adventure
This incredible new video was released by a Lithuanian-born entrepreneur documenting his mysterious 7-day trip to North Korea.
Tell someone you climbed Mt. Fuji, and they’ll ask “Where did you start from?”, because there are paved roads that can drop as much as half-way up the mountain. Of course some say you haven’t climbed Fuji unless you started from its base, but even that wasn’t enough of a challenge for these three foreign outdoorsmen, who decided to start their hike from miles away from Fuji at the seashore, then journey from Japan’s lowest point to its highest, making this awesome video along the way.
As the graphics in video games have become increasingly sophisticated, a new and unexpected expense has surfaced for design teams hoping to make their game’s environments as realistic as possible: the so-called “location hunt.”
While in the good ol’ days of pixel graphics, design teams could just look at some photographs or even paintings of real-world locations for inspiration, modern gaming’s open, 3-D worlds demand level and object design so advanced that it becomes a near-necessity for teams to travel to locales that closely resemble the digital worlds they’re hoping to create, getting actual eyes on, say, that volcanic mountain they plan to have the player venture through, or checking out the minute curves and angles of some military hardware they plan on dropping into the game.
Ironically, though, while the “location hunt” is still considered work, outside of the unlucky design team that has to go inside of a volcano for that epic RPG boss fight or something, these excursions can actually end up looking suspiciously like a vacation. Just ask the Final Fantasy XV design team, who recently posted a YouTube video of their location hunt.
Did you know that FamilyMart sells 108 yen (US$0.90) packets of “roasted shellfish strings?” They’re made from Hokkaido-raised scallops, and just like clams and oysters, scallops can produce pearls underwater. Even the packages come with this warning: “please be careful not to swallow any pearls that the shellfish may have produced while you eat them.”
Well that’s a challenge if we ever heard one! We bought 21 packets of roasted shellfish strings and went on a pearl diving adventure. Did we end up finding one? Read on to find out!
Do your eyes light up with excitement at the prospect of exploring remote land untouched by humankind? Even if your idea of adventure is a new brand of cup ramen, we think everyone can be impressed by Japanese explorer Yasunaga Ogita, who will make a second attempt at a gruelling solo trek to the North Pole. And the nearly 800-km journey will be made all the more difficult since Ogita plans to hike through some of the world’s coldest and harshest terrain without any supplies other than what he alone can carry.
If we asked you your travel plans for your next trip abroad, you would probably come up with a flight plan. It wouldn’t occur to most of us to take a boat. The fastest way to get from point A to point B particularly when B is overseas would have to be flying.
A ferry ride to foreign lands, compared to air travel ,may not be the most efficient way to go, but the sense of embarking on an adventure on the high seas, makes up for it! From an island country like Japan, surrounded on all sides by water, taking a ferry trip overseas is actually very reasonable.
Although it is not widely known, there are several ferry routes leaving at regular intervals from various ports across Japan. Where do these ferries go?
According to information from the Travel site Tripgraphics, ferries leave regularly for destinations in China, Korea, and Russia. There are frequent ferry departures to 8 ports of call in these three countries. Doesn’t it tickle the imagination? At the very least, you can’t help but be curious. What would a sea voyage be like? Read More











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We deeply regret going into this tunnel on our walk in the mountains of Japan
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Major Japanese hotel chain says reservations via overseas booking sites may not be valid
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No more using real katana for tourism activities, Japan’s National Police Agency says
Japan reportedly adding Japanese language skill requirement to most common foreigner work visa
Man in Japan calls in bomb threat because he doesn’t want to go to his own work farewell party
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Japan has a new cute and clever sunblock for cat lovers
Kanji ice cream becomes a sell-out hit in Japan
Japanese vending machine find introduces us to a new drink you can’t get anywhere else
Tokyo’s life-size Gundam anime mecha statue will be removed this summer
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Ichiraku Ramen-inspired ramen sets from Naruto anime pay homage to Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura