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Ms. Kitty the Restaurant Entrepreneur at Work in China! We Visit Kitty Lover’s Dream Eatery in Beijing

I’m sure most people will agree that Hello Kitty, born nearly 40 years ago in 1974, is a creation that Japan can be proud of. She is now franchised in over 70 countries around the world. And once again, our beloved Ms. Kitty, the busiest and most famous cat in the world, is hard at work, this time at a restaurant in Beijing, China.

Yes, China is no exception when it comes to Hello Kitty’s popularity, and one of our reporters from Pouch recently had the chance to visit a Hello Kitty themed restaurant in the fashionable Sanlitun area of Beijing. And just in case you’re wondering, sure, we all know rip-offs are big business in China, but this shop is a legitimate operation officially recognized by Sanrio. So, let’s see what the aptly named “Dreams Restaurant (夢幻主題餐庁)” is like. Read More

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Nissan’s New Safety Technology Wrestles Control of the Wheel from Drivers Facing Doom

As the world inches closer and closer to driverless cars, Nissan released a video demonstration of their newest precrash system, the Autonomous Emergency Steering System.  It utilizes an arrangement of camera, laser, and radar sensors to detect objects around your car and avoid potential collisions by commandeering the steering wheel.

In other words, if your car thinks it can drive better than you then it takes control of the wheel.

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Knife Resistant Shirt Presented at Anti-Terrorist Convention

As a high ranking anti-terrorist agent in my fantasies off-time I’m often attacked by knife wielding maniacs.  This is why when I read Gigazine’s coverage of the recent Special Equipment Exhibition & Conference for Anti-Terrorism (SEECAT) 2012 in Tokyo I saw something that really piqued my interest.

On display at the Tanizawa Corp. booth was a sporty looking sweater that also prevents damage from knife slashes.  It could be the most comfy looking piece of armor I’ve seen.

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The Problem With Everyone Knowing Where We Live【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!

My husband and I live on a five square mile island with less than 600 inhabitants. To make matters even cozier, most of our island is mountainous so the houses are clustered together on the coasts where any flat land is available. As a result of our close proximity to our neighbors and the fact that we are the only two foreigners on the island, everyone knows where we live.

This is a great thing most of the time. People often come to our door to give us extra vegetables from their garden or fish they caught. When Khoa and I stayed on the island during New Year’s, the principal of the elementary school saw the light on at our house, figured we were home, and invited us over for a big New Year’s feast.

However, there is a downside to the entire island knowing our whereabouts.

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[Perfect for Halloween] Make Your Own Gaping Flesh Wound Without Wounding Yourself!

With Halloween just around the corner many people are looking around for those finishing touches on their costumes.  And what better accoutrement to your costume is there than an open sore or gaping wound?

However, store bought injuries can be cumbersome and might not look the way you want.  And while injuring yourself with a butcher’s knife is an economically sound idea it could seriously hamper your day to day activities.

So let us show you a safe way to make your own realistic wounds using ordinary household items! Just follow our multimedia guide on wounding yourself and get yourself some markers and glue.

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Food Fight: We Compare Yoshinoya and Sukiya’s Pricey New Dishes

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Times are tough in Japan, and, as reported here on RocketNews24 earlier this week, the country’s two biggest gyūdon chains, Sukiya and Yoshinoya, are tightening their belts after seeing financial losses in the first half of the tax year.

The restaurants’ response to the decrease in profits? Stop cutting costs, end the focus on dirt-cheap dishes and instead launch new, fancier menus in the hope of enticing new customers and squeezing a few extra yen out of regular patrons.

Both Yoshinoya and Sukiya’s new dishes that are more than twice the price of their regular gyūdon staples, but the restaurants claim that they are a cut above the rest as a result. But will the average salary-man, with just 500 yen per day to spend on lunch, want to pay extra for a fancier menu? And if they do, which dish should they choose?

Armed with a camera and grumbling stomachs, we headed out to both restaurants on two seperate days to try the new dishes for ourselves.

Let the New Gyūdon Wars begin!

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Pretty White Soba Flowers Making Fukui Locals Want to Vomit

For those of us living in cities, the idea of moving away to a country home surrounded by vast meadows of these pretty white autumn flowers sounds nice doesn’t it? However, this year, in Fukui Prefecture, where crops of thousands of these soba (buckwheat) flowers are grown, residents are perplexed that all these little blossoms literally smell like an ocean of sh*t.

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“Spare Some Change, Guvnor?” Photo of Distinctly Impious Monks Causes Outrage Online

In pretty much any major city around the world, you’re bound to run in to a person collecting money for some cause or other. It could be in aid of curing a deadly disease, cutting world hunger, protecting the environment or even animal rights activists PETA asking for donations when they’re not making online videogames…

In Japan, it’s not uncommon to encounter Buddhist monks, standing still in the street with a bowl in hand, asking for donations. This is a tradition that has existed in Japan for centuries, and, while few busy city-dwellers stop to drop a few yen in the bowl, even fewer would begrudge the monks for doing it since they have scant income and bring a lot of comfort to many people.

A photo that appeared online earlier this week, however, showing what appears to be two monks sitting in a side-street laughing and smoking while counting their takings for the day, has caused quite a stir among Japan’s internet users…

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Japanese Juggler Elevates the Art, Superhuman Performance Caught on Tape

Most people think the art of juggling is played out.  We think we’ve seen it all from balls to batons to even the point that flaming chainsaws gets yawns from spectators.  But a performance at the 2012 Japan Juggling Festival by a mysterious juggler called Yanazo drew gasps and a standing ovation from the crowd.

Even only using a single ball he is captivating to watch.  If you can catch a ball with the outside of your elbow then congratulations: You can do about a half a second of this six minute act.

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Singapore, a country famous for its strict punishments for even minor crimes, again lived up to its reputation with a new law threatening a fine of 10,000 Singaporean Dollars (US$8,000) for every single unwanted e-mail sent for the purposes of solicitation otherwise known as spam.

What this will mean for the generic medicine and penis enhancement industries in Singapore remains to be seen.

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Pokémaniacs, ready your credit cards because Amazon Japan launched their Pokémon Store, a special page dedicated to the sale of all things Pokémon, on October 17.

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French Commentator’s “Radiation” Joke Angers Japanese Government

Following Japan’s 1-0 victory over France in the friendly football (soccer to our North American readers) match last week, a French variety show host made a joke that has touched a nerve here in Japan.

Alluding to Japanese goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima’s impressive skills on the field, the show presented an edited image of the player, showing him with four arms.

The show’s presenter then suggested that Kawashima’s additional limbs might be the result of “the Fukushima effect” and that they had grown after exposure to radiation leaked from the nuclear plant damaged by the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. While the joke went down well during the show, many Japanese are understandably very upset…

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Japan’s Armed Forces Show Their Playful Side: Moé-Style Attack Helicopter Wows Crowds

“It just goes to show that we really do live in a peaceful country.”

A quote from an internet user sums up the mood perfectly after Japan’s Self Defence Forces unveil a unique attack helicopter covered with manga-influenced designs and colours.

Presented as part of an air show in Chiba prefecture last weekend, the quirky new helicopter quickly stole the show, with hundreds of people taking photos and video to share on the internet.

Whether we’d ever see a helicopter like this fly into battle or not, there’s no denying that it has an awful lot of charm.

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Flower Gundam Takes Over Tokyo!

Gundam has been standing watch over Diversity Tokyo Plaza in Odaiba all by himself for quite some time now.  He’s been holding down the fort fairly well, but it looks like Gundam is in need of some flower power.  That’s where the Tokyo Gundam Project 2012, an initiative aimed at promoting the green movement and tree planting, stepped in.  Thanks to this initiative, Flower Gundam, with the strength of 10,000 flowers, is now helping normal Gundam keep watch.

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Like to Sleep on Public Transportation? Protect Ya Neck with the UpRight Sleeper

A while back we brought you some techniques on dealing with people who sleep on your shoulder during train, bus, or plane rides.  However, the problem wouldn’t exist if many of us weren’t train sleepers ourselves.  In Japan, you’re guaranteed to see at least one person sleeping if you ride the train after 6pm.

Even if a sleeper could avoid their fellow commuters they still run a high risk of hurting their own necks by sleeping upright.  Luckily an American company has come to everyone’s rescue with the UpRight Sleeper.  Now, if they can just convince people to wear the thing…

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Cool Japanese Music Video Brings Back 8-Bit Google Maps…Kinda

Remember Google’s 8-bit Google Maps April Fools’ prank from earlier this year?

Japanese four-piece all-female rock band, Negoto, have taken the idea to the next level by integrating their new music video with an 8-bit map of Tokyo so that it tracks the singer’s location as she goes on a grand adventure across the city.

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Lotteria’s Tower Cheese Burger: The Reality of Five Patties Covered in Melted Cheese

Major Japanese fast food burger chain Lotteria is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year.  In commemoration, they have brought back the infamous Tower Cheese Burger, five beef patties with five cheese slices, and introduced a five layered shrimp patty burger— each for only 500 yen (about $6.25 US) !

Sounds like great value for anyone with a carnivorous appetite, and, in case five patties sounds too overwhelming, you can also knock the tower down to three or four. Either way, they stack ’em high!   …or they try, at least… 

As you can probably tell from the picture above, we recently found out that reality isn’t always what the advertisements make it out to be.  Is this supposed to be a lesson in facing up to the truth? Read More

Japanese Cabinet to Reward Nobel Prize Winner with New Washing Machine

It’s great that we have the Nobel Prize to give credit to the often unspoken heroes of the scientific community who continuously change our lives for the better. For example, Professors Sir John Gudon and Shinya Yamanaka’s work on stem cell research could potentially save countless lives and improve everyone else’s.

With that in mind, after a recent cabinet meeting Minister Makiko Tanaka unveiled their plan to present Prof. Yamanaka with – cue Price is Right music – a brand new washing machine!

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  • Oct 18, 2012

Biryani Restaurant in the Middle of Tokyo Offers a Delightful Taste of Spice with Your Rice, Open One Day a Week

We Japanese love rice; we’re quite obsessed with rice, in fact. We all have our favorite brand of rice, depending on the specific type of rice and the location it was grown (yes, location is very important and can greatly affect the price of the rice), and some people shell out a fortune to buy super-expensive “high-end” brand rice. But not many Japanese people are familiar with biryani, the spicy flavored rice common in India and some Muslim countries as well.

One of our reporters at the Pouch site recently had the chance to taste some excellent biryani right in the middle of Tokyo and shares with us her experience. Her report follows below. Read More

While most of us use YouTube to upload homemade productions and watch funny cat videos, much of Japan still turns to their domestic video sharing site, Nico Nico Douga.

Yet whereas YouTube sees content from users across the world, Nico Nico Douga has remained primarily an exclusive club for Japanese speakers since it began in 2006. An English language beta website, Niconico.com, was launched in early 2011, but failed to generate interest even among foreign users of the Japanese site, due in part to the separation of Japanese and English videos between two domains.

Perhaps realizing that they’ll never be able to attract a sizable userbase from YouTube, Nico Nico Douga has shifted its strategy away from encouraging original English content to making its Japanese content more accessible to English speakers, replacing the English website with an English interface for the Japanese domain, nicovideo.jp.

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