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At the London branches of Marugame Seimen, you can change your udon’s broth–but choose wisely!

Sometimes “new” can be jarring…or even disappointing.

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Amazon’s unmanned ‘just walk out’ store Amazon Fresh leaves us feeling like criminals

Amazon’s innovative ‘no checkout required’ supermarket leaves our reporter feeling uneasy.

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Ed Sheeran (and his friend Squirtle) welcome fans to the Pokémon World Championships【Video】

Pikachu shows up in a special outfit and London gets its own Pokémon species representative too.

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Japanese heavy metal band Maximum the Hormone’s London gig gives our reporter new outlook on life

Intense heavy metal gig leaves our Maximum the Hormone newbie wanting to live life to the fullest.

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Londoners marvel at newly-opened Marugame Udon restaurant’s low prices

You paid how much for a bowl of udon?!

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Rush hour trains in London are worse than Tokyo, according to our Japanese-language reporter

After riding on the Tube in London, our Japanese reporter is thankful for crowded Tokyo trains. 

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This London ramen restaurant’s super-strange ramen shocks our Japanese taste-tester

Anarchy in the U.K. ramen bowl.

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SoraNews24’s Seiji goes to England to find fame with the spirit of Yngwie Malmsteen

In preparation for his music festival debut, our reporter once again summons the spirit of a Swedish guitar hero.

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Check out these photos from the British Museum’s beautiful Manga special exhibition【Photos】

The London landmark gives manga the fine-art treatment.

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Japanese tourist cries tears of joy over creative installation of origami in the UK

Famous British botanical gardens include a clever use of origami art in a holiday display. 

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JAL to re-release Japanese coats once worn by The Beatles for limited time

Now’s your change to look just like John, Paul, George, and Ringo did when they first touched down in Tokyo in 1966.

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Live-action Kiki’s Delivery Service stage play coming to London this winter, report claims

Sounds like the U.K. is getting its second Studio Ghibli anime-based stage production, and very soon.

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Artist turns “untranslatable words” from various languages into beautiful necklaces 【Pics】

The jewelry shows off how gorgeous some Japanese words can be.

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When guards attack: This is why you don’t mock the big guys with the guns!

A stereotypical scene of a visit to London includes a trip to Buckingham Palace and a touristy photo-op of a silly pose next to one of the Queen’s Guards. With their distinct, bright red coats and big poofy black hats, to many tourists they might just seem like ceremonial guards, but they are actually fully operational soldiers entrusted with an important job, and they take their job very seriously.

People seem to get a kick out of trying to get a reaction out of these guys, but you really don’t want to mess with them. Someone probably should’ve warned this kid, before he pushed a soldier a little too far and ended up staring into the barrel of his gun!

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Japanese tourist gets lost in Windsor Castle, wanders into Queen’s private rooms

Recently, all of Japan was very excited because Prince William made his first-ever visit. But back home in ol’ Blighty, the Royals had to deal with the aftermath of an embarrassing little security snafu at Windsor Castle that happened on February 12.

It seems that a Japanese tourist inadvertently wandered into some off-limits areas during a visit to the castle – namely, the Queen’s own private rooms. Her Maj wasn’t home at the time of the intrusion, but the incident still prompted a wave of panic over the sightseeing interloper.

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Japanese band robot-dances their way around London in latest music video

Japanese band World Order robot-dances their way around London in their latest music video while locals look on amused and confused. Check out the full video plus screenshots after the jump!

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London-based makeup artist wows us with her eye-popping lip art! 【Photos】

We’ve previously witnessed the gender-bending, face-changing prowess of makeup on several occasions. With some technique, even a man can transform into a glamorous chick. Taking makeup to a whole new transformation level, London-based makeup artist Laura Jenkinson takes on a slightly different approach with her technique, using her skills not to cover imperfections, nor to turn monolids into double eyelids. With vivid colors and artistic flicks of her makeup brush, she transforms her lips into lively, adorable characters! How many of these can you recognize?

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Capcom Fills Pool with Blood to Mark Release of Newest Resident Evil

In conjunction with the release of Resident Evil Revelations in the UK, Campcom is pulling out all the stops (and arteries, ha-ha) for their newest PR campaign. Last year, they had a butcher shop serving up fresh “people meat.” (We’re starting to wonder if there wasn’t some miscommunication about exactly what kind of game this is.) So, how about this year?

Well, on May 25 and 26, Capcom’s jumping in the deep end with a pool literally filled with blood. And, if you find you’ve forgotten how to swim, zombie lifeguards are standing by to…rescue you? (Wait, aren’t zombies kind of aquaphobic?) Read More

What A Disgrace! Was This Olympic Boxing Match Fixed? Referee Expelled

In my career as a journalist, never have I seen such a debacle. The match in question was a bantamweight match, between Azerbaijan’s Magomed Abdulhamidovand Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu. On five occasions in one round, Shimizu knocked down Abdulhamidov, who also received a two-point penalty. The judges ended up awarding victory by judgment to his opponent, who was the one who spent more time on the canvas, and the referee didn’t stop the match as he would reasonably expected to during one of these downs, nor did he even start counting down a single knockdown. What exactly is going on with refereeing in the London Olympics? Read More