We have good news for all of you cream puff lovers out there. Three major confectionery makers have joined efforts to open “Tokyo Confectionery Land” in the “Tokyo Station First Avenue” shopping area on the Tokyo Station premies, and one of the confectionery companies involved, Fujiya Co., Ltd, is selling a seriously delicious confectionery – the “drinkable” cream puff! For anyone who loves cream puffs, or sweets in general for that matter, we think this is a must try! Read More
Aren’t potato chips just great? They’re the ultimate comfort food (well, at least they are to me) and they come in a wide variety of flavors to suit your every mood. Well, there’s going to be another novel flavor for potato chip lovers in Japan to try, and the flavor is not the only thing that’s interesting about these new potato chips. Read More
Burger King Japan recently launched a promotion giving customers the option to add 15 pieces of bacon to their Whopper for a measly 100 yen (US $1.20).
That’s 500% more bacon for your buck (it’s usually 60 yen for 3 strips). It’s almost as if Burger King is operating under some CIA plot to undermine Japanese longevity by poisoning us with copious amount of cheap junk food.
Well we accept your challenge, America! In fact, we even raised the stakes to make things interesting, sending resident reporter/guinea pig Mr. Sato to eat a Whopper loaded with not 15 but 105 strips of bacon.
Some clever people thought to capitalize on the value of having ‘followers’ on Twitter, theoretically allowing any normal person to surpass even Lady Gaga for a day. Read More
A certain poem has been attracting much attention on the internet recently in Japan. From the handwriting, the poem appears to be the work of a child in grade school, and people are saying it’s exceptionally well written for the work of a young child. We have a rough translation of the poem below. Read More
We’ve probably all experienced that struggle, that anguish – you go to eat your ice cream only to discover it’s still frozen solid and your spoon can only make pathetic little dents in it. The folks at Lemnos Co. could not let this injustice go unaddressed, and have invented a special spoon to do the job. Read More
In 2012, a Japanese man was allowed to take a supervised tour of the secretive country of North Korea, we’ve reported some of his observations about their fine dining, public transportation, and more. And now we bring you coverage of one of the most unique tourist spots in the world: the only currently captured United States Navy Ship, the USS Pueblo.
Our correspondent’s tour guide and government appointed escort took him to the ship moored in Pyongyang where the guide told him “even today, America continues to beg the ship be returned.”
Our adventurous reporters previously tried a plate of Coco Ichiban Curry with everything on it, and this time we decided to follow that up with an order of Domino’s Pizza with all the toppings on it. But we didn’t order just a regular pizza with all the toppings; that would be too simple.
No, we ordered a Triple Mille-Feuille crust pizza with all the toppings! The Triple Mille-Feuille crust consists of three layers of thin ultra crispy crust with plenty of cheese sandwiched in between. So, we placed our order and waited to see what the pizza would be like. Read More
Disclaimer: This article contains some graphic depictions of doo-doo and is not for the faint of stomach.
One of the great things about visiting Thailand is that everything is so cheap. Especially if you want to buy souvenirs for a lot of people, it’s a very shopping friendly country. However, even with these low prices, travelers are still faced with the dilemma of what to get loved ones.
You don’t want to spend your whole vacation picking out the perfect gifts but you also don’t want to be like your aunt Grace who gave you a lame souvenir spoon from her trip to the Grand Canyon last year.
Luckily we stumbled upon a toy store in Thailand that lets you confront your fear of buying a crappy present by selling literal pieces of crap. Small coilers will run you about 50 baht (US$1.60) but a larger log will cost 150 baht ($4.80).
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCdEWGWALGg?feature=oembed&w=640&h=360%5D
Apple has had their share of run-ins over patent infringement these days, but it looks like Sanyo Transport’s recently released iPhone attachment may get an angry letter too – from the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company.
The iPhone 4S/4 Exclusive Bugle-Type Speaker certainly doesn’t win points for a catchy name, but it may hook you in with its low price, simplicity and heck even for its retro charm.
On April 13, KDDI will begin selling “Extreme,” the newest Iridium satellite phone model and the first equipped with a GPS function.
With the GPS function, Extreme users can periodically update people in their address book on their location via email. In case of emergency, they can push the SOS Button on top of the unit to send an automatic message containing their GPS position.
At 10% thinner and 7% lighter than 9555, the previous model, it is now the thinnest, lightest Iridium satphone, and it also features better resistance to water and dust. Read More
McDonald’s may not be the best place to get nourishment for your body, but for one week at selected branches you could get some food for thought, in the form of a free newspaper.
That’s right, McDonald’s restaurants and the Japan Newspaper association have collaborated to bring you Spring Newspaper Week (April 6 to 12), which many are lauding as a glorious waste of time.
The purpose of Spring Newspaper Week is to combat the growing trend of young people not using newspapers. Strangely, more and more younger people prefer reading their news on phones that fit in the palm of their hands rather than cumbersome sheets of paper that make their fingers black.
The city of Iwaki lies 30km south of the Fukushima Daiichi just outside of the evacuation zone created after the nuclear disaster struck. As such it has become home to approximately 25,000 displaced people from Futaba District, where the Daiichi reactor is located.
On 9 April, Iwaki Mayor Takao Watanabe had this to say about the evacuees: “With the compensation money they received from TEPCO, most people are choosing not to work. The pachinko parlors, however, are packed every day.” Pachinko is a highly popular game similar to pinball that is often used for gambling much like slots or video poker in other parts of the world.
Although this may sound like another case of a Japanese politician putting his foot in his mouth, it appears Mayor Watanabe is not alone with his opinion.
Time limit, cutoff, due date. AKA “deadline”. Of course the concept applies to any number of jobs. But let it be said that the real experts on the subject are cartoonists / comic book artists.
These professionals truly know the possibilities of pre-deadline behavior. Today, we present to you 99 ways comic book artists find themselves approaching, or avoiding, their day of reckoning. See if you compare… Read More
What happens when you combine one of the cutest, most beloved mascot characters in the world with one of the most terrifying characters in modern Japanese fiction and cinema? You get “Sadako Kitty”, or Kitty dressed up as Sadako, the character from the hit Japanese horror series “The Ring”. Of course, it’s Hello Kitty, so she’s still cute, but she does look quite different from her usual self. Read More
Spring brings new life, new love, warmer weather and so many other great things. It also brings with it heaps of pollen, and we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of pollen season. While it’s been a pretty easy year in terms of pollen, many of us are still shut indoors and suffering. I may have stumbled upon an easy, cost-effective way to take care of that, though.
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If Panasonic has its way, the next human task we entrust to Japanese robots will be hair-washing. The electronics manufacturing giant is developing a hair-washing robot and hopes to put it into actual service in beauty salons before the end of the year.
First, the robot moves its mechanical fingertips around the customer’s head, measuring it with sensors. Once it has an idea of the unique shape of the customer’s head, it applies hot water and shampoo and uses its 24 digits to wash the customer’s hair. Read More
On April 9, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department released pamphlets describing traffic restrictions that would be put into effect if a massive earthquake (Intensity Lower 6 or greater) were to strike the Tokyo Metropolis. The restrictions were made public in Japanese some time ago, but now the pamphlets are available as PDF files in English, Korean and Chinese. Read More
Well, that’s what we’re here for.
So, Americans love bacon. Bacon with eggs. Bacon with burgers. Bacon with waffles, even. We’ve even seen bacon with chocolate and other sweets. Read More