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Toyota Introduces Increasingly Impressive Cast for Live-Action Doraemon Commercials

Toyota made waves by casting Japanese heartthrob Satoshi Tsumabuki as Nobita-kun in its live-action Doraemon commercials two weeks ago, but fans of the adapation of the popular cartoon were in for an even bigger shock the following week.

Toyota rolled its second wave of live-action Doraemon commercials off the line on November 18 with film star Jean Reno playing the role of Doraemon.

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On November 15, Japanese electronics manufacturer Sanwa Denshi unveiled a radiation-measuring device that can connect to iPhones and serve as an affordable Geiger counter.

It is 14 cm long and five cm wide and displays radiation dosages on the screens of iPhones equipped with GeigerBot and other such applications.

The retail price is 9,800 yen, and it will go on sale in a few days.

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Akihabara Restaurant Serves Up Three Squares in One

Many Japanese restaurants serve a “yama-mori,” or “mountain-sized,” serving of rice and other main dishes, but Adachi’s in Akihabara may boast the biggest one in the country.

Adachi’s claim to fame has always been its large portions. The first Adachi’s operated out of the Kanda Market, and its clientele were people who worked in the fruit and vegetable market. They worked up huge appetites by performing manual labor from the early morning hours, and regular portions would not fill their bellies. It was then that the elder Adachi decided to provide huge portions.

The affable younger Adachi told me all about it during my first visit to the restaurant. The restaurant is famous for letting its patrons eat to their hearts’ content, and anyone who has ever dined there knows that the “regular” portion of rice is five to six times larger than normal. Read More

New Organizer Keeps Devices and Cords Away From Each Other

Smartphone? Check. Digital camera? Check. Electronic dictionary? Check. Chargers and cords for all of the above? Check. Hope of finding them amidst the mess they will undoubtedly become in your handbag? Uncheck.

We are carrying more and more electronic products around with us these days, and it gets tougher and tougher to find them in our bags and untangle them from each other. It’s like untangling Christmas lights, except what used to be reserved for one day a year is now happening almost every day.

The GRID-IT purports to solve this problem with rubber bands arranged horizontally and vertically across its pocket-less surface. Read More

In soccer, the goalkeeper is the essence of defense. No matter what happens elsewhere on the field, you have to get it past the keeper, and that’s no easy task.

Or, it shouldn’t be easy. With the help of Youtube, keeper Virgil Vries of the Golden Arrows of the South African soccer league showed the world a new way to allow your team to score on itself. Read More

Five American Candies Guaranteed to Gum Up Your Gut

When I think of American candies, I think of sickening confections splashed with garish colors. I went to the United States and checked out a candy store, and I found exactly what I thought I’d see!

These are treats I would never even think of giving my kids (if I had them). Forget the lack of nutritional value; no matter how safe the candies are thought to be, those colors alone make me worry.

Here is my list of the Top Five American Candies Guaranteed to Gum Up Your Gut: Read More

Boy Drowns iPhone4S, Ginza Apple Store Rights Ship

The iPhone4S had been on the market nary a month when I got my hands on mine. I’d had my beloved 16 GB dream machine for nary a week when my three-year-old son got his hands on it and dunked it in the bathtub.

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Add “Night at The Windsor” to List of Things to Do Before You Die

The Windsor Hotel Toya put itself on the map by hosting the G8 Summit in 2008, but the appeal of the Hokkaido resort and spa remains today. The mountaintop hotel offers expansive views of the vast Lake Toya in addition to unparalleled entertainment and amenities.

I had the good fortune to stay at The Windsor this summer, and I’m going to share seven things that show that visiting this resort belongs on everyone’s bucket list. Read More

We Take Cues From Reddit Picture, Attempt The First Japanese “Kubipan”

Recently on our Japanese site, we introduced a picture (above) uploaded to reddit of a young black male who had sits causally with his pants pulled up over his shoulders. The picture was a hit with our Japanese readers, who interpreted it as a herald of the end of koshipan—the Japanese word for ‘saggy pants,’ which is a portmanteau of hips (koshi) and pants (pantsu)—and the beginning of a new age: the age of kubipan (kubi = neck).

Feeling it our mission to keep Japan up to date with the latest hip-hop fashion, we called upon our own Mr. Satoh to model the basics of kubipan for our Japanese readers who are interested in trying it themselves.

However, we soon realized how foolish we were to believe such a challenging new style could be easily manipulated. Read More

Attention, gluttons on holiday in Japan: RocketNews24 has compiled a list of five restaurants that feature signature dishes with gut-busting, imagination-defying, comically-oversized portions.

First, some vocabulary to help you enjoy your eating spree. You probably already know to ask for o-mori when you want a large portion of rice and an extra helping of the main dish, but there’s still one level to go: deka-mori.

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Free Admission – Twelve of Tokyo’s Best Kept Secrets

Expensive Tokyo living got you down? Are you staring another three-day weekend in the face and wondering what havoc it will wreak on your wallet?

There are places to enjoy yourself for free all over Tokyo, if you know where to look. RocketNews24 has sifted through the many options and has come up with 12 suggestions that will not disappoint. Try them next time you have a last-minute date or cobwebs in your billfold! Read More

Timeless Fukuoka Ramen Shop Serves Up Good Memories, Cheap Eats

Part the curtains at the simple storefront of Shoryuken, wrestle the creaky, swollen sliding door open, and step back in time to 1972.

A worn, handmade menu at the Fukuoka City ramen shop advertises ramen bowls for 100 yen, and it is clear that that price has persisted through the restaurant’s 39 years of existence. Read More

Beer. Shochu. All-You-Can-Drink. 299 yen. Yakitori Marukin. Shimbashi. Now.

Tired from a long day at work? No money in your wallet? You’re headed straight for Yoshinoya for a beer the beef bowl and salmon set, aren’t you? That’s about 1,000 yen out of your pocket right there.

Fear not, we’ve found a better way for you to stretch that thinnest of Japanese bills. Yakitori Marukin in Shimbashi offers an all-you-can-drink special you can’t afford to pass up – 30 minutes for 299 yen! Marukin rolls out Kirin Ichiban Shibori as well as “Kuro Kirishima” imo shochu, “Kumeshima no Kumesen” awamori and a host of other popular shochu drinks. It’s possible to get pretty plastered in just one half-hour session. Read More

Noboribetsu Onsen is a veritable department store for hot springs lovers, with many different kinds of springs bubbling forth from one of the best onsen regions in Hokkaido. Located in Noboribetsu City, Hokkaido, it is overflowing with sights to see, from Jigokudani (“Hell Valley”) with its spouting gas and high-temperature onsen to the century-old hot spring pond “Taisho Jigoku” and the giant hot spring pond “Oyunuma.”

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Ensky Co., Ltd. has fashioned a set of playing cards based on the famous lines of Takeshi “Gian” Goda, a bully character from the hit anime and manga “Doraemon.” In the series, Gian spends most of his time making outrageous demands of other children and bullying main character Nobita, but there are times when he shows his courage and displays true friendship.

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A Day in the Life of a Cosplay Photo Buff

I slung my camera over my shoulder, ready to invade the world of cosplay for the first time at this year’s summer Comic Market 80 at Tokyo Big Sight.

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When Mr. Satoh needs to get his heart pumping, he walks. He runs. He jogs, and he does a wealth of other physical activities.

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Everyone knows JAL and ANA, but have you heard the name “StarFlyer” while strolling through Haneda Airport? StarFlyer boasts a fleet of fashionable aircraft featuring all-black exteriors and cabin interiors. The first sight of a bitchin’ all-black airplane zooming down the runway will take anyone’s breath away.

StarFlyer planes travel most between Tokyo and Kita-Kyushu, but the airline added flights between Tokyo and Fukuoka on July 1. I flew to Fukuoka on business last month, so I figured I’d give StarFlyer a try. Other than the stunning black of the body and interior, I took note of six features of StarFlyer planes:

 

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An acquaintance of mine visited Ulleungdo Island, a volcanic island in the Sea of Japan over which Japan and Korea are locked in a territorial dispute. Three Japanese politicians aiming to visit Ulleungdo last month were denied entry into Korea, but Japanese are normally able to tour the island. There is even a tourist website for the island that targets Japanese.

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“Beer Hour” Portable Server Enjoys Heady Success

Once I heard the Takara Tomy “Beer Hour” portable beer server, I just knew I had to have one. It works with both 350-ml and 500-ml cans and produces more foam than you can get from a can without shaking it up first. It looked perfect, so I ponied up the 1,995 yen and took one home to try it out.

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