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We try McDonald’s American Funky BBQ Chicken, smells much nicer than the name implies

On 18 February, McDonald’s Japan began selling its third and final installment of the “American Vintage Series.” Called the American Funky BBQ Chicken and American Funky BBQ Beef respectively, the pair are intended to symbolize the material world of 1980’s America. We’re not really sure how it does that, but meh, when it comes to a new burger flavor the reason for its creation is incidental.

Hungry like the wolf, our material-girl reporter Meg ran, ran so far away to the nearest McDonald’s to take on an American Funky BBQ Chicken for a test taste. Is it worthy to be her brand new lover or will it just be a case of tainted love leaving her doing the reflex over the toilet bowl?

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  • Feb 20, 2014

Oh my! Our brave reporter feeds his face to a group of flesh-eating fish

While the thought of feeding on dead skin cells may not sound particularly appetizing to you or me, it can actually be a treat for some creatures, including the fish Garra rufa, or doctor fish as they’re commonly known. These little aquatic “doctors” are well-known in Japan as a form of skin treatment, and there are many facilities where you can have a whole tank full of the fish nibble on your hands or feet.  Now, it so happens that one of the reporters at our Japanese site came up with a brilliant idea — if the fish can clean and beautify the skin on your hands and feet, then couldn’t they also give you an amazing facial if you stuck your face in the tank? Well, there was only one way to find out, wasn’t there?

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Fans rank their biggest live-action anime adaptation fails

The college-oriented Japanese web site MyNavi Student, capitalizing on the recent Parasyte live-action film announcement, asked 599 people which live-action adaptations of anime they felt were the biggest failures. Here are the results.

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Mario welcomes the PlayStation 4 to Japan like a gang leader protecting his turf

Despite electronics giant Sony being a Japanese company, its PlayStation 4 video game console sure has taken its sweet making it to stores in Japan. The next generation system was released in the U.S., Canada, and Europe last November, since racking up over five million units sold, but Japanese gamers still have a few days to go before the PlayStation4 becomes available here on February 22.

The upcoming big day hasn’t escaped the notice of rival video game maker Nintendo, which has decided to welcome Sony’s competing product by cutting prices on its own titles.

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Pocari Sweat sports drink aims to be the first beverage to land on the moon

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for…electrolytes?

The makers of Pocari Sweat, the unfortunately named Japanese sports drink with a salty flavor reminiscent of actual sweat, have just announced plans to launch the bottle beverage into space, hopefully making it the first drink to ever set foot bottle on the moon.

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Security camera catches a Chinese man trying to murder his girlfriend by shoving her down a manhole

A CCTV security camera in Haikou, China captured what looks like a man shoving a woman down a manhole then covering up the spot with cardboard. The incident happened in mid-December but the video is making its way around the Internet right now.

The pair reportedly had a relationship and the man owed her $20,000.

The woman was rescued 60 hours later when she was heard crying for help. The manhole was three meters deep, according to TomoNews. The woman tried to make a ladder out of clothes but it didn’t work.

“I did not sleep at all the first night I fell in the manhole,” the woman, Guo, was quoted as saying. “I could see the darkness around me. I thought that I would not be choked to death if I looked up.”

Here’s the video of what appears to be attempted murder and of the rescue.

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Tiny Suzuki scores one for the little guys by pulling huge big rig out of the snow 【Video】

As someone who grew up surrounded by full-sized American automobiles, I admit I chuckled a little when I first came to Japan and saw the country’s kei cars. As time went by though, I began to see how these super subcompact cars meshed with Japan’s transportation needs, as they sipped gas and slid easily down the country’s narrow roads.

But it turns out that kei – meaning “light” – cars aren’t just practical. The right one might even get you out of a jam, as this video of a heroic Suzuki saving a truck stranded in the snowstorm that hit the Tokyo area last week.

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Cute 13yo Thai-German talent speaks five languages and sings with the best of them

Meet Jannine Parawie Weigel. Like any 13-year-old girl, she enjoys lemonade, pizza, the color pink, and Hunger Games (the movie not, you know, actual hunger games). She also speaks five languages, plans to get a bachelor’s degree by the time she’s 16 and was already signed to GMM Grammy, Thailand’s largest media company.

And if you don’t feel like you’re underachieving enough yet, she also has the face and voice of an angel, and by all accounts seems like a genuinely well-mannered young woman. Now before you pick up that revolver, enjoy the song-stylings of this up-and-coming Thai-German wunderkind.

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While Japan’s capital does indeed have the giant TV screens and vivid neon signs that Hollywood movies use as shorthand for “Tokyo,” a lot of advertising in the cities comes from plain old-fashioned legwork, particularly in the entertainment and red light districts. Opening a new restaurant? Trying to drum up business for you hostess bar? In either case, you put an employee on the street, flagging down prospective customers and giving them your establishment’s sales pitch, and even guiding them to the entrance if need be.

However, officials are looking to shut down this face-to-face marketing practice, known in Japanese as kyaku hiki (literally “customer pulling”) in one of Tokyo’s biggest tourist draws, the anime and video gaming mecca of Akihabara.

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Local residents in China sell cartop snowmen to tourists

Making a snowman is one of the simple pleasures of winter (or a really great way to cope with the freezing cold). But would you ever buy a snowman that someone else has made? Several visitors to one city in China have and more are sure to follow.

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A flood of scooters at the drive-through marks the opening of Vietnam’s first McDonald’s

You may have been under the impression that McDonald’s has already taken over the world. But even though it has already succeeded in introducing the Big Mac to over 120 countries or territories around the globe, it still has a few places left to conquer. Up until now, Vietnam was, perhaps surprisingly, one of those places. But not anymore with the grand opening of Vietnam’s first McDonald’s shop, which also happens to be Vietnam’s first drive-through restaurant and first 24-hour chain store. Opening day proved to be a smashing success with hordes of people flocking to sink their teeth into a juicy burger. Interestingly, due to the prevalence of scooters in Vietnam, the drive-through line was almost completely composed of people driving not cars, but scooters! Join us for a look at some opening day scenes with pictures taken by people who were there.

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Hand-carved Gundam figure is ready for battle, bazookas and all

What would you do if you had a father-in-law who made handmade gifts like the one in this photo? Well, if you’re a hardcore Gundam fan, you’d probably be pretty ecstatic. A few days ago, one Japanese netizen tweeted a photo of his father-in-law’s hand-carved Gundam figurine complete with giant bazookas. It gets even cooler because this isn’t even the first one that was made! You won’t believe the following photos showcasing one man’s incredible artistic talent.

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Models from Shoko Nakagawa and Chiaki’s talent company donned Peach John Sailor Moon–inspired intimates in a recent magazine ad campaign.

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15 Japanese students who are really nailing this high school thing

High school is a drag, especially in Japan. Along with all the typical tests and homework that come with being a student, there’s a seemingly never-ending list of rules (you must wear special indoor shoes, wear a mask if you’re sick, open all the windows in the dead of winter to ventilate the room) that are enough to make even the most diligent of students want to scream. That’s why these Japanese students are really nailing this high school thing. Not only have they found a way to have a little fun amongst the stress and pressure of school life, they’re pulling it off with style and creativity that not only brings a smile to their own faces, but the faces of procrastinating netizens all over the world. Nailed it!

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This game-engrossed woman indirectly caused someone to poop in their pants

These days, it’s not a rare sight to see people playing games on their mobile devices while riding the train or waiting for a bus, or even sneaking in a round or two at work when no one’s looking. It’s understandable that sometimes a worker might need a breather, and a few quick minutes crushing candies, battling monsters, or “farming” on the smartphone could be a great stress reliever. But guess what happens when the whole office is engrossed in games? Somebody shits in their pants.

Or at least that’s what happened at the Liquan County Public Office in Shaanxi Province, China. For real.

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Bunny stampede! The joys of Rabbit Island【Video】

Everyone loves rabbits! With their long ears, adorable noses, cute plump bodies, and prophetic abilities, they’re almost as loveable as penguins or kittens!

And fortunately for all you rabbit lovers out there, a veritable rabbit paradise exists in the form of Ōkunoshima, an island just 3.4 kilometers (about 2.1 miles) off the coast of Japan’s Hiroshima Prefecture! Here hundreds of wild bunnies romp freely and openly around the island–happy to bound up to humans for food. You don’t know cute until you’ve seen a literal “rabbit stampede!”

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Survivor of North Korean gulags makes wrenching drawings of what happens inside

“Pump torture. After sitting, you stand about a hundred times.”

A United Nations panel has accused North Korea of crimes against humanity, including systematic extermination, “murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence … and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.”

The report is based on a year of public hearings with about 80 witnesses as well as confidential interviews with another 240 victims, including people who’d spent time in North Korean prison camps and experts.

Kim Kwang-il, a 48-year-old man who spent two years in a prison in North Korea, defected to South Korea in February 2009 and subsequently had professional artists draw sketches based on his recollections of torture and the conditions of prisoner life. Some of these were included in the report.

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Special edition Metal Gear Solid V PS4 is kind of uninspired, will probably sell by the bucketload

Never shy of releasing a special edition product or two, Japan’s Konami Corporation has announced a limited “Fox Edition” Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes-themed PlayStation 4 console just for Japanese gamers ahead of the game’s release on March 20.

We’re sure the console will appeal to some people’s tastes and fans will no doubt want to add it to their collection of MGS merch, but quite honestly we’re not entirely bowled over by the design Konami went with.

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It’s high time for a knee-high sock smartphone game

Japan’s got a somewhat unusual obsession with knee-high socks, with enthusiasts having come up with no fewer than two days a year to celebrate their love of thin-covering legwear. Of course, the country has the other, less unusual fetish of exposed skin.

But what about smartphone users who can’t pick between the two? Isn’t there a way to satisfy both their cravings at once?

Why yes there is, with a new app that lets users swipe the screen to make a model raise or lower her socks.

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The Olympics gives the world’s most talented athletes a chance to show their abilities to people all over the globe. It also gives the world’s most wealthy marketers a chance to show their products to that same audience.

Among the Games’ biggest sponsors is Samsung, whose Galaxy Note 3 was granted the title of official phone of the Sochi Olympics in thanks of its manufacturer’s generosity. Some reports are claiming that the Korean electronics maker isn’t showing a respect for healthy competition, though, by asking athletes with iPhones to make sure they cover the Apple logo when on-camera.

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