OK, so it may not be a living, breathing polar bear (only joking, kids- of course it’s real!), but this certainly isn’t something that you’d expect to see on your way to work in the big city!
Here at RocketNews24 we are no strangers to excessive consumption of ordinary foodstuffs. We even once constructed a bowl of gyudon with 10 raw eggs on top.
Still, we have to doff our caps to this gent who dreamed a dream and successfully cooked 50 egg yolks in a rice cooker. We say “successfully” because the end result actually looks pretty good – if not lethal.
Dr. Shunichi Igarashi has surprised even himself with his line of Super Reinforcement with Flexibility (SRF) technology. SRF basically involves wrapping the columns and walls of building in adhesive strips.
The idea of gluing fabric on a building to protect it from the sheer force of an earthquake doesn’t sound very comforting. However, when Dr. Igarashi’s SRF was put to the test in the Great Tohoku Earthquake on 11 March, 2011, it passed with flying colors.
Following the enormous success of our cup noodle gourmet experiment, we decided that it was time to give a couple of other cheap and cheerful snacks an image overhaul by turning them into something a little more glamorous. This time around, we opted for Japanese kids’ favourite Umaibō (lit. “delicious stick”), a 10-yen (10 cents) puffed corn snack that’s available in all manner of flavours. With its dry, powdery exterior and rich taste, we couldn’t help thinking that it might go well with chicken or pork, so we decided to use a few in place of the breadcrumb coating for tonkatsu fried pork fillet.
As it turns out, the result was even more umai than we could have possibly imagined.
Japan’s version of the Moon Pie, the Choco Pie, is almost identical to the American classic – sweet filling nestled between two pieces of white cake covered in chocolate. They are made by Lotte and have been delighting Japanese sweet lovers for 30 years.
Much like the Japanese versions of Pepsi, Kit Kats and Pringles, Choco Pies are getting a new limited edition makeover. Marketed under the name “Wa Choco Pie” (Wa meaning both “peace” and, in this case, “Japanese-style”), these special Choco Pies have been supersized to 12 cm (4.7in) and filled with matcha creme. However, unlike most limited edition foods in Japan, these special Choco Pies can only be purchased by entering into a lottery draw. They will also be sold for a ridiculous price.
If you’re a video game fan and in the line for a new laptop computer, it might be your lucky day! Japan’s Sega Store is currently accepting orders for specially designed notebooks designed to look like Sega’s late, great home consoles.
Short of dropping our current machines down the stairs or accidentally pouring coffee over them, we don’t necessarily need one per-se, but the more we gaze upon these photos, the more that little tech-loving devil inside us shouts the same word over and over and pumps gaming nostalgia into our bloodstream. Waaaant!
On the Japanese TV show Nep & Imoto’s World Rankings, they conduct surveys to rate countries by random attributes. For example, recent shows have ranked everything from how common it is to cry at graduation ceremonies to the number of shotgun weddings and frequency of cellphone checking.
Another ranking that has generated some chatter in Japan was one people’s tendency to lie, which ranked … countries in accordance to how likely they were to bend the truth.
So where do you think Japan came in? Read More
Catering for men who require a little more titillation than maid cafes can provide but not wanting to step into full-blown fuuzoku establishments, “girls bars” in Japan provide customers with a place to eat and drink while giving them something to look at and plenty of stilted conversation. A cheaper alternative to “hostess clubs”, girls bars are usually staffed by regular college-aged girls who don’t mind showing a little flesh and interacting with customers in an energetic, cutesy manner.
In a slightly different take on the genre, Yokohama’s Sexy Izakaya Natsuko focuses on the theme of summer all year round, dressing its staff in bikinis and sarongs while arming them with tambarines to bash while another member of staff juices grapefruits and serves food and drinks at your table.
Cup Ramen, known to Westerners as “Grade A college student feed,” is perfectly formulated with enough sodium and other preservatives to both fuel late-night study sessions and cure massive hangovers, but nobody’s ever accused it of being a gourmet food.
Never shy of running a cool promotional offer or two, Japanese convenience store Lawson has announced that it will be transforming one of its Tokyo outlets into a video game castle to mark the launch of the Nintendo Wii U version of hugely popular game Dragon Quest X. Even better, visitors to the store will be able to bag themselves a whole host of themed goodies and even unlock in-game items during the promotional period.
Ever the video game fans, we have to admit that there were a couple of gasps and squeals of delight this morning at the RocketNews24 office when we first caught sight of these The Legend of Zelda-themed banknotes designed by deviantART member Ash. With 1, 5, 10 and 20 rupee notes featuring characters from the series and printed in colours faithful to the game’s gem-shaped currency, we’re positively dying for Nintendo to adopt the idea and make these things official Club Nintendo freebies.
Ita-goods have been gaining popularity amongst Japanese anime fans, starting with the itasha and continuing the painfully embarrassing rampage with the ita-in (painful stamp) and itasuit. This fad has now infiltrated nail salons, with the itanail: beautiful images of anime and manga characters painted on women’s fingernails.
The itanail is featured in Akihabara specialty nail salon, ita color’s [sic] yellow. The salon has been churning out some amazing nail designs featuring the likes of Sailor Moon, Evangelion, and many more.
The long standing collaboration between Japan’s premier virtual pop star and ubiquitous convenience store continues this spring with the Hatsune Miku de Sakura no Uta campaign.
Unfortunately, the campaign has been having a bit of a rocky start with the sexually suggestive Sakura Style Strawberry Cream Bread. So now it’s time to bring out the heavy artillery: Family Mart’s second version of a Hatsune Miku-themed nikuman (steamed meat bun), Sakura Mikuman.
Ordinarily, we wouldn’t even bother burning the calories required to click the link when presented with a video titled “Chinese Military Shovel” (especially when it means risking seeing that god-awful Gundam pachinko ad again). But after being recommended it by our Japanese sister site RocketNews24 Japan, we sat down to watch a demonstration of how China’s bravest men make the most of a tool that few of us would think of using for anything more than digging a hole in the ground or patting the tops of sandcastles flat with.
As it turns out, this is one handy little tool to have, with the Chinese military demonstrating some 24 different uses for it in this peculiar video. And we thought Swiss Army knives were versatile…
Fujitsu Labs recently announced it is finalizing technology which lets you check and monitor your pulse just by pointing a camera at your face. The company claims results can be achieved in as little as five seconds and doesn’t require complicated procedures or extra equipment.
The technology is compatible with ordinary smartphones as well as tablets, laptops, or desktops as long as they’re equipped with a camera.
No doubt there to promote the release of new Nintendo 3DS game Luigi’s Mansion 2 (known as Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon in the West), Shigeru Miyamoto – the creator of Super Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong among others – was spotted hanging out with staff from Nintendo America in New York yesterday, not to mention looking exceptionally green. If only he’d arrived a few days earlier, this get-up would have worked pretty well for Saint Patrick’s Day, too.
On 18 March an announcement was made that shook the world of manufacturing. For centuries man has had to endure white paper for writing down notes, works of art, or fake telephone numbers from girls met in the bar.
Sure, there was the development of colored paper, but that’s just putting lipstick on a pig. The real innovation will come in the not too distant future when we will be able to enjoy paper the way it was truly meant to be – nearly invisible!
Think of the applications! Seriously, think about it, because we had to for a really long time.
Who says the office is no place for scantily-clad girls with blue hair? Now you can look smart and professional while staying true to your animé roots with the latest in clothing for discerning otaku- the itasuit!
What is this so-called nampa? Nampa is the ancient Japanese art of pick-up. The seductive skill of girl-hunting. The discreet loitering around the train station, the thrill of the chase, the crushing rejection or ecstatic exchange of phone numbers. A much-maligned art which is becoming more and more illegal.
Awww, I remember my first nampa experience. I’d been in Japan less than a year and I was walking down a main street not far from Nagoya Station when a tall, skinny Japanese boy with a bleached anime-style shock of hair, a dapper suit and startlingly protuberant teeth smilingly approached me and struck up a conversation out of the blue. In Japanese! Living in conservative Nagoya and starved for human affection and contact, I and my fledgling language skills almost fell into his arms. I was so happy he was treating me just as if I was Japanese, making no distinction between me and the girls walking past in super short skirts (or maybe those were belts…).
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