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Japanese train platform door tech promotes safety, illusions of being in a sci-fi universe

Mike
Mar 17, 2014
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Japan’s “suicide problem” is much talked about, both within the country’s borders and without, with a shocking number of people each year choosing to end their lives by jumping in front of a train. Less talked about are all the other deadly and injurious accidents that take place on train platforms in Japan on a semi-regular basis.

Recently, Japanese rail companies have been experimenting with platform barrier doors to prevent both suicides and other grievous accidents, and most of these inevitably end up looking like something out of Star Trek or a 1990s first-person shooter before technology allowed swinging door animations.

Ultraman pub lets you get ultra-full and ultra-drunk while having ultra fun

Casey Baseel
Mar 14, 2014

Among the many Japanese tales of heroes of justice battling giant monsters, Ultraman may just be the most popular. Since its television debut in 1966, hardly a year has gone by without a new Ultraman TV series or motion picture.

The franchise’s longevity means that many long-time fans who started watching when they were young kids are now full-grown adults. On the one hand, growing up means more responsibility, but it also means more freedom, including the freedom to knock back a few cold beers at a new dining and drinking establishment where Ultraman’s monstrous foes take center stage.

New high-res photos simulate aerial tour of Tokyo (helicopter noises included!)

Casey Baseel
Mar 14, 2014

It’s hard to get an idea of how truly massive Tokyo is without seeing it from the sky. Unfortunately, most international flights come into Narita Airport, which is over an hour away from downtown, and we haven’t quite been able to convince our bosses that RocketNews24 really needs a company helicopter.

Thankfully, the newly upgraded Yahoo! Maps lets us take an aerial tour of the city even while we’ve still got both feet firmly on the ground.

Fare-dodging Chinese bus passenger balances karma by repaying years of delinquent fare

Mike
Mar 14, 2014

In one of the few instances we can think of in which crime actually does pay, a Chinese bus passenger who spent years “ride-and-dashing” to dodge paying the fare repaid her karmic debt by depositing a total of 800RMB (approx. US$130) into the till boxes of two local buses.

Drivers of both buses apparently tried to reject her offering and have her pay the standard 2RMB fare (US$0.30), but the woman reportedly insisted, telling at least one of the drivers, “You’ve always been kind to your passengers. This is to repay the fare I’ve been skipping out on until now.”

Revealed! Japan’s top 10 handsome samurai【Photos】

Fran W
Mar 11, 2014

Posed portraits in history textbooks can all look the same after a while. Formal clothes, dark to create enough contrast for a black-and-white photo; stiff posture because old cameras required the sitter to be still for at least a few minutes; no smiling, in case the photo blurred. It’s no wonder students love to embellish the illustrations in their textbooks with creative graffiti.

Luckily for us, Japanese site Bakumatsu Gaido, an online guide to Bakumatsu, the Edo period’s final years (1853-67), is on hand to liven things up with a light-hearted look at the samurai with the best-chiseled features, sharpest dress sense and most awesome photo poses. Join us after the jump for Japan’s top 10 ikemen (cool, good-looking) samurai, plus a few bonus selections of our own!

Liven up your Twitter feed with anime-themed “Pair Icons”

Mike
Mar 9, 2014

We already know that Twitter and Vine are kind of places people in Japan go to make bad life decisions. We’ve seen teens crawl into convenience store freezers and would-be comedians posting really quite racist “comedy” videos, and even the occasional teen openly admitting to a crime on the social networking service.

So it’s a breath of fresh air to see someone finally take to Twitter with a good idea, like this amateur artist that posted a concept sketch for “pair icons:” Twitter profile pictures you can use with friends that, when lined up perfectly in your news feed, play off each other in fun and interesting ways. Here’s the original concept:

Special subway cars in Kyoto are perfect for travelling anime fans

Casey Baseel
Mar 8, 2014

Kyoto is best known as a bastion of Japan’s traditional past, where the visual and performing arts developed during the feudal era still command the highest respect. Japan’s former capital is also making a bid to become a center for modern popular culture as well, though. 2006 saw the opening of the Kyoto International Manga Museum, and the city also plays host to the annual Kyoto International Manga Anime Fair.

Kyoto’s love for anime is truly a two-way street, as the city serves as the setting for numerous animated series. Apparently the relationship between anime and Kyoto has progressed to a point where the two feel comfortable with an overt display of public affection, in the form of a special subway train plastered with anime graphics.

Revolving sushi comes to, and around and around, your house with this home-use set

Casey Baseel
Mar 7, 2014

For me, one of the darkest days of 2013 was when the revolving sushi restaurant near my apartment closed down. Sure, I could always hop on the train and ride to another neighborhood for my fix, but that’s small comfort for those times when I want a selection of delicious raw fish and vinegared rice parading past me right now.

On that day, building a revolving sushi experience of my own replaced “supermodel grotto” and “garage filled with classic Mazda sports cars” as my eccentric millionaire daydream. But it turns out I actually don’t need such a hefty bank balance to fulfill this ambition, thanks to this sweet home-use revolving sushi set.

Fan sews amazing felt versions of Totoro, Sailor Moon, Final Fantasy Black Mage and more

Casey Baseel
Mar 6, 2014

As someone who learned to drive a car before he could ride a bike, there are a couple of things that slipped through the cracks on my path of acquiring basic life skills. Sewing, for example, is still an arcane art to me. After all, why go to the hassle of making my own clothes, when there are plenty of stores perfectly willing to take my money in exchange for a new shirt or pair of jeans?

But maybe I’m missing the point. After all, knowing how to sew doesn’t just mean you can design your own wardrobe, it also means you can create awesome anime and video game figures made entirely of felt.

New ultra-stylish, extra-traditional Shinkansen has tatami floors, foot baths

Casey Baseel
Mar 6, 2014

The Shinkansen is already a pretty cool way to get around Japan, as it whisks travelers from the country’s cosmopolitan urban centers to its more traditional rural locales.

But what if you want to experience a bit of authentic Japanese culture while you’re zipping across Japan at 200 miles per hour? Fear not, Japan Railway has just the thing: a bullet train with tatami reed flooring and a Japanese-style foot bath.

Creative pet owner turns Xbox 360 controller into dog leash (with poop bag dispenser!)

Philip Kendall
Mar 6, 2014

Just traded in your Xbox 360 for a shiny new PS4 or Xbox One? Want to clear some clutter under your TV set? Proud of your gamerscore and want the world to know that you eat, sleep and breathe video games? Well if you’re a pet owner we’ve just the thing! Instructables user mikeasaurus has come up with a novel use for an old Xbox 360 controller – turning it into a dog leash, which as well as having multiple fire buttons and twin analogue sticks, even comes with a built-in poop bag dispenser.

French pastry maker celebrates Japanese culture with line of special éclairs

Casey Baseel
Mar 5, 2014

Although it hasn’t been that long since its first U.S. retail outlet opened, French gourmet food supplier Fauchon has had a presence in Japan since the early 1970s. The company is best known here for its line of high quality teas, but they also offer pastries to well-heeled shoppers with a sweet tooth in the dessert section of a number of upscale department stores.

After so many years of success in Japan, Fauchon has decided to tip its hat to the country by releasing a line of éclairs with decorations and ingredients inspired by Japanese culture.

35 fascinating photos of Korea from 100 years ago (before K-dramas took over Asia)

Krista Rogers
Mar 5, 2014

A picture is worth a thousand words. That’s certainly the case with the following collection of stunning photographs taken in Korea between 1890 and 1903 by visiting foreigners. The diverse, everyday scenes they depict shed light on the lifestyles of people at the time. Interestingly, this pictorial set was circulated around the Internet in Thailand, where people were surprised to see such vast differences in lifestyle as compared to the lives of South Koreans portrayed in modern-day K-dramas…a lot can change in a hundred years! You don’t want to miss a single one of these photos or the reactions of Thai people after seeing them!

Life-size Attack on Titan monster to appear in projection-mapped form in Kawasaki

Casey Baseel
Mar 3, 2014

For such an ordinarily listless bunch, hit anime Attack on Titan’s titular monsters sure have been busy lately, collaborating with hamburger chain Lotteria, appearing in their first smartphone game, and even helping one fan get a job.

But now comes literally the biggest Attack on Titan promotion yet, as a life-size recreation of the 60-meter Colossal Titan is set to menace Japan in projection-mapped form at a shopping center in Kawasaki.

How to get free healthcare in Japan without insurance

Mike
Mar 1, 2014

Brace yourselves, Republicans and Libertarians: it turns out Japan’s social safety net provides free healthcare to people that need medical attention but have no money or insurance. It’s like Obamacare’s angry, ‘roided-up samurai cousin.

That’s because there’s a somewhat vaguely-worded provision in Japanese law that states the government is obligated to provide care for those with “troubled livelihoods,” at low or no cost, regardless of insurance coverage. “Troubled livelihood” is kind of a broad definition, which ensures that those without the means to pay for medical treatment – even if they aren’t necessarily poor, homeless or unable to work – can still see a doctor.

Tetris gummies are the tastiest way to procrastinate

Michelle Lynn Dinh
Mar 1, 2014

Before silly cat videos and online quizzes, there was Tetris, the ultimate way to put off whatever it is you should have been doing. Have a report due? Sorry, gotta beat this high score. Chores? Can’t stop now, can’t even look away, these bricks are flying! Familial obligations? Get out of here, kid! Can’t you see this is serious?!

Now Japan has combined our love of Tetris and little fruity gummies into one awesome snack. If they’re just as addicting as the game, we’re in trouble…

Live-action series Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist could well be all kinds of awesome 【Photos】

Philip Kendall
Feb 27, 2014

Based on Capcom’s hugely popular Street Fighter fighting games, upcoming TV series Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist began life back in 2010 as a mere seed of an idea. Three years later, fans of the video games went nuts when the project surfaced on Kickstarter asking for funding, only for it to suddenly disappear again when it was snapped up by a private production company.

Since then there has been so little news about Assassin’s Fist that we were starting to wonder if it would ever see the light of day, but recently released photos and one website’s extremely positive first impressions have our hands tingling with hadouken power more than ever.

Lego brick creations that look good enough to eat

Michelle Lynn Dinh
Feb 26, 2014

With the right amount of creativity, Lego bricks are the keys to other realms and the building blocks of otherworldly creations. But put in the hands of a spatially challenged, uninspired Lego novice, those little bricks continue to resemble the little pieces of plastic they really are. That’s why it’s so impressive when someone masters the art of building with Lego. Artist, Sachiko Akinaga, is one of those Lego masters and she’s managed to create plastic food that will make you want to take a bite.

Let’s toast to our feline friends — Five cute and tasty cat-themed alcoholic drinks

Kay
Feb 25, 2014

Annual Cat Day may be over, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop celebrating all things feline, does it? That’s right, as fond as we are of cats, we don’t really need a reason to express our affection for our feline friends, and in that spirit, some of the lovely reporters at our sister site Pouch decided to get together and come up with a list of the best cat-themed alcoholic drinks around. Cats and alcohol, now that sounds like a dangerously attractive combination!

To get their hands on some of the fun and tasty cat-themed drinks out there, our reporters used the services of major Japanese online liquor distributor Kakuyasu. Let’s see what their top five pics were.

Mr. Sato shows us how a real man opens his snacks 【Video】

Casey Baseel
Feb 21, 2014

The intense competition in the Japanese snack food market means that every week some product is getting kicked off convenience store shelves to make room for another one. Somehow, though, the puffed corn snack umaibo has remained consistently popular for over 30 years.

Umaibo’s biggest fans are elementary school kids, and the tasty little cylinders were a major component of some of our writer’s childhood diets. Recently we came to the realization that it’s time for us to grow up, though. Not by giving up our umaibo, of course, but by learning to open our snacks like a man.