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Located in Kanagawa Prefecture, the city of Hakone is a popular weekend travel destination for people living in the Tokyo area. The town’s numerous open-air hot springs and traditional inns, several with spectacular views of Mt. Fuji, attract visitors both young and old.

Most people headed to Hakone take the train, although the mountain passes that wind through and around the town make it a popular destination for drifters, too (the kind with cars, not the kind with bindles). One group of recent Kanagawa junior high graduates thought it would be more fun to bypass motorized transportation and headed out for Hakone by skateboard, taking their video camera with them. Read More

Trapped in a Glass Cage in the Philippines, Mario Has No Mouth with which to Scream – The Shocking World of Knock-Off Plush Dolls

Recently, one of our correspondents was strolling through a shopping mall in Mandaue City on Cebu Island in the Philippines. As he passed an arcade, one of the attendants flagged him down, asking if he wanted to try to win a stuffed doll in one of their crane games.

Intrigued by the offer, our reporter peered into the machine’s glass case, at first thinking he saw popular Japanese anime characters Doraemon and Testuwan Atom (also know as Astro Boy internationally). Closer investigation though, revealed that the arcade was filled with cheap, yet somehow incredibly endearing, knock-offs.

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Japanese Man Takes Lexus for Test Drive to Grandmother’s House, Arrested 180 km Away

A 25-year-old man was arrested for theft in Iwakuni City on 14 May after taking a new Lexus for a test drive from a dealership in Kurashiki City, two prefectures and 180 km (112 mi) away.

According to the police investigation, the suspect Shota Ishibashi wanted to visit his grandmother in Fukuoka, 422 km (262 mi) away. However, being unemployed he was unable to afford the trip. Then he got a brilliant idea and headed down to his local Toyota dealer.

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In the Future Your Own Hand Will be Your Smartphone (With the Help of 5,000 Pounds of Terrifying Machinery)

Minority Report it is not, but Masatoshi Ishikawa – namesake of Tokyo University’s renowned Ishikawa Lab – brought us one step closer to the future when he recently invited Japanese press to witness the lab’s newest creation: a projection system that can track and display an image on a moving object.

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Koko, the Totes Adorbs Scottish Fold

It’s just been one of those weeks. You have to rent a boyfriend, we’re under attack by marshmallow goo, and all that salt you dumped in while cooking your spaghetti was a total waste.

It’s times like these that you just wish the Internet would give you what you really want: pictures of adorable cats.

Well, you’re in luck, because we got ’em! Read More

Like many people who moved to Tokyo in their youth, most of the time I’ve spent in Japanese taxi cabs has been directly preceded by heavy drinking. In the country’s urban centers, people primarily get around by train and subway. However, both of them stop running around midnight (for now?), at which time you can see a mass of people stumbling towards the station like Cinderella if she’d spent less time on the dance floor with the prince and more at the ball’s open bar. Once the trains stop, they don’t start again until about five in the morning, and since staying out all night drinking only seems like a good idea until your buzz wears off at around 2:30 a.m., if you missed the last train the only way you’re getting home is by taking a taxi.

Like taking a cab ride anywhere else in the world, the drivers use radios to communicate with the dispatcher and other cars in the fleet. I could never understand what Japanese taxi drivers were saying to each other, but the reason why isn’t because I was liquored up (OK, so it wasn’t only because I was liquored up). It turns out cab drivers in Japan have a whole set of jargon and code words that you won’t find in any textbooks. Read More

New Shinkansen to Use Revolutionarily Simple Stations, Cuts Include Ticket Booths, Waiting Rooms, Humans

On 13 May, JR Central released station design plans for their upcoming Chuo Shinkansen running from Tokyo to Nagoya and later Osaka. In the words of JR, these stations were designed “not to rely on traditional styles” and “to boldly pursue functionality and efficiency.”

However, when the details emerged to a train station loving public, the reaction was less than enthusiastic with comments along the line of “too bold.”

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Posters of Underwear-Clad Man Disappearing from Osaka

There’s just something about Japan and this strange obsession with stealing underwear. In the Naniwa District of Osaka, 20 types of posters are currently on display to promote a town renewal project for the area’s old shopping district, Shin Sekai Ichiba, or the “New Global Market.” Of those advertisements, one particular version has become the object of serial theft over the past 13 days. The poster contains the image of a man in a Japanese loincloth called a fundoshi. The Osaka Police Force’s Naniwa Station has released a damage report. Read More

This Blue Beer Looks Like it Came from Alcoholic Willy Wonka’s Factory

The Abashiri Brewery in Hokkaido which, judging by its website, really is some kind of beer-themed Willy Wonka side project, boasts what may be the world’s first naturally blue beer.

Always ready to get drunk for the sake of our readers, RocketNews24 took it upon ourselves to investigate this mystifying beer anomaly, appropriately named the Ryuhyou Draft (“Ice Floe Draft”), at a beachside pub. Read More

One year when I was in junior high school my parents gave me a radio controlled car for Christmas. It was the perfect gift for a young boy right in the middle of dealing with the most awkward, confusing psychological change that comes with puberty (no longer thinking riding a bike is cool, but still being too young to drive a car). I loved that R/C car, so much that I kept playing with it outside as it started to rain one day, eventually frying the circuits so that it never ran again.

But things would have been different if my parents had been researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, or KAIST. First, everyone would have been surprised by how two Korean scientists ended up with a Caucasian son with blond hair. And next, they could have hooked me up with a controllable water-resistant reptile, like the remote controlled turtle KAIST is currently developing. Read More


  • May 16, 2013

Another Amazing Vending Machine From Japan! But This One’s No High-Tech Gadget

Readers of our site may be aware that Japan is home to vending machines  that sell a wide range of bizarre and unexpected products, from pornographic magazines to fresh eggs and even fermented soybeans (natto). Now, we’ve found yet another interesting vending machine that’s been featured in a story on Asahi Newspaper’s digital site which we thought would be interesting to share with you.

This machine in particular caught our attention because it combines the Japanese people’s fondness of vending machines with their love of a dish that is extremely popular in Japan. And what might that dish be? We’ll give you a hint — it’s golden brown in color and has a delightfully rich and spicy aroma that’s sure to make your mouth water… Read More

Iranian Murderer Pardoned Seconds After Hanging

Last Wednesday in Mashhad, Iran, a man was sentenced to hang for the crime of murdering a police officer. However, just moments after the sentence was carried out, the bereaved family cried out their forgiveness, demanding that they put a stop to the execution. Read More

Taiwanese Weather Reporting Idol Group to Take Japan’s Grueling National Weather Forecasting License Exam

From their humble beginnings on Taiwan’s video series Weather Girls, a seven-girl idol group by the same name that specializes in bringing you the week’s weather, have been building a solid fan base in their new home of Japan.

Though a variety of theme months and a constantly improving grasp of the Japanese language, these girls have steadily shown that they are willing to work hard for their place in the spotlight.  However, the next step is a doozy.

It has come to light that all seven girls (one for each day of the week) are studying hard to take the extremely strict National Weather Forecaster Exam next year. The test, which was established in 1994, reportedly has a 5 percent pass rate.  However, if the girls succeed they will become full-fledged weather forecasters.

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Free Boyfriend Rental in China: for Busy Career Women Trying to Prove They’re Not Gay

For young and middle-aged women in China who just want to live freely without being hounded by their parents to marry, renting a boyfriend for a day could be the perfect answer! Japanese news site, Nikkei, recently sat down with 27-year-old financial businessman and volunteer boyfriend, Wang Zhuo, for an interview regarding his 100 plus “girlfriends” over the past two years. Could it be that for whatever reason China’s women are becoming increasingly dependent on rental boyfriends? We’ve seen how it works for lonely ladies in Japan! What sort of insights has Wang gained into these Chinese women’s desires… Read More

If a wardrobe filled with musty coats brought people to Narnia, we wonder where these beautiful tunnels might bring you. Let’s take a look at ten beautiful passageways from around the world.

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Boiling Spaghetti with Salt Shown to Do No Good for It

I freaking knew it!

Spaghetti and other pasta recipes have repeatedly asked us to “boil with salt” – a rule that has always baffled me. Once, early on in my cooking life, I decided to be a good boy and add the salt as requested only to find that it didn’t make a lick of difference to the end result. I haven’t looked back since.

In an interview with website, President Online, Tokyo Kasei University Graduate School of Home Economics, Keiko Nagao, puts this myth of boiling with salt to rest once and for all, thus saving us from a needless cooking step. Read More

One of the most enduring images of Japanese pop culture in the past few years is that of the maid café, where customers are served by waitresses with personalities to match the careful craftsmanship of their cute, frill-covered outfits. Maid cafes have become something of a cultural export, popping up in the U.S., Canada, and, as RocketNews24 previously showcased, Russia. The phenomenon has also reached Southeast Asia, as showcased by reporters from website Post Seven who recently visited a maid café in Vietnam.

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Calling All Evil Billionaires: The Dream of Space Flight Can be Yours for a Fraction of Your Fortune

It used to be that to go to space you needed to join NASA and become an astronaut. But you’re an evil billionaire, and you’re far too busy being evil for all that training in the gravitron.

Lucky for you and whatever evil space plans you’re hatching, SXC (Space Expedition Corporation) offers the dream of space travel to any commoner with US$100,000 lying around, a pittance that will barely put a dent in your underground chamber of dubiously acquired gold bricks.

There are also a number of other aerospace companies offering a variety of space travel flavors, from a few minutes in orbit to a full 9 days at the International Space Station (ISS), complete with space walk. Let’s take a look at the different space travel packages offered, including one that costs US$150 million. 

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To Mexico in Chains: The Tale of Three 16th Century Japanese Slaves

In 1597, Japan was reaching the end of the Warring States period and starting to unify under the rule of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. At the same time, which was 15 years after the Tenshô embassy (the first Japanese embassy to Europe), three Japanese men were completing their (unwilling) journey to Mexico, of all places.

Using records from the Inquisition found in the National Library of Mexico, Lucio de Sousa (University of Evora in Portugal) and Oka Mihoko (University of Tokyo) have discovered conclusive proof of the men’s journey to the New World. They’ve also managed to piece together a few details of their stories.

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43-Year-Old Taiwanese Man Arrested for Stealing Box of Condoms, Booooooy Are His Parents Gonna Be Mad

It’s a familiar coming-of-age scenario for many a young man. Things with the girlfriend are progressing well and it’s time to round third into the home plate. However, there are still condoms to get. How do you confront the judgmental gaze of the minimum wage cashier who in reality couldn’t care less what you’re up to?

One young Taiwanese lad at the tender age of 43 faced with this dilemma opted to steal a box of condoms rather than deal with the awkwardness of buying them legally, and as such has become international news.

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