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Aomori? Here! Fukushima? Here! Saitama? Here but I have a cold…

Homeroom, that fateful time of day before real classes start where the teacher calls roll to see which kids successfully rolled out of bed that morning. Some countries don’t have an official “homeroom”. They just call your name and classes begin. But in Japan, homeroom is a whole different beast. And the surprise of one Twitter user at how homeroom is conducted in Saitama Prefecture versus the rest of the country makes for a good laugh, especially because of the comments from other people around Japan.

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Sailor Moon team is ready to keep your legs warm, nose dry with tights and tissue holders

It’s hard to find a universally hated member of the central cast of hit anime Sailor Moon. Even the titular character herself, for all her whiny and lazy tendencies, is so loyal to her friends that it’s hard not to root for her.

But while having a universally appealing ensemble cast makes for a great TV show, it puts fans in a bit of a quandary when they’re buying Sailor Moon goodies. With five principal heroines, how do you choose which one’s merchandise to buy?

Easy: you don’t, and instead grab a pouch or pair of leggings that features all five of the main Sailor Scouts.

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Toilet paper featuring Miffy the bunny promises to be far cuter before you use it than after

Dutch children’s book author and artist Dick Bruna has created a number of characters, but his most popular of all is the good-natured rabbit named Miffy. Japan has embraced the character wholeheartedly, and at stores across the country you can find Miffy stuffed animals, stationary, and bento boxes.

And starting next month, you’ll be able to get your hands on Miffy toilet paper as well.

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Bangkok’s Snake Farm: Saving lives and teaching the world about snake penises 【Photos】

Did you know that a king cobra has venom powerful enough to bring down an elephant? Were you aware that snake anti-venom is produced by injecting venom into horses? How about about that snakes have two penises, called hemipenes, that they alternate?

You can learn all these crazy serpent facts and more at Bangkok’s Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute and Snake Farm, as well as take in a snake handling show, a venom extraction demonstration, and check out about 40 different species of snakes endemic to Thailand.

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What’s for breakfast at Burger King Japan? Spamburgers!

It’s no surprise that the fast food market is a competitive one, particularly in Japan where restaurants go to great lengths to create the most unique items to bring in the customers.

This time, Burger King Japan has announced a new breakfast line-up of unique items not often found in fast food joints. At the head of this new seven-item menu is the wonderful Spam & Cheese for 260 yen (US$2.54).

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The common logic is that children shouldn’t waste their time reading comic books, but it’s a little hard for parents to lay down that blanket rule when mom and dad used to be, or maybe still are, avid manga comic fans themselves. After all, how can you tell your kids they can’t read Bleach when you’ve got a trip to the bookstore penciled in on your schedule whenever a new volume of Attack on Titan gets released?

As more and more adults hang on to their love of comics, the question seems to have shifted from “Is it OK for your kids to read manga?” to “Which manga do you want your kids to read?” with a recent poll providing some interesting and informative answers.

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“A Cyberpunk Adventure: Harry Potter The 1980s Anime” just made our day

Ever wondered what J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter would have looked like if it had been an anime made in the 1980s? Neither had we, but now that we’ve seen it we think it’s the <hyperbole but for good reason> BEST THING EVER </hyperbole>.

Join us after the jump for bike-based quidditch, a cat-eared Hermione, Tetsuo/Voldemort battles and more.

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Japanese archery: The coolest school club ever?

Bukatsu, or club activities, are a big part of school life in Japan. In the majority of schools, all kids are required to become a member of a club, be it track and field, judo, or even computer club, and have to attend every session regardless of the time of year and the weather (yes, athletics club kids jog up and down the hallways when it’s raining heavily). Naturally, there are distinct levels of coolness that students are more than aware of when they sign up, with clubs like baseball generally considered to be for the jocks, and soccer-bu for those who want to look good while sharpening their shooting skills.

Japanese archery, or kyūdō to use its native moniker, may not be considered the coolest club to belong to by kids in Japan, but as this video from Japanese culture blogger Danny Choo shows, as far as non-Japanese are concerned, it’s pretty epic, and if we were somehow reincarnated as a Japanese high schooler it’s definitely the club we’d sign up for.

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Microsoft’s cringeworthy new Surface ad makes Japan squirm in unison

Anyone who’s watched more than a smidgen of Japanese TV will tell you that the line between “appropriately heartwarming” and “so cheesy you want to tear your eyeballs out” is drawn in a different place in this country. It can seem like every exchange in a Japanese drama is overly emotionally charged. Why are the actor’s reactions so exaggerated? Does it really have to rain every time someone is sad? And why is there someone running through the streets frantically in every single episode? I have grown to love J-drama’s clichés and warm heart, but still occasionally regard Japanese acting as perplexingly over-done.

It’s heartening to discover, then, that a series of spectacularly cringe-inducing ads for Microsoft’s Surface tablets have been widely panned in Japan, as the nation screams, “Stop! You’re hurting my ears!” in one voice. Let’s take a look at this awkward new advertisement in all its glory.

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Greenpeace tells Obama to make ‘more responsible’ food choices after meal at restaurant that serves endangered sushi

After President Barack Obama ate at a famous Tokyo restaurant that serves rare bluefin tuna, the environmental organization Greenpeace issued a statement saying he should have made more “responsible food choices.”

“As a role model, people will naturally follow you. The global appetite for bluefin tuna has destroyed this species, pushing it to the brink of extinction. It needs to be protected,” Casson Trenor, Greenpeace’s oceans campaigner, said in a statement to Business Insider.

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Justin Bieber’s Yasukuni Shrine visit draws scorn from Asian fans

Being an international pop star like Canada’s Justin Bieber is certain to have its share of pitfalls. Scandals such as unfortunate comments at the Anne Frank house and more recently charges of drunk driving and egging a house have continued to dog him.

So this Easter weekend, the award-winning performer made a trip to Japan to get away from it all. After all, what could possibly go wrong here?

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All-in-one bed is perfect for you, you lazy bum (Also, why don’t you get a job?)

We can all agree that being lazy is the best. There’s nothing quite like spending a weekend catching up on Game of Thrones, stuffing your face with pizza and taking care of certain, uh… solo carnal needs (Just me?). That said, laziness can be a slippery slope. One too many unproductive weekends can easily turn into a vicious cycle of booze, potato chips and Three’s Company reruns just as addictive as any illicit substance.

That’s why this all-in-one lazy-enabling bed is probably downright dangerous.  With the proper placement, this bed allows you to do practically anything other than go to the bathroom without ever taking a single step away from your mattress.

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There has been a lot of talk online in Japan recently about Rina Nanase. Known as Rumi Kanda in her adult video days, the young model has been surprisingly open about turning to plastic surgery to change the shape of her face.

In a process that she began chronicling via Twitter late last year, Nanase has made a number of changes to her eyes, nose, and chin. Now that she has shared photos of her “finished” look, however, many are calling it “way too much,” with some even suggesting that she now resembles the character Dobby from the Harry Potter movies.

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First-of-its-kind towel is totally worth its 5,000 yen price, customers say

A good towel is always nice to have, especially in a country like Japan where bathing is a hobby, hand dryers and paper towels are largely nonexistent in public restrooms, and the three to five months a year of blazing heat and sweltering humidity will make you itching to wipe off all that sweat.

Yes, it’s hard to overstate the value of a good towel, though some might say Japanese textile maker INI is coming close with its 5,000-yen (US $49) bath towels. That price, though, gets you a towel unlike any that’s been made before.

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Meiji-Era Ace Attorney game’s 1st teaser streamed

CAPCOM began streaming the first teaser trailer on Thursday for the newest game in the Ace Attorney franchise, Dai Gyakuten Saiban –Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Bōken– (Great Turnabout Trial: The Adventures of Ryūnosuke Naruhodō).

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Does Avril Lavigne’s Tokyo music video really have anything to do with Japan?

The lack of both L and V sounds in Japan’s language hasn’t kept Canadian musician Avril Lavigne from achieving widespread popularity here. As a matter of fact, given the country’s affinity for female solo acts, and its decades-long ready acceptance of “girls’ rock” music, you could make the argument that Lavigne has an even broader fan base in Japan, or at least one that’s split more evenly across the gender line.

So when Lavigne recently revealed she’d filmed her latest music video in Japan, maybe it wasn’t so surprising, even if a few of her choices for representing Japan were.

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The top five places to survive a real attack by Titans in Japan

It’s a thought that’s bound to have crossed the mind of anyone who has read or watched the wildly popular Attack on Titan series. And if it hasn’t yet, the realistic special effects in next year’s live-action film adaptation are sure to do the trick: In the extremely unlikely event of an attack on humanity by colossal Titans, where the heck can we go to be safe?? 

While this hypothetical possibility alone may strike enough fear into some people to make them go live under a rock, others have taken up the challenge and are using their creative thinking skills to plot out a course of action before disaster strikes. We asked one such Titan fan for advice, and she was kind enough to share the top five safest places from an attack by Titans in her opinion. Do any of your ideas make the cut? 

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Whack-a-Kitty: Now with real kittens【Video】

Ah, whack-a-mole, that fun childhood arcade game where the only goal is to smash all the moles back down into their holes. No one ever felt sorry for the little plastic rodents, but what if they were actual kitties? Take a look at this video featuring kittens in their own version of the classic game. (Don’t worry, no kitties were whacked in the making of this video!)

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Japanese homebuilder offers virtual reality tour of your new home while you’re still designing it

Few people know this about me, but on top of being a huge video game nerd, I’m also both a part-time eco warrior and a big fan of the Tiny House movement, which is all about simple living and not destroying the environment for the sake of building a McMansion. I’ll happily spend a full evening watching video tours of micro homes or looking at floor plans while sketching out my own future home. But no amount of doodles can compare to actually visiting a property in person and snooping around.

Japanese home builder Daiwa House, too, knows the importance of giving potential home builders a chance to experience their residences in person, and is about to launch a special “Try Lab” showroom that invites visitors to slip on a virtual reality headset and wander around inside their new house, whether tiny or huge, and really get a feel for the place before giving the architect the final nod.

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While most of the professors I encountered during my time studying abroad were relaxed and open-minded, I can clearly remember one blue-blooded educator I met who insisted that the food served at kaitenzushi restaurants, the eateries where customers pluck pre-prepared plates of sushi off of a revolving conveyer belt, wasn’t “real sushi.”

True sushi, she said, wasn’t something that you ate to satisfy your hunger, but a flavorful accent to stimulate your taste buds. It had to be prepared painstakingly in an intimate establishment with a proper pedigree, and was certainly not the sort of thing that could be prepared in any quantity similar to the vulgar amounts pumped out by inexpensive kaitenzushi restaurants.

I listened politely, consulted my wallet, and promptly went to a kaitenzushi restaurant. Vindicating my choice are the results of a new survey which shows that revolving sushi restaurants are loved by diners all over Japan, whether they’re out for dinner with the family, on a date, or even just stopping in for a bite alone.

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