Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
Just four days after the launch of the Sony PlayStation 4, and barely 24 hours after we brought you news that over a million units of the console had been sold on its very first day in stores, reports are appearing online of a “Red Line of Death” – believed to be caused by overheating – with brand new PlayStation 4 consoles locking up completely.
On 13 November, Google India posted a three-minute advertisement on YouTube titled Google Search: Reunion. In the span of only two days it reached nearly one and a half million views and as of this writing is swiftly approaching four million.
All along the way, it’s received overwhelmingly positive reviews such as “NOT just an ad”; “This little 3 minute video is better than all the movies I have seen this past year”; and “I am not from India, but I still appear to have something in my eye that is making it water.”
The Japanese stereotype for otaku is far from pretty. Hardcore fans of anime and video games are largely regarded as social outcasts and are characterized as unkempt men in button-up plaid shirts, high-waisted pants and running shoes, carrying around backpacks and shuffling quickly through the streets of Akihabara on the hunt for the latest game, hardware or erotic 2-D merchandise.
The Japanese text board 2channel appears very well acquainted with this skittish sub-section of society, so when someone asked why it is that otaku walk so fast, the anonymous responders had a lot to say, and it certainly opened our eyes!
Girls und Panzer is a popular anime, manga and light novel series following a group of girls who live in an alternate universe where women participate in “the art of battling tanks” and young girls attend schools where they learn to operate WWII-era tanks as a martial art. The series is extremely popular in Japan as well as abroad and will soon be turned into a video game for PS Vita.
Japan’s urban and rural areas alike are dotted with temples and shrines, but there’s no practice of attending regular services at them. Instead, visitors primarily come to offer a few yen as a donation, say a quick prayer, and pick up one of the plethora of good luck charms and amulets sold there, many of which have specific purposes such as passing an important exam or finding a new love.
But every member of our team is already out of college, and so popular with the opposite sex that we’re starting to feel bad about not leaving any for the rest of the populace. Looking further down our to-do list, we noticed that “build mansion with supermodel grotto” was preceded by “achieve economic success,” so we decided to head to our local Shinto shrine for Tori no Ichi, Japan’s annual festival for buying good luck charms for success in business.
Convenience stores play an integral part of life in Japan. The various chains themselves appear to have a life and ecosystem of their own sprouting up and dying off all over the urban landscape in fierce competition. Regardless of which one you choose, be it Lawson, Family Mart, 7-Eleven, Mini-Stop or one of the other countless chains, you can always expect to find some high quality stuff.
No one knows this better than our food reporter Kuzo who has sampled every form of junk food the nation’s convenience stores have to offer. This time, however, he leaves the shores of Japan to test the wares of a remote branch of the famous Lawson Station chain in Hawaii.
As a proud resident of Osaka Prefecture it’s always nice to see the place excel at something. Even for something as nefarious as purse snatching, it seems that the Osaka way is to go big or go home.
So let’s all give Osaka a big round of applause for being number one in incidents of purse snatching for the third year in a row! Even though stats are only available up until October, so many cases of people grabbing women’s bags and running away – or riding away as is often the case – have occurred that we have officially clinched the standings for 2013.
We were all pretty sure we live in the Matrix anyway. Doesn’t that explain deja vu and rainbows or whatever?
Now we have definitive artistic proof that the Matrix is real, and only those that read tons of books ever get it. As this artist rendition shows, reading books makes you more knowledgeable about the world around you in the form of a giant book ladder that lets you climb up and see the real world outside of our digitized quasi-reality.
Of course, we at RocketNews24 know that Japan is a great place, but have you ever wondered what drives others to leave home and live in the land of the rising sun? It is a question that those of us who spent time working, studying or living in Japan can find a little repetitious and annoying and may cause us to forget why we chose to come to Japan.
That’s why we wanted to share some answers to that ubiquitous question that we found on the Internet messaging board Reddit, where netizens there gave some brutally honest responses. Click below to find out some of the funny, strange and heart-warming reasons people decide to spend their life (or at least part of it) in Japan!
It’s Monday again and you know what that means! Your Monday Kickstart video is here to get you going through another week.
This week’s video features a cat’s up-close encounter with a popular coin bank found at stores in Japan. Watch and prepare to say, “Awww.”
We’ve talked before about the booming trend of latte art in Japan, in which baristas create intricate pictures in the foam atop your coffee. But what if you prefer to get your caffeine fix from a cup of tea instead of a mug of java? Does Japan have anything cute to brighten your beverage?
Why yes, it does! And if you like a little citrus in your tea, you can spruce up your drink with a slice of lemon grown in the shape of a heart.
Protecting your privacy can be a difficult task in today’s world of information technology. With surveillance cameras on every corner and a recording device on every smartphone, there’s a good chance your image has been captured somewhere without you even knowing it. Safeguarding your mug in the future is set to become even more difficult with advancements in facial recognition technologies and wearable computers like Google Glass.
So what can you do to ensure your identity remains intact? In Western countries the answer would be simple: put on a pair of sunglasses. In Japan, however, sunglasses are a much less common sight, and many consider them to be worn only by those trying a little too hard to look cool, and in more extreme cases associate them with the yakuza lifestyle. Researchers at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo have addressed this issue by designing a non-threatening pair of white shades to protect both your identity and your public image, dubbing them the “Privacy Visor”.
At approximately 8:44 on the evening of 16 November, a magnitude-4 earthquake shook the Kanto area of Japan. Although some barely noticed the tremor, the quake dealt a sizeable blow to the Village Vanguard store in Sangenjaya, Tokyo.
Village Vanguard is a chain of book stores in Japan, but also the place to go for those looking for a Jamaican flag Zippo lighter, bag of freeze-dried astronaut food, DVD of Golden Eggs, and/or bag with a Dr. Pepper logo on it in a country that by and large neither knows of nor likes the drink.
Following the damage caused by the quake, an outpouring of support has been seen from netizens in Japan.
Pay a visit to Sony HQ today and you’ll no doubt see an awful lot of smiling, and perhaps tired-looking, faces. Following Friday’s launch of the PlayStation 4 in North America, President of Sony Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, yesterday shared the news via his Twitter feed that over a million units of the next-generation console had been sold within the first 24 hours of going on sale.
Look, we completely understand how quickly a diet can disappear when things like all-you-can-eat burgers exist in this world. And trying to implement the newest fad diet or tracking down black market diet pills seems to be a full time job for some of us. That is why here at RocketNews24, we have worked hard to find the most shocking, disgusting image that will make you immediately lose your taste for fast food, carbs, sugar, fat and anything else that tastes too good.
Are you a poor college student? An incompetent cook? Or maybe just too busy to stop for a real meal? If so, you probably have cup ramen so often that you can prep a serving with your eyes closed and your right hand tied to your left knee.
Let’s be honest here: Cup ramen is fast, convenient, and not entirely horrible tasting. But after a couple of days of the same flavors over and over, you might be wanting to add some variety to your diet. If you still can’t get a real meal, at least now you can get some magic powder to spice up your noodles!
As the next-generation console wars is commencing Sony and Microsoft are currently firing off their opening salvos. Nintendo’s Wii U sales have been lagging, but Nintendo has a secret weapon coming out this Christmas season that may just trump the competition in home gaming – a mahjong set!
I said “may.”
Starbucks has a policy of seamlessly blending their coffee outlets into remote tourist locations around the world. So when two brothers in Bangkok set up their street-side coffee cart business under a familiar looking green logo, Starbucks was quick to assert that this was not one of their operations.
Damrong and Damras Maslae are now in hot water as the global coffee franchise is coming down hard and suing them for copyright infringement.
Kids nowadays have it rough. Sure, they have the Internet, sophisticated video games, and more electronics than fingers, but their McDonald’s Happy Meal toys are awful. I remember the days when you’d get a quality, hard-plastic toy that would withstand anything your imagination could throw at it. Now it’s half-heartedly put together pieces of garbage that are strewn alongside your mini pouch of fries (or apple slices if your mom isn’t cool). But in Japan, everything is different, especially this Christmas. Not only do you get a toy that blows all other modern day Happy Meal toys out of the water, your entire meal comes in a real cardboard golden arches box, just like old times. Read More
It may sound like the start of a bad joke, but when your boss says, “Bring me three PS4s!” you say, “How many games would you like with that?”
And so I found myself in uncharted territory, standing in line at 7am the day before the release of Sony’s next-gen console. I honestly didn’t know what to expect and admittedly grumbled at the thought of living on the street for 17 hours, but after Hooters girls, free swag, and a PS4 presented by the CEO of Best Buy, I’m pleased to report that I came away richer from the experience (although my bank account would beg to differ).
The perks of drinking root beer at A&W in Japan
Tokyo government’s official AI-powered dating app, Tokyo Enmusubi, has officially launched
The last of the Mohican-hairstyle-wearing people still lining up for iPhones
New Japanese Food Sample Making Cafe opens in Asakusa, Tokyo
Japanese cat island reveals all its cats will soon be gone
Edamame fans unite! Zunda-flavored Meiji Super Cup ice cream is here
Starbucks teams up with the oldest of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns to create a Bizen ware coffee mug
Ghibli Art Frame calendar gets expanded availability, will keep fans organized, happy in 2025 and beyond
Kyoto becomes City of Yokai, with Night Parade of One Hundred Demons festival this autumn
Super budget-friendly retro Tokyo hotel feels like having your own 1960s Asakusa apartment
New Hello Kitty McDonald’s Japan Happy Meal toys are here, and Kitty’s sister is part of the setStarbucks teams up with the oldest of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns to create a Bizen ware coffee mug
One of Tokyo’s most beautiful gardens gets its own moon for moon-viewing seasonSuper budget-friendly retro Tokyo hotel feels like having your own 1960s Asakusa apartment
Abuse Cafe Japan: We get abused by waitresses in maids’ uniforms at Tokyo’s viral pop-up diner
Some of the best Japanese fried chicken in Japan comes from this shack in the middle of nowhere
Studio Ghibli releases free-download board game — Here’s how to play it without reading Japanese
Night sky Studio Ghibli greeting cards are a beautiful reason to put pen to paper【Photos】
Tokyo Skytree to be lit up in Jujutsu Kaisen colors on Halloween in months-long art collaboration
Studio Ghibli lets you cosplay as Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle with cosy anime fashion range
Foreign tourists on Shinkansen bullet train break suitcase etiquette, angering local passengersStudio Ghibli releases free-download board game — Here’s how to play it without reading JapaneseStudio Ghibli lets you cosplay as Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle with cosy anime fashion rangeNew Hello Kitty McDonald’s Japan Happy Meal toys are here, and Kitty’s sister is part of the set
Japanese government suspends plan to pay Tokyo women 600,000 to move away to get married
Japanese government wants to remove tax-exemption limit for foreign tourists on consumablesStarbucks teams up with the oldest of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns to create a Bizen ware coffee mug
Starbucks Japan unveils new limited-edition Frappuccino for autumnOne of Tokyo’s most beautiful gardens gets its own moon for moon-viewing season
The heartwarming story of Japan’s “Weakling Gundam” and the fans who supported it in its hour of need
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goodsForeign 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
Edamame fans unite! Zunda-flavored Meiji Super Cup ice cream is here
Starbucks teams up with the oldest of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns to create a Bizen ware coffee mug
Ghibli Art Frame calendar gets expanded availability, will keep fans organized, happy in 2025 and beyond
Kyoto becomes City of Yokai, with Night Parade of One Hundred Demons festival this autumn
Super budget-friendly retro Tokyo hotel feels like having your own 1960s Asakusa apartment
Some of the best Japanese fried chicken in Japan comes from this shack in the middle of nowhere
Super-cheap, super-convenient rice-cooking mug is a new kitchen gadget all-star from 3 Coins
New Hello Kitty McDonald’s Japan Happy Meal toys are here, and Kitty’s sister is part of the set
Studio Ghibli lets you cosplay as Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle with cosy anime fashion range
Night sky Studio Ghibli greeting cards are a beautiful reason to put pen to paper【Photos】
Travis Japan members compete with the best dancers in Japan at Red Bull’s national dance finals
What can 3,000 yen get you at a Japanese hamburger chain? We find out