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Oden best-sellers at Japan’s top convenience stores

As the temperatures gradually sink into a chilly winter, convenience stores all across this great nation start to kick their oden pots into high gear. For those unacquainted with this Japanese dish, oden is basically any type of food soaked and simmered in a flavorful broth. The type of soup used varies by regions but is usually very savory.

Although not the only place to get oden, convenience stores are thought of as the first place to get it. That’s why Japan’s three biggest convenience stores – 7-Eleven, Family Mart, and Lawson – are all competing to find that perfect ingredient to simmer and sell to the hungry masses.

To help kick-off this year’s oden season in Japan, Excite News has released the five most popular oden foods at each of the big three stores. First up is Lawson!

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Evangelion? Cool. Katana? Cool. Evangelion and katana? Very cool!

Evangelion, known to its fans simply as Eva, has already earned itself a spot in history as one of Japan’s most popular anime ever. The franchise has such wide appeal that its characters have been used to promote everything from lingerie to cheeseburgers.

Now, Eva’s cast of teenage protagonists is helping to drum up interest in something a little more traditional than the high-tech robots they usually pilot with their newest promotional crossover, the Evangelion and Japanese Sword Exhibition.

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Japan is, by almost any criteria, an extremely safe country. You can wander most back alleys of Tokyo in the dead of night without any sense of danger, and calmly carry huge amounts of cash secure in the knowledge that you’re about as likely to come across a mugger in downtown as a man riding a horse.

While this bubble of safety is definitely a plus when you’re inside it, the flipside is that Japanese travelers, unaccustomed to street crime, violent or otherwise, tend to be extremely risk averse when going abroad. Driving this point home is the East Africa edition of a popular series of Japanese guidebooks, which is filled with warnings of danger that seem more like something out of a pulp action novel than a travel reference.

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South Korean netizens fume over president’s footwear faux pas

South Korean netizens are apparently up in arms over their president’s choice of shoes that she wore when throwing the opening pitch of the third game of the Korean Series baseball tournament in Seoul on October 27. Her fashion crime? President Park Guen Hye had the “audacity” to show up wearing a Japanese brand of sneakers!

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Eight fun fall origami designs!

Fall is in full swing and that means we’re all able to enjoy what this chilly season has to offer. Red and golden leaves, chestnuts, apples…all the things that remind us of autumn! For those with a little patience and some artistic ability, you can even create origami versions of these seasonal favorites. Take a look at the following eight origami designs and learn how to make them yourself!

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  • Oct 31, 2013

Rising J-POP star is talented, good-looking and certainly not your typical Japanese musician!

I just happened to be watching TV the other day when a young man’s singing performance suddenly and utterly grabbed my attention. Having been a member of the Glee Club during junior high and high school (an experience which, by the way, was no where near as crazy as the TV series), I have to say that hearing talented people sing is a huge source of pleasure for me, and a pleasure it was indeed to listen to this man perform a well-known Japanese pop song, his voice ringing clear and true.

I soon found out that the man I saw performing on TV had just released his debut single from a major Japanese music label a few months ago. His star seems to have been rising quickly, which wasn’t surprising considering his amazing voice and striking looks. Plus, there was also something else that made him stand out in the Japanese music scene. Ladies and gentlemen, meet 21-year-old Nicholas Edwards, the blond J-POP singer from Oregon, U.S.A.

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The happiest airline story ever: Man and smartphone reunited by awesome customer service

Airports and airlines frequently get a bad rap. The internet alone has more complaints about air travel than and episode of Evening at the Improv. However, buried deep among the stories of security gropings, crushed luggage and delayed flights lie some uplifting stories to restore your faith in humanity.

A while back we reported on JAL’s kind move to provide specialized guitar cases free of charge. That’s swell, but this story about what happened to our reporter Kuzo on his return flight on ANA after eating some dancing squid will brighten your day and remind you what customer service is all about.

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From Hepburn to Gaga, Hong Kong artist carves tiny works of art in expensive lipstick

Interesting media can make for especially interesting art, as the pencil-tip carvings, hairy apples and damaged banana art we’ve covered before should attest, but when you go carving up some perfectly good brand-name lipsticks to celebrate strong women and fashion icons, you are bound to cause your intended audience a little heartache.

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Russia thinks China is launching cyber attacks via microchipped irons and kettles, releases photo

In one of the strangest stories we’ve come across so far this week – yes, stranger than exploding yogurt and ramen cake – reports are coming in of a number of Chinese-made irons that contain “mini microphones” and chips that can plant viruses in nearby computer equipment via home Wi-Fi networks.

We always knew ironing sucked, but this is ridiculous.

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Despite having a name that induces chuckles in many English speakers, Kinki University (Kinki being the name of the region around Osaka) is a well-respected school, with roots stretching back to 1925 when it came into existence as Osaka Technical College.

In keeping with the school’s long history of pursuing technological advancement, a team at Kinki University has recently developed a mouse that allows users to operate their PC with nothing more than their breath.

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This Chinese tongue twister will melt your brain

Everyone loves a good tongue twister, especially when getting to grips with a new language. I’ve had fun being challenged by Japanese coworkers at drinking parties to get my mouth around phrases like basu gasu bakuhatsu (“the bus gas explodes”) five times in a row, or aka-makigami ao-makigami ki-makigami (“red paper roll, blue paper roll, yellow paper roll”) on many occasions, but this Chinese tongue twister blows them all out of the water.

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Akita musician and illustrator do everything they can to convince us their eel characters are actually dongs

Japan cranks out a huge number of corporate and regional mascot characters, and each one is required to be cute, right down to its name. Unfortunately, sometimes a moniker that sounds perfectly fine in Japanese doesn’t have quite the same inoffensive ring to it in English.

Of course, naming choices can have unfortunate implications for Japanese speakers as well, like with Akita Prefecture’s cute little garden eel character called Chinanabo. In Chinanabo’s case, however, there’s enough evidence to make us think his creators are in on the joke.

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My Melody and friends featured at pop-up cafe in Tokyo

Hello Kitty has always taken center stage when it comes to Sanrio characters. But now My Melody is getting her shot at an extremely popular limited-time only pop-up cafe in Tokyo. Even My Melody’s rival, Kuromi is making an appearance at this cute cafe, which features lattes, cakes, and light snacks with the faces of My Melody and friends.

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Ryu-chan and Chun-kun? Welcome to the weird world of genderswapped Street Fighter 【Video】

Imagine if the characters from Street Fighter, Capcom’s classic fighting game, were born as members of the opposite sex, with the same amount of physical strength and fighting spirit but a decidedly different physiques. Thanks to a fan-made short movie by Really Clever Androids, we don’t have to wonder what to expect from a world like that. This awesome three-minute clip gives us a pretty good idea of the conflict and copious cleavage we might encounter. Let’s just say that these genderswapped Street Fighter folks really know how to bring it!

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Japan reacts to champion motorcyclist’s “tribute” to Japanese people

Spanish grand prix motorcycle champ, Marc Marquez, showed up to the 2013 Moto GP held in Motegi City, Tochigi Prefecture wearing what he thought was an acceptable design giving a shout-out to his fans in Japan. He posted the picture above on his Twitter with the caption (written in Spanish), “Special helmet and shirt for a special GP in Japan, at home!!! ;) Do you like?” It turns out, many people around the world don’t like it. However, an overwhelming amount of Japanese netizens don’t seem to understand why so many people are getting upset about the design.

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Nagano farmers sell damaged “typhoon apples” online

Japan is no stranger to typhoons. Every year, the island nation is battered by howling winds and torrential rain. This year 28 typhoons have made their way to Japan, but it was the 26th that had a particularly disastrous impact on apple farmers in Nagano prefecture. With their crops partially destroyed and most of their fruit unable to be sold in stores due to scratches and imperfections, the clever farmers took to the internet. Their crops are now being sold at online retailer, Oisix, as “typhoon apples.” And believe it or not, many people are actually buying the flawed fruit.

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Warm, sweet gingery bubbles in a can: Our review of “Hot Ginger Ale”

Coca Cola’s newest soda “Hot Ginger Ale” hit Japanese vending machines on October 21 and we have an official RocketNews24 tasting review for anyone not daring enough to take on the hot, fizzy drink. So before you shell out 120 yen (US$1.20), take a look at what our expert vending machine beverage team has to say.

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Adorn your legs with JoJo’s Bizarre tattoo tights

Female manga fans understand that there’s more to Japan’s comic industry than the schoolyard romances and shojo sparkles with which we are targeted. A lot of us really love the action, the fighting, and the hero adventure stuff too! Thankfully, there are at least a handful of manufacturers out there who understand where we’re coming from. One such company is catering to us girls with less feminine fandoms by bringing us tattoo tights from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure!

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Mamoris: Looks like a toilet, works like a hard hat

In an earthquake-, typhoon- and Godzilla-prone country like Japan, you’ve got to think about disaster preparedness. Most people here have an emergency kit ready by the door and most offices conduct drills on responding to a disaster. The big problem is storage space. You need a lot of room when you are trying to provide food, water, first aid and physical protection to a number of people.

One company has come up with a new solution for the protection part of the equation: a simple chair that doubles as a hard hat with the simple twist of a dial.

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The Kawasaki Halloween Parade 2013 in pictures: Mario, multiple Miyazakis and mythical monsters

Last weekend in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture, thousands of hardcore cosplayers and Halloween lovers descended on the streets of Kawasaki City to take part in the Kawasaki Halloween Parade 2013, the 17th of its kind and Japan’s largest public parade dedicated to the Western festival.

The 1.5 km course was flanked by food stalls and specially decorated shops catering to the tourists and locals vying to get the best shots of the coolest outfits, and despite the somewhat inclement weather last weekend, thousands turned up to witness and take part in the event, proving once and for all that Halloween has most definitely found a permanent home in Japan.

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