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Time-Lapse Tokyo: Stunning Video Captures the Captial City’s Hidden Beauty

“Seen this way, Tokyo really is beautiful.”– A comment from the Japanese Niconico Video user who originally posted photographer Samuel Cockedey’s video “Inter States” to the social video site.

The time-lapse video shows splashes of neon interspersed with orange street lamps, streaking red taillights and rushes of black figures, painting detail onto the concrete canvas that is Japan’s capital city. Hives of energy and movement, it sometimes takes an outsider’s perspective to recognise that even a sprawling metropolises like Tokyo can be quite breathtaking when we stop to notice them. The full video after the jump.

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Anyone familiar with the hit Japanese comic and animation Doraemon will likely know the character Nobita. Cursed with terrible luck, the schoolboy receives help from an earless robotic cat sent back in time by his own great-grandson in the future. Nobita is a lovable character, but “cool” is rarely a word that people use to describe him.

Throwing caution to the wind, however, one young man was spotted riding Tokyo’s trains yesterday dressed exactly like the hapless character. Cosplay or just quirky fashion sense, we don’t know, but the Internet had plenty to say about the rare sight.

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Simple and Delicious Recipe for Herring and Pumpkin Pot Pie as Seen in Kiki’s Delivery Service

Inspired by a recent re-watching of the classic Studio Ghibli film Kiki’s Delivery Service, we decided to try our hand at making grandma’s signature dish, herring and pumpkin pot pie. Why? Because the movie made it look so tasty!

We don’t care what that the old woman’s granddaughter had to say, Kiki worked hard to help make that pie and deliver it in pouring rain, and… all right, so perhaps some of our desire to cook actually came from a need to understand how the young lady in the movie could possibly hate her sweet, sweet grandmother’s homemade birthday present. It took a bit of research, but we think we may have found the perfect recipe!

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Bizarre Comedian Egashira 2:50 Publishes Bizarre Yoga Book

Egashira 2:50, or Ega-chan for short, is a Japanese comedian with a very unique style. He’s a scrawny, partly balding middle-aged man, who usually appears bug-eyed and disheveled in a diaper or skin-tight pants to perform very physical, usually very dirty gags. His motto is “It’s better to appear once and become a legend than to be a regular all season long,” and his appearances are certainly memorable.

Now, for our viewing and reading pleasure, he’s taking his bizarre style to the publishing world, with a instructional yoga book released this week titled Ega Yoga.

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And here we were feeling smug about our regular fibre optic Internet connection…

Sony Corporation announced yesterday that its own Internet service provider So-net Entertainment has launched what is thought to be the world’s fastest Internet connection for home use, with download speeds clocking in at a massive 2 Gbps, on average twice as fast as competing high-speed fibre connections in Japan.

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The Five Most Popular Snacks in Japan

Have you ever opened a pre-packaged snack and then, before realising it, found you devoured the whole thing?

This was the question put to 906 readers of an online news site in Japan. Out of the 906 people in the survey, 618 said they had unwittingly scoffed the lot. But what are Japan’s most irresistible snacks? And what makes them so impossible to resist? Take a look at some of the comments from respondents as we bring you an inside look at the top five…

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This week in Beijing, the trial began for a 45-year-old man accused of killing a man with a samurai sword after he picked a fight with the man’s 23-year-old son. The incident occurred on October 19 last year and started over an argument on the bus. Read More

Spend a Day with Ice-Cream, Ramen and 30,000 Comics at Tachikawa’s Amazing New Manga Park

One Piece, Dragon Ball, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure; whatever your paper-based poison, Tachikawa City’s Manga Park has you covered. With an incredible 30,000 comics to relax with for just 400 yen (US$4) per day, the only way this could possibly be better for manga fans would be if the staff also dressed as your favourite characters and gave free foot massages.

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Make Your Own Yoshinoya Beef Bowl at Home, Even Better Than the Original 【Recipe】

Yoshinoya has been serving “tasty, low-priced and quick” gyudon (beef bowls) in Japan for over a century. In recent years, the chain’s bright orange signs can also be found at around 600 locations throughout Southeast Asia and the United States. It seems the world has fallen in love with the original Japanese fast food.

Now anyone can enjoy the beefy goodness of gyudon from the comfort of their own home thanks to this easy recipe. It’s the closest you’ll get to an authentic Yoshinoya beef bowl without having to put on pants.

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On April 10, the mayor of Kyoto Keiji Yamada made public his intentions to appeal to the government to award overseas students who graduate from Kyoto University with the right to permanent residence. It is a proposal entitled ‘Kyoto University Special Ward’ and also incorporates other supportive measures for foreign students. With a decrease in student intake within Japan in recent years, it is hoped that by providing incentives for academically skilled overseas students, Kyoto will not only be able to compete with other cities like Tokyo but will also be able to add a new lease of life to its cultural city.

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Japan Pop Culture Subcommittee Formed to Show the World ‘Cool Japan’

On 9 April the Cool Japan Promotion Conference and Pop Culture Subcommittee was assembled to discuss and strategize ways to encourage growth in Japan’s popular culture sector. The session dealt with all of Japan’s notable influences around the world from Gundams to soccer.

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Fox Sports ‘Foul Ball Armor’ Papercraft Helmet Takes Five Hours to Build, Might be Effective at Your Little Brother’s Wiffleball Game

Fox Sports Japan is offering a freely downloadable “Foul Ball Armor” papercraft helmet for people with a lot of free time and an iron will (papercuts are serious business and you should expect a lot of them building this thing).

You’ll also obviously need access to a printer, or if you have no sense of shame, a nearby Kinko’s.

Fox Sports introduced the Foul Ball Armor in a new television ad campaign to coincide with the March 29 start of the 2013 baseball season.

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Mister Donut and Hello Kitty Now Serving up Cute Doughnuts!

When we heard that Mister Donut was teaming up with Hello Kitty to celebrate the opening of a new Hello Kitty cupcake ride at Universal Studios Japan, we knew there would be a sweet surprise. The result? An insanely cute doughnut range featuring Ms Kitty’s signature bow and a few unique mini cupcake-inspired creations. Plus, a Hello Kitty ribbon headphone jack charm for purchases over 600 yen (US$6)!

But what would a Hello Kitty-approved doughnut taste like? We were seduced by the cute kitten and headed down to our local store to try out her wares. Join us as we take you through the range, bite by delicious bite…

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  • Apr 14, 2013

200 Years Old And Still Irresistibly Adorable! A Timeless Image of “Cute” From the Edo Period

Okay, this little fella is seriously cute!  (And I’m not talking about the big black bull in the painting above, but the small white ball of fur in the bottom center — see him?) It’s hard to believe he’s more than 200 years old, or at least his picture is. Yes, dogs have been man’s best friend for a long time, and this particular picture that has been capturing the heart of modern internet users of late goes to prove that our love of dogs (and all things furry and adorable for that matter) truly transcend time. Just look at the little guy’s fluffy white coat and innocent puppy eyes. No wonder the image has been making net users go all gooey! Read More

In the past decade or so, the widespread use of computers in both the public and private sphere has seen the personal computer become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Whether it be creating a chart of company expenditures or simply recording important appointments in a software-based diary, almost all of our work has been a layer of digital varnish. The birth of the laptop computer has meant that work can be done virtually anywhere, with a wealth of information available in a few clicks and taps of the keyboard. As wonderful as all this is, it’s easy to overlook some of the problems that arise from a computer-centric life. Here we’ll take a good, hard look at the downside to spending the vast majority of our day plugging in and screen-facing.

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April in Japan is a month of changes. As well as the beginning of the new tax year, the new school year begins, staff are rotated between departments, and new employees enter companies wearing plain black suits and fixed smiles that are betrayed only by the thin layer of sweat on their foreheads and nervous, darting eyes. It’s also the time of year that millions of university students experience life away from home for the first time, installing themselves in halls of residence or nearby apartments with no one to check up on them.

In an effort to help their students settle in and start their studies off on the right foot, a university in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, is operating a free breakfast initiative, inviting all new students to stop by the cafeteria from eight o’clock each morning to eat a nutritious, home-cooked meal, thus ensuring that they consume at least one meal during the day that hasn’t come out of a plastic cup or a convenience store microwave.

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Django Unchained in China, Authorities Throw Chains Back on One Minute Later

After spending decades in the film business, Quentin Tarantino had yet to get a film into China, now the second largest movie market in the world. His previous attempts have failed to meet with the stringent and sometimes erratic demands of the country’s censors.

However, on 11 April, Tarantino’s recent Academy Award-nominated film Django Unchained was set to premiere – and it did – for about one minute.

The authorities, whom I like to imagine have some kind of Commissioner Gordon batphone to movie theatres, called in and put the kibosh on Django.

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Five Reasons Why We Love Mr. Sato

Mr. Sato, you are quite literally the man! As our most trusted source of all things bizarre in Japan, you never disappoint. From the time you went in for a trim at a pet salon (on all fours mind you) to the time you tried to train your eyelids, the laughs (almost always at your expense) kept coming.

The following is a list of five reasons why we love our crazy reporter, Mr. Sato. We’re sure you won’t be disappointed.

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Commuter trains in Japan are known for being among the most punctual in the world. The entire rail system is a well-oil machine. When a train is scheduled to depart its station at 09:42 and arrive at its destination at 10:33, it almost always leaves the station at 9:42 and arrives at 10:33; a mind-boggling concept perhaps in some other parts of the world.

Close to 40 million passengers use the rail system daily in Tokyo alone, so when trouble does occur, it needs to be sorted out quickly. Still, it would shock anyone who has been living in risk-averse, safety-first Japan for any length of time to see their local commuter train run down the tracks with a passenger carriage door wide open.
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Mister Donut Japan to Change Product Ingredients for First Time in 42 Years

On April 9, Duskin Co., Ltd., operators of the Mister Donut franchise in Japan, announced they would be making changes to the batter and oil they used for their product in order to better bring out the original taste of the donuts themselves. This is the first time for Mister Donut Japan to undergo a major change in ingredients since opening 41 years ago in 1971.
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