Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
Honda, Toyota, Subaru, Nissan, Mazda; American car companies have always had fierce competition with their Japanese counterparts. But the American car company Chrysler is trying to change that with the recent release of a very clever commercial for their 2015 Chrysler 200 that respectfully acknowledges Japanese quality while at the same time turning heads in their own direction.
Sometimes, after a long day of napping and begging for treats, a cat’s just gotta get out of the house. And what better way to get around than by Japan’s famously on-time and impeccably clean railway? If you’re still walking or taking taxis to your desired destination, take a lesson from these street-smart felines and hop on a train!
The unexpected eruption of Mount Ontake on September 27 claimed the lives of 56 hikers, leaving family members to try to understand why their loved ones had been taken so suddenly. But out of this tragedy comes a heartwarming gesture, giving the family of one victim the chance to get back a small piece of their father who never made it down the mountain that day.
Last weekend, shoppers at Q’s Mall in the Abeno district of Osaka were treated to an appearance by this (unidentified) middle-aged man dressed in the typical garb of a Japanese junior school student. Unfazed by the public gaze, he posed for pictures and smiled for shoppers who paused to take in his… unusual choice of attire.
Monty is a four-year-old rescue cat who’s amassed fans from all over the world. He suffers from a rare chromosomal abnormality causing him to be born without a nasal bridge. And Monty’s owners are hoping their cat will show the world that ‘looking different doesn’t mean you can’t be fantastic!’
Join us after the jump for more adorable photos of this happy little chap!
The “magical girl” anime trope is well-established in Japan. Usually, a high-school girl discovers she has magical powers and bands together with her classmates who also have magical powers in order to save the world from evil forces. But what if, instead of pretty magical girls, we had boys instead? Pretty, magical boys? Well, new series Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu LOVE (Pretty High School Boys Save The World Club LOVE) is here to break down gender stereotypes (or just pander to the female love of pretty boys) with their brand-new anime show which launches in 2015 (and, oh, there’s a video game, too…)
It’s been a pretty rough year for McDonald’s in Japan, in the same way that getting hit by a bus on your way to work would make for a rough morning. Following a widely reported scandal in which the chain had been supplied with expired chicken by a meat processing facility in China, McDonald’s has been trying everything it can think of to lure diners back, such as giving away Chicken McNuggets for free, replacing the meat with tofu, and trying to take our mind off the incident entirely by pulling our attention towards pork cutlets instead.
After all, a restaurant chain can’t survive without customers, right? There’s one other thing you need to run a business though: employees, and these days McDonald’s is finding itself losing those, too.
Foreign visitors and residents who haven’t yet gotten far off the beaten path in Japan might not recognize all of the final destinations of trains that depart Tokyo Station. Some of the various lines that intersect at the rail hub lead to places like Takao, Choshi, and Kurihama, none of which are exactly world-famous (even if the last one does have an awesome Godzilla slide).
The other day, though, one of the platform displays at Tokyo Station announced a train destination plenty of non-Japanese passengers are familiar with: New York.
Against much public backlash, two reactors at a nuclear power plant in Sendai are scheduled to be restarted. These will be the first to restart operations after all the country’s nuclear plants were shut down indefinitely following the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011.
While the average human has not yet come unstuck in time, it doesn’t mean we’re completely at a loss when it comes to time travel. Yes, we may only move in a singular direction, but at least have artifacts from the past to help us look back! Everything from old photos to old pottery help us dig through our murky cultural memory to see how things used to be.
And, thanks to Zenrin, a Japanese mapping company based in Oita Prefecture, now you can travel internationally with their collection of digital maps from the Edo and Meiji periods. Whether you think England is a conspiracy of cartographers or you know the name of every mapmaker since Babylonia, there’s something here for everyone!
While the vast majority of Japan’s population is crammed onto its four largest islands, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido, the country’s territories extend much farther out to sea. For example, if you head about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) south of downtown Tokyo, you’ll come to the Ogasawara Islands, one of Japan’s most remote settlements.
We’ve talked about the Ogasawaras before, and how their beautiful ocean scenery has been helping to attract tourists (and perhaps even a new chef), to the archipelago. Recently, though, the islands have been seeing an increasing number of extremely unwelcome visitors, in the form of ships coming from China to poach coral.
With the Internet being what it is today, you can talk to, look at pictures of, even buy things from people all over the world. It’s pretty amazing, really. But, as with all international exchanges, sometimes there are some cultural misunderstandings going on across the Interwebs.
One Reddit user, unsure of how to react, recently posted a picture of a letter that he received with his package from an eBay seller in Japan. In addition to the following, very polite and sincere-sounding letter, in pretty good English, the seller included a free gift!
While in Los Angeles to accept an honorary award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, famed director Hayao Miyazaki mentioned that he has a new anime in the works, giving his fans around the globe huge smiles and racing pulses.
With no production timetable yet in place, though, we’re in for a bit of a wait until we can see the new anime. No one’s sure exactly how long that wait is going to be, but it’s probably going to be long enough that maintaining the level of excitement caused by Miyazaki’s comment isn’t going to be good for your heart. So if a few deep breaths aren’t enough to calm you down, we recommend taking a few moments to relax with this adorable Totoro stuffed animal that naps and murmurs in its sleep, just like the anime film original.
Even if you’re not an anime fan, you’ve no doubt heard that the hugely popular ninja series Naruto has finally reached its climax after more than 15 years. It’s never fun when a beloved show or serial comes to an end, and fans are often left searching for something new to fill the void in their lives that opens up when they do, but when you have a back-catalogue as rich and extensive as Naruto‘s, revisiting older instalments is sure to provide hours, if not weeks of pleasure.
Which, it seems, it precisely what Naruto‘s publisher is hoping both diehard fans and latecomers alike will do next, and is providing them with free issues of the manga and anime episodes direct to their smartphones via a brand new app for iOS and Android.
Models, a tiger-head backpack, and one confused Kim Jong-un impersonator–it’s not exactly a list of participants to inspire confidence when it comes to “fan-made” dance videos. Notice the lack of anyone with solid dancing skills here. While we’re sure that all of the folks that appear dancing in this video set to the Chinese hit “Memeda” by Lin Meixi and Xia Wenxi have their own unique talents, it is immediately obvious that moving in a rhythmic fashion in unison is not one of them…
What’s this? At first glance, it looks like a picture of some bread, and very tasty-looking golden brown bread too. But wait, is the bread … glowing? Is it some trick of the eye, or is there something seriously wrong with the bread? Well, neither, in this case. This eye-catching item, found by one of the reporters at our sister site Pouch, is actually a lamp, so it’s supposed to glow. What makes the product unique, though, is that it’s made from real bread! Join us for a look at the different types of bread that have been turned masterfully into a light source!
We now join CSI: New York Season 8, Episode 17: Unwrapped already in progress…
Dr. Sheldon Hawkes is busy trying to piece together fragments of a porcelain figure recovered by detectives Messer and Flack. With any luck this figure may be a clue to the mysterious murder of Kelvin Moore, a successful accountant who was trying to give back to his community.
When the figure is complete they find it’s in the shape of a cat. Not only that, it has a strange symbol on the bottom that no one on their team nor all of their technology can appear to decipher.
It’s at this point that viewers in Japan start screaming at their TVs, “It’s NEKO ya dummies!”
There’s a lot of freedom and innovation when it comes to dining in Japan. For every Michelin-starred restaurant in Tokyo, there’s an equally impressive place where you can dine with maids, hang out with cats or even watch boys make out.
Now there’s another must-visit eatery to add to Tokyo’s ever-growing list of unique cafes and this time the star of the show is the humble slice of bread. At Centre the Bakery in Ginza, you can choose your own toaster, take it back to your table and enjoy freshly made toast.
While a cranky Roomba can make a terrible mess, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we should never allow robots into our homes–only that we probably ought to be careful about how much we trust them. For example, letting them vacuum your floor seems reasonable, but relying on a vacuum bot to wake you up might not be such a great idea. And giving your vacuum bot a cute anime voice and something resembling a personality? That’s how humans end up extinct!
But apparently Sharp needs to watch more Terminator films, because that is exactly the kind of vacuuming robot they’ve created!
One lucky visitor to a zoo in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan was treated to quite the show when she witnessed a raccoon standing on its hind legs and doing a little dance in anticipation of its next meal. Luckily for us, she was able to share pictures of the spectacle over a short series of tweets, one of which has been retweeted over 11,000 times in the last two days! Keep reading for your daily fix of cuteness.
Salomon releases Japan-exclusive Mt. Fuji hiking gear that doubles as an amazing souvenir
Japan triples departure tax, foreign tourists and locals now must pay more to leave country
Starbucks Japan teams up with Converse Tokyo for a new limited-edition collection in honour of Tanabata
Japanese overnight sightseeing train returns for summer with ramen stops and ocean views
Studio Ghibli brings Totoro Soot Sprites out of the anime shadows for a new bag and pouch collection
Sanrio Character Poll announces winners, Hello Kitty absent from top 10 in many countries
7-Eleven Japan has a lot of famous food, but its new burrito needs to be on your radar
Studio Ghibli releases a musical diorama based on a touching anime scene from My Neighbour Totoro
Japanese train company brings back beloved “patapata” departure board…with a clever digital twist
One Piece docking at Round 1 amusement centers in both Japan and the USASalomon releases Japan-exclusive Mt. Fuji hiking gear that doubles as an amazing souvenirSanrio Character Poll announces winners, Hello Kitty absent from top 10 in many countries
Live-action Spirited Away stage play announces world tour with first-ever U.S. and Canadian datesJapan triples departure tax, foreign tourists and locals now must pay more to leave country
Tokyo has only two barley tea makers, and we visited one to see how mugicha is made
Pikachu brings electric style to brand-new Pokémon G-Shock watch featuring every stater trioJapanese overnight sightseeing train returns for summer with ramen stops and ocean views
Family Mart Japan installs red-eyed “Monster Wolf” to keep bears away from convenience store
Starbucks Japan reopens Shinkansen platform store after redesigning it for speed
Blind Tokyo commuter explains the easiest place for him to stand while riding the train
Japan announces sudden 400-percent increase in visa fees for foreigners entering the country
Japanese ninja certification exam attracts 131 candidates from Japan and abroad
Studio Ghibli store Donguri Republic announces opening of first-ever store in America
New Japanese overnight train coming to connect Tokyo with Tohoku in sleep-travel style
Japan launches first overnight Shinkansen bullet train between Tokyo and Osaka this summerSalomon releases Japan-exclusive Mt. Fuji hiking gear that doubles as an amazing souvenir
Even at twice regular Daiso price, this handy item is still great for summer travel in Japan
Japanese sweets shop sells an ohagi so exquisite it sells out by noon
Forget Tokyo go-karts – there’s a new way to sightsee on four wheels in Japan
Japanese sweets brand creates new drinkable Cigare and we’re totally here for itJapan 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 Tokyo
Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
We deeply regret going into this tunnel on our walk in the mountains of Japan
Starbucks Japan releases new sakura goods and drinkware for cherry blossom season 2026
Japan’s newest Shinkansen has no seats…or passengers [Video]Japanese ninja certification exam attracts 131 candidates from Japan and abroad
Put sesame oil in your coffee? Japanese maker says it’s the best way to start your day【Taste test】
Japan reportedly adding Japanese language skill requirement to most common foreigner work visa
Japan’s 5.3 million beautiful Hitachi Nemophila flowers are now in full bloom[Photos]
Sanrio Character Poll announces winners, Hello Kitty absent from top 10 in many countries
7-Eleven Japan has a lot of famous food, but its new burrito needs to be on your radar
Studio Ghibli releases a musical diorama based on a touching anime scene from My Neighbour Totoro
Japanese train company brings back beloved “patapata” departure board…with a clever digital twist
One Piece docking at Round 1 amusement centers in both Japan and the USA
Foreign resident of Japan arrested after spraying bear repellant inside post office
We try Krispy Kreme Japan’s first-ever all-you-can-eat doughnut deal
Japan has a new maid school, and it’s now accepting applicants for its first term
Blind Tokyo commuter explains the easiest place for him to stand while riding the train
Japan’s Mocchurin donuts declared too popular to exist by creator Mister Donut, will disappear soon
Studio Ghibli adds a new Jiji mini bag to its anime merchandise shop in Japan
Studio Ghibli film towels with English dialogue lines are cinematically cool and cute[Photos]
Japan’s new pettably fuzzy cat-shaped earbud chargers meow to let you know their status[Video]
Why you shouldn’t feel guilty about using manga for studying and the top series for learning