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Nothing says winter in Japan like the kotatsu, a low wooden table frame covered by a heavy blanket, upon which a table top sits. Built in underneath is a heat source, either electric or charcoal.

Similar to the image of a Western family sitting in front of the fireplace on Christmas Eve, the scene of a family huddled around the kotatsu, usually placed in front of the living room TV, eating mandarin oranges and watching New Year’s programming is what comes to most people’s minds when mentioning the winter holidays in Japan.

With this in mind, Sanriku Railway Co., which operates two lines along the beautiful Sanriku coast of Iwate Prefecture, Japan, is offering passengers the ultimate Japanese winter relaxation experience with their “Kotatsu Train” (Kotatsu Ressha), a special two-car train equipped with 12 kotatsu so you can enjoy the scenery pass by from the comfort of your own (simulated) living room.

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Get Ready to Say “Gundam! This is Some Good Food”, Gundam Café Gearing Up to Enter Every Major City Across Japan

The countdown is still ticking for Gundam Café’s third strike on Tokyo Station this 20 December.  However, the execs at Bandai Namco Holdings have already leaked plans to target all major urban markets across Japan with their unique blend of coffee, pasta, and bipedal war machines.

So if you live in a major city such as Osaka, Nagoya, or Hiroshima, you might get your hands on a Haro latte sooner than you think.

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KFC Japan Offering Free Trips to Osaka for Free All-You-Can-Eat Fried Chicken

Kentucky Fried Chicken is getting into the holiday spirit with the All-You-Can-Eat Chicken Tour.  From now till midnight on 20 December you can enter as often as you like to win a trip to Osaka where you can eat your fill of unlimited free KFC!

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Tekken & Muse Create Another Emotional Flipbook Animation, World in Tears Again

A few months ago, the world was left in tears after watching Furiko (Pedulum), an emotional flip-book animation hand-drawn by Japanese comedian, Tekken, and set to Muse’s epic track, Exogenesis. The video, which recounts the story of a couple’s life together and the heartbreaking efforts of the husband who tries to stop the pendulum of time, currently has 1,052,622 views on YouTube. As our writer describes, “the video managed to pack as much genuine feeling and emotion into three minutes as most hollywood blockbusters in two hours.”

Tekken and Muse are back together once again to give the world another four minutes of emotion with Follow Me, a story about the unborn child that brought a couple together and guided their fate.

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On Christma Day, 2010, an anonymous donor left ten 30,000 yen ($360) randoseru backpacks outside a Japanese orphanage in Gunma Prefecture. Attached to the bags was a card signed by Naoto Date, the secret identity of fictional Japanese wrestler Tiger Mask, who, in the popular 1960s manga by the same name, fought for orphans after being raised in an orphanage himself.

The story was picked up by the press and a week later, on January 1, 2011, a similar donation of backpacks was left at an orphanage in Kangawa Prefecture, again with a note signed by Naoto Date. By January 11, over 100 “Tiger Mask” donations, ranging from backpacks to toys, food, and monetary gifts, had been reported at various children’s facilities across the country.

After that, little was heard from Tiger Mask, aside a second donation to the original orphanage in Gunma on Christmas Day, 2011, which failed to inspire a wave of charity as it had the previous year.

Has Tiger Mask forgotten about the children of Japan?

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Organic Christmas Lights? No, it’s Persimmon Season in Japan 【You, Me, And A Tanuki】

You, Me, And a Tanuki is a weekly featured blog run by Michelle, a Californian who is currently one of only two foreigners living in Chibu, a tiny fishing village on one of the Oki islands in Japan. Check back every Saturday for a new post or read more on her website here!

Starting around the beginning of October, houses and trees throughout the neighborhood are dotted with orange orbs.  It’s kaki season; time to eat some persimmons.  The little fruits almost look like Christmas lights in the daytime, lining the rafters of the houses.  They sway back and forth in the strong sea breeze and are susceptible to being stolen by the crows that lie in wait for an easy meal.

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Pop psychology is popular in Japan.  If you’ve lived long enough in this country you will most certainly have had a conversation about which blood type you are and whether you match the personality type for it. There are books and more books written on what it means to be a certain blood type.

Along the same lines, Japanese psychology councilor Toshikazu Asano believes there is deep meaning in the way men chose to brew their morning cup of Joe.

Niconico news sat down with Mr. Asano and asked him to explain how the darkness of the coffee we brew can reflect the very darkness brewing in our hearts (figuratively speaking, of course).

Just a little bit curious? Read on and see what he has to say about how telling brewing coffee really is. Read More

Bygone Fishing Technique Becomes Beautiful Modern Day Work of Art

http://youtu.be/WX11JAWk5wM

Fishermen all over the world know that lights are good for fishing.  Insects are attracted to light and fish are attracted to insects, so they have evolved to also be attracted to light as well.

Even underwater, tiny organisms like plankton and shrimp are drawn to lights which draw small fish.  The small fish also invite larger fish which can be caught by a fisherman smart enough to put the light there in the first place.

Many fishing boats are equipped with powerful spot lights intended to attract fish, and lights can be bought and installed under docks with the same purpose.

In Taiwan, this technique takes on a dramatic flair using actual flares.  This beautiful and unique style of fishing was filmed by Kenny Chen who released a sample trailer for us all to see.

Let’s take a look!

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  • Dec 16, 2012

We all have co-workers who make us uncomfortable. A recent article on the website of popular Japanese tabloid magazine Spa included some stories about male co-workers that are too creepy to be true—at least, we hope. We thought we’d share them with you, because honestly, if these stories are true, they’re too scary to laugh…

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Official corporate Twitter feeds are generally boring affairs.  Unless you’re really into the product or service mentioned and need to know immediately when something new happens there’s not much entertainment in them – certainly not anything that would move you.

So Japanese Twitter users were taken aback by a surprisingly heartfelt and candid tweet from the official account of Sharp’s line of computer tablets Galapagos.  The tweet was a lament over recent downsizing in part due to the poor sales and economy.

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If you’re looking for a Christmas gift for a pet-owning gadget-loving friend, this may be just the thing!

Thanks to its clever design and built-in wireless wizardry, this new pet monitor allows pet owners to keep an eye on their fluffy friends from work, on the train or while sipping overpriced coffee at any number of trendy coffee houses.

Those without pets but convinced that their home is haunted or that their toys come to life while they’re out, meanwhile, may be interested to know that the camera can be controlled via smartphone and features full rotation and zoom capabilities!

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Japan Inadvertently Summons Tentacle Monster Into This Realm with Holiday Potato Salad Recipe

This Christmas, Japanese retail conglomerate Aeon is conjuring an ancient evil from a centuries-long slumber— and bringing it to the dinner table for your family to enjoy!

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Go Fly a Kite?! Not Any More! With Homekite You Can Stay Right Where You Are

Picture the typical family, if you will. One Sunday afternoon, Junior runs into the den and asks Pa to go kite-flying together.  “Not today, Junior”, said Pa, “It’s just not windy enough.”

Junior walks back to his room and plays Grand Theft Auto, sullenly killing policemen with a sniper rifle.  Even though he got 15 headshots in a row, his heart just wasn’t in it.  Once again Mother Nature had ruined his true passion – kites.

This tragic scene plays out in homes across the kite-loving world.  So the brain trust at Takara Tomy came up with Homekite, the first (I’m guessing) kite to be used in the home.

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[3D Photo Studio] Mr. Sato’s Very Own Lifelike 3-D model has Arrived!

Now that was fast!

It was just 10 days ago that we were detailing our adventurous reporter’s trip to the newly opened Omote 3D Shashin Kan photography studio to be scanned and turned into an ultra-detailed model, and we were told that it’d be a month before the finished product arrived. But would you believe it’s already here! In our sweaty little hands!

And the result is spectacular.

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Minecraft User Decides to Make Kinkakuji, Eventually Creates the Entire City of Kyoto

Oh, Minecraft.  You masterful time-suck!  How is it that I can spend thirty hours of my life playing you, but only land up with a shanty of a shack and a tunnel that continues into the ground because I got bored and decided to pickax it up (at least I found diamonds!).

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Minecraft is basically the game that never ends (yes it goes on and on, my friend).  It’s an open world game with no specific goals and players are free to build and create anything they want by breaking and replacing blocks of different materials (dirt, stone, wood, etc) that can be found all over the virtually endless map.  It’s surprisingly addicting.

You do not “win” Minecraft. You either 1) play until you’ve exhausted all of your creativity and fall on the floor in a crumbled heap after realizing how much time you’ve wasted (like me) or 2) build an incredibly elaborate, visually stunning block world that is the envy of the poor suckers who landed in category 1.

A user who goes by the name, Gawara, has earned his rightful spot amongst the envied Minecrafters in category 2 by recreating the entire city of Kyoto out of Minecraft blocks.

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With the New Dual iPad App “Rich Book” You Can Up Your Chances of Being Mugged to 94%

E-book readers are fast becoming the most popular way to get your reading done.  They take up less space and can sometimes be lighter and cleaner than their paper counterparts.

Still, if you’re an old fart like me, you still can’t get used to holding a table and stroking your finger to make a virtual “page” flip over.  It just doesn’t feel right.

But with “RichBook”, the new app from feedtailor Inc., you can sync a single e-book between two iPads, thus creating a real e-book book! Despite its name, the app is available for free to download.

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Eat at Sukiya and Get a Free Kirby Toy! (For a Limited Time Only)

Like gyūdon beef bowls? Love Nintendo’s pink vacuum-mouthed mascot Kirby? Then you’d better head down to your nearest Sukiya restaurant quick and pick up one of these adorable little windup walking models!

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Our Reporter Picks up 1kg Curry Rice for Half Price, Wades His Way Through It

Just over a month ago, the poor relation of the convenience store chain family that is Save On unveiled a dish that it hoped would appeal to the hungry man on a budget and entice customers through its novelty value: an enormous 1 kg (2.2 lbs) tub of curry and rice. Even by western standards, the dish looks intimidating, sitting there taking up nearly twice the shelf space as its brethren and with a deep dish brimming with thick, dark-brown liquid and gut-filling fluffy white rice.

Since the dish is not yet available in all Save On stores, the gluttonous RocketNews24 team — famous for its food challenges like the 1,000 cheese slice Whopper and the 30 patty cheeseburger eatathon — was itching to try it but hadn’t been able to track one down until recently.

Luckily, late last week our reporter Yoshio was able to pay a trip to Saitama prefecture to pick up one of Save On’s monster curry tubs. And, even better, they were on sale for half price! Without stopping to wonder why such a gargantuan amount of food could possibly be on offer for such a meagre sum, our hungry writer bent at the knees, grabbed one with both hands and headed to the register.

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