Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
Interested in investing in Japanese historical real estate but don’t have quite enough to afford a medieval castle town?
Right now there’s a 150-year-old traditional Japanese thatched-roof farmhouse for sale on Yahoo! Auction for the unbeatable price of 1 yen (about 1 penny)!
Though by judging from the pictures, it may be a bit of fixer-upper…
Be it drowning family members or rescuing neighbors from pits of crap, China continues to not disappoint in the things that make you go “hmmm” department.
This time, let’s say that the son of a wealthy family killed an innocent bystander while drag racing on city streets and is up on a variety of charges, possibly resulting in the death penalty.
In an effort to protect their unfortunate son, the family asks you to be his substitute in prison. The sentence is guaranteed to be reduced to – oh, let’s say 3 years – and you’ll get paid for every day of it. What would you do? What would you charge?
Following in the tradition of Japan getting all the cool Resident Evil stuff, Universal Studios Japan has announced they will be converting a portion of the theme park into a zombie-infested Raccoon City this Fall.
The sea is too clean for the fish!
Efforts to clean up the sea have caused an adverse reaction giving the fishing Industries in Hyogo, Okayama, and Oita Prefectures along the Setonai Seaboard a major headache. The irony being that the sea is too clean for the fish to thrive.
An analysis of the sea water by researchers found the natural levels of Nitrogen and phosphorous in the salt content of the sea water needed for the nutritional growth of healthy plankton have diminished to the point that it has effected the natural eco system of the sea. Without enough plankton, the major nutrition for many small sea animals, the whole food chain is disrupted to the point of great loss to the fishing Industry.
A few weeks ago the Pokemon Company revealed the 3DS LL Pikachu Yellow, a limited edition version of the handheld console purchasable by preorder at Pokemon Center stores from August 25 to September 14.
To the surprise of no one, Japanese customers lined up outside and waited for over 4 hours to purchase the device, clearing out stocks at Pokemon Centers in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka on the first day.
People often ask me why I moved to Japan and I say “to be with people like me – with blonde hair and blue eyes.” Japan is a homogenous country to be sure, but a recent advertisement from clothing chain COMME ÇA ISM boldly challenges this mistaken stereotype that Japan is full of Japanese people.
It’s actually full of white people!
About 95-97% of the population of Pakistan is Muslim, which means there’s not a lot of pork eaten in the country. Pakistanis do, however, eat a lot of sheep. And when they eat sheep, they eat all of the sheep — meat, heart, genitals, brains, you name it and Pakistanis have a recipe for it.
If you know where to look, you can even find Pakistani restaurants here in Japan that serve dishes using some of the more exotic parts of the animal.
One such restaurant is Maruhaba in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, which serves sheep brain curry.
We recently sent reporter Mr. Sato to Maruhaba to try the dish out; after all, he looks like he could benefit from a little more brain.
His report follows below:
While manga is ubiquitous in Japan — just ride the subway in any major city and you’ll see people from all walks of life flipping through a comic book — many Japanese people are surprised to hear how popular manga has become overseas. After all, aren’t Westerners only interested in macho superheroes or short comic strips?
Perhaps that was the case in America before, but in recent years many major bookstores have begun to reserve more space near the front of the store for Japanese comics and in some European countries like France and Germany manga occupies a large portion of overall comic sales.
But why?
Earlier this month, we sent one of our Japanese reporters to Comic Market (or “Comiket“), the world’s largest self-published comic book fair and otaku mecca, to interview real live foreigners and ask them why they like Japanese manga so much.
If you weren’t in the know (and by the know we mean Japan), Japanese convenience store chain Family Mart and Hatsune Miku are running a promotional campaign from August 14 to September 10 to celebrate the Vocaloid’s 5th birthday.
To spread word of the campaign, Family Mart created a 15-second television commercial featuring Miku singing the store’s signature jingle and posted it to YouTube on August 17, though a ripped version had been posted to Japanese video sharing site Nico Nico Douga a few days earlier.
One group of enterprising viewers saw the video and immediately got the idea for a parody, which he posted to Nico Nico and YouTube on August 19. The parody, titled “Miku LOVES Seven Campaign [Fiction]”. features a super deformed Hatsune Miku singing the Japanese 7-Eleven jingle and is absolutely terrifying.
It seems there’s never a shortage of character-themed steamed buns (niku-man in Japanese) coming onto the market in Japan. In the past, we’ve seen buns modeled after Hatsune Miku, Spiderman, slime from Dragon Quest and Puyo Puyo to name a few. So who’s the newest character to be steamed into a tasty little bun? It’s none other than our beloved “cat of all trades”, Ms. Kitty! Read More
Tokyo Electric Power Company has lost a considerable amount of goodwill following last year’s nuclear disaster. While the level of blame that should be placed on the company as a whole is still to be determined, low level employees of the company often face the immediate brunt of the hostility.
It appears now that even the children of TEPCO employees are having to answer for the choices their parents’ employers made by their classmates. But how are elementary school students so up to speed on the nation’s energy situation?
The world’s most venturesome ramen shop, Musashi Noodles, fearlessly created a cold ramen dish with soy milk soup and rayu, or chili oil, ice cream. Musashi Noodles is a Japanese noodle shop franchise. Their Shinjuku branch held a Valentines special promotion back in February featuring Unique Chocolate Ramen.
Summer in Japan is when ramen shops do a booming business in cold noodle dishes like hiyashi chuka. This new creation dubbed ‘tonyu hiyashi men’ or soy milk cold noodles, is available for a limited time only. Notice the scoop of red rayu ice cream floating in the white soy milk soup. A timely creation, full of national pride for all those medals won in the Olympics! But what about the taste? One of our reporters went to check it out. Read More
According to a report published by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Japanese high school students have markedly lower self-esteem and self-confidence than students in America and other Asian countries.
We all love cafes, don’t we? They provide welcome respite from the hassles of daily life while you relax over a nice cup of coffee or tea, whichever you’re in the mood for. Well, one of our reporters at Pouch website learned of an interesting cafe located near Ikebukuro Staion in Tokyo and decided to investigate.
According to the shop website, the Sakura Cafe Ikebukuro is an open terrace cafe located on the first floor of the Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro, where guests from approximately 110 countries around the world stay each year. Open 24 hours every day of the year, the cafe offers a breakfast, lunch, afternoon (tea time), dinner and late night menu, and in particular, they have a breakfast buffet (called the “morning set”) that costs only 320 yen (about $4). That certainly caught our attention! They also offer a weekly selection of 4 lunch plates, each offering a dish from a different country. Sound interesting? Let’s hear what the reporter, Yayoi Washinomiya, had to say after making a visit to the cafe. Here’s her account: Read More
Shuho Sato, the writer of Burakku Jyakku ni Yoroshiku, which commonly translates to “Say Hello to Black Jack,” is planning to make the award winning, 10 million copy selling manga available for free “second use.”
This means that after 15 September anyone in the world will be free to novelize, televise, create merchandise, or in any way adapt the original work for either commercial or non-commercial purposes without having to pay royalties. This is the latest move in the writer’s quest to find alternatives to the “outdated” model of intellectual property rights.
Love Hatsune Miku and wish you could create your own Vocaloid music and music videos?
Digital Hollywood, a Tokyo-based school offering degree and certification programs in IT and digital media, announced they will be holding a 6-month course on CG animation and music video production using Vocaloid software and characters.
What kind of person are you attracted to? Good looking and intelligent may be at the top of many people’s list of attractive attributes, but not all of us are blessed with an abundance of physical beauty and/or high intelligence.
Self sufficiency and outspokenness would normally be good characteristics to have but are also widely overlooked by the male species when searching for a female to spend time with. ‘Ah she doesn’t need me’, would be a likely initial reaction. This could be one of the great universal truths: cultural boundaries disappear in the need for us to be needed.
Alright, so something has to be done and since it takes time for someone to find your ‘inner beauty’, you may want to try these sure-fire tactics, courtesy of our female Japanese editorial staff, for getting someone you’re interested in to be interested in you. Ladies, arm yourselves!
So by now all us alpha-males have purchased our bathing beauty iPhone cases, but are left wondering: How do I hypnotize the ladies with my machismo during meals? It would be rude to pull out one’s mobile phone while eating after all.
Well, picture this: Just before having dinner with that lucky lady you slowly and gently peel down the stockings along those smooth and silky legs – of your sexy lady chop sticks!
Trust me boys, the deal will be sealed after that.
One of Japan’s most beautiful hot spring towns announces new limits on number of day trippers
History’s highest sumo wrestling and geisha dance to take place at Tokyo Skytree observation deck
Flying dango: Unique tourist site where Japanese sweets are flown to you over a gorge
Cheeseburger rice bowls arrive at Japanese beef bowl chain Matsuya, and in our stomach【Taste test】
Mario Kart Happy Meal toys arrive at McDonald’s Japan, and SoraNews24 has the whole set!【Photos】
Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke teams up with Foxfire for outdoor apparel collaboration【Photos】
Made In Japan Fender Limited Edition Hello Kitty Stratocaster now on sale in Japan
The new Ranma 1/2 anime is here! So is it worth watching?【SoraReview】
The Japan Poop Society is making movements to protect people’s health
Mickey Mouse in now a transforming robot created by the designer of Gundam【Photos】One of Japan’s most beautiful hot spring towns announces new limits on number of day trippersGhibli’s Princess Mononoke teams up with Foxfire for outdoor apparel collaboration【Photos】
After cancelling Halloween, Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood cancels New Year’s Eve too
Japanese job-quitting service contacted by other job-quitting service because employee wants to quit
Sanrio and magical girl anime PreCure join forces for new merch line【Photos】Mario Kart Happy Meal toys arrive at McDonald’s Japan, and SoraNews24 has the whole set!【Photos】
New Ghibli papercraft kit gives you a little Princess Mononoke forest on your desk【Photos】
Beautiful Japanese garden green tea crepes waiting in Tokyo’s historical Asakusa neighborhood
Tokyo park’s sea of clouds, nighttime illumination, and cosplay days make now perfect time to visit
Samurai ritual suicide contest cancelled by organizer in west Japan
Nintendo’s controller capsule toys are so cool, even the machine you buy them from is awesome【Pics】
Tokyo Disneyland loses top-attendance crown for Japanese theme parks for second year in a rowOne of Japan’s most beautiful hot spring towns announces new limits on number of day trippers
Ghibli Park debuts first winter illumination display with Howl’s Moving Castle themeGhibli’s Princess Mononoke teams up with Foxfire for outdoor apparel collaboration【Photos】
Pringles releases a limited-edition sweet flavour in Japan
What’s the deal with akebi, the perfectly purple, alien-like fruit that’s in season now in Japan?Sanrio and magical girl anime PreCure join forces for new merch line【Photos】After cancelling Halloween, Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood cancels New Year’s Eve tooJapanese job-quitting service contacted by other job-quitting service because employee wants to quit
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Foreign tourists on Shinkansen bullet train break suitcase etiquette, angering local passengers
[Deleted] Article written for April Fool’s Day 2018
Japanese government to make first change to romanization spelling rules since the 1950s
Foreigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
Ghibli founders Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki contribute to Japanese whisky Totoro label design
Japanese convenience store Family Mart announces abolishment of eat-in spaces
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
Life-size vibrating Legend of Zelda Master Sword for sale from Nintendo【Photos】
Studio Ghibli releases free-download board game — Here’s how to play it without reading Japanese
Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke teams up with Foxfire for outdoor apparel collaboration【Photos】
Made In Japan Fender Limited Edition Hello Kitty Stratocaster now on sale in Japan
The new Ranma 1/2 anime is here! So is it worth watching?【SoraReview】
The Japan Poop Society is making movements to protect people’s health
Mickey Mouse in now a transforming robot created by the designer of Gundam【Photos】
Domino’s Japan has all-you-can-eat pizza isn’t an Internet rumor, but it is hard to find
Dedicate your savings to your oshi of choice with this new buildable offertory box
Burger King’s new all-cheese The Real Cheese Burger looks crazy, sort of makes linguistic sense
Japanese Internet shocked by map showing Japan is as big as Europe
Japanese job-quitting service contacted by other job-quitting service because employee wants to quit
Japan’s massive matcha parfait weighs 6 kilos, contains hidden surprises for anyone who eats it
Japanese department store rooftop is a secret oasis where you can escape the crowds in Tokyo
Beautiful Japanese garden green tea crepes waiting in Tokyo’s historical Asakusa neighborhood