Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
culture (Page 60)
If you happen to be in Osaka in the next month and feel up to braving the chilly nights, there is an interesting event taking place at Osaka Castle as part of the Art Festival of Light. In addition to the castle gardens being decorated with thousands of twinkling bulbs and a giant cube of swirling light constructed with LEDs, the castle itself will be the canvas for a 3D mapping projection guaranteed to confuse your brain.
So, you think you know your quirky Asia news, huh? Visit our site every single day, do ya? (Thank you!) Well let’s see how closely you’ve been paying attention! Starting this week, we’ll be running a multiple choice quiz each weekend, based on 10 of our writers’ favourite articles from the week, asking you one question about each of them.
Do you know your Japanese cultural traditions? Have you been paying close attention to the adventures of our beloved Mr. Sato? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if he had the required paperwork for the job? Take our quiz and find out!
A lot of Japanese people complain about the tipping culture in the US and Canada. Although parting with more money than necessary is a big part of the complaint, a lot of people in Japan dislike the mental anguish of figuring out how much is appropriate.
However, the New Year’s traditional cash presents of otoshidama, while great for kids, are just as riddled with anxiety for adults. Rather than the ambiguous sentimental value of presents, an envelope filled with cash is instantly quantifiable and wide open to judgment.
To avoid looking like a cheapskate or breaking your own bank account, our reporter surveyed those around her to figure out what the going rates for otoshidama are these days.
With Christmas being just a regular day and the exchanging of gifts something of a rarity, we often feel that kids in Japan are missing out somewhat. Of course, not every Westerner is fortunate enough to know the joy of waking up on December 25 and finding presents–brought by a benevolent bearded man, no less–under the Christmas tree or at the foot of their bed, but those who are would most likely agree that it’s a pretty spectacular feeling for a kid to have.
But while the rest of the world is coming to realise that the toys they asked for aren’t quite as cool as they’d expected and dreading going back to school or work, kids in Japan are making out like bandits and getting not presents but cold, hard cash on New Year’s Day in the form of otoshidama.
How will you be spending New Year’s Eve this year? Celebrating with family or friends? Watching a countdown on TV? Sleeping, oblivious to the world and perfectly happy about it? Here’s what Japanese respondents on one online poll said they’re be doing when the ball drops, the clock strikes twelve, and the temple bells are rung 108 times.
Twice a year, Japanese amateur manga convention, Comiket, rolls through town, bringing in its tow an apocalyptic nerd storm of cosplayers, manga enthusiasts and rare comic and figure hunters. If stereotypes are to be believed, this means that twice a year, instant ramen, energy drinks, curry and soda consumption spike considerably.
Did you know that the ice cream emoji is just the poop emoji re-purposed?
In honor of the Emoji Art Show in New York City, creative agency 5Loom created a timeline of emoji development that points out this and other pivotal moments in emoji history.
Check it out:
While we were already busy filling our faces with fried chicken, our friends over at JapanCulture•NYC – still with a few hours to go until December 25 arrived – sent us a few snaps of their own office Christmas tree before packing up for the holidays. For a site based in New York City and that’s all about Japanese culture in the area, we probably shouldn’t have been surprised that they put a cute, Japanese twist on the traditional ornaments, but this tree brought huge smiles to our faces.
With tiny octopuses, smiling onigiri riceballs and even Kumamon dressed as Santa, this is probably the best cross-culture Christmas tree we’ve seen this season, and we’re thoroughly jealous.
Sometimes obvious things are hidden right in plain sight and it takes the fresh perspective of someone in another part of the world to point it out. One Twitter user stumbled on such a hidden gem recently when searching the Japanese character for “tsu” , which in the katakana alphabet is written ツ.
As you can probably see from the image above and in the text of the previous sentence, the letter looks quite a lot like a smirking face. This may appear obvious to many Western readers, but according to online reaction most Japanese netizens were taken by surprise at this discovery and had never noticed the similarity. Perhaps even more surprisingly, the character is also apparently getting an unusual amount of use in Middle Eastern countries.
The Japanese love to have fun with words. Kotoba asobi (wordplay) makes up a pretty large portion of Japanese humor on variety programs and comedy shows – possibly a side effect of so many kanji characters sounding phonetically identical despite wildly different meanings.
But YouTube’s The World Video Tour has taken it to a whole new level with a video series of Japanese words and phrases that sound a lot like totally unrelated English terms. Below, we’ll watch the series’ host have some fun with foreign tourists to see if they understand what he’s trying to say.
When I was a kid, I used to watch Japanese anime that were dubbed in English or Mandarin because the original versions were not broadcast on the local TV channels. Most of the time, the theme songs of these anime remained in Japanese, and I had fun singing along to the catchy tunes even though I had absolutely no idea what the lyrics meant. However, it isn’t entirely uncommon for international versions of anime series to have theme songs localized to the audience’s native language and tastes for music.
Recently, a clip of the Arabic version of the popular anime series, Arupusu no Shojo Haiji (Heidi, Girl of the Alps) has been making waves among Japanese netizens due to its localized opening song, which was starkly different from the Japanese original. Videos after the jump!
Japan is famous for being an onsen (hot spring) nation, so much so that a friend of mine preaches that “if you’ve never been to an onsen, then you’ve never been to Japan”. Quite the extremist, but you get the idea. Japanese hot springs come pretty close to “heaven on earth”.
But Japan’s neighboring country, Taiwan, also has some fabulous hot springs to boot! The fact that there are onsen-loving Japanese people who travel to Taiwan for a soak is sufficient to vouch for the quality of these bubbling hot baths. Here’s a list of five onsen hot spots you wouldn’t want to miss on your trip to Taiwan!
To the trained eye, a person’s physical features and personality quirks can reveal what they do for a living. The guy with little cuts all over his hands? Likely a chef (or a bare knuckle fighter). The person at a party who effortlessly schmoozes with complete strangers? He’s probably a salesman, or maybe an actor (or an actor playing a salesman). And the individual with the pleasant smell? Most definitely a RocketNews24 writer (no parenthetical joke this time; nothing rivals the pleasing aroma of our creative team).
When your job requires such commitment that it stops being just an occupation and starts becoming a way of life, these traits become all the more telling, such as these ways to quickly spot a member of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.
If love is a numbers game, we’d say there’s no better place for men to play the odds than Latvia. In the formerly communist Baltic-region country, there are only 84 men for every 100 women, making the country the most gender-divided in the world – a fact that has a lot of single men here in Japan paying great attention.
As if that weren’t enough for men fed up with being “friend-zoned” by the women of their own countries to start researching ways to smuggle themselves into some Latvian tourist’s return luggage, Latvian ladies are apparently gaga over foreign men with college educations.
As much as we at RocketNews24 love talking about Japanese food and introducing our readers to new places to eat or our own crazy culinary creations, we appreciate that for many, popping over to Tokyo or Osaka for a week of washoku dining bliss simply isn’t on the cards. But thankfully, great Japanese food can be found all over the world – if you know where to look!
For those of you to whom New York is a heck of a lot closer than Tokyo, Susan Miyagi Hamaker, one of our friends from JapanCulture•NYC, has prepared a fantastic list of 12 authentic Japanese foods that are available within the city, even sharing some tips on which restaurants to check out if you’re in town. Yup, the real just got that little bit closer!
Cormorant fishing on China’s Li River is all but dying out.
Fisherman set out with domesticated cormorants, a seabird, on bamboo rafts before sunrise and often in the early evening. These birds prey on fish. But the fishermen tie threads around the necks of the cormorants to prevent them from swallowing the fish they catch.
Japan is practically overflowing with hot, bubbling water it seems and nearly every city and town has a local spring or public bath for people to get a nice soak. Called “onsen” in Japanese, hot spring spas or baths are one of the most enduring symbols of Japanese culture.
Today, we bring you a fact-filled list of Japanese onsen trivia! Impress your friends with your knowledge and find somewhere to go soothe your aching heart when they get mad at you for being so smart.
Lonely this Christmas? Shiga Prefecture’s Pieri Moriyama shopping mall most certainly is.
Although technically still operating, the once thriving shopping centre is now home to just 14 stores after the local economy took a nosedive and businesses started pulling out in their droves. In the spirit of Christmas, however, the mall’s operators evidently decided to pop a tree up for visitors to enjoy. But as this Twitter user’s photo shows, when surrounded by naught but vast expanses of nice shiny floor, this tiny tree is possibly the loneliest Christmas ornament we’ve ever seen.
The rest of the world may currently be in love with Sony’s newest controller, the DualShock 4, but gamers in Japan evidently still have a big soft spot for the ageing PlayStation 2 control pad, the DualShock 2.
What you can see in the image above is not, in fact, a row of the now 13-year-old controllers as viewed from a great height, but a new set of earphone jack plugs, and the level of detail is simply astounding.
Comparatively speaking, Japanese homes are undeniably small. So much so that many traditional furnishings are designed to help maximize the efficiency of what little space there is. Futons that can be stuffed into a closet when not in use, tables that fold up in a snap, and cushions for sitting on the floor all provide the flexibility to quickly and easily convert a living room into a bedroom.
So with space at such a premium, why do so many Japanese married couples choose to sleep in separate rooms?
New Kyoto Converse sneakers celebrate Japan with traditional kimono fabrics for your feet
Studio Ghibli launches huge new anime movie T-shirt collection with special design details
Japan’s 5.3 million beautiful Hitachi Nemophila flowers are now in full bloom[Photos]
Japan is so hungry for workers it used up its five-year visa quota in record time
Injuries on stairs in Tokyo highlight an overlooked design flaw
Happy 40th birthday, Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A!
Gacha capsule toy paradise for adults appears at Akihabara Station
Studio Ghibli announces first new short anime film in 8 years, exclusive to Ghibli Park
How to get all-you-can eat doughnuts at Mister Donut for just 12 bucks!
We followed Tokyo’s mystery walking map and ended up creating our own bar-hopping adventureJapan’s 5.3 million beautiful Hitachi Nemophila flowers are now in full bloom[Photos]
Brand-new Pokémon manhole covers coming to help the recovery of a disaster-stricken part of Japan
Japan’s awesomely beautiful Alpen Route snow corridor is now open
Move aside, convenience store egg sando – there’s a better version of the iconic sandwich in JapanNew Kyoto Converse sneakers celebrate Japan with traditional kimono fabrics for your feet
Pokémon hot spring footbath opening in Japan this spring
Studio Ghibli croquettes not to eat, but to keep your stuff in, going on sale in Japan[Photos]
Japan’s popular bead bonsai kit is as beautiful as it is gruelling to make
Secret staff cafeteria in Tokyo is a hidden gem you won’t find in travel guides
Tinder just opened a convenience store in Japan, aimed at adults only
Japan reportedly adding Japanese language skill requirement to most common foreigner work visa
Pokémon and Ikea Japan cross over into each other’s worlds with collaboration events
Wisteria season starts early with blooming of Japan’s Great Wisteria in its beautiful garden
Japan now has a special desk for people who work at home with a pet cat[Photos]Japan’s 5.3 million beautiful Hitachi Nemophila flowers are now in full bloom[Photos]
Japan’s best conveyor belt sushi restaurant of seven years ago has now, finally, come to TokyoBrand-new Pokémon manhole covers coming to help the recovery of a disaster-stricken part of Japan
Famous Tokyo cherry blossom spot installs view-blocking screens to fight overcrowding[Video]
Uniqlo announces new T-shirts for One Piece, Naruto and more for manga publisher’s 100th birthdayJapan’s awesomely beautiful Alpen Route snow corridor is now open
Survey asks foreign tourists what bothered them in Japan, more than half gave same answer
Japan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in Tokyo
Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
We deeply regret going into this tunnel on our walk in the mountains of Japan
Starbucks Japan releases new sakura goods and drinkware for cherry blossom season 2026
Studio Ghibli releases Kodama forest spirits from Princess Mononoke to light up your home
Japan’s newest Shinkansen has no seats…or passengers [Video]
Major Japanese hotel chain says reservations via overseas booking sites may not be valid
Put sesame oil in your coffee? Japanese maker says it’s the best way to start your day【Taste test】
No more using real katana for tourism activities, Japan’s National Police Agency says
Happy 40th birthday, Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A!
Gacha capsule toy paradise for adults appears at Akihabara Station
Studio Ghibli announces first new short anime film in 8 years, exclusive to Ghibli Park
How to get all-you-can eat doughnuts at Mister Donut for just 12 bucks!
We followed Tokyo’s mystery walking map and ended up creating our own bar-hopping adventure
Studio Ghibli’s new Nostalgic Piggy Bank series adds anime magic to your savings
There’s a new museum in Japan, but almost all of its location is a secret
The dream of riding Final Fantasy Chocobos is coming to Tokyo VR centers
Neat footage surfaces of life in small Hiroshima town circa the 1930s【Video】
Under-the-radar downtown Tokyo neighborhood’s hotel is close to Ueno Park and super affordable