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You won’t need your lucky charm anymore – now all you need is this lucky tea!

What are some of the things considered to be lucky omens in your country? In Japan, it’s considered good luck if you dream about Mt Fuji or a hawk or eggplant in the New Year, or the number 8 is also thought to be lucky. But what if there was a sign of good luck that you could recreate at will? Well now there is, based on the Japanese saying that it’s good luck to have a tea stalk floating vertically in your tea.  With the Cha Bashira Engi Cha, or “Tea Stalk Good Luck Tea” in English, you are guaranteed to have  a vertically floating tea stalk in your tea. Read More

Veggie Sushi Will Win Over All Your Senses in the End

For many vegetarians and vegans, Japan can be a difficult place to get something to eat.  Sushi is nearly completely off limits for those who forego meat, and very few Japanese people would consider California rolls real sushi, especially the chef of Vegetable Sushi Potager.

Vegetable Sushi Potager is a restaurant located in the glitzy Roppongi Hills Area of Tokyo is serving up a full course meal based entirely on vegetables.  I was told that although its presentation is high quality, like a lot of vegetarian cooking the deliciousness of it doesn’t hit you over the head right away. It takes time to build bit by bit from the bottom of your heart as go through each course culminating in a new understanding of the word “delight”.  That’s some big praise so I was understandably skeptical.

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A New Convenience Store (Just Probably Not Convenient For You)

The Japanese convenience store chain Poplar has announced its newest store opening in none other than Tachikawa Detention Center. As in the clink, the joint, the hoosegow: jail. Read More


  • Apr 22, 2012

Hello Kitty not picky about her jobs – this time she gets baked!

We’ve said before that Hello Kitty doesn’t appear to be too picky about her jobs – she seems willing to take on an awfully wide range of engagements upon request. Well, we’ve recently discovered that Ms. Kitty, as we sometimes like to call her, now has an amazing new job. This time, believe it or not, her job involves being baked whole and then sold as kongari-yaki or “golden brown baked Kitty”. What will become of our beloved Kitty? Will she come out of this endeavor unscathed? Read More


  • Apr 21, 2012

Beautiful “transparent” biological specimens a work of art – you can actually buy them and they look amazing!

Have you heard of a series of unique creations called “Transparent Specimens” produced by Iori Tomita? It may sound bizarre, but they are specimens of different living creatures including fish, arthropods, reptiles and mammals that have been specially treated to make them transparent. And the end result is far from bizarre – in fact, the specimens are so beautiful that the series of work have a considerable following of fans.

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The Japanese version of the popular travel information site Trip Adviser recently published a list of the best factory tours in Japan. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the nation’s most popular exports makes it to number one. Read More

Smartphone Too Smart For You? Analog Smartphone Coming Your Way…

Japanese mobile company AU has unveiled its latest concept phone featuring a wind-up analog clock.

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We Order Whopper With 1050 Bacon Strips, Struggle to Level Comically Huge Burger

Well that didn’t take long.

Just yesterday we shared the story of how our own Mr. Sato capitalized on Burger King Japan’s current 15 bacon strips for 100 yen (US $1.20) promotion by ordering a Whopper with 105 bacon strips.

While Mr. Sato managed to finish the burger, he didn’t seem to be in the best shape afterwards, falling into a meat-induced coma and then suddenly breaking out of it only to run out of the room with his hand covering his mouth.

Surely, we thought, Mr. Sato has finally learned his lesson; that consuming stacks of bacon is a task better left to professionals.

So imagine our surprise when he came in the office holding a plastic bag sagging under the weight of a 1050 bacon strip Whopper.

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  • Apr 19, 2012

What the … ? U.S. Navy firefighting Robot may be life-saving but is unnervingly freaky!

Rescue and firefighting robots that can operate in disaster areas too dangerous for humans can obviously be a great asset, and it is not surprising that research and development of such machines are conducted in many countries around the world.

One such firefighting robot developed by the U.S. Navy has been the subject of  significant attention recently. It’s actually a humanoid robot, which is unusual for a rescue robot, but that isn’t the reason why it is gaining attention; the reason becomes quite obvious once you see a picture of the robot – the robot just simply looks incredibly freaky! Read More

Why is Japan Turning Blue at Night? More and More Streets Being Draped in Peacefully Bizarre Azure Lights

A growing number of people all across Japan have been noticing their neighborhoods getting a little jazzier these days.  If you live in Japan and haven’t seen them yet then just wait.  But why have cities all over the country been trading in their traditional yellowish lights for the blue light special?

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  • Apr 18, 2012

A Sweets Lover’s Paradise – Tokyo Confectionery Land opens in Tokyo Station and their “drinkable” cream puffs are a must try!

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


  • Apr 18, 2012

The perfect summer snack – potato chips that are made to be cool, literally

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 Offering 15 Bacon Strips for $1 So We Order Whopper With 105 Bacon Strips

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.

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Get Your 15 Minutes of Fame! (Good While It Lasted Anyway…)

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


  • Apr 17, 2012

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

Ice Cream Too Hard? No 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

Visit the US Navy Ship Held Prisoner for Over 30 Years in North Korea

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.”

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  • Apr 15, 2012

Have the Ultimate Domino’s Pizza – All the toppings and Over $100!

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).

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New iPhone Attachment Takes It Back to ’07, By Which We Mean 1907

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.

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