Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
If you’re a Pokémon fan, this “Let’s make Pikachu pancakes!” mould is sure to excite you. One Japanese fan recently tried to make her own Pika-licious snack, but her resulting creation went terribly wrong. We wanted to share these fail-blog worthy pictures with you.
We here at RocketNews24 occasionally get hit with accusations of having an anti-China or anti-Korea slant. And while we don’t think a story about a young Chinese man getting a seatless bicycle wedged in his butt is inherently anti-Chinese, we can see how it might be interpreted that way. We can also see how we get labeled as anti-other-Asian-countries since we largely get our information from Japanese sources, and it would be naive to say there aren’t anti-Chinese and anti-Korean forces at play within the Japanese media. You couldn’t hope for a better example than the following story that was said to have been posted by a Chinese person on a message board. The anecdote has a lot to say about how Chinese children are raised to view Japan. However, the reaction to the story itself is more revealing about what it’s like on the other side.
Well, sort of. OK, so that title is a bit misleading. But an article on Yomiuri Online the other day confirmed that researchers have discovered a new underwater geological formation, the largest of its kind in the world, south of the Japanese mainland. Furthermore, they have named it after everyone’s favorite King of the Monsters! This “new Godzilla” could even shed light on some secrets about the inside of the earth. Keep reading to find out more about this amazing scientific discovery.
Twitter user @sazaki0 recently got an unpleasant surprise when she discovered a mouse had taken up residence in her house, but this particular mouse had far better manners than your average rodent, offering a gift of chocolate to the lady of the house. Her full story after the jump.
For those of us up in the northern hemisphere, winter is already in full swing. And for skiers and snowboarders, that can mean only one thing: the snow-covered mountains are calling and it’s a race against the clock to get the most out of them.
Treated to generous snow dumps each winter and coupled with the fact that so much of the country is mountainous, Japan is one of the best locations in the world for ski and snowboarding fun, not to mention some of the best powder snow in the world. But which resorts should you be sure to visit before the powder turns to slush? Check out this list of five of Japan’s greatest, and our favourite, places to ski and snowboard!
As we saw earlier today, some girls in Japan celebrate turning the big two-oh with some rather elaborate outfits. However, most young women on Coming-of-Age Day in Japan opt for a more traditional-looking kimono.
Another aspect of Coming-of-Age Day is the ceremony held in each region of the land. In each of them, large numbers of young men and women gather to celebrate, during which time it’s only natural for at least some of them to hook up, which is perhaps why the love hotel industry sees an annual spike on this particular holiday.
If you put these two things together, though, you have a big problem.
Cuteness sells, even if what you’re selling is recruitment for the Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) and the National Defense Academy (NDA). Since last July, the JSDF’s Okayama Provincial Cooperation Office has been using three adorable mascot girls to raise awareness for the JSDF. The girls represent each military branch of the forces, sporting the uniforms for each. Momoe Kibi represents the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (Army), Mizuho Seto represents the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (Navy), while Airi Bizen represents the Japan Air Self Defense Force (Air Force). If the design aesthetic looks familiar, it’s because the girls were created by Humikane Shimada, the original character designer behind such military-inspired moe series like Strike Witches and Girls und Panzer.
Snowboarding is fairly popular in Japan and there’s no doubt that anime and manga are deeply ingrained in the psyche of many people across the nation. So we suppose this ita-board, or “painfully nerdy snowboard” event isn’t too much of a surprise considering the constant appearance of ita-sha (painful cars), ita-suit (painful suit), and even ita-heli (painful helicopters). What did surprise us is the national association dedicated to nerdy snowboards and the annual event that hosts them.
It was perhaps inevitable that games industry giants should start taking an interest in China the moment the country’s laws changed, permitting the production and sale of video games consoles for the first time in almost a decade and a half, but tech sites and analysts in China are now suggesting that talks held late last year between the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group and Japan’s Sony Corporation very likely herald the official arrival of PlayStation 4 in China.
Have you taken a close look lately at the knives you use every day when preparing food? If you’ve been using them for many years, they are no doubt dull and in need of a sharper replacement, especially if you want to do any fancy knife work. While it may seem easier to just go out and buy a new set, you might be inspired to learn how to sharpen and polish them yourselves when you hear about the ancient Japanese art of blade sharpening and the few remaining craftsmen practicing it. Click below to read about our visit to one such sharpening master in Tokyo!
Buying a fukubukuro (lucky bag) is one of the most anticipated thrills during New Year’s in Japan. Although what’s in the bag is a mystery until you’ve paid for it, the goods in the bag are usually worth more than the price you pay for the fukubukuro, so most of the time it is indeed a “lucky” buy.
Depending on your luck, you might not get something you desperately want or need in the bag, but even that wouldn’t dampen your day as much as what this Japanese Twitter user found in her slightly “unlucky” My Melody fukubukuro.
As mentioned many times before on this site, the modern Japanese language uses a set of characters to represent foreign words called katakana. Such characters are used for foreign place names such a Beverly Hills (ビバリーヒルズ) or people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (マフムード・アフマディーネジャード).
However, this feature of Japanese has been criticized by some for allowing the purity of the language to be polluted by foreign influences. It can also cause confusion by creating English words that have different meanings than the original.
That being said, for foreigners visiting Japan with a limited knowledge of the language this list may prove invaluable. Excluding the obvious classics like “OK” (オケ) and “McDonald’s” (マクドナルド) here are some relatively newer loan words ranked by understandability in Japanese.
This 13 January marked yet another Coming-of-Age Day in Japan. Every year on the second Monday of January, young adults who have turned 20 in the previous year congregate in city halls and community centers across the land.
These ceremonies honor the passage into adulthood and for such a once in a lifetime event, it’s not uncommon to see young women dress to the nines with an elegant kimono and elaborate hairstyle. Nails are an important feature too, but one young woman decided to accompany the event with some once-in-a-lifetime nails. In fact the image above is only about 45% of them.
Get ready to see the full picture, but beware! It’s kind of like staring into an Escher painting.
Music class can be pretty hit or miss. Some people really enjoy it and find a life-long passion–other fumble hopelessly with the drumsticks and just wish it were time to start math class. Either way, we all had to sit through it, right?
But as important as learning an instrument may be, it kind of seems like music class is still stuck in the 20th century–or even the 19th century. After all, the music industry today relies as much on Pro Tools as it does on an expert bass player. So while we’ll always need skilled musicians, it does seem prudent to introduce the more technologically advanced aspects of music to the classroom, doesn’t it?
Well, one Japanese school did just that by offering a vocaloid composition trial lesson to their curriculum!
Pop quiz, guys: Your girlfriend approaches you and says she’ll wear whatever panties you tell her to, and she won’t even get mad if you choose the ones that reveal too much or make her look fat. What do you do? Go for the safe, hip-level sailor stripes? How about the slightly creepy but non-offensive teddy bear print? Go for broke and tell her to go commando?
This is the kind of question men of the Internet apparently pore over, because this image with the above question popped up on a Japanese Internet forum recently.
Have you made that New Year’s resolution to be healthier but just can’t seem to make the commitment to work out? Is the only flexible thing in your life the elastic band around your sweatpants after you gorge yourself on cake? We think we can motivate you into a more active lifestyle by seeing a Chinese lady in her 50s doing her morning stretching routine that will be sure to shame you into eating healthier and exercising more!
Japan really loves to put its tourist spots into a top three list, such as the top three gardens or the top three hot springs. And a lot of tourists like to visit all three of the places to be able to say they’ve completed the set. But which of these famous trios do Japanese tourists want to visit the most? The website Web R25 recently surveyed 664 of their readers to ask them which of the top three lists they most want to visit. Click below to find out which trio of tourist hotspots topped the list and be sure to let us know which one you prefer in our RocketNews24 poll at the bottom!
The capital city of this island nation is said to be the most densely populated major city in the world, with a mind-boggling 35,000 people living per sq km. Can you guess which country it’s in?
The new year has arrived and it feels like we’ve already fallen into the same old routine. A well-known and comfortable routine, so we’re not complaining! But it is a bit sad to let the wintry festivities go.
Fortunately, there’s still a bit of fun to be had leftover from New Year’s Day: One enterprising Hokkaido resident took it upon himself to film the dawn of the new year–from the freaking stratosphere! He posted the video on YouTube and it is absolutely beautiful.
At the end of a long, cold winter day, have you ever found yourself craving a bowl of steaming hot miso soup to go? If you live in Tokyo, then you happen to be in luck. There’s a shop selling freeze-dried products that lets you customize your own miso soup, and even down it on site. Furthermore, you can try different varieties of miso soup from around Japan. Read on to learn more about this awesome jewel right outside Tokyo Station.
Japan reportedly adding Japanese language skill requirement to most common foreigner work visa
New Japanese KitKats come in sakura flavour, with poetic symbolism for success
Foreign man arrested for walking on Shinkansen tracks, claims he was on the run from yakuza
Japan now has a special desk for people who work at home with a pet cat[Photos]
Famous koi ponds overwhelmed with tourists throwing thousands of coins in them
Japanese manhole lid raises eyebrows with fertility god symbol that looks like… well, you know
7-Eleven Japan’s new baked-in-store sweet treat is only available in three parts of the country
Deer that appeared in downtown Osaka gets a new home, a new name, and a lot of snacks[Video]
Manga is More than Just Reading, It’s a Cultural Experience – Expo 2025 with The Seven Deadly Sins
How far away from Tokyo can you get with 5,000 yen? Let’s find out!
Pokémon and Ikea Japan cross over into each other’s worlds with collaboration eventsJapan reportedly adding Japanese language skill requirement to most common foreigner work visa
Starbucks Japan closing only Shinkansen platform branch for popularity-triggered renovations
Two food hacks take Japan’s convenience store fried chicken to amazing new sandwich heights
You can assemble a well-balanced team of Pokémon, them eat them, thanks to Japanese cake chain
Fading Tokyo – Searching for signs of the Showa era as local neighborhoods evolve[Photos]
Pokémon lacquerware series expands for Year of the Horse with new handcrafted design[Video]
Tokyo turns its phone booths into free Wi-Fi hotspots, and here’s how to use them
Tokyo teahouse serves up a sakura matcha dessert you won’t find anywhere else
Totoro Fund line of beautiful artwork and apparel lets you help the real-world Totoro ForestPokémon and Ikea Japan cross over into each other’s worlds with collaboration eventsJapan now has a special desk for people who work at home with a pet cat[Photos]Japan reportedly adding Japanese language skill requirement to most common foreigner work visa
Famous Tokyo cherry blossom spot installs view-blocking screens to fight overcrowding[Video]
Uniqlo announces new T-shirts for One Piece, Naruto and more for manga publisher’s 100th birthday
Train station platform ramen store closes its doors on half a century of history in Tokyo
Starbucks Japan releases new My Fruit³ Frappuccino at only 34 stores around the country
Studio Ghibli releases Catbus pullback keychain that runs like the anime character
Krispy Kreme releases Super Mario doughnuts in Japan for a limited time
Japanese onsen egg maker from 100-yen store Daiso needs to be on your shopping list
Survey asks foreign tourists what bothered them in Japan, more than half gave same answer
Japan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in Tokyo
Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
We deeply regret going into this tunnel on our walk in the mountains of Japan
Studio Ghibli releases Kodama forest spirits from Princess Mononoke to light up your home
Starbucks Japan releases new sakura goods and drinkware for cherry blossom season 2026
Japan’s newest Shinkansen has no seats…or passengers [Video]
Major Japanese hotel chain says reservations via overseas booking sites may not be valid
Put sesame oil in your coffee? Japanese maker says it’s the best way to start your day【Taste test】
No more using real katana for tourism activities, Japan’s National Police Agency says
Japanese manhole lid raises eyebrows with fertility god symbol that looks like… well, you know
7-Eleven Japan’s new baked-in-store sweet treat is only available in three parts of the country
Deer that appeared in downtown Osaka gets a new home, a new name, and a lot of snacks[Video]
Manga is More than Just Reading, It’s a Cultural Experience – Expo 2025 with The Seven Deadly Sins
How far away from Tokyo can you get with 5,000 yen? Let’s find out!
Tokyo big walk – Walking from Tokyo Station to the Big Sight convention center on Tokyo Bay【Pics】
Japanese kindness restores our faith in humanity after a highway bus accident in Tokyo
Almost arrested in Tokyo: Hentai Kamen cosplay leads to a brush with police in Shinjuku Ni-chome
Does this video about an abandoned dog leave you wiping your eyes or shaking your fist?
JR Hokkaido train driver in trouble for reading book about trains on stopped train
Japan’s prime minister exchanges Dragon Ball kamehamehas with president of France[Video]
Cancelled your trip to Tokyo? Free papercraft download lets you build Akihabara in your own home
Why do tourists eat noodles with a green onion instead of chopsticks in this Edo town?
Japan has vending machines that put protective film on your phone for you — Here’s how to use them