US psychic Ron Bard has spoken out once again via his official Twitter account, warning that the world – specifically Japan – is in great peril, prompting chatter online. This new warning comes after Mr. Bard claimed back in mid-July this year to have foreseen a natural disaster that would occur in Japan “in the next two or three months”, urging people in Japan to follow him on Twitter and prepare for difficult times.
America throws the best linguistic hissy fits when political relationships sour. Remember when Congress tried to change French fries to “freedom fries” because France didn’t want to come along on the Iraq invasion? Or how about when sauerkraut became so unpopular during World War I that makers suggested changing the name to the less Germanic “liberty cabbage”? Good times.
Well, it may be that the Yanks aren’t the only ones who want suitably patriotic cabbage. In Korea, it looks like Chinese cabbage, the vegetable used to make the most common variety of kimchi, is now being referred to as “kimchi cabbage” or just “cabbage”.
Some of our US-based readers may not be especially familiar with German shaving brand Schick, but here in Japan the company is top dog when it comes to safety razors, and its products can be found in just about any supermarket or pharmacy. Recently, in order to promote its relaxing “dream shave” experience and newest model of disposable razor, the Quattro 5 Titanium, Schick Japan has released the following promotional video, which sees one lucky young man take a zero-gravity flight with two bikini-clad models in order to try the razor out.
Hmmm… Pretty girls tumbling about in slow motion while squirting foam. You think anyone would watch that?
If you haven’t been lucky enough to be inside a Pokemon jumbo jet, just imagine yourself immersed in a world of Pokemon while flying in the sky. The interior, flight attendant uniforms, food containers, souvenirs and in-flight entertainment all feature everyone’s favorite pocket monsters. But sadly, ANA, Japan’s largest airline, has just retired one of its Pikachu jumbo jets. As sad of an occasion as this is, ANA made sure to send the craft on its final voyage with a special presentation and an appearance from the Pokemon franchise’s most popular character.
In the year since revisions to copyright law in Japan made illegal downloading a crime punishable with jail time and heavy fines, the music industry hasn’t experienced a significant increase in profits. In fact, police have yet to prosecute anyone for the crime! It kind of make you wonder if they know that Internet pirates don’t have peg-legs and eye patches…
As the weather starts to cool down, there’s nothing better than cozying up with a nice hot cup of tea. But sometimes that plain old tea cup and bag isn’t enough to lift your spirits on a particularly gloomy day. That’s where this darling DIY tea bag design comes in. With a relaxed expression that seems to say “Aww, that’s the stuff,” this little tea cup bather will keep you company and warm your spirits on even the grayest of days.
Remember back in high school when you’d opened up your textbook to find George Washington picking his nose and Joseph Stalin with a peg leg and eye patch. It was enough to make you bow down and thank the graffiti gods for giving you a much needed distraction from the incessant ramblings of your instructor.
Textbook doodles seem to transcend national borders and bored students from all over the world appear to have a penchant for defiling educational tools. We’ve already shown you some from Asia, a continent that seems to be home to an abundance of bored students with idle hands. Now let’s take a look at textbook doodles from Twitter user and Japanese high school student, Chanta, who takes it to a whole other level, actually erasing parts of his textbook to create entirely different, albeit twisted, pictures.
In a previous article, I wrote about the amazing quantity and variety of mooncakes I encountered during my recent visit to Singapore. But of course, there are a host of other tasty treats to try in this island city-state. Now, although I’ve never lived in Singapore, I’ve made several trips to the country, and it probably doesn’t take very long for any visitor there to figure out that Singaporeans take their food very seriously.
Befitting a nation of people who are extremely passionate about food, there is no end to the number of high-end restaurants in Singapore serving cuisine of every kind, from gourmet Chinese food to fresh Japanese sushi and sashimi so mouth-watering that the quality is on par with or even surpasses anything you can find in Tokyo. But as you may expect, such fine dining is bound to be quite pricey.
Well, since there is already a multitude of information out there on well-known, smart restaurants, I thought I would share with you some treats I’ve tasted in Singapore that I thought were particularly delightful and at the same time won’t leave a huge dent in your wallet. Tasty and affordable, what more could you ask for, right?
Much to the joy of political comedians, recent years have seen a sharp increase in international political gaffs thanks to the Internet and the ease with which stupid comments can go viral. And Japan is no stranger to this trend, with numerous politicians having resigned after letting inappropriate jokes slip to the wrong reporter.
Now one Japanese career bureaucrat in his 50s is in hot water for his inflammatory, supposedly anonymous blog posts. But many Japanese netizens feel his punishment is far too light.
Someone believed to be a college student recently posted an image of another college girl shoplifting food on Twitter. According to the photos, she girls stole some onigiri and what appear to be two cups of instant noodles.
This is just the latest installment in the recently growing fad of posting obnoxious or illegal behavior on Twitter with the apparent aim of receiving hate posts from other netizens. This tweet was no different, receiving scorn and speculation for scores of watchers.
University life may not be quite how it appears in the countless teen comedies that Hollywood coughed up during the early noughties, but it can still be a lot of fun. And if these photos taken during an event at Kangwon National University’s recent campus festival are anything to go by, some colleges aren’t afraid to cross a few lines when it comes to having a good time.
Hisashi Fukushima, a 44-year-old man from Hidaka City, was born with a serious learning impediment, but this handicap has in no way gotten the better of him. This truly gifted individual is an awe-inspiring artist with an unbridled passion for the beauty of the railway system. Fukushima’s photographic memory and steady hands have allowed him to recreate many life-like scenes of trains upon their tracks in paintings as well as paper craft. His faithful renditions of Japan’s railways have earned him a number of prizes in art exhibitions, and one glance at his work makes it obvious why! Keep reading for a sample of Hisashi Fukushima’s stellar art portfolio.
Boredom on the road can lead to serious accidents as drivers become less alert or more reckless driving down straight and well lit roads. So perhaps there is some merit in the idea that more dangerous road conditions can lead to safer and more attentive driving.
Take this bridge which connects Japan’s Highway 194 with Highway 299 over the Niyodo River in Kochi Prefecture. Lacking any barriers or guard rails drivers must keep a steady wheel when crossing the Nagoya Low Water Bridge (no relation to the prefecture).
For the 15 minutes or so just before work officially begins each morning, most Japanese offices are filled with shouts–or mumbles, for those who haven’t had their coffee yet–of “Ohayou gozaimasu!” While it’s hardly unusual for workers to greet each other with a “Good morning” anywhere in the world, the importance that aisatsu, or greetings, have in Japanese society can often seem bewildering. After countless sleepless nights wondering just why it was so important to be sure to say hello to everyone in the office, we decided to do some research!
Japanese fast food chain MOS Burger has just unveiled two new seasonal rice burgers that fans of Japanese cuisine will definitely not want to miss—the miso mackerel burger and a Japanese-style veggie burger.
In the world of fast food, it often seems like the name of the game is “innovate or die.” Though you’d think that two buns, lettuce, tomato, onions, and a hamburger patty would be enough, McDonald’s Japan introduces new sandwiches faster than we can count them.
In fact, next Friday, the fast food chain will release a new sandwich called the “McToast.” But wait a second, look at that picture. Isn’t it just two inverted buns, cheese, and ham? And, hey, doesn’t it look kind of…familiar?
It has been suggested that there are no more original ideas in the world anymore, that every thought or invention has already been considered by someone before. Whether you believe this particularly pessimistic theory or not, the line between coming up with the same idea and “borrowing” one from someone else may not be quite as blurry as you may think.
Japan, like many other countries, is no stranger to cheap knock-offs of its products circulating in the global market. China is most commonly under fire for making bootleg Japanese merchandise to sell in their own country. However, today’s featured product pakuri (slang for “rip off” or “steal”) comes from Japan’s next door neighbor, Korea. The following are a bunch of slightly “modified” products sold in Korea that are liberally inspired by their original Japanese counterparts.
Walk into any convenience store in Japan and you’ll see the staples: magazines, drinks, snacks, and the ubiquitous onigiri. And when it comes to onigiri, the world-famous rice ball wrapped in seaweed, one of the hands-down most popular is the salmon variety, with salty, sweet, succulent flakes of orange salmon at its centre.
So which convenience store sells the best salmon onigiri? We decided to conduct a taste test in our offices to declare a winner, pitting the top three – 7-Eleven, Lawson and Family Mart – against each other in a battle befitting the rice ball’s feudal origins. With a set of scales, the slice of a knife and a merchant tester, we begin.