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Taiwan introduces the future of cartography: nationwide school uniform maps

Despite being a made famous by thousands of Japanese TV shows and comics, cute “sailor suit” uniforms and their ilk are not limited to schools in Japan alone. As we’ve seen before, high schools all across Asia kit their female students out with a variety of stylish getups, with the girls themselves often making their own modifications, usually quite aware that they are wearing outfits that millions of people across the world think are cute or just plain sexy.

But it appears that Japan’s reign as the school uniform capital of the world may soon be over. Bringing fashion and cartography together at last, a specially designed map of Taiwan which provides photos of the school uniforms the girls in each particular area are rocking has become a big hit online this week.

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We’re not sure if the singularity has finally happened or if this Roomba vacuum cleaner’s owners are just particularly careless. Regardless, it appears the Roomba, sick of being trapped in the same dull house like an animal in a zoo, triumphantly escaped the confines of the home and made a mad 3-mph dash for freedom.

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Moon crystal power make-Up! Bandai releases shimmering Sailor Moon beauty powder

Ever wanted Sailor Moon‘s Crystal Star transformation brooch for yourself, but figured you were too old for kids’ toys? Well now you have the perfect cover, with the new makeup line from Bandai!

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Many a foreigner living in Japan has attempted and mangled this classic karaoke favourite, the theme song from popular Japanese animated film My Neighbor Totoro, just so they can let their vocal cords rip in the chorus. Even with limited language skills, you can probably belt out “Totoro, totoro” one million times and manage to mumble through the rest of the words.

But this cockatiel Poko-chan’s sense of pitch and inner pizzazz puts humans to shame. Accompanied by her owner on piano, she warbles through a song that few have fully mastered. What would Simon Cowell say? You be the judge.

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Hey, do you like trains? And I don’t mean in a “that’s a long train, let’s count the cars” kind of way; I mean like going out and taking hundreds of pictures and traveling hours to see rare locomotives “like” trains.

While there may not be all that many train hobbyists among you, there are plenty of major train enthusiasts here in Japan. And now some of them are living together!

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Pre-E3 poll hints at lack of interest in Microsoft’s newest console

With just a few days to go until E3–one of the year’s biggest video game trade shows–opens its doors, we’re currently knee-deep in rumour, speculation and digital fancy. Although Nintendo has already broken millions of gamers’ hearts by stating that its presence at the event will be minimal, both Microsoft and Sony are set to show off their newest hardware, as well as give the gaming press a look at the titles we can expect to play in the near future.

According to a recent poll being hotly shared by Japanese gamers today, though, some press conferences are being looked forward to far more than others.

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If you’re getting a bit sick of seemingly endless cat videos and GIFs (although we can’t imagine why!), then maybe it’s time for something different. Perhaps this could be the Year of the… Rabbit?! (Yes, we know that was technically two years back, but it’s catchy).

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Who needs copyrights when you’ve got over nine dozen iconic anime characters?

The past few years have seen a handful of anime projects featuring anime characters crossing over from one franchise to the other. Famed thief Lupin III crossed paths with the great detective Conan himself in 2009, and the pirates of One Piece have teamed up with both omnivorous master hunter Toriko and Dragon Ball hero Son Goku.

But what if instead of just combining one or two series, you tried to combine all of them?

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Japanese island to become real-life Game of Life for the summer

The Game of Life, one of the oldest board games still around today enjoys continued success around the world. Japan in particular has embraced the line of wheel spinning games, where it’s known by the direct translation Jinsei Gemu.

As 2013 marks the 45th anniversary of the Game of Life in Japan, one island has decided to celebrate by turning the entire place into one big Game of Life board complete with spinners and play money.

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  • Jun 5, 2013

The adorable Suica penguin bread — Too cute to eat but too good not to

If you’ve ever used public transport in Japan, you may have seen the Suica card, the smart card you can use to pay the fare on Japanese transport systems, named after the onomatopoeic phrase “sui-sui“, meaning to swim or glide smoothly. You may even have noticed that they come adorned with an adorable mascot penguin character, known simply as the “Suica Penguin“. But did you know that the Suica Penguin has now been transformed into a form of delicious confection?

Apparently, the Suica Penguin is irresistibly cute in edible form as well, and the penguin bread is selling like crazy! Naturally, we had to get our hands on a couple and see for ourselves what made it so special.

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Chinese teen defaces ancient relief in Egyptian temple, tracked down by irate netizens

With photos of people doing unsightly things on public transport and reports of cockroaches floating in smoothies, it’s true that China hasn’t been painted in the best light recently. However, an incident occurring in Egypt has caused outrage both at home and abroad after it was discovered that a Chinese tourist had scrawled a message on a wall in an ancient Egyptian temple.

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According to Kolnet, an online media source focused on the Tohoku region of Japan, the number of under-18s in Fukushima Prefecture diagnosed with thyroid cancer has increased to 12, while the number of possible cases has reached 15.

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This year marks the 20th anniversary of Sailor Moon. Since the series’ start as a manga comic serial in Kodanhsa’s Nakayoshi anthology, its team of planetary-themed, pleated skirt-wearing protectors of humanity have appeared in five seasons of televised anime, three theatrical features, a live action TV drama, and numerous video game adaptations.

Sailor Moon also inspired a live-action stage musical, with 27 variations and over 800 performances during its 12-year run that ended in 2005. As part of the franchise’s 20th anniversary festivities, a new version of the musical is set to open this fall, and producers have just announced the starring cast.

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We spend a night at the Legoland Hotel (no assembly required)

There are plenty of reasons to visit San Diego, California. Aside from beautiful beaches, visitors to the Golden State’s southernmost metropolitan area can watch professional baseball and football, see killer whales and other marine life at Sea World, and dine on authentic Mexican cuisine.

And of course, there’s also Legoland California, North America’s first theme park dedicated to the Danish blocks that have captivated generations of kids. Since its opening in 1999, Legoland California has gone through numerous renovations, and as of April even has its own Legoland Hotel, one of only three in the world.

Needless to say, we booked our reservation as soon as possible.

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No typo here – Amazon Japan offers vicuña wool quilt for just US$674,000!

The vicuña, for those of you had never heard of it before (guilty!), is, according to humanity’s savior Wikipedia, one of two wild South American camelids (you know, llama-like animals) living in the high alpine areas of the Andes. Its coat is said to produce the finest wool in the world. It also happens to be the most expensive for a variety of reasons, including that the animals will starve themselves to death if held in captivity, meaning they cannot be farmed, and shearing wild ones can only be done once every three years, and even then only about three pounds of the animal’s hair can be harvested.

So, I guess that explains why a seller on Amazon Japan was trying to offload what I am sure is a very nice futon quilt for 67,200,000 yen (about US$674K).

But is it worth the price? Well, there’s only one way to find out: time to call accounting for some cash and place an order.

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We send a team to take part in the qualifying round of the Air Guitar World Championships 2013

The annual Air Guitar World Championships held in Oulu, Northern Finland celebrates the beloved guitar without actually using them. Instead, participants channel all the energy, attitude, and athleticism of playing rock guitar into their invisible air guitar while performing on stage.

With the 18th championships being held in August this year, RocketNews24 has assembled our finest imaginary guitarists, Stardust Sato and Fantastic Hatori, to represent us. However, the two must first face the qualifying round. Find out if they made the cut after the break.

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This US$21,000 future chair will increase productivity, bankrupt your company

We can see why this futuristic pod… chair… thing is called “The Emperor,” because there’s no way you wouldn’t feel like some powerful sci-fi movie villain hunting the rebels from your battle cruiser’s control station when sitting in it. But if you can actually keep your power fantasies from distracting you, this chair guarantees increased productivity and maximal office comfort.

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With over a billion registered users worldwide, Facebook is the king of online social networking services. In Japan, however, there are signs that its dominance is starting to crumble.

Facebook launched a Japanese version of its website in 2008. Initially, the platform experienced sluggish user growth as it struggled to compete with already established Japanese SNS sites produced by the likes of mixi, Mobage, and GREE. However, after well-known companies in Japan began to use Facebook as a marketing tool, it caught on with the general public and by the end of 2012 had 17.12 million users.

A mere five months later, however, that number has dropped to 13.78 million, a 19.5 percent drop in less than half a year.

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Fire away your frustration at ‘404 Not Found’ — Site turns error message into classic arcade game

Isn’t it irritating when you click on a site link only to receive the message 404 Not Found? Sure some sites will dress up their error messages with a funny picture or a witty saying, but the fact of the matter is that the page you wanted is missing! To help ease this first-world frustration, one web design company has programmed a fully playable game into their error messages. Error screens have never been so welcome!

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We try Japan’s latest instant noodles: pineapple ramen (with 3-D photos!!)

With so many different ramen restaurants in Japan, you have to do something pretty special to get yours to stand out. One establishment that certainly qualifies is lengthily-named Papapapa-Pine, whose claim to fame is its ramen with chunks of pineapple and broth made with the juice of the tropical fruit. But with only one branch in Tokyo, most people living in the capital haven’t had a chance to try this unique concoction.

That all changed on June 3, though, when instant ramen based on Papapapa-Pine’s went on sale at the Daily Yamazaki (also known as Daily Store) chain of convenience stores. We dispatched our crack reporters for an immediate taste test.

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