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Gundam-themed Toyota doesn’t come with beam saber, is awesome anyway

Sometimes, despite the director’s best efforts otherwise, the villain of a movie or TV series ends up stealing the show. Luke Skywalker became the archetypical example of a pure-hearted but bland hero, while dark side practitioner Darth Vader went on to become a true cultural icon.

Similarly, you’ll be hard pressed to find any viewers of long-running anime mecha franchise Gundam who name its original hero, Amuro, as their favorite character. His nemesis Char, on the other hand, has legions of fans, even though his last on-screen appearance was way back in the 1988 motion picture Char’s Counterattack. Despite his occasional attempts to drop space colonies onto Planet Earth, fans are drawn to the stylish Char, who has always had cool robots and a cool mask. Now, he’s got a cool car, too.

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Colorful latte art! Japanese barista creates coffee with character

There has been a lot of latte art featured on the Internet lately, but the coffee created by Japanese barista, Yuuichi Ito, are some of the best we’ve seen. Mr. Ito is serving works of art by the cupful at Belcorno, an Italian restaurant located in Ichinomiya City, Aichi Prefecture. Taking on the role as owner, chef, and barista at Belcorno, Mr. Ito is able to recreate popular characters from Disney, anime and manga out of foam, adding colorful accents and shading. Much like chalk drawings, it’s understood that latte art is not permanent, but it still seems a shame to destroy such beautiful masterpieces. At least we have the following pictures to enjoy!

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Lexus car ceremony is eerily reminiscent of a…funeral??

This must be a summer for fake funerals. In July, Hatsune Miku found herself interred in Nico Nico Douga videos following a politician’s speculative remarks. And now a Lexus car is at the center of a new round of Internet amusement after some commenters noted that the company’s “car delivery ceremony” is oddly similar to a funeral.

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Cosplayers invade the Kyoto subway system to promote upcoming event!

The Kyoto subway was swarmed by mobs of cosplayers last weekend, alarming some commuters and intriguing others. Though Japan may be thought of as the “land of cosplay,” it’s actually extremely rare to see this many layers (shortening of “cosplayers”) out and about in public. Cosplay is all well and good at certain events, but a major no-no in areas where it can cause trouble for the uninitiated.

So what were all these guys (yes, mainly guys) doing on the subway? Why, promoting the upcoming Kyoto Manga Anime Festival and it’s connected cosplay event, GO-TAN! of course!

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Japanese vs. Western-style toilets: Squatty Potty stool gives us the best of both!

There are many highly touted health benefits associated with Japanese-style toilets. But who would want to get down to business with a glorified hole in the ground when they have the option of a wonderful Washlet, complete with heated seats and a butt-cleaning water spray?!

Thanks to a new American company that cares a lot about colons, there’s no need to choose the health benefits of one over the comfort and familiarity of the other. This very special team has created a stool to ease the release of your stool and give you perfect poo from atop your porcelain throne. They call their product the Squatty Potty.

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Sony launching major offensive at PAX Prime show, bringing 39 playable games, freebies

The PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) Prime 2013 video game trade show kicks off at Seattle’s Washington State Convention Center this weekend, with all the big names in gaming (yes, even Nintendo!) turning up to flaunt their wares and give gamers the chance to play upcoming titles as well as get some hands-on time with their newest hardware. Sony, however, appears to be taking this opportunity to throw its weight around and recently published the absolutely enormous list of games they’re taking to the show, which goes some way to explaining why the company is commandeering most of the south-west corner of the show floor.

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“It’s OK to stand out.” Nissan’s new stormtrooper ad campaign is awesome

The humble stormtrooper. Shot, blown up, punched and jeered at on a near daily basis while the rebels–whom some would call “terrorists”–get all the fame and glory. It’s in their very nature to remain inconspicuous in their plain white armour, marching along in neat lines and even dying with a regimented clatter of boots on the cold metal Deathstar floors, and for that reason are rarely given a second thought by either their merciless dispatchers or the movie-going public.

But there comes a time when even the loyalest of the Empire’s helmeted servants has to get their groove on, and Japanese car maker Nissan’s newest ad campaign is allowing them to do just that.

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Cook rice inside your car with the new Takeru-kun

In the never-ending debate about which country makes the best cars, it’s common to derogatorily refer to a Japanese automobile as a “rice rocket,” “rice burner,” or “rice runner.” Really anything with rice.

But with a new product from Saitama-based company JPN, you can own that insult, and turn it into a positive.

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Nintendo accidentally reveals Zelda-themed Wii U hardware bundle

With the high-definition remake of the beautiful cel-shaded action RPG The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker set to go on sale next month (early October in Europe/North America), gamers the world over were excited to see a new video from Nintendo last weekend introducing the game’s new “hero mode” which powers up enemies’ attacks while removing life hearts from the game world. Nintendo pulled the video soon after, however, as it also contained a shot of a Zelda-themed Wii U console that the company has yet to officially announce.

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Tired and ignored by the children of Japan, Ronald McDonald takes a break

Poor Ronald McDonald (known as “Donald” in Japan). He got all dressed up in his floppy red shoes and white makeup, put on his biggest smile, and marched down to a McDonald’s restaurant for a meet and greet, only to find that not a single child showed up to see him. And now, the people of the Internet are laughing at his tired, worn out expression.

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Japanese-language Chinese news site predicts future of aircraft carriers, uses sci-fi images

As the proverb goes, “necessity is the mother of invention,” and nothing produces necessity like war. For better or for worse—mostly for worse—war and military conflict have played a large role in technological progress throughout the history of humankind. While we seem to finally be calming down a little bit as a species in some regards, it is obvious that war is not over and will probably be around for many years to come. And, of course, no one wants to be the country that got left behind in the arms race, right? Still, when you see some of the predictions about the future of aircraft carriers from this Chinese news site, you might wonder if they haven’t mistaken “possible future” with “science fiction TV show.”

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Photos of the JoJo train are finally here and it’s not just the outside that looks cool

Earlier this week, we told you about the Yamanote Line train that will be decked out with the characters from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle (coming to PS3 on August 29). At the time, we could only provide you with a few artist renditions of what the train might look like. But now, may we proudly present to you 31 photos of the actual JoJo train, inside and out!

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Dangan Ronpa and Ted come together for some bear-y cute naughtiness!

Though Ted may be the most-well-known naughty teddy bear in the world, he is by no means the only one. We imagine that Monokuma, of the murder-mystery game/manga/anime Dangan Ronpa, may be a close Japanese second with its cackling and murderous tendencies. For fans of both of the animated characters, it might seem like a perfect match to have these black-humored bears on the screen together.

Alas, there’s probably no one mad enough to approve that combination, right?

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The top 10 words to describe Japanese people (according to foreigners)

There isn’t a country in the world immune from stereotypes. All people form opinions about places and their inhabitants based on whatever they can glean from the food, tourism, and art of the culture. But not all sweeping generalizations have to be mean and unfounded. The results on a thread asking for the “perfect words to describe Japanese people” were surprisingly positive!

Here are the most common adjectives that Westerners chose when characterizing the people of Japan.
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“Get down!” Man leaps onto train tracks to save fallen woman

On Sunday 25 August, a 58-year-old woman walking along the platform of Kanyama Station in Nagoya slipped and fell onto the tracks. The time was 3:50 p.m. and the six-car express train running from Toyohashi to Gifu was due to arrive at any moment.

Seeing this, another passenger waiting for his train also jumped onto the tracks to save the woman. However, possibly injured from her fall, the she was unable to move.  Watching the 3:50 train pull into the station and with no options left the man urgently called out to the woman to “get down!”

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NVIDIA’s Shield portable console – Cool, sleek and technically illegal in Japan

Powered by the world’s fastest mobile processor and billed by its maker as “the ultimate gaming and entertainment portable” the Nvidia Shield is in many way the realisation of thousands of tech fans’ nerdiest dreams: a genuinely powerful portable built around a home console-quality controller with a potentially vast software library. Offering gamers the chance to play games like Borderlands 2 and Skyrim anywhere from their bedroom to the toilet, the Shield at once steals both Nintendo’s “play with the TV off” Wii U thunder and makes Sony’s plans to have all forthcoming PlayStation 4 titles also playable on Vita seem like a copycat move, so it’s little wonder that the console has received a ton of attention the world over.

Currently only available in the US and Canada, lovers of all things sleek and shiny here in Japan who couldn’t wait any longer for an official release have laid down their cash (and with the portable retailing for US$299 that’s nothing to be sneezed at) and imported a Shield for themselves.

Little do they know, however, that simply by powering the thing up within the Land of the Rising Sun they’ll be breaking the law.

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Dating in Odaiba without breaking the bank

Odaiba, a manmade island atop Tokyo Bay, is famous for its sightseeing attractions, amusement parks, and entertainment venues. Places such as Joypolis, Pallet Town, Diver City, and the Miraikan science museum are all touted as terrific date spots but can prove quite costly in the long run.

Luckily, we’ve got some good news for all you penny-pinchers. Unbeknownst to many, the Rainbow Bridge, gateway to Odaiba, is an awesome date spot all its own! And, it’s absolutely free!

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Wii U’s Mario Kart 8 shaping up nicely, makes us grin like idiots

We have to admit that we may have lost a little faith in Nintendo over the past couple of years. The Wii U is a curious piece of hybrid hardware that has yet to see any truly groundbreaking titles, and the company’s uncharacteristically zealous foray into the world of 3-D technology with its most recent portable took us off guard. But 2014 is shaping up to be a good year not just for Nintendo but for Wii U owners.

Unveiled a few months ago, Mario Kart 8 looked to be more of the same and left many wishing Nintendo would stop adding wacky accessories to its cartoon go-karts and just give us classic Mario racing like we had on the SNES, but videos taken at the recent Gamescom event in Cologne show just how nicely the game is shaping up to be, with beautiful tracks and karts as well as brand new game dynamics. Suffice it to say, our interest has most definitely been piqued.

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Five things that keep Japanese people chained to their jobs

Japanese workers are famous for their seemingly inexhaustible dedication to their companies and ability to work long, long hours. Japanese even has a specific word for death from overwork: karōshi (過労死). But is this work ethic something that Westerners ought to admire, or is Japan in need of a holiday?

Japan Today asked foreigners “Why do you think Japanese work such long hours?” and received a huge amount of comments from people who had experienced life in a Japanese company. The responses were overwhelmingly negative about the Japanese work ethos, and many believe a shift in attitudes towards work right across society is necessary. Five points in particular stood out as particularly problematic.

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We combine McDonald’s and MOS Burger for forbidden deliciousness

Whether the blooming of the cherry blossoms in spring or the chirping of cicadas in summer, in Japan there is always a herald to the changing of the seasons. As incorrigible carnivores, for us fall begins when McDonald’s tsukimi burger returns to the menu. Tsukimi literally means “moon viewing,” a popular autumn activity in Japan, but in this case refers to the lunar-looking fried egg the sandwich contains. The tsukimi burger also comes with bacon. It has no linguistic reason to be there, but if you really need an explanation as to why someone would add bacon to a burger, we’ll be happy to explain after you finish your quiche.

Of course, the full moon has been known to do strange things to people’s minds, and we wondered if we couldn’t scavenge components from McDonald’s tsukimi burger to make something even better.

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