life

7 ways people in Japan deal with heavy snow, including the use of special ponds called “tane”

Locals teach us how to live comfortably in areas that experience heavy snowfall.

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How to use Japan’s new self-checkout supermarket carts

Will smart trolleys and mobile scanners soon become the norm across Japan? 

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How to cancel a floor on a Japanese elevator

Cool hack will save you time and keep you in everyone’s good books.

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Mr. Sato enjoys the good Life and loads up on food to get loaded with【Japan’s Best Home Senbero】

Our writers get a new lease on Life.

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We miss out on cheap all-you-can-eat takoyaki, but stuff ourselves with octopus balls anyway

You, too, can have an all-you-can-eat experience with a timer and the determination to enjoy yourself.

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Charming video saga shows baseball player Ichiro playing his own life…board game-style!【Videos】

These short, sweet videos have Japan’s recently retired baseball star play the (board) game of life while musing on his real lived experiences.

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40 things our loveless reporter felt using Tinder in Japan

Online dating sure can be frustrating.

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Nine times Japanese people got schooled on their own country and culture by foreigners

Japanese people dish on things foreigners told them that they’d never realized before about their home country.

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Malaysian illustrator creates art based on Asian legends for magnificent results【Art】

These beautiful pieces are both magical and terrifying.

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Ask Mr. Sato Episode 1 – Love, Dreams, Cats vs Dogs【Video】

Episode 1 of our brand new series, Ask Mr. Sato, is here! Join us at the link below to listen to the great man’s sagely advice!

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“Don’t play for more than an hour a day”: Japanese video game master gives great advice

Takahashi Toshiyuki, better known as Takahashi Meijin, is a renowned gaming personality in Japan. One of his famous quotes, however, says, “Don’t play more than an hour of games each day.” This sounds like a mother nagging her game-addicted child and perhaps not too convincing coming from someone who plays games for a living. You might wonder, “Why is this guy telling me that I should only play for an hour each day when he probably plays all day long? How am I going to be a world Pokémon champion if I don’t play enough?” However, it appears that there is more to Takahashi’s quote.

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“3 bottles available” – Life’s Good when you can mail your fridge to ask if there’s any beer left

Electronics giant LG has announced that its line of “HomeChat”-enabled appliances — a refrigerator, washing machine, and Lightwave oven that can be communicated with and operated via messaging service Line — is now available to buy in its native South Korea.

By using the popular smartphone app, users can chat with their various gizmos as if they were ordinary human contacts, asking them questions as well as providing additional information to alter their functions. Thanks to the technology built into the appliances with which the app communicates, it’s possible not just to remotely check the temperature inside the fridge or put on a load of laundry, but to find out how many beers you have or delay your usual wash cycle by 30 minutes simply by telling the machine you’ll be home late.

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The honesty of children: 3-year-old’s greeting tells father how little time he spends at home

As we’ve talked about before, overtime is pretty common in Japan. At a startling number of companies, it is not considered in the least bit unusual to find staff, who are contracted and only being paid to be there between 8:30 am and 6 pm, still at their desks until 9, 10, or 11 at night. Others may leave the office a little earlier, but are often wrangled into drinking with the boss or entertaining clients until all hours. Others still even work on weekends and, returning home late at night, only see their family while they’re sleeping.

Dutiful partners may grin and bear it when their husband or wife is absent from home for such enormous stretches of time, but kids only speak the truth. Like this little one who, on her father returning home seemingly for the first time in a long time, greeted him like you might a guest or customer to a restaurant…

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