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Six Things I Learned at Tokyo’s “Food and Bev Expo”

This week, a major food and drink expo was held in Tokyo’s Odaiba area called The World Food and Beverage Great Expo 2013. It’s actually a combination of six different events, including a dessert and wine fair. With hundreds of exhibitors from Japan and abroad showing off their latest and tastiest concoctions, we decided to check it out and see how many free samples we could gobble up. Here’s what we learned. Read More

A research team, whose major investors include some of the biggest telecommunications companies in Japan, has announced that it has successfully deciphered the contents of human dreams with high precision by analyzing the human brain’s activity during sleep.

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  • Apr 5, 2013

Our Hero is Back! Goku Returns After 17 Years With a Huge Box Office Bang! 【Impressions】

Okay, I have to admit it feels just a tiny bit awkward for a woman my age to go see an anime film … but this is Dragon Ball! Ever since they announced that the first new Dragon Ball movie in 17 years was going to be released, I knew I would have to go see the movie. After all, when you’ve grown up reading or watching Dragon Ball, it’s hard not to be excited about seeing Goku and his brethren again after nearly two decades. So, I might as well do away with pretense and just go see the movie right? Well, go see the movie I did over the opening weekend, and so did more than 500,000 moviegoers across Japan as well. Read More

Eight Ways You Really, Really Shouldn’t Use a Japanese Toilet

If there’s one household commodity that Japan can truly be proud of, it’s their high-tech toilets, particularly the model known as a Washlet. These things are world-famous for their advanced butt-cleansing technologies and heated seats. Why, the simple press of a button has water spraying up out of the bowl like a fountain! To any long-standing member of Japanese society, the warm water jet is obviously intended to help rinse away the residue of a good dump, but what’s a foreign traveler to do when faced with one of these mythical thrones for the first time?

In hopes of preempting any future toilet travesties, we at RocketNews24 would like to introduce you to our demonstrative list of things one shouldn’t do with a Washlet. No, really. While some of these items may seem like clever ways to freshen up after taking care of business, the Washlet is not a one-stop body shop, and we urge you never to try these things at home… or anywhere else for that matter. Read More

At around 10 a.m. on April 2, a man living in the town of Fukuchiyamashi, Kyoto called the police after he discovered that the light of a nearby parking lot had been vandalized with white spray-paint. Upon arriving at the scene, officers also discovered that an expensive, multi-function toilet had been stolen from a park located nearby.

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Mr. Sato Goes Glam, Like Some Cat from Japan

Although David Bowie is known around the world, he has a special group of fans in Japan as noted by last month’s David Bowie Café to celebrate his newest album in 10 years, The Next Day.

Among these fans is our very own Mr. Sato. The lovable reporter has always looked up to David Bowie, and one day recently slammed his fist down on the table as hard as he could proclaiming; “That does it! I’ve waited too long and am going to make myself look like Ziggy Stardust once and for all!” He then ran out the office to find a beauty salon.

No one in the editorial department actually noticed him though. Someone thought they had heard a small dog barking in the distance around the same time.

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Evoland Celebrates the Growth of the Action RPG Genre in Style, Available to Buy Now 【Review】

In January this year, we brought you news of an upcoming video game that quite literally evolves as you play, starting off as a monochrome mass of pixels before slowly introducing virtually every gaming mechanic and action RPG element that we’ve come to know and love, culminating with full-on 3-D visuals, giant demons and a suitably epic plot. That game is Evoland, and after long last it’s available to buy from today.

RocketNews24 was fortunate enough to receive a review copy of the game late last week. Having poured over the original promotional video for so long, it was with high expectations that we sat down with the full game for an extended session of hacking, slashing and critical dissecting. The finished article, we’re happy to say, is absolutely spellbinding.

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Burger King’s Controversial Anime Viewing Burger: Rip-Off or Work of Art?

Word has been swirling in the weeks leading up to the release of Burger King’s “anime viewing hamburger” which, as its name suggests, is a burger designed to be enjoyed while watching anime. Watching anime certainly would be an ideal snacking time, so the concept seems solid, but how is it really?

Our fast food specialist Kuzo went to investigate. Here is his report.

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Wasei English: 20 Words of English Origin that Japanese People Often Mistake for the Real Thing

How many of you have ever heard of the Japanese word ‘wasei eigo’? A direct translation into English would be “Japanese-made English”, but put more simply the word refers to English words that, after a little tampering, have been adopted into the modern Japanese lexicon and used on an everyday basis. Despite having their origins in English, wasei eigo words often have quite different meanings to those on which they are based. Consequently, Japanese visitors to English-speaking countries using terms like “baby car” and “key holder” — words that are thought to be “English” in Japan — are often met with raised eyebrows and blank stares from native English speakers.

So come with us now as we look at the top 20 wasei English words that cause Japanese people trouble when they break them out while abroad.

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According to the April 2 edition of Chinese daily newspaper the 21st Century Business Herald, in the year 2010 an incredible 1.23 million people lost their lives across China due to air pollution-related illnesses. The number accounts for 15 percent of total deaths recorded in the country for 2010. The information was revealed by a study group at Tsinghua University on March 31.
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Now here’s a tale that will have you squirming in your seat: a 59-year-old man from Xiaogan, China has ended up going under the knife after inserting a 20cm-long length of wire into his colon. When asked why he would do such a thing, the man commented that he had simply been “bored” but then found that he could not remove the wire once he had fed it all the way in.

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In a video uploaded to YouTube yesterday, a young Japanese girl gives a harrowing speech on the streets of Tsuruhashi, Osaka, in which she openly expresses her hatred of Koreans. Amid cheers of support from members of her own group, the girl goes on to state her desire to kill the “piece of crap” Koreans living in the area, threatening a repeat of the Nanking Massacre in response to the Koreans’ “arrogance”.

The full, shocking video after the jump.

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There’s a myth that many young men in Japan are familiar with: the physical exertion involved in one ejaculation is the same as running 100 metres as fast as you can. Now, although many such claims often carry about as much scientific weight as the idea that dropping a cold key down someone’s back can cure the hiccups, as any men will tell you, there’s a reason why we often feel the need to collapse and fall asleep after a particularly vigorous session.

Nonsense or not, this particular myth is one that has existed for generations in Japan and refuses to die off, being passed from one huddle of teenage boys or young office workers to the next. For this reason, online magazine R25 turned to a medical professional to get the cold, hard facts.

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Young Man Beats the Hell out of Demon Mode Taiko No Tatsujin, Possibly Some Onlookers as Well

Walk into any amusement center with video game cabinets and you’re bound to run into a Taiko No Tatsujin machine, almost always with people young and old whacking away at it.

It’s a taiko (traditional Japanese drum) simulator rhythm game where you play J-Pop, classical or video game theme songs in the medium of taiko by hitting the drum in time with the various symbols that scroll by.

But for one guy playing at the Oni (demon) level of difficulty, it’s a brutal yet beautiful assault on the drums leaving spectators dazzled as they watched from a safe distance of about three meters.

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Starting April 2, the Lotte Marines baseball club announced that local fisherman and stadium food vendor Taichi Sone, 87, would start providing wind and weather forecasts prior to night games.

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Ah, elementary school! The carefree days of youth when my biggest concerns were the ingredients in the cafeteria’s “special” lunch and whether the boy sitting next to me did, in fact, have cooties. Sure, those concerns seemed weighty at the time, but with the benefit of hindsight, I know those were halcyon days indeed.

At the risk of sounding like a old crank, I have to wonder if young girls today are missing out on those years of blissful ignorance. A new book, published here in Japan, suggests that the weight of the world may be falling on the shoulders of elementary school girls much earlier than it did for girls of my generation.

Being a Girl collects a variety of concerns expressed by elementary school girls and offers advice from doctors and other specialists, and you might be surprised what secret worries burden young girls’ hearts. Read More

Despite the enormous popularity of K-Pop, Korean food and beauty products, relations between Japan and South Korea have been strained for quite some time. In recent months, however, right wing groups have become increasingly vocal, with anti-Korean protests occurring more and more frequently, especially in areas where many Koreans congregate and live.

On 31 March in Shin-Ōkubo — a town situated just a couple of minutes away from Shinjuku on Tokyo’s Yamanote line and the location of a large Korean ethnic neighbourhood — hundreds of anti-Korean protesters marched through the streets carrying signs reading “Go back to Korea!” and labeling Koreans in Japan “cockroaches”. Thankfully, equally large numbers of liberally-minded Japanese also showed up to protest the protest.

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It’s a Musical. About Tennis.

In recent years, Japan has seen an interesting trend regarding their live stage performances.  In addition to their culturally classic forms of theater and some popular hits imported from Broadway, Japan is now turning their beloved anime and manga into live-action stage productions! Similar to the way that Disney’s “The Lion King,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and others have been given new life on the big stage, Japan’s popular niche series are also coming into the limelight. Read More

The Chinese government announced on March 31 that two men from Shanghai have died from a variant of bird flu known as H7N9. It is the first time transmission of this type of bird flu has been confirmed in human beings. After contraction of the virus, both men showed symptoms of pneumonia.

The Chinese Health Authorities announced that the 87 and 23-year-old men first showed symptoms of a fever, pneumonia and similar characteristics in March of this year. The 87 and 27-year-old-men died on 4th and 10th of this month respectively.

Shortly afterwards, a detailed inspection into their deaths was carried out where it came to light that both men had been infected with the H7N9 strain of the bird flu virus. It has also been confirmed that a woman in the eastern province of China, Anhui, has been infected with the same strain of bird flu. Her current condition is critical, exhibiting identical symptoms of pneumonia, however the woman is said to be receiving medical treatment.
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