Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
twitter (Page 40)
November marks five years since Vikas Pradhan sent out his first tweets in broken Japanese describing the hardships of starting a restaurant. In response and a heartwarming show of support, the Twitter community rallied behind Pradhan not only online but in actual paid visits to his Nepalese cuisine restaurant Daisuki Nippon, putting it firmly in the black.
However, in a rather sudden turn of events, Pradhan tweeted that as of 31 October the original Daisuki Nippon had closed down.
Attack on Titan fans who pre-ordered the new Levi figure by Good Smile were no doubt super-excited when orders started shipping last month. But one buyer, who goes by the username @Levi_Eren_Karin on Twitter, couldn’t help but tweet about her surprise when the contents inside weren’t quite what she had been expecting…
We’ve all experienced this frustrating situation–it’s a rainy day, and as if to add insult to injury, your umbrella suddenly decides to break in what has to be an act of sheer defiance against you.
Net users sympathized with the following clip posted by one such unlucky soul. It certainly looks like the umbrella is doing nothing but mocking him, since it only decides to open after flying clean off the handle!
The children’s petting zoo section of Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo is home to a variety of fluffy, domesticated critters that visitors can get up close and personal with. Among the perennial favorites is a group of guinea pigs which have an impressive routine for when it comes time to (literally) hit the hay.
We bet you never thought that a group of rodents could be as well-behaved as these furry little guys!
Ah Halloween. After Christmas, it’s easily the best time of the year to be a kid. You get to dress up, scare people with your friends, and then best of all… go to your local organized crime branch to get a giant bag of candy.
Such has been the annual tradition on Halloween for children who visit the headquarters of the Japanese yakuza group Yamaguchi-gumi in Kobe. But this year, Halloween has had an “unfortunate accident” and been cancelled, meaning the mob will be handing out no candy.
Wait… what? Japanese mafia? Halloween candy? What do these things have in common? Read on to find out!
The old saying is that curiosity killed the cat. We’re not sure which cat they were talking about, but it’s definitely true that cats are downright nosy and always getting into everything.
But some cats are a bit better at “getting into everything” than others, like this much-loved feline who demonstrates a single-minded dedication to opening all the things!
We’ve seen a lot of Japanese high school girls who have become popular online for various reasons, from being funny to being silly to be pretty. But this girl has been getting a ton of attention online all because of a little secret that is now out of the bag. Can you guess what it is?
When I was in high school I thought I was pretty good at drawing, only to take a look at some of my work 10 years later and realize how hideous most of it looked. In fact, it’s more than a little embarrassing how proud I was back then over a couple of notebooks of ugly doodles.
But unlike myself, there are some really creative young artists out there producing top-notch work in between classes and studying. One recent example currently circulating the Japanese web is a collection of intricate dioramas put together by a second-year high school student.
For most people in the country, the trains in Japan are relatively pleasant outside of rush hour, though they’re generally not exactly entertaining. Which is probably a good thing, because an entertaining train would probably be an annoying train! But if you ride them long enough, there’s a good chance you’ll accumulate a few funny stories.
Fortunately, you don’t have to be in Japan to hear the good ones—Twitter users are happy to share them online! Below, we’ve gathered a few of our favorites to give you a good laugh. So hop aboard as we take a look at some of the funniest train-related stories found on Twitter.
In these days of modern video games, people seem to be losing sight of what gaming is all about. In all the glitz and glamour of motion control and Hollywood actors lending their voices and likeness to games, it sometimes feels like we’ve forgotten that games are meant to be incredibly difficult, repetitive tasks performed for an arbitrary and intangible reward system of “points.”
This is incredibly valuable experience to prepare young minds for entering the workforce, but thanks to free-roaming environments and checkpoints-a-plenty, we’ve gone from a generation of Mr. Do!‘s to bunch of Mr. Don’t!‘s.
But this nine-year-old kid, whose art class project based on a classic arcade shooter is shown above, gets it. And mark my words, he will become the future leader of this nation.
When we first met Marutaro the hedgehog last year, he was just about the cutest thing we’d seen in months. Now, over 12 months later, we have to say that’s still the case! And it looks like the adorable little spike ball is only getting more and more popular—popularity that we’d say is well deserved.
In case you haven’t been following Marutaro on Twitter, we’ve decided to round up a few of our new favorite photos and videos of the little guy being adorable, as well as some family photos. Get your fill of loveable cuteness below!
For many of our readers, the “culture festivals” held at high schools and colleges will already be familiar thanks to their prevalence in anime and TV dramas produced in Japan. Even if you’ve never been to Japan yourself, you probably already know that the classes turn their rooms into fun little shops, offering food and entertainment for their families, friends, alumni fellow students and teachers.
While most of them aren’t particularly elaborate, every now and then, a class with will show up with a project that goes above and beyond. This year, one of those projects exploded online, capturing the attention of thousands of Twitter users. The idea? The students made their own “tea cup” ride! It’s just like what you’d see at Disneyland, but entirely mechanical and way, way more awesome!
High school girls. In all seriousness, are they aliens??
Japanese Twitter users delight in sharing the perplexing, nonsensical, contradictory, or downright outrageous behaviors that they observe high school girls engaging in around the country. Below, we’ve gathered together a sampling of some such anecdotes for your reading pleasure. What strange escapades are the girls up to now?
Often, in hard times, kids turn to their parents for guidance and advice. While we’d like to believe that our parents are always full of wisdom, sometimes the advice we get is not quite what we were seeking.
Thanks to the Internet, people can share the great (or not so great) advice they receive from their parents with the rest of the world. Today we bring you a collection of Japanese parental advice with varying degrees of usefulness and entertainment.
Being a teacher is one of the most rewarding yet difficult jobs one can do; on the one hand, you’re helping to shape the next generation, and you get to help kids learn and grow. On the other hand, though, kids will be kids, and you’ll always have those one or two students who really know how to get under your skin.
Even the most patient teacher has their limit—they’re still human after all. Like this Japanese high school teacher, who apparently had it “up to here” with students spitting their gum out on the floor. So what did he do? Wrote a scathing note of epic proportions and pinned it to the wall for all to see.
A cautionary tale as old as time unfolded into an epic saga of crime and redemption in the Japanese Twitterverse recently, when a young boy’s inability to control himself around his sister’s chocolate stash ended in the kid embarking on a heist-like caper to replace the chocolate bar he couldn’t help but munch on before his sister noticed.
When the boy’s less-than-masterful plan failed, though, he resorted to writing this adorable apology letter.
Cookpad is easily the largest community cooking website for getting new Japanese recipes to try out in the kitchen. Started in 1997, it grew to be so popular that two years ago it expanded its user base by launching an English version.
It goes without saying that you can find a dish for pretty much anything you have lying around in your kitchen, but because most of the recipes are posted by amateurs, you might have to weed some of the stranger ones out by taking a look at their reviews.
Fortunately there seems to be a whole crew of users willing and waiting to take a hit for the team and try out the latest recipe, including a recently posted recipe for making pizza that requires putting the uncooked crust and toppings inside a box and setting the box on fire. How does it measure up? One net user decided to photograph and review the process.
With part one of the live-action movie adaptation released for the first time outside Japan on Wednesday this week, fans of the hugely successful manga and anime series Attack on Titan were no doubt incredibly excited to see their favourite giant-slaying characters brought to life by living, breathing Japanese actors.
Little did then know, however, that when one of the English subtitles added to the movie for its North American release would appear on-screen, it would remain there—for a full 20 minutes—while the action continued behind it.
We just love hamsters—from their adorable butts to the way they look napping, they never fail to put a smile on our collective faces. But we suppose we’d be lying if we saidthat hamsters are always cute. After all, not many people look “pretty” when eating! And sometimes hamsters just look so weird in a way that we can’t quite explain. Basically, they’re 90 percent “totes adorbs” and 10 percent “WTF, mate?!”
But even at their ugliest, hamsters still manage to be cute, as the popular Twitter hashtag #AllJapanCuteButUglyHamsterChampionshipSeries so ably demonstrates. Check out some of the best photos below and prepare to go “Awwww!” at all sorts of silly-looking hammies!
For as long as we can remember, holograms have been one of the coolest science fiction technologies that still haven’t quite lived up to the promises of our favorite films and TV shows. We’re a long way from chatting with Mark Twain on the holodeck, basically, but that doesn’t mean current “hologram” technology isn’t cool!
One of the neater everyday hologram-like technologies you can easily buy is a propeller clock. In fact, using a simple microcontroller, some LEDs, and a spinning motor, you could even build your own propeller clock. But this enterprising Twitter user decided a propeller clock wasn’t enough and ended up making a propeller watch! It’s not entirely practical, but it is completely awesome!
Bear breaks into house in Japan, quickly begins spending winter exactly like Japanese people do
Out-of-this-world omamori shrine charms are blessed by the cosmos
Ramen restaurant etiquette reminder follows altercation with angry couple: One person, one bowl
Starbucks Japan reveals new winter holiday goods to wrap up 2024
Japanese government will check and judge new baby name pronunciations, presents guidelines
Tokyo Cancel Christmas protest march cancelled by Revolutionary Alliance of Unpopular Men
Shinkansen to permanently reduce number of inexpensive non-reserved seats on Nozomi trains
Japanese train station vending machine has the best souvenirs for rail otaku
Miniature keychain versions of Japan’s Death Spray are coming to capsule toy machines soon
Shimonoseki’s Koreantown isn’t like Tokyo’s or Osaka’s, but it has a retro atmosphere all its own
This downtown Tokyo cafe is like a time machine that takes you back 50 years into the past
Station of despair: What to do if you get stuck at the end of Tokyo’s Chuo Rapid Line
Major Japanese city is abolishing extracurricular activities at all of its middle schools
Japanese company develops classy heavy metal band frames for glassesJapanese government will check and judge new baby name pronunciations, presents guidelines
Shakey’s is back! All-you-can-eat pizza chain returns to downtown Tokyo’s ShinjukuJapanese train station vending machine has the best souvenirs for rail otaku
Studio Ghibli showcases traditional craftsmanship with new wallet range
Tokyo’s Super Mario Christmas decoration displays are super cool【Photos】Ramen restaurant etiquette reminder follows altercation with angry couple: One person, one bowl
Possessing Harry Potter’s Sword of Godric Gryffindor is now illegal in Japan
Uniqlo announces first-ever collaboration with horror manga master Junji Ito【Photos】
J-pop mega star Ado reveals she’s been living in the U.S., may not understand language acquisition
Starbucks Japan is calling it quits with paper straws
Japan’s most popular castle raising ticket prices by up to 200 percent for non-local touristsJapanese company develops classy heavy metal band frames for glasses
Furikake rice seasoning sales are soaring, which is bad news for Japan as a wholeThis downtown Tokyo cafe is like a time machine that takes you back 50 years into the past
Studio Ghibli heroine cardigans give you warmth and strength to face everyday challenges
Eight unforgettable hot springs, as recommended by Japan’s “Professor Bath”
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Foreign tourists on Shinkansen bullet train break suitcase etiquette, angering local passengersPossessing Harry Potter’s Sword of Godric Gryffindor is now illegal in Japan
[Deleted] Article written for April Fool’s Day 2018
Japanese government to make first change to romanization spelling rules since the 1950s
Foreigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
Japanese convenience store Family Mart announces abolishment of eat-in spaces
Life-size vibrating Legend of Zelda Master Sword for sale from Nintendo【Photos】
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
Studio Ghibli releases free-download board game — Here’s how to play it without reading Japanese
Tokyo Cancel Christmas protest march cancelled by Revolutionary Alliance of Unpopular Men
Shinkansen to permanently reduce number of inexpensive non-reserved seats on Nozomi trains
Japanese train station vending machine has the best souvenirs for rail otaku
Miniature keychain versions of Japan’s Death Spray are coming to capsule toy machines soon
Shimonoseki’s Koreantown isn’t like Tokyo’s or Osaka’s, but it has a retro atmosphere all its own
McDonald’s Japan has free smiles on its delivery menu, but does asking for one make a difference?
Popular Japanese store Loft reveals their top 12 most popular items sold in 2018【Pictures】
This downtown Tokyo cafe is like a time machine that takes you back 50 years into the past
Upskirt photos lead Japanese high school to redesign cheerleader uniforms
Japanese breast size study shows rapid growth in previously smallest-busted region of county
Adorable baby hippo Moo Deng is now an adorable Mister Donut donut!
Tokyo’s Super Mario Christmas decoration displays are super cool【Photos】
One of Japan’s rarest sweets is a sell-out hit that looks and tastes like frost
All-you-can drink deal in Japan puts the self-serve drinks machine right on your table
