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According to a study conducted by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, about half of unmarried women report that they are not dating anyone with any serious intent. Why are so many available ladies completely unattached? Could it be that they just don’t see the appeal of having a partner? Or conversely, maybe they are holding out for an unrealistic Prince Charming.

Goo Rankings decided to look into the issue and asked the single ladies what they would ideally want a boyfriend to do for them, if they had one. The surprising answers after the break: Read More

Recent reports from Radio France Internationale (RFI)’s Chinese site suggest that China’s pollution problem is raising serious concerns within the country itself. In the push for economic growth, the China is also becoming increasingly aware of what could potentially develop into a serious problem if steps are not taken soon. In this connection, there has been heated debate on the Internet suggesting that Chinese authorities are proposing moving the capital away from Beijing.

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Register Rage: Osaka City Official Arrested for Allegedly Punching Out Register’s LCD Display

On 6 February, Osaka Prefectural Police announced that a 45-year-old man working for the Osaka City Construction Bureau had been arrested on suspicion of destruction of property.

In what could best be described as “register rage” the man was upset with the speed of the cashier and took his aggression out on the store’s age verification check with his fist.

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【Meat+Rice+Meat】We Try KFC’s Bunless Chicken Rice Sandwich… And It’s AWESOME!

The newest addition to the KFC Japan lineup is a little number called “Kentucky Chicken Rice;” a sandwich so good, it doesn’t even need a bun. This sandwich, consisting of a big hunk of ketchup rice nestled between two pieces of fried chicken, has caused quite a stir on the Internet in Japan, causing hoards of hungry fried chicken fans to flock to their nearest KFC on February 7 to be one of the first to try it.

Our reporter Tashiro-kun, who is most famous for his 2013 Apple Lucky Bag escapades, eagerly visited the Shinjuku Station south entrance branch of KFC and finally, after much anticipation, the fabled Chicken Rice sandwich was his. As our reporter held the beautiful sandwich in his hands, he couldn’t help but shriek, “What the heck is this?!”

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Strange Local Laws in Japan, Tax Dollars at Work

Buckle up everyone! We’re gonna talk about municipal ordinances!

We’ve all heard stories of real laws that seem to defy logic like “no petting horses on Sunday” and such.  The survey addicts at MyNavi had asked people about some unusual local laws and what they got were reports of Cupid Committee’s and McMansions.

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The 2013 Sapporo Snow Festival Photo Gallery 【You, Me, And A Tanuki】

If you have a few blank spaces on your bucket list, pencil in “visit the Sapporo Snow Festival.”

When it comes to reading famous literary works whose copyright license has expired, there is one piece of software that is renowned for doing the job rather well. It goes by the name of “Aozora Bunko” and is a digital contents reader available on a wide variety of devices; there’s even a version available for smart phone users. It is currently host to a plethora of copyright-free material rich in Japanese history and culture. What’s particularly exciting is that the more time goes by, the more the library of works can be seen to grow.

Anyone with an interest in old Japanese masterpieces – and can read Japanese – will surely be lureRemove featured imaged in by what this software has to offer. In this connection, on January 1 this year, the legendary writer Eiji Yoshikawa’s work “Miyamoto Musashi” is also set to be added to the collection. Miyamoto Musashi is a bestselling novel depicting the life of legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto, who actually existed during the Japanese Edo era.

Just what makes all this free content possible is the rule that governs copyright licensing laws: 50 years after an author has passed away, copyrighted works are released freely into the public domain.

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Tohoku Emotion: Japan’s Newest Tourism Incentive Where the Journey is the Star

Unveiled earlier this week, the “Tohoku Emotion” is a train unlike anything ever seen before in Japan.

Combining “food, art and scenery”, on board this train the journey itself takes the main role and passengers are able to cruise through Northeastern Japan’s beautiful countryside while sampling food freshly prepared before their very eyes.

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  • Feb 9, 2013

Soak in A Nice Hot Spring Bath With Ted the Dirty Little Old Teddy Bear!

So, have you seen the movie Ted yet? If you have, I’m sure many of you will agree that it’s an absolutely hilarious movie (probably not profound or enlightening in any way, and you may even lose a couple of brain cells watching it, but yes, definitely hilarious)! Well, it appears the antics of the cute teddy bear with a bad mouth and a dirty mind has captured the hearts of movie goers in Japan, because as of last weekend, the movie is the top box office hit in Japan. But what does a middle-aged borderline delinquent teddy bear have to do with a hot spring bath? Read More

Tokyo University Students Develop Simple Device to Turn All Your Home Appliances into Smart Appliances

The idea of “smart appliances” has been around for a while now, but has yet to really infiltrate the average household. Even having moderately priced smart machines running your home would add up considering you’d have to replace all of your old stuff.

The young developers of “Pluto” offer a simple solution which would allow you to smartify all of your currently existing home electronics for the reasonable price of 12,800yen (US$140).

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It’s the Little Things: One More Reason Why We Love Japan

After a long week at the office, our Japanese writer Yoshio was in dire need of a pick-me-up. After stretching and clicking his back, he stood up at his desk, tucked his wallet into his back pocket and announced in unusually glum tones that he was popping out to the convenience store to grab a few things.

A few minutes later, Yoshio walked back into office and placed his little white plastic bag down on his desk with a tired sigh. But then he stopped. Looking down at his purchases inside the bag, he suddenly began beaming with a level of happiness that we hadn’t seen in quite some time.

“Oo! Sugoi!” (“Oh! That’s awesome!”) he softly exclaimed.

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McDonald’s Japan’s Texas Burger: Our Reporter Takes One for the Team

McDonald’s Japan’s Texas burger is back, but it won’t be around for long! Having missed out on the chunky beef sandwich the last time they invaded the country, our man Kuzo headed down to his nearest restaurant and grabbed a couple to poke, prod and shove down his gullet. The experience left him confused: there’s plenty here to delight burger fans, that’s for sure, but not everything about this little slice of Texas is worth writing home out. Kuzo’s full impressions after the break.

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Giant Underwater Pill-Bug Refuses to Eat for 4 Years, Scientists Puzzled Why It’s Being Such a Jerk

On 4 January at the Toba Aquarium in Mie Prefecture, Takaya Moritaki prepared a bowl of mackerel and encouraged himself saying “Maybe today will be the day.”

It was feeding time again for the giant isopods, and, for one of the crustaceans, it was the four-year anniversary of their refusal to eat anything at all.

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  • Feb 7, 2013

Space: the final frontier. This is the voyage of a homemade rocket carrying the fearless Hello Kitty as its sole passenger. Its mission: to explore the effects of altitude on air pressure and temperature, and to boldly go where no Kitty has gone before… Read More

The Twitter Experiment II: How to Get Replies from Celebrities on Twitter

Thanks to Twitter, we common folk get an unprecedented level of access to the celebrities previously could only gaze at from below. For example, how else but with Twitter could some guy call a multi-billionaire “baldy” directly?

Prominent Twitter researchers at Omocoro – who taught us that attaching clothes pins to your naked body can result in over 1,000 retweets – have developed secret ways to draw tweet replies out of  Japan’s entertainment elite.

Our story begins one January day in the Omocoro editor’s room…

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Consumers are always hoping to get more than they paid for products and services, but in reality, the reverse is just as common. We’ve all been suckered in by a wily shopkeeper at one point or another, but what knowledge and preparation can we arm ourselves with to avoid being taken advantage of?

There are a bounty of goods and services available to us, all of which are marketed with beguiling strategies. Some of them will be such good values our hearts will delight in our own cleverness, while others will simply satisfy with their averageness. Of course, the remaining products, for all their appeal, will be deeply disappointing. Maybe billionaires can just spend for the joy of spending without worrying if something is really a good value, but for common people like  you and me, making a poor decision can impact our wallets and our self-esteem for a long time to come.

In the hope of protecting their readers from it, Japanese weekly magazine SPA! has set out to discover what exactly is behind this buyer’s remorse in all its complex forms. Read More

Japanese Internet celebrity Maru has been on the scene for a few years now, shooting to stardom when his owner, YouTube user Mugumogu, uploaded a series of videos of the cat launching himself into boxes and paper bags seemingly far too small to accommodate him. These days, he’s taking life a little easier, but I think we could all learn a thing or two from Maru: the undisputed king of sunshine naps.

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This one’s for the girls (and guys) who watched Beauty and the Beast as a kid and wished they could visit that gorgeous library. Check out this compilation of the 15 libraries to visit before you die according to Trip Advisor Japan.

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Make Tracks to Tokyo’s Train Bars

There are train hobbyists and then there are train hobbyists. Japan’s particular breed of railway aficionados are referred to by the somewhat-affectionate term densha otaku, or train nerds, and are famous for feats like memorizing complex, phonebook-size timetables or visiting every single one of the country’s almost 10,000 stations.

Of course, when they aren’t trying to increase their encyclopedic knowledge of all things rail-related, they are out looking for like-minded people to impress with it. As it turns out, Tokyo offers the densha otaku a wide selection of appropriate watering holes, or perhaps we should call them bar cars. So grab your subway map and let’s go see this elusive creature in his natural habitat. Read More

Lotteria’s Two New Burgers Go Big on Taste, Provide Plenty of Hangover

I think we’re gonna need a bigger bun.

Japanese fast food chain Lotteria, home to the mountain of melted cheese that was our own 30-patty cheeseburger tower, announced yesterday that it will be providing diners with an altogether larger eating experience as of February 22. The above burgers are part of the chain’s “hamidashi” (meaning to jut or hang out over the sides) range, but we’re  affectionately dubbing them the “hangover” series.

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