

When I left England for Japan in 2011, I received a card from four schoolfriends of mine. “Keep in touch!” the girls had written. “Have a great time!” The one guy in the group had a slightly different message for me: “Enjoy the tentacle rape porn!”

While for many, Japan evokes imagery of ancient temples, plates of sushi, and Shinkansen, it is also known as the land of crazy weird sex stuff. (Tentacle erotica, by the way, is much older and, I might add, much rarer than you might think). So when we stumbled across (I know, right! I can’t remember what we were looking for in the first place, either!) a Japanese blog post about surprising sexual fetishes, we knew it was worth sharing.

“What’s your fetish? An introduction to the fetishes you won’t believe exist” runs the title of the list, compiled by 26-year-old Japanese NEET Nura Hikaru. We bring you our top three, plus a few bonus ideas for good measure.

Man calls girlfriend a pig for not looking like his anime crush, still not done being a jerk

Casey Baseel
Aug 17, 2014

If we accept the premise that nobody’s perfect, being in a happy romantic relationship is all about learning to take the good with the bad. For example, your boyfriend might like going to the horse track regularly, but if he’s an otherwise financially responsible and emotionally considerate person, you might be able to live with him playing the ponies. Likewise, my wife puts up with my numerous shortcomings as a human being in light of my many redeeming qualities, such as…umm…

But hey, we’re not here to talk about me! We’re here to talk about a woman whose boyfriend was obsessed with his anime crush, and wasn’t quite able to make up for it by calling his girlfriend a lazy pig.

Mr. Sato goes discount women’s clothes shopping and discovers a shocking secret

Master Blaster
Aug 17, 2014

One day, while Mr. Sato was off-duty, he was doing some shopping around Nakano Broadway in Tokyo. This shopping plaza is sometimes called a “mecca of subculture” for its various stores peddling old books and figures. Of course, Nakano Broadway has many other shops including grocery and household item stores.

In particular, the first floor is filled with women’s clothing shops selling items at rock-bottom prices. On a complete whim Mr. Sato steered into one shop boasting every item for only 575 yen (US$5.60). As if guided by a mysterious force, Mr. Sato entered this store. Little did he know that he was being guided… by the god of rock.

Wrap your feet in raw fish fashion with a pair of sushi socks!

Oona McGee
Aug 17, 2014

What better way to stand out from the crowd than in a pair of sushi socks! Featuring all the firm favourites, from tuna to egg roll, this unique range of legwear is gearing up to be one of the most sought-after products on the Japanese market this summer. Not only do they look great on your feet, they look even better rolled up because that’s when they actually resemble the real thing! Check out the entire collection and see which ones you’d like to have in your bedroom drawers.

Bomb-diffusing cop is also finalist in male beauty pageant, looks gorgeous both in and out of uniform

Cara Clegg
Aug 17, 2014

Is this the best-looking guy in the Philippines? You might think he’s an actor from some detective drama, but he’s actually a real life cop, and now also a male beauty pageant participant. The muscular man in uniform (and often out of it) has captured hearts across the Philippines and is currently enjoying a burst of celebrity, although he swears show business isn’t for him.

Drunken burglar caught in an unexpected situation, “flies” out a window from the fifth floor

Joan Coello
Aug 16, 2014

It’s never a good choice to try to drown your sorrows with alcohol when you feel like you’re down on luck. As the saying goes, it never rains but it pours and when you’re down and out, not to mention drunk, there’s a high possibility that shit is going to happen.

Let’s not even get into drunk driving; Taiwanese news site ETToday recently reported a bizarre case of a drunken man who broke into someone’s house, and eventually jumped out of a window from the fifth floor, landing him in the hospital. How exactly did all that come together? Details after the break!

Portuguese man-of-war creating beaches of sadness in Japan with its terrible toxic tentacles

Casey Baseel
Aug 16, 2014

With just a few weeks left before September, beach lovers in Japan are trying to sneak in a few last trips to the coast. A late summer trip to the shore means you’ll have to be on the lookout for jellyfish, but the good news is they don’t seem to be out in full force yet.

The bad news, though, is that Kanagawa Prefecture has something that looks sort of like a jellyfish but is even worse, with some people having spotted the Portuguese man-of-war.

Can’t get curry in your belly without getting it on your clothes? Kill the stain with the sun

Casey Baseel
Aug 16, 2014

A few days after I started doing homestay in Tokyo, I sat down for a meal with my host family, picked up a morsel of food with my chopsticks, and promptly dropped it onto my shirt. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to using chopsticks soon enough,” they encouragingly told me, but the fact of the matter is that I’m just an incredibly messy and clumsy eater.

My choice of utensil doesn’t really seem to make much of a difference. Curry, for example, is eaten with a spoon in Japan, and I’ve still managed to spill spicy roux on myself plenty of times, usually when I’m wearing a new shirt. Thankfully, though, there’s apparently an easy way to get curry stains out: sunlight.

Fear Factor meets Next Top Model in China’s modeling competition extravaganza

KK Miller
Aug 16, 2014

Modeling is a tough business. You need the body, the face, and perhaps the most difficult thing to achieve: the walk. All the top models must combine these three components perfectly. In an industry that is so difficult to break into, a reality TV competition where the winners are whisked off to Italy for a potential professional modeling career could be just the chance an aspiring model is looking for! But these contestants will have to show off more than just their good looks to win this competition. What do these model wannabes have to do to prove their worth for this Chinese TV show? It might just bug some people.

Felt crafting gets bonus cute points with Natsume’s Book of Friends’ Nyanko-Sensei

Anime News Network
Aug 16, 2014

If you’ve spent enough time loitering around Etsy or Pinterest, you might already know of the ludicrously adorable world of needle felting, and people’s propensities for adorable needle-felted animal crafts. (A cursory search on Etsy also turns up felt Pokémon and Ghibli critters.)

For those just plunging into the world of felt crafting, though, there are plenty of books and kits out there that can show you the way and provide you instructions. Including this one from MOE magazine and crafts author Susa Suna Tomoko (previous works include a book on felt dogs, cats, and woodland creatures).