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TV icon Hard Gay thrusts into the world of professional modeling

Japanese comedian and former pro-wrestler, Masaki Sumitani, better known by the name Hard Gay, has been struggling to find a new outlet for fame and success. Ever since being outed as a straight man, Hard Gay’s comedic mockery of gay flamboyancy has fallen from popularity in Japan. And, after a severe foot injury in July of 2009, his wrestling career has also been forced to a close. According to an interview conducted by the online news site Owarai Natalie, while Sumitani is still interested in continuing work as a comedian, he has decided to revamp his public image. We’re not sure how easy it will be to replace the image of Hard Gay’s tight, leather booty shorts, aviator sunglasses, and frantic hip thrusting that’s been burned into our mind’s eye. However, the comedian hopes that by starting a second career as a professional model he can achieve even greater success as himself and not his character. And hey, if these test shots are anything to go by, we think he may be on to something!

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Ever wondered what Japanese prison food tastes like? Try it firsthand at the “Prison Cafeteria”

Without actually getting arrested and being thrust into the confines of a prison cell, there is little if any chance of us being able to taste real prison food. However, this doesn’t stop many of us wondering on the odd occasion what all those guys doing hard labor actually eat day after day. It could possibly be the most revolting thing known to man but if only there were a way to at least try it…. In this vain, our RocketNews24 reporter Kuzo searched high and low for a place where all of us upstanding citizens can try the stuff without resorting to breaking the law. Thankfully, this is Japan, so it didn’t take long for him to track down a cafeteria in northern part of Japan that specializes solely in Japanese prison food.

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Hope you didn’t plan on eating this week: we try duck fetus eggs in the Philippines

So it’s come to this, has it? Rocketnews24, after eating pretty much everything under the sun, has reached the last bastion of disgusting culinary curios.

Of course, we’re talking about Philippine balut, or duck fetus eggs. We’ve been here before, but somehow we felt this needed revisiting.

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Our Japanese reporter’s encounter with American school lunch

Many people in Japan think that American school lunches are unhealthy. For the most part, they are right. When photos of the greasy fried foods and brown piles of slop that are served to students in the US surfaced on the internet, Japanese netizens were shocked. With all the talk of Americans being overweight and school lunches being fat-laden and unhealthy, our own Japanese reporter wondered, “Is it really as bad as it seems?” During his recent trip to the US, our reporter was allowed to try the lunch served at a school in the United States. The following is a translation of his encounter with American school lunch.

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  • Jun 4, 2013

Experience space travel — or something like it — on the Star Fighter Day Bus Tour!

Bus trips can be a lot of fun, can’t they? And many buses these days are truly fancy, impressive vehicles, making bus trips quite comfortable as well. Plus, the bus takes you all the way to your destination and back, without the hassle of changing transports while dragging around your luggage, so the traveling is all sweet and easy (unless you get stuck in traffic for hours or the bus breaks down, of course). In fact, you could even say that the only thing you have to worry about is being bored while you’re sitting in the bus. Well, we found a unique bus tour that definitely leaves no room for boredom and didn’t hesitate to send one of our reporters to experience it first hand. And believe us, the bus used in this tour is unlike any you’ve seen before… Read More

The great debate: Eye-opening survey asks ‘How often do you wash your bath towel?’

According to practitioners of feng shui (Chinese geomancy that is supposed to help improve one’s life by bringing in positive energy), when you dry your body with a bath towel, you’re not just wiping away drops of water, but removing misfortune as well. So, if you use the same bath towel the following day without washing it, you’ll just be reintroducing the misfortune you had gone through the trouble of wiping away the previous day.

If that’s true, and the results of a recent survey are to be believed, then some of us are far luckier than others…

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It’s no secret that Japan is a hard-working society. Thankfully, there are a few times each year when more or less the whole country goes on vacation for a few days. There’s the string of holidays collectively known as Golden Week in early May, plus o-bon in August where people traditionally head back to their home towns, spend time with their relatives, and pay a visit to the graves of their ancestors.

However, there’s not much to stem the flow of work or school responsibilities between those two blissful periods, except for the oasis of Umi no Hi, or Marine/Sea Day, on the third Monday in July, which encourages people to take a trip to the beach and splash about in the sea.

Of course, this leaves June without a holiday of its own. And while Marine Day is great for people living in the coastal regions of Japan, residents of the country’s eight landlocked prefectures feel understandably left out. Thankfully, a group in mountainous Tochigi Prefecture has a solution to both problems.

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Rumour: PlayStation 4 camera to be sold separately

A telltale sign in a promotional video for Sony’s PlayStation 4 controller has led video game fans to believe that the camera peripheral for the company’s upcoming console will be sold separately from the PlayStation 4 itself, contrary to initial expectations.

While this may seem like little more than a minor inconvenience at first, if found to be true the rumour may point to a key difference between Sony and Microsoft’s console strategies, as well as potentially having ramifications for how developers approach either platform.

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Ah, Mondays! I’m sure you’re just like me in that you always wake up 30 minutes before your alarm goes off, bursting with energy at the idea of getting a start on spending the next five days at the office. Or, more accurately, you may be just like me in that you have a tendency to lie in order to cover up just how much you hate Monday mornings.

But when duty calls, you’ve got to go. As you struggle to convince your body to drag itself out of bed, maybe you try to sweeten the deal by promising yourself a tasty dinner as a reward for not just creating your own little three-day weekend by calling in sick. Yeah, you can make it through your shift if you’ve got something to look forward to at the end of it, like maybe some high-grade beef. And why bother cooking at home when Japan is filled with yakiniku (Korean barbeque) restaurants?

Not so fast there, cowboy. It turns out Monday is the worst day to go out to eat yakiniku.

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The answer to that question: not a lot.

If you’re coming to the end of your relaxing weekend and aren’t looking forward to the week ahead, we have just the video to lift your spirits! (Yes, of course it involves cats).

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There’s something about Bubi: Japan can’t get enough of water bottles that collapse to a third of their size

Since being released in April 2013 in Japan, the American-produced Bubi brand of foldable water bottles had become a hit with the public. Despite it not being the first collapsible bottle on the market, as well as it being considerably more expensive, and while it isn’t even the dog days of summer in Japan, online shoppers here have been scooping up Bubis faster than they can be made.

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A particular tunnel in Guizhou, China has been drawing attention for its unique ability to literally turn back the clock. According to reports, when one drives through the 400 meter tunnel there is a substantial chance that their clocks will go back exactly one hour.

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Cool Japan has a plan!

Remember all the talk of a new “Cool Japan Strategy” which aimed to export Japan’s “coolness” abroad. Well, on May 28, the Japanese government’s Cool Japan Promotion Committee announced its action plan!

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Award winning app “The Legend of Momotaro” now free for a limited time!

“The Legend of Momotaro” is an interactive storybook that introduces readers to the traditional Japanese story about a hero born from a giant peach. The app, created by Ghost Hand Games, manages to teach readers about Japanese culture, language, and legends all in one beautifully illustrated digital picture book that’s now available for free for a limited time only!

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“So a Muslim, a Christian and a Buddhist enter a marathon race” is not the start of bad joke: Kyoto marathon to feature interfaith teams

The city of Kyoto is considering including a special interfaith relay race segment to the third annual Kyoto marathon to take place in February 2014.

Kyoto dispatched a city worker to observe the June 2012 interfaith race at the Luxembourg Marathon that saw 50 participants from 11 countries and seven religions taking part. That race garnered plenty of media attention with its high profile runners and sponsors that included the Dalai Lama and the world’s oldest marathon runner, 101-year-old English Sikh, Fauja Singh. The Japan Buddhist Federation is also expressing interest in an interfaith race at next year’s Kyoto marathon.

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With kids wanting to get their hands on tablets and smartphones rather than tops and jack-in-the-boxes, traditional toy makers are beginning to feel the heat. Although, it’s hard to imagine a perennial favorite like Lego go under, they aren’t taking any chances as indicated by a display at Sony Computer Science Labs in Tokyo during a recent open house.

The building block maker is partnering with the tech giant to implant some video game magic such as AI and DualShock control into their timeless colored cubes.  But that’s not all. Sony Computer Science Labs are cooking up some wild stuff for the young and young at heart.

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On Thursday this week at around 3:30 P.M., a rail employee in Nagoya City was struck and injured… by the body of a suicidal customer.

Hold on, let’s rewind a bit.

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Founded at the opening of the 17th century, Kyoto’s Nishi Honganji Temple is one of the city’s most prestigious Buddhist institutions. As you might expect, it has some decidedly old-school touches, such as the length of rope woven out of strands of hair donated by female believers which was used to haul building materials for the structure.

But Nishi Honganji is no historical relic. As one of the most important temples in the widely-practiced True Pure Land School sect of Buddhism, large numbers of faithful look to the temple for religious guidance. To meet their needs, the temple has come up with a modern idea that belies its 400 years of history.

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On 9 November, 2011, a member of the Association for Aid and Relief Japan, Atsushi Miyazaki was killed while helping relief effort in an earthquake stricken region of Turkey.

Although Miyazaki had made the ultimate sacrifice for another country by laying down his life, the Turkish people also have shown an unending sense of gratitude by continuing to honor his name years later.

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