Every day leading up to Ninja Day (February 22), Koka City public servants will come to work dressed as the secretive badasses!
Ninja (Page 5)
Next weekend, handsome versions of some of Japan’s most prominent historical military figures will grace the stage in Asakusa for an interactive, foreigner-friendly show!
A recent article published in the Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation unveiled this black beauty as a new species with one badass name: Ninja Crow Shark!
These holiday greeting cards from Japan are so cool you have to see them to believe they’re real.
With its rich history, visitors to Japan have no lack of interesting sites to see, from imperial palaces to castles, to the seemingly endless shrines and temples all across the country. Each spot has its own particular attraction that draws tourists in for a visit, from the giant Kaminarimon lantern at Tokyo’s Sensoji Temple, to the literally thousands of torii shrine gates at Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto.
But here’s one temple you don’t want to forget to add to your itinerary: nicknamed the “Ninja Temple“, Myouritsu Temple is not just your ordinary run-of-the-mill Buddhist sanctuary. Full of secrets and surprises, adults and children alike are sure to enjoy what this special place has to offer.
When you think of “cool Japan,” it’s hard to overlook ninjas, those stealthy spies and assassins with more tricks up their sleeve than a magician in a parka. And yet it seems these timeless icons of Japanese culture have largely been overlooked by the national government’s Cool Japan in favor of AKB48 spin-offs and abacuses.
So instead, a band of 11 Japanese governors and mayors have assembled to create the Japan Ninja Council (JNC) with the sole aim of reminding everyone how cool ninjas are. Having officially launched on 9 October they aim to collect every bit of information on ninjas, including their history and culture, and provide it to anyone who wants to learn more about these elusive figures.
Devoted readers will remember that we spoke with Japan’s first full-time foreign stuntman Chuck Johnson earlier this summer, visiting his stunt class and learning about the industry in Japan. At the time, we mentioned that Chuck was working a short film called Fists of Absinthe, which ended up being a collaboration between YouTube and Toei Studios.
We are happy to say that Fists of Absinthe is now available on YouTube for your viewing pleasure! We just sat down and watched it, and it was equal parts comedy and action—definitely a must-see for anyone who likes martial arts, samurai, ninja, or laughing their butts off. Check it out below!
Time to rewatch Naruto and brush up on your ninjutsu, folks! We took our Japan wish competition winner to experience a modern twist on an ancient part of Japanese culture. Come and take a look at the spectacle inside Kyoto’s mysterious and shadowy ninja restaurant.
There are many things that draw people to Japan, from pop culture to the traditional tea ceremony. One of the highest on that list is probably those mysterious masters of stealth, the ninja, who have left and indelible impression on millions of people around the world.
While most of us will never get to actually be ninja, it’d be nice if we could at least try it out for a day, right? Obviously, to get the full ninja experience, you’d need to head out to a place like Iga, but if you’re just hanging out in Tokyo for a quick trip, we have a fun compromise for you! Next time you’re sightseeing in Asakusa, try stopping by the Ninja Taiken Dojo.
Origami is known worldwide as the art of paper-folding, and while most people associate it with Japanese culture, it also has history in China and Europe as well. We’re not sure what it is, but there is something strangely satisfying about turning a flat piece of paper into a three-dimensional model resembling anything from flowers to animals to vehicles.
One particularly fun shape to make are ninja throwing-stars, like the ones you see above. If you’re in the mood for some crafts and would like to give it a try, follow us after the jump to get started!
Hilton’s Odawara Resort & Spa, tucked away in Kanagawa Prefecture’s southwestern Odawara City, is offering something that you and your children simply can’t refuse: the opportunity for them to participate in special ninja training during your brief stay at the hotel!
There are few places on this planet as diverse and international as New York City. Whether it’s a fair estimation or not, the Big Apple also has a common image that is a little less appealing, however: one of being a little bit dirty and home to a veritable army of rodents.
Questions of their cleanliness aside, apparently the New York City rats are just as diverse and talented as their human cohabiters. Take for example this little guy who looks like he may be training for some kind of Ninja Warrior competition for rodents.
When lying in bed at night, have you ever heard a weird noise — a creaking floorboard or the rustling of a piece of paper? Has food ever mysteriously disappeared? While it very well could have been a ghost, it could have just as easily been a ninja-cat hiding in the nooks and crannies of your home!
Some ninja-cats are more skilled than others, living in apartments and stealing food completely undetected by the owners. Others, however, are not so stealthy and occasionally get caught on camera. Observe!
Fans of Naruto, the hit manga series that graced the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine every week, were dealt a heavy blow back in November 2014 when the epic series ended after 15 years.
While they may have closed the book on the manga series, thankfully it’s not the last chapter in the Naruto franchise, as all our favourite characters will be returning, this time on stage in a live action spectacular set to tour Japan from 21 March 2015.
We recently learned about some ninja tools and techniques that made use of cats, but maybe cats are actually the original ninja. This picture is more than enough evidence to prove that this theory is spot-on.
Growing up in the 90s, I was raised with the notion that ninja were teenage turtles, silent assassins or similar to the characters in Naruto. As much as we’d like to believe these were the reality, according to an interesting article from Listverse, the ninja that actually roamed the streets and castles as spies and assassins were humans who didn’t always dress in black (apparently they wore dark blue), and they didn’t regularly use the famous weapons we know so well.
So, if they weren’t using shuriken and long swords all of the time, what did they use? Researchers have been investigating the ancient style for decades and have uncovered some pretty amazing and ingenious items that you would never even dream of. There are probably thousands of ninja tools and techniques out there, but we’ll just focus on the few that Listverse brought into the open.
Every once in a while we at RocketNews24 like to bring you some instructional pieces on how to perform traditional Japanese practices such as drinking green tea, eating sushi, butchering a wild boar and seppuku. However, even with handy instructions some of these practices require rigid discipline and considerable practice. Interestingly enough, we get the fewest complaints of failure from the seppuku piece, but the ones we do get seemed to be the most angry.
This time however, we have a traditional Japanese guide that not only is easy to perform but is perfect for Halloween, which is fast approaching. So get ready to learn how to properly wrap a ninja hood around your head!
What if we told you that Sunday was being discontinued? Like, the day’s just being removed from the calendar forever. You’d be pretty bummed, right? Sure, it lacks the excitement of Friday night, or the pure, 100-percent freedom of Saturday, but most of us still look forward to Sunday as a fun point in our week.
Well, something similar is about to happen for manga fans. Naruto, creator Masashi Kishimoto’s wildly popular weekly ninja series, is just weeks away from its final installment.
We’ve no doubt all experienced that feeling of frustration when, right when things are getting good, our favorite TV show is interrupted by an ad break. We kick ourselves for getting suckered in, knowing full well that both the show’s makers and the networks that host it put the ads in where they did for good reason – to keep us glued to our sets that little bit longer.
But there are times when even the ads are so well made that they’re as entertaining as the shows we were watching. This new commercial for a Japanese soft drink, for example, is so cleverly shot that for the first few seconds we genuinely thought it was footage taken by a couple of high school girls tooling around in their classroom. Until, of course, they started back-flipping off buildings, sprinting across roofs and pulling every trick in the ninja book.
Sure, it has almost nothing to do with the product, but we think you’ll agree this is one of the coolest ads around.
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