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Japanese police requests train stations in Shibuya to shut exits during New Year countdown

Measures to reduce problems related to overcrowding have ramped up this year.

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Osaka reminds everyone not to go jump off a bridge during World Cup, don’t jump on it either

Yes, even during the World Cup.

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TV Tokyo Plans Huge Celebration for Pokemon’s 1,000th Episode

Ash Ketchum hasn’t won a league, but he has managed to survive in the Pokémon wilderness for 1,000 episodes. 

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More than 600,000 rounds of fireworks are exploded for this ancient Chinese New Year celebration

Every year, the Chinese New Year is celebrated for more than two weeks in January or February, with many festivals and celebrations commemorating the occasion. On the first day of the New Year, the festival kicks off with the Firecracker Ceremony, during which locals light nearly 600,000 rounds of fireworks.

Last Thursday, we headed down to New York City’s Chinatown to see the community’s 16th annual Firecracker Ceremony. The community was celebrating the beginning of the Year of the Goat.

It is a tradition for Chinese people to light bamboo sticks filled with gunpowder on the first day of the year to create as large as commotion as possible. The practice is thought to ward off evil spirits. In more recent years, the tradition is carried on with firecrackers and fireworks. Thousands of firecrackers are strung up with red ribbon on the rope in the background.

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【Photos】 Japan Loves Their Olympic Athletes More Than You

The streets of downtown Tokyo were flooded with enthusiastic crowds on Monday as Japan celebrated its record haul of 38 medals (7 gold, 14 silver and 17 bronze) at the 2012 London Olympics with a “triumphant return” parade featuring nearly all of this year’s Japanese medalists.

The athletes rode on open-air buses through the streets of Tokyo’s upper class Ginza shopping district, waving to the some 500,000 cheering supporters that were said to have gathered.

Check below for a collection of images showing the impressive scale of the festivities, originally shared on Japanese message board site Hamster Sokuho.

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