Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
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Ah, spring. The season of love. Or at least it’s supposed to be. Some people get completely passed by, leaving them staring at cherry blossoms alone and no one to share their delicious strawberry kakigouri (shave ice) with. They’re just… lonely. So very, very lonely.
But maybe you want to change that. Find someone to spend the summer vacation with, someone to laugh at your jokes, bicker with about which Pokémon is cutest.
Well, now you can–through Twitter!
For quite some time a blog had been lying dormant in the recesses of the internet featuring a group of young guys – presumably students – elevating the art of asshattery to bold new levels.
However, recently this internet artifact as unearthed and spread through Twitter like a virus of stupid and justly incinerated by the indignation of the masses.
In an effort to remember this event and perhaps teach future generations that being completely ignorant is no way to go through life, we present: A Group of Huge Jerkoffs Riding Big Thunder Mountain in Tokyo Disneyland.
A widespread discussion was ignited among Twitter users of Japan recently over the act of delivering pigeons through delivery services such as Yu-Pack, the courier of the Japanese post office. It started – as these things often do – with an award-winning manga writer taking a hike through the mountains.
Infants love boxes of tissue, and playing with tissue boxes can be a great way for them to develop sensory perception and fine motor skills.
However, once the necessary experience has been met, it can be hard to get them to stop pulling out every piece into a fluffy white pile on the floor. One Twitter user uploaded a photo of her solution to this problem amid cheers of “genius.”
It happened again! Yet another “large order” at McDonald’s has caused controversy on the Internet. This time, a group of young people in Korea gathered at their local McDonald’s restaurant and ordered an obscene amount of french fries. These kids could be described as mischievous or simply hungry, but either way the end result of their fry ordering rampage was a row of tables filled with greasy fried potatoes that cost 270,000 won (US$250) in total. After witnessing the mound of french fries in his store, a McDonald’s worker decided he had had enough of these shenanigans and told the kids, “Stop causing trouble, you brats! Get out of here!”
As it turns out, a majority of the Internet supports the McDonald’s worker’s harsh words.
The above pictured tweet was posted at 1:27 p.m. JST yesterday. Despite ending with a smiley emoticon, the harrowing message openly states that “a random attack” will take place at 10 a.m. on the Japan Rail Gifu station, Gifu Prefecture, at around 10 a.m. today.
Thanks to Twitter, we common folk get an unprecedented level of access to the celebrities previously could only gaze at from below. For example, how else but with Twitter could some guy call a multi-billionaire “baldy” directly?
Prominent Twitter researchers at Omocoro – who taught us that attaching clothes pins to your naked body can result in over 1,000 retweets – have developed secret ways to draw tweet replies out of Japan’s entertainment elite.
Our story begins one January day in the Omocoro editor’s room…
The world is full of countless foods and ways of eating them. It’s impossible to keep track of them all. I was surprised to discover salty watermelons, just as other people were surprised by my preference of putting peanut butter on waffles.
Such an incident happened on 19 January when a Japanese test maker unknowingly confused thousands of university entrance exam students with a recipe for a meat sauce calling for a “delicious kimchi base.”
OK, file this one under “and how exactly did they figure that out?” but apparently you can operate your iPhone touch screen with a mushroom. Read More
I’m sure we’ve all heard horror stories about cats or babies in microwaves (and although I wholeheartedly wish that all of these stories were in the realm of urban myths, apparently not all of them are fiction, but we really don’t want to think too much about those cases, do we? ). Well recently, it seems microwaves have been claiming a whole new set of victims here in Japan. Fortunately, none of these incidents involve the loss of life, but there is still an awful lot of damage being caused to important personal property — iPhones, to be exact.
Apparently, some people have never been told that they shouldn’t believe everything they read on the net. Let’s make it clear from the start: microwaving your iPhone will not charge its battery. Read More
The daikon is root vegetable widely used in Japanese cuisine. In the frigid winters it’s especially loved served in a steaming bowl of oden.
But most people don’t know how the humble daikon makes its way from the field to the dinner table. So the folks at Ume Mama Root Vegetable Farms have photo-documented the entire life of a typical daikon and presented it via Twitter.
In a woman’s life, she has perhaps no greater teacher than her mother. As she encounters and overcomes life’s various twists and turns, a woman may begin to realize her mother told her things that are important and sometimes even a little profound.
And now everyone can share in this maternal wisdom (if you speak Japanese) thanks to a new Twitter account called Shit My Mom Says. Read More
A few days before, the news broke regarding McDonald’s Japan releasing a memo which outlined new speech restrictions for their employees on social media. Many believe these new rules are an effort to stem worker’s complaints over the new “Enjoy! 60 Second Service” promotion.
After the memo was released, McDonald’s crew members and Japanese netizens took to Twitter and 2channel to voice their opinion about the controversial new restrictions, and everyone’s unanimous opinion was this:
“The Chicken Tatsuta is delicious! It’s my favorite burger!”
Korean-Japanese Telecom Tycoon Masayoshi Son earned his place as the CEO of Japan’s largest mobile phone company and the second richest person in Japan through aggressive expansion of his interests.
That personality often comes through in his Twitter account too. Son recently had to defend himself via Twitter after a half-million-dollar donation to Hurricane Sandy relief irked some people.
That’s the great thing about Twitter, isn’t it? You can now directly give Forbes’ 53rd Most Powerful Person in the world a piece of your mind. But don’t expect him to take it lying down.
That’s what @kingfisher0423 learned when he tweeted to the Softbank CEO: “With the degree that your hairline has receded, you are bald.”
Recently the image of a Dragon Quest style floor mat was released on Twitter caused many long-time role playing fans to rise up as one and say “Take my money!”
Unfortunately for me and for thou, this mat, dubbed “Quest Mat”, cannot be bought by conventional means such as gold. In true Dragon Quest fashion it can only be found by searching the urban dungeons known as “video game shops” and then wrested from the clutches of the evil “staff” who are keeping them locked away from us.
Kentucky Fried Chicken is getting into the holiday spirit with the All-You-Can-Eat Chicken Tour. From now till midnight on 20 December you can enter as often as you like to win a trip to Osaka where you can eat your fill of unlimited free KFC!
Official corporate Twitter feeds are generally boring affairs. Unless you’re really into the product or service mentioned and need to know immediately when something new happens there’s not much entertainment in them – certainly not anything that would move you.
So Japanese Twitter users were taken aback by a surprisingly heartfelt and candid tweet from the official account of Sharp’s line of computer tablets Galapagos. The tweet was a lament over recent downsizing in part due to the poor sales and economy.
A message left by a Twitter user claiming to be trapped under rubble after a powerful earthquake later turned out to be fake, causing outrage across Japan.
In the early evening of Friday, December 7, a magnitude-7.3 earthquake with its epicentre off the northeast coast of Japan caused tremors so large that the Tokyo cafe in which my boss and I sat fell silent as patrons no doubt began wondering whether they ought to take cover beneath their tables. Windows rattled and the entire building creaked and swayed for almost five minutes after the tremors stopped.
As people reached for their mobile phones, expressions of concern could be seen throughout the room as talk of “possible tsunami” and “northeast Japan” appeared on social networks and news sites.
Soon after, a tweet (pictured above) appeared online asking for help and requesting that the message be shared as much as possible. Within the next hour, concerned Twitter users had retweeted the message more than 13,000 times, with many sending messages asking for more information about the user’s location and encouraging them to remain calm.
When the writer of the original tweet resurfaced hours later, however, and began mocking those who fell for the prank, people were understandably very upset, and soon began demanding that the tweet writer’s real identity to be determined and for them brought to justice.
Last week, on 11 November, Ezaki Glico celebrated Pocky & Pretz Day (11/11) with the Try World Record campaign in which the snack maker hoped to gather the most tweets containing the name “Pocky” in one day thus entering the Guinness World Records.
The goal was set at 1.11 million tweets, for obvious visual reasons, and to defeat the previous “The Brand Name Most Tweeted in 24 Hours” record holder, iPhone5, which got 1.08 million tweets on its release day. And the winner is…
A lucky Twitter user came across a pamphlet the other day outlining some great deals on smartphone services. These people will go through the painstaking task of installing your smartphone apps for you at the low low price of 1,000 yen (US$12) an app!
In fact, they offer a wide range of useful services, such as installing Facebook, Twitter, or Skype— also for 1,000 yen each! And I always thought those were apps too. Boy, is my face red. I’m going to leave it to the professionals from now on.
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
All-you-can-drink Starbucks and amazing views part of Tokyo’s new 170 meter-high sky lounge
More foreign tourists than ever before in history visited Japan last month
Starbucks reopens at Shibuya Scramble Crossing with new look and design concept
The oldest tunnel in Japan is believed to be haunted, and strange things happen when we go there
Studio Ghibli glasses cases let anime characters keep an eye on your spectacles
Beautiful Sailor Moon manhole cover coasters being given out for free by Tokyo tourist center
Kyushu-exclusive Black Mont Blanc goes nationwide in a “Special” way
Is the new Shinkansen Train Desk ticket worth it?
Arrest proves a common Japanese saying about apologies and policeMcDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Disney princesses get official manga makeovers for Manga Princess Cafe opening in Tokyo
We try out “Chan Ramen”, an underground type of ramen popular in the ramen communityStarbucks reopens at Shibuya Scramble Crossing with new look and design concept
Beautiful new Final Fantasy T-shirt collection on the way from Uniqlo【Photos】
Foreign English teachers in Japan pick their favorite Japanese-language phrases【Survey】Is the new Shinkansen Train Desk ticket worth it?More foreign tourists than ever before in history visited Japan last month
There’s a park inside Japan where you can also see Japan inside the park
Japanese convenience store packs a whole bento into an onigiri rice ballMcDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Studio Ghibli releases Kiki’s Delivery Service chocolate cake pouches in Japan
Japan’s bone-breaking and record-breaking roller coaster is permanently shutting down
New definition of “Japanese whiskey” goes into effect to prevent fakes from fooling overseas buyers
Foreign passenger shoves conductor on one of the last full runs for Japan’s Thunderbird train
Our Japanese reporter visits Costco in the U.S., finds super American and very Japanese things
Kyoto bans tourists from geisha alleys in Gion, with fines for those who don’t follow rules
Studio Ghibli unveils Mother’s Day gift set that captures the love in My Neighbour Totoro
Domino’s Japan now sells…pizza ears?
New Japanese KitKat flavour stars Sanrio characters, including Hello Kitty
Sales of Japan’s most convenient train ticket/shopping payment cards suspended indefinitely
Sold-out Studio Ghibli desktop humidifiers are back so Totoro can help you through the dry season
Japanese government to make first change to romanization spelling rules since the 1950s
Ghibli founders Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki contribute to Japanese whisky Totoro label design
Doraemon found buried at sea as scene from 1993 anime becomes real life【Photos】
Tokyo’s most famous Starbucks is closed
One Piece characters’ nationalities revealed, but fans have mixed opinions
We asked a Uniqlo employee what four things we should buy and their suggestions didn’t disappoint
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
Studio Ghibli’s new desktop Howl’s Moving Castle will take your stationery on an adventure
Studio Ghibli glasses cases let anime characters keep an eye on your spectacles
Beautiful Sailor Moon manhole cover coasters being given out for free by Tokyo tourist center
Kyushu-exclusive Black Mont Blanc goes nationwide in a “Special” way
Is the new Shinkansen Train Desk ticket worth it?
Arrest proves a common Japanese saying about apologies and police
We eat 13 of the most highly recommended sushi items at Sushiro and pick the best of the best
Pizza Hut releases a ramen pizza in Japan, and it took half a year to perfect
Dogs now allowed on Catbus! Ghibli Park vehicles revise service animal policy
Live-action Spirited Away stage play is finally available for on-demand streaming
Fried sandwiches arrive in Tokyo, become hot topic on social media
We talk about everything except music with visual kei rock legends Fantastic Circus【Interview】
Our reporter takes her 71-year-old mother to a visual kei concert for the first time
A taste of Japanese curry usually only sold overseas, at Tokyo’s Curry House CoCo Ichibanya World
