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hobby

Our reporter breaks her Takarazuka virginity with an all-female performance of City Hunter

Battling first-timer nerves, we take a seat at the renowned Takarazuka theater.

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Are 100 yen shop Daiso’s Japanese radish seeds worth your time? Let’s find out【Experiment】

Radical value from cheap radish sprouts?

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80-year-old Japanese man surprises grandson with his amazing wire art collection

The former member of the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force waited until he was 80 to reveal his artistic pastime.

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Live your childhood dreams with this life-size mini four-wheel drive car【Video】

As a child, playing with mini remote-control cars definitely made you the coolest kid on the block. You could drive over almost any surface, reach top speeds in a matter of seconds, and send your animals chasing after them (or perhaps the cars chased the pets?) much to the irritation of adults

Now, as “responsible” adults, we don’t get much of a chance to play with toy cars anymore, unless that toy car has been turned into a real, drivable, 1:1 scale car. This road machine modeled after the Aero Avante won’t be seen running around any toy tracks, as it drives on real roads at speeds over 100 miles per hour!

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Cute animals in powered exoskeletons: 6 wondrous items from the 2015 Wonder Festival

The latest edition of Japan’s bi-annual Wonder Festival brought out both male and female cosplayers, plus Sailor Moon figurines, which are well-known stalwarts of any good event celebrating anime and the creative arts. But what about the actual handmade models that put the wonder into the festival?

Amateur hobbyists converge at the event to display and sell unique goods, resulting in an array of never-before-seen models and items that can’t be found anywhere else. From ramen kewpie dolls to seductive vegetables, we’ve got photos of the most imaginative and eye-popping goods you’ll see this season.

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We have a situation here! Plastic cat found in military model kit

Plastic modelers revel in the realism; they build their models and then painstakingly paint and alter them to look like the real thing in miniature scale. It takes a keen eye to blend just the right kinds of paint to achieve that dinged up metal look of a vehicle that’s been through real combat. And the right accessories will transform plastic toys into a scene of army veterans hard at work.

Model kits like to include little extras like shelves, tools and other related things you would expect to find. But sometimes the kits include an extra that seems so out-of-place that you call up the company to figure out if they made some sort of mistake. You’ll never guess what was included in this plastic model kit for a German ammo-loading crew from Tamiya. The answer is going to be meowtastic.

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Looking for a new hobby? Find out how “attractive” your new pastime will be to Japanese women

A kind Japanese netizen has compiled a list of hobbies based on their respective difficulty and how much they would appeal to women for the benefit of all mankind. We felt you might appreciate the info, so decided to share with you the kind of hobbies that are considered attractive to Japanese women (at least according to the creator of this chart!), as well as those that not only require a lot of time and effort but may in fact be a big turn-off for some.

If you’re looking for a Japanese girlfriend, perhaps it’s time to take up a new hobby. Or maybe ditch your old one!

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Weekly magazine “My 3D Printer” will put one in your hands by next year, much assembly required

About a month ago, thousands of subscribers to De Agostini’s model building magazine powered on their fully functional and adorable Robi robots for the first time. These robots came to their hobbyist creators one piece at a time with each issue of the magazine in true De Agostini fashion.

It was a long journey starting in late 2012 until this summer, but with their Robis dancing and chatting away happily many are left with itchy assembly fingers and wondering what they will do next.

Starting today, De Agostini are releasing their next series of part-by-part magazines in which readers can build what may feel is the next major world-changing technology: their own 3D Printer.

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“Painful” decorations return! It’s time to bring the pain to your entire room!

When it comes to hobby devotion, no one seems to take it to the limit more often than the Japanese. RocketNews24 has brought you stories about super-fans decorating their cars, vans and bikes in honor of their favorite characters and animation series. A company is now making it easier to take that devotion into your apartment, and especially into your bedroom! Buckle up folks, the following images are as disturbing as you are imagining!

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Voice actress surprises the internet with her bento making skillz!【Photos】

Is this a masterpiece in culinary art? Of course not, but it surely captures the look and feel of a titan from the series Attack on Titan. Voice actress Yuki Takao has been making and sharing her bento creations on her blog, and her unique style is starting to get some attention. Everyone needs a hobby, even famous people, and with their busy schedules, we’re sure they really appreciate the chance to relax and enjoy their time off. Yuki seems to spend it making unique bento and with food art like this, you have to wonder, what other creations has she made???

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Valley of the 9,000 dolls: One man’s incredible collection

For the parents of the world who refuse to let their children play with gender non-confirming toys, Jian Yang from Singapore should serve as a warning to what may happen if you don’t let kids be kids. The 30-something professional wasn’t allowed to have a doll growing up, but started collecting them when he got older and is now the proud owner of roughly 9,000 dolls.

While he hasn’t gone as far as some doll enthusiasts to sate their obsession, he has spent at least US$350,000 in the last 20 years on his ever-growing collection. Click below to see pictures of Yang’s enormous stash and to learn more about what drives this self-described “toy nerd” to buy this many dolls!

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Survey reveals that more than 70 percent of otaku would choose their hobby over love

Over the years, the term “otaku” has, as well as being accepted into the English language, come to mean not just computer or anime fanatics locked away in their bedrooms, but any person who shows above-average fondness for any given hobby or pastime. Crazy about pop idols? You’re an otaku. Can’t get enough cosplay in your life? Same for you. Have a collection of video games so large that your friends casually refer to your house as “the library”? You’d better believe you’re an otaku.

But is your passion for your hobby so great that you would willingly choose it over love and romance? A recent survey asked a group of otaku that very question, and found that 70.1 percent of them said they’d shun love in favour of their hobby if it came down to it.

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Tsukiji Fish Market Vendor Releases Tuna For Home Assembly

If you’ve ever been to Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo (the largest seafood market in the world), then you’ve probably dodged speeding forklifts, gotten lost in a maze of stalls, and seen professionals wielding metre-long knives, filleting expensive tuna according to traditional methods that go back centuries.

Well now you can take the Tsukiji experience home with you (minus those pesky forklifts) thanks to a special bluefin tuna designed and manufactured by Yamawa, a third generation fish wholesaler from the markets.

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The word otaku is a tricky one to define. Over the years, it has slowly made its way into western culture– usually used to describe a person who is excessively fond of Japanese animation or comics— and is often listed in modern English dictionaries as something along the lines of “a person obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture”.

In its native Japan, however, the word is used far more broadly, describing a person who is fanatical about or devotes large amounts of time to something. That “something” could be anything from videogame culture to pop idols to hardcore ear-cleaning, and once a person reaches a certain level of obsession with their hobby, it’s far from unusual for them to be labelled as “otaku” by their friends and family. But whatever the object of an otaku’s affection, wade through the stacks of comic books, unplug that goliath gaming rig, put away the Train-Spotter’s Manual and you will discover a regular guy; a regular guy who sometimes thinks about deep things. Even marriage… Read More