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Japanese gamers reminisce about the good old days of the NES

For most children of the 80s, video games mean the Nintendo Entertainment System, or Famicom in Japan. Even if you didn’t have one in your home, you surely had a friend with one of those enchanting boxes. Ah, the thrills of 8-bit action, midi music, and blowing frantically on cartridges!

Though many parents might have written the devices off as mere toys, there’s an undeniable shared experience that the NES provided for children in many countries around the world. But have you ever wondered how your experiences with the system compared to those of kids in Japan, the console’s home? Well, wonder no more!

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Ghibli, Star Wars, Breaking Bad: artist carves crayons into amazing characters

As a kid, playing with crayons always guaranteed hours of fun. The array of exciting colours, combined with an ergonomic design perfect for young hands meant endless artistic possibilities on paper, walls, compliant siblings…

Now Crayolas are providing hours of fun for adults too, thanks to a dedicated artist who’s created dozens of unique crayons that are so adorable and true-to-life you have to see them to believe.

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New Japanese battery only needs water to power up smartphones in a disaster

Sitting on several fault lines, Japan is no stranger to natural disasters and the havoc that ensues afterward. While these tragedies can’t be prevented, their effects can be lessened by making a disaster preparedness kit to handle several days without power or access to food and water.

A key item in these kits is usually batteries, and a Japanese company’s recent announcement about a new kind of battery is expected to completely change the way we prepare for disasters. Only needing to be filled with water, the “Mg Box” battery can be used to charge smartphones, and the invention has made the Japanese company’s stock skyrocket as investors rush to back the game-changing technology.

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Japanese vending machine dispenses ultra-rare gold Coca Cola can prize

Japan is well-known around the world for its enormous variety of vending machines, dispensing everything from eggs to flowers to batteries at the touch of a button. But did you know there’s a machine that dispenses gold Coke cans?

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Korean cosmetic surgery show treats two Thai women to free procedures

Yeah, yeah, here comes another article about plastic surgery in South Korea. But this time there’s an international twist to it–the story is about two Thai women who received plastic surgery on a Korean TV program.

As reported by Coconuts Bangkok, the September 4 episode of Korean show Let Me In featured a pair of Thai women who received several cosmetic surgery treatments for free and which followed the entire surgerical process from start to finish. The women’s transformed faces were revealed to the public for the first time at the end of the episode. How do you think their procedures turned out?

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Fighting too hard? Super Smash Bros 3DS players in Japan are reporting broken slide pads

It may not arrive in the West for another couple of weeks yet, but Japanese gamers are already tearing their way through Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS following its release last Saturday, and by all accounts the game was well worth the long, teaser-filled wait.

There is, however, a little bit of worrying news regarding the 3DS’s suitability for a game of Smash Bros‘ frenetic nature. After just a few days of smash-tastic gameplay, a number of 3DS owners have begun uploading photos showing their consoles’ circular Slide Pads torn clean off.

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Tama Toys, the makers of the “my first makeup set” for otokonoko, have been steadily expanding their lineup targeted at men who have a thing for dressing up as girls, and they just made a new breakthrough with their new latest product, sanitary panties for men. The product even comes packaged with a sanitary napkin enclosed because we all know males menstruate too.

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Iwashita wants to see your head up one of their giant pickled gingers or shallots

The pickled ginger business certainly is competitive. At least it appears to be since food producer Iwashita has been working extra hard at getting some brand awareness going. First they released an iPhone case with a replica of their Iwashita New Ginger brand pickled ginger sticks on it. However, everyone just thought they looked like penis nunchaku.

Now Iwashita is back with a new campaign they hope will win over the masses. It’s called the “Attempt! 10,000 Head Project!” where they hope to photograph ten thousand people wearing a giant pickled ginger or shallot on their heads. Why you ask?

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Otaku TCG featuring kawaii androids reaches last days on Kickstarter

SHINKUKAN – The Kawaii Steampunk Android TCG is a venture by a Japanese company to spread otaku culture to the world through the power of cute robot girls in the form of an old-school trading card game you can play with your friends. The Kickstarter campaign is currently in the final stages, and they’re just a few thousand dollars off their goal. Read on for anime artwork and an overview of the project.

 Disclaimer: RocketNews24 is not affiliated in any way with this Kickstarter campaign.

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Giant rabbit takes over Taiwanese military bunker

Last year, Osaka and many other cities around the world found themselves hosting a 25-meter-tall inflatable rubber duck designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman. But after sending the rubber duck project around the world (and becoming part of a copyright battle), Hofman seemed to have thought we needed a new super-sized animal and unveiled a giant white rabbit earlier this month at a Taiwanese art festival. Resting against a former military bunker, the huge rabbit drew a big crowd at the festival with visitors eager to get a picture with the serene-looking creature.

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Super Nintendo climbs Mt. Fuji, brings Japanese guy along for companionship

Next year the Super Famicom (SNES) will see its 25th birthday. In human years that will amount to 62 which means it’s time for the beloved console to begin taking stock of the days in front of it and make them count.

One Super Famicom in particular could feel the yellowing of its case and decided to scratch one more thing off its bucket list: climb Mt. Fuji. Acquiring the help of a human male, the Super Famicom set off to scale the iconic mountain and document the journey on Japanese textboard 2-channel.
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Cat gets caught in tissue box, dances into our hearts

It’s no secret that cats love tight spaces. From Maru squeezing into boxes to cats hanging out in vents, the only thing our feline friends love more than a saucer of milk is squeezing into just about anything. We don’t know exactly why, but we sure love to watch them go!

Of course, squeezing into tight spaces sometimes means getting stuck, as this adorable cat learned the hard way…

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Japanese lingerie company designs special bra for Japan’s marshmallow girls

Since last year, chubbiness has become more accepted in Japan. Chubby girls (that’s chubby by Japanese standards) are now called ‘marshmallow girls‘ and they’ve become so popular that there’s now an entire idol group dedicated to them, and even a fashion magazine for girls of various sizes. I think we can all agree that Japan definitely still has some body image issues, but nevertheless, the marshmallow fad continues!

The latest addition to this marshmallow boom is a series of bras designed for marshmallow girls. They are called “Pochakawabra”, which is a portmanteau of pocha (chubby), kawaii (cute), and of course the object itself, bra. I’m not sure if I appreciate the name, but the designs sure are cute!

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Best pun of the week: Daughter draws father not quite hard at work

Some say that puns are the lowest form of humor–we say those people have no sense of humor! Of course, that’s not to say that all puns are comedic genius, a fact easily proven by turning on any used car lot commercial, but we love a good pun.

While not all puns are created equal, we have to say that our favorite puns often come from children. There’s something perfectly surreal about a child’s fumbling of language–but of all the puns we’ve seen, this might be one of the best…

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Third time’s the charm – Lotteria’s noodle burger series strikes again

We don’t know why people always make the same mistakes, and history always repeats itself. In this case we are talking about Lotteria, one of Japan’s largest fast food chains. In the past, it had once made the mistake of selling a ramen burger that sandwiched droopy ramen between buns. It wasn’t well received. And then they brought to us a tsukemen burger, which also didn’t do well. We thought they’d have learned their lesson, but no! Much to our dismay, starting on September 8, they started selling a neapolitan spaghetti burger. We’re not quite sure why they are so insistent on putting noodles between buns, but we do know that the new noodle burgers aren’t impressing diners in Japan.

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Boys love manga pork: BL anime characters now in the chilled meat section

We’ve been bringing you news of the BL craze in Japan, with cafés, books and even university courses featuring homoromantic male relationships, commonly referred to as Boys Love. With more and more people becoming exposed to the trend, what began as an underground sub-culture is becoming more well-known and popular, with men and women alike.

Now it seems the boys have gone mainstream, as stars of a major campaign for supermarket chain Ito Yokado. Only they’re not advertising beauty products or clothing lines. They’re advertising meat.

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A look inside the “Ghost Tower” of Bangkok, Thailand’s abandoned skyscraper

What is now known as the “Ghost Tower” was dreamed up once upon a time in the 1990s when Thailand’s economy was rapidly expanding. Originally meant to be called the Sathorn Unique, the skyscraper was envisioned as one of many luxury apartments that were to populate the bustling Bangkok cityscape. However, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis had other plans, halting construction and causing developers to abandon the project altogether. Now the Sathorn Unique stands as a ghostly reminder of what could have been and a perilous playground for intrepid travelers.

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Japanese MLB player gains even more fans because of his silly (and totally awesome) dancing【Video】

Munenori Kawasaki currently plays for the Toronto Blue Jays as a shortstop. Originally from Japan, Kawasaki is a pretty good player who bats left, throws right, and has a .294 batting average. However, it’s not his baseball skills that have gotten him a lot of attention around the world and online recently. No, Kawasaki’s willingness to bust a move on and off the field are what everyone’s talking about right now.

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16 fancy eggs from Japanese bento lunch boxes

Eggs are greatly underrated in the bento world. It’s usually rice and all the fun forms it can be molded into or seaweed and its ability to be cut into any shape that takes center stage in lunch boxes across Japan. But the humble egg can be quite fancy in the hands of a highly skilled and creative cook. Let’s take a look at 16 fancy eggs from Japanese kitchens!

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Ghibli fans show their devotion by making live-action prequel to Princess Mononoke【Video】

The move from animation to live-action can be a challenge, especially in fan-made works. Animation necessarily requires us as viewers to suspend our disbelief, and so there’s more space for imagination. Compared to a richly drawn visual world, then, a live-action remake can look a bit flat – especially if the anime on everyone’s mind is a much-loved Studio Ghibli classic.

Although some fan-made material manages both to pay homage to the original and to stand up as a piece of work in its own right – this year’s Assassin’s Fist remake being a good example – more often than not, there’s something just, well, a bit “off” about most fan-films. Like this Princess Mononoke prequel, for instance…

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