Despite most Asian countries being notably fond of Japan, according to the results of a recent public opinion poll carried out by an American research organization, China and Korea have a distinctly poor image of the land of the rising sun, and it appears to be getting worse over time.
Japan really knows how to put the stigma into stigmatized properties (homes and rooms to rent where people have committed suicide or are murdered and the like). The fear of moving into such a place and becoming like the guy from The Shining is such that real estate agents find them nearly impossible to unload. Especially with websites mapping out exactly where they are, potential renters and buyers know just where to avoid.
Recently though, a listing appeared on Japanese real estate site SUUMO which attempted a whole new approach to offloading a stigmatized property, with the author trying to convince you, the potential renter, that it’s actually great to live in a place where someone violently died!
A young man from Nanjing, China, has been arrested after stealing more than 800 social science textbooks, history compendiums and poetry books from a book shop in the town. When questioned by police, the young man maintained that he was searching for ‘the meaning of life’ within the books’ pages.
Withdrawing its previous objection, Sony Corporation has agreed to pay a civil fine of 37.5 million yen (about US$375,000) to British authorities after the 2011 security breach of its online gaming network resulted in the leakage of millions of users’ personal information.
The smartphone is perhaps one of the neatest inventions we have. They allow unprecedented access and communicative abilities—until the #$%& battery dies! What good is a five-inch screen with a quadcore processor and more gigs of ram than my last laptop if the battery is dead by noon? This has led to numerous power-saving methods, external batteries, and, of course, apps claiming to extend battery life. Today, we discovered one app that does a little more than just extend your battery life, it also creeps you out and makes you feel like a terrible pervert! Yah!
While searching the Internet for a new kind of summer pick-me-up, our reporter came across a recipe for chicken wings stewed in Red Bull. Desperate for any way to get a little more energy during the hot summer months, and encouraged by the rave reviews online, she decided to try this bizarre dish for herself.
Thirty years ago today, on July 15, 1983, Nintendo released the Family Computer game system, affectionately (and pretty much officially) called Famicom. The designing process began back in ’81 by Masaki Uemura and his team who dealt with tight budgets and little hope of success. However, this machine breathed much-needed life into a suffocatingly over-saturated gaming market that was only in its infancy.
What better way to brighten up a rainy day than with a cute girl shielding you from the downpour? And if you can’t find a girl to hold your umbrella, then maybe a girl on your umbrella is the next best thing…
The other day, I was trawling through YouTube looking for shamisen music videos when I came across an utterly unique video called “Tokyo Kendama Project vol.2 Utakata.”
It featured the traditional Okinawan sansen three-stringed instrument played by the mysterious Gosamaru and composed by Tomoaki Ogre, the beautiful dancing of Kumi Arikawa, and a pair of strangely hypnotic gentlemen spinning some… things through the air. I’d heard of kendama before, as I imagine most people with even a fleeting knowledge of Japan have, but I’d never seen the toy wielded with such incredible finesse.
Fascinated, I had to know more!
Beauty — they say it’s only skin deep. Regardless, we all know there are plenty of people out there who would go to great lengths for what they believe to be a chance to look even just the slightest bit more beautiful. Yes, obsession with beauty can run deep and strong. But just how far would you be willing to go to look prettier or younger? Would you be willing to actually go under a plastic surgeon’s knife? Or if that’s too much, would you be comfortable with receiving botox shots once in a while? What if it was a completely non-invasive procedure that may do wonders for your skin, but one that involves having certain living organisms crawl over your face? Well, some people may be prepared to endure great hardships in the name of beauty, but this is one treatment you have to be pretty brave to try!
It’s generally agreed that few members of the animal kingdom can quite match the level of cuteness offered by the humble otter. Watching those little guys floating on their backs and eating off their tummies makes you just want to snatch them up from the water and take them home.
Well, now Keikyu Aburatsubo Marine Park is still not letting you do that, but they are giving you the next best thing without violating poaching laws. From now until 13 September, you can get a little touchy feeling with their otters by letting them grab your finger.
Japan’s version of the widely popular online video streaming site, Hulu, has just announced that starting this summer they will be making themselves available on the Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL. Not long ago, Nintendo announced its intention to branch out and turn their 3DS systems into an eBook reader. Now, they are expanding into the streaming video market as well, by pursuing a kid-friendly collaboration with Hulu Japan. The app’s release is scheduled for mid-August. Read More
In any military, no matter how fancy your drones or how snappy your fighter jets, people are still the driving force. You’ll always need a few more good soldiers, which makes recruitment an essential and very important part of armed services.
The Japan Self-Defense Forces, or JSDF, are no different, and eagle-eyed people can spot posters pretty much anywhere. As you may expect, the JSDF in various prefectures also have Twitter accounts where they can post recruitment information and interact with potential service members.
Recently, the Miyagi area recruiter garnered Internet attention by crafting a tweet based on a scene from the school girl anime, Love Live!
According to a Chinese newspaper published on July 11, a significant number of mentally ill patients are being confined to their homes in chains or being kept in metal cages rather than receiving appropriate treatment. In the province of Hebei alone, the number of patients being detained in this way is estimated to be 100,000.
It is reported that a shortage of psychiatrists and hospitals, combined with patients from the lower classes being unable to afford the costs of treatment, is behind this bizarre state of affairs. The population of the Hebei province totals in at 72.4 million.
After our extremely delicious hot steamed bun tip for keeping cool during the brutal Tokyo summer, we decided to follow up with an iced drink recipe to accompany those sweet, soft buns. We’re still talking about bread, right?
The only problem was we spent all day snacking on steamed buns and experimenting with other ways to keep cool and we had to hurry up and make something or risk missing happy hour. So we settled for the old standby of throwing a few things from the fridge together in a bowl. Would you believe it turned out great!
It wasn’t so long ago that everywhere you looked in Japan there were ads for Korean pop groups, cosmetics and health drinks. More people than ever were snapping up Korean language textbooks and, despite territorial squabbles and a few extreme-right noise makers, Japan was positively leaping on anything prefixed by the letter ‘K’.
Recent reports, however, suggest that all is not well in the K-Pop (Korean Pop music) camp in Japan, with major Korean record label and talent agency S.M. Entertainment reporting losses of more than 70 percent compared to the same period last year. Has the K-Pop bubble finally burst in Japan?
It would seem that Japan is experiencing an upswing in men who like to wear bras. I had no idea until reading a story on the website My Navi that claims this is so. Sure enough after searching Japanese online shopping site Rakuten, there were six pages of bras designed specifically for men on sale.
My Navi‘s bra-wearing woman reporter went to gather evidence of this phenomenon to find out why more and more men a looking to strap on a brassiere.
Launched in 1983 in Japan, Nintendo’s Family Computer, or Famicom as it is more fondly known, quickly became a household name thanks to titles like Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. Strikingly different in design to its Western counterpart, the NES, the Famicom’s low profile with its multitude of buttons and ridges and docking slots for a pair of gold and burgundy controllers is now considered to be an iconic piece of video game hardware, frequently bought and sold at auction or at used game stores.
While many gamers would no doubt quite like the idea of picking a Famicom up for themselves and reliving a few 8-bit classics, we’re not entirely sure how many people would be in the market to buy 1,000 of the things all at once…
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