Two Japanese youths arrested for placing an exploding bag of dog poop in a local police box

Two youths were arrested by Aichi Prefecture police on June 11 after they placed a plastic bag full of dog feces and lit fireworks inside a police box, showering the small room with the bag’s contents.

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Acclaimed action figure animator turns his hand to Zelda 【Video】

The man brought us the jaw-dropping stop motion videos of battles between iconic Dragon Ball and Street Fighter characters has done it again! This time, he’s brought The Legend of Zelda‘s sword-wielding hero Link to play, and he’s got a sexy gun-toting pal with him…

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Some McDonald’s customers in China are getting a little too close for comfort

As part of healthy human relations, it’s necessary to know just how much of a physical distance you should keep between yourself and someone you don’t know on an intimate level. If the distance is too great, there’s the risk that you’ll appear uneasy. Likewise, if you draw in so close that the other party can literally feel your breath on their face, you can forget about making any positive impressions.

Apparently, some McDonald’s customers in China are creating a reputation for themselves by exhibiting “overly familiar behavior” towards the staff. This problem became a hot topic online recently when someone snapped a customer completely ignoring the rules of distance etiquette.

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Something every guidebook mentions about table manners in Japan is that, while almost every restaurant and home keeps a bottle of soy sauce on the table, it’s there to add to things like sashimi and grated radish, and not to be poured on white rice.

This isn’t to say that people in Japan always eat their rice plain, though. A recent Internet popularity poll pitted four of the country’s top rice toppings against each other in a battle royale.

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Afghani Embassy picks up a copy of Saint Onīsan to learn about Japan’s religious views

For those learning Japanese, manga can often be a good text. With the help of pictures and rather short sentences we can read along without much effort and perhaps enjoy the studying process a little more.

Well it turns out a member of the Embassy of Afghanistan in Tokyo thought the exact same thing. While out on a stroll last Sunday he picked up a particular manga that he thought would help him learn both the Japanese language and what Japanese people think about religion.

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To live and dine in L.A.: we find marshmallow ramen in the City of Angels

Among the extensive pantheon of ramen varieties is tsukemen, in which the noodles are served on a dish with a bowl of dipping sauce on the side. My first experience with the dish was in college, when a buddy took me to a tsukemen place that had opened up near our campus in Tokyo that was famous for their sauce made with fish stock. At the time it seemed like a wildly exotic concoction, but little did I know that years later my hometown of Los Angeles would produce an even more outlandish version of the dish: marshmallow ramen.

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Saving book worms from book germs: Libraries install Bacteria Elimination Boxes

Anyone who has ever worked in a library could probably tell you that wiping down the covers of the books in the children’s section is one of the most grimy and disgusting tasks you could ever be assigned. I’d personally rather clean the toilets with a wet wipe to be quite honest! Thankfully, in order to counteract at least the living layer of grime found on these and other books, many libraries in Japan have installed a Bacteria Elimination Box to kill off any harmful little microbes that previous patrons might have left behind. It’s the perfect piece of equipment for bibliophilic germaphobes exploring the stacks!

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Are you man enough for Family Mart’s line of masculine sweets?

So here’s a tricky question: do desserts count as masculine or feminine food? On the one hand, a slice of chocolate cake is just as bold a statement of your culinary decadence as a nice fried pork cutlet. In either case, it’s at least a little wild and macho to eat something with such shaky nutritional value yet unquestionable deliciousness, similar to how I rationalize eating a pack of ham out of the fridge when I’m too lazy to go buy bread for a sandwich as being a natural result of my raging testosterone.

On the other hand, sweets are, well, sweet. Truly red-blooded males can’t even bring themselves to utter the word “sweet” unless they add “taste of revenge” after it while clenching a fist and glaring at the horizon.

Thankfully, Japanese convenience store chain Family Mart is here to help end this confusion with a line of desserts tailor-made for everybody born with a Y chromosome.

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Kawasaki’s ‘Digital Kowloon Walled City’

Every city has its bad parts and areas to avoid, but there’s no denying that these less favorable areas give even the poshest urban centers something to talk about. While Kowloon Walled City no longer exists, its fixture in popular imagination will likely persist for decades, if not centuries.

In 1987, the city housed 33,000 people in 6.5 acres and was largely lawless, though informal social structures naturally emerged among the citizens. The city, as you might expect, has been the inspiration and setting for many fictional works, from books to movies to video games. And, now, it’s provided inspiration for a unique business venture in Japan.

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Xbox One delayed in Asia until late 2014, no release date for Japan

Microsoft’s forthcoming Xbox One console will not be released in Asia until late 2014, despite the fact that it will launch in the West in November this year, it was revealed last night.

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Woman falls onto Subway line, mistaken for hand luggage by station employee

On June 10, Japanese underground railway network Tokyo Metro made an official statement about an incident in which a woman, who fell onto the Hibiya subway line at Roppongi station, was mistaken for hand luggage by the employee on duty at the time. Not realizing the full seriousness of the matter, the station employee then gave the go ahead for the train, which was stationary at the platform at the time, to continue forward on to its next destination.

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Neither down nor out: The rumors of Japan’s demise have been greatly exaggerated

Next to the USA, the second largest economy in the world used to be Japan. But after the bubble collapsed, the Japanese economy has been stagnant and, in 2012, fell to third place. Second place, as you probably know, was taken by China, whose economy is expanding at an unprecedented rate.

China’s rise is an undeniable fact. But is it true that Japan is on the wane? Mr. Chong Wong, a Chinese expert on diplomatic issues, took up the question. Writing on his blog (Chinese only), Mr. Wong offered up evidence that Japan wasn’t in decline but was actually the best in the world in some ways. We’ve listed the major ones below.

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Teacher confesses to installing camera in girls’ restroom, ‘Just wanted to test out the equipment’

The Kusatsushi Board of Education in Shiga Prefecture, Japan made a public announcement on June 3 that a teacher employed at an elementary school within the Kusatsushi area was being questioned after installing a small, compact-style camera inside the girls’ toilets at the school where he worked.

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Bring it on down to Burger King with a month of half-price specials!

Burger King is celebrating its sixth year in Japan with a month of half price specials! From now to July 7, Burger King stores across Japan will be taking part in the campaign, with four of their popular products receiving a 50 percent price cut.

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Police in Japan pull over Google Street View car, presumably not for speeding

The Google Street View car, once something that people would have simply watched roll by while scratching their heads in confusion, has become so ingrained in popular culture that should we ever spot it trundling down our own street many of us would immediately bound in its direction like excited golden retriever in an attempt to get our ugly mugs plastered on the internet for all eternity.

It’s rare, though, to see the the famous car running into trouble with the law.

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Anonymous trainer completes Pokédex with 649 homemade Pokémon stamps

For almost 20 years, children and adults across the globe have set out into the tall grass to train so that someday they can claim the title of Pokémon Master. For some that means defeating the Elite Four. For others it means beating the snot out of Gary Oak. And for a smaller percentage of players, that means catching every single monster.

After almost a year and a half of hard work, one anonymous user on 2chan has carved out a true Pokémon legacy by creating handmade stamps of all 649 Pokémon to date. We’d say that this person has made quite a name for themselves, except for that we don’t know who they are! Keep reading for a look at the full stamp collection.

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Vampire smartphones! ‘Resqcable’ renders your phone undead

As smartphones have become more popular and advanced, their battery lives have grown shorter and shorter and shorter.

As someone who uses a smartphone so much it’s probably causing me physical harm, I find mine needs charging sometimes twice a day. But when you’re out and about, it’s often hard to get enough time to sit down and plug it your phone in. And what if your external battery pack just died, but you desperately need to upload a photo of your lunch to Facebook? What happens then!?

Well, you could whip out your handy Resqcable power leacher!

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Line of Attack on Titan capsule toys soon to be released, give children nightmares

The hit anime and manga title Attack on Titan (Shingeki No Kyojin) has grabbed readers and viewers with its combination of high-flying action and surprisingly disturbing giants.

More than just being violent, something about the titans in this series strikes the creepy chord perfectly in people. So when figure maker Kaiyodo released four capsule toys based on the series they wanted to make sure that feeling came through.

And come through it did. Be warned that some of these figures depict scenes of violence and gore.

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Sony promises no restrictions on used games for PlayStation 4 – releases cheeky video to rub it in

Jack Tretton, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, thrilled gamers today when he declared that the company will not impose any restrictions whatsoever on used games. Suffice it to say, the crowd at E3 went wild.

Seconds after the announcement had been made, a video appeared on Sony’s YouTube channel that simultaneously shows how easy it is to trade games with friends while poking fun at competitor Microsoft. Check it out after the break.

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Final PlayStation 4 design revealed! Priced at $399! 【Update: Photo gallery】

It’s the moment millions of fans have been waiting for ever since Sony first announced that its new console would be in our hands by the end of 2013: the PlayStation 4 has finally been revealed for the world to see!

And it looks…

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