(Page 135) Tag: video | SoraNews24 -Japan News-

Featured

video (Page 135)

Oh boy, that’s pretty racist: Vine Japan edition

Mike
Jan 22, 2014
Tweet

We’ve already covered extensively Twitter’s propensity for bringing out the stupid in people – both in Japan and the world at large – so we knew it was only a matter of time until users of Twitter’s video-based cousin, Vine, just couldn’t help themselves anymore and started making Vine entries to elicit the collective eye rolling of millions.

And so, taking the dubious honor of the first subject of our hopefully not ongoing new segment, “Oh Boy, That’s Pretty Racist,” is Japanese Vine user Indodeen, who demonstrates for us how to have fun with blatant racial stereotypes by pretending to be a poorly-acclimated Indian man living in Japan.

Epic win for live-action Attack on Titan video made by German fans【Video】

Krista Rogers
Jan 21, 2014

Live-action adaptations of your favorite anime series are sometimes painful to watch. On rare occasions, they’re actually pretty decent, even though stories with supernatural or sci-fi elements tend to be especially difficult to reproduce faithfully in real life…or so we thought until now. Before now, many people have commented that a live-action version of the insanely popular Attack on Titan (進撃の巨人) would be impossible to execute well. But a group of enthusiastic German fans have proven everyone wrong with their amazing video which runs like a movie trailer! This production has truly raised the bar for fans around the world. One more important detail: they have real horses!

Chinese pickpocket technique avoids fingerprints by using chopsticks【Video】

Jessica
Jan 21, 2014

Pickpockets are famous for their nimble fingers, but the drawback of that approach is that they have to actually get close enough to get their grubby fingers in your pockets. Unless, of course, the pickpockets are using chopsticks to grab the goods. Or at least they are trying to…

Fan makes detailed clay figure of Hayao Miyazaki, even his cigarettes look life-like

Master Blaster
Jan 17, 2014

Hayao Miyazaki has created some of anime’s more memorable characters, winning legions of fans all around the world. As such you would imagine that along with the thousands of pieces of fan art, an aspiring sculptor somewhere would pick up the gauntlet and recreate some of them in three dimensions.

One sculptor answered that call, and set out to make the ultimate Ghibli character from clay: Mr. Miyazaki himself… We hear his friends say he’s “a real character.”

World-famous actress Maggie Q warns rich Chinese men that shark fin soup just isn’t cool

Philip Kendall
Jan 16, 2014

Unlike numerous other animal rights groups, non-governmental organisation WildAid aims to combat the problem of illegal wildlife trade – most notably the killing of sharks for their fins, elephants and rhinos for their precious ivory, and tigers for their skins – by attacking the problem at its source: the people whose money encourages it. The group’s message is simple: “When the buying stops, the killing can too.”

With the help of numerous high-profile figures like footballer David Beckham and even Britain’s Prince William, WildAid puts pressure on the people providing the demand for these “luxury” items. This week, world-famous actress, animal rights campaigner and, in our opinion, full-time babe Maggie Q appeared in the group’s newest commercial, which aired in China. The ad, titled “Impress”, aims to dissuade wealthy Chinese from eating shark fin soup, with Maggie telling both her date and TV-watching China that although there are many ways to impress a woman, shark fin soup is definitely not one of them.

00

Super limber Chinese lady shows world insane stretching routine【video】

Scott R Dixon
Jan 13, 2014

Have you made that New Year’s resolution to be healthier but just can’t seem to make the commitment to work out? Is the only flexible thing in your life the elastic band around your sweatpants after you gorge yourself on cake? We think we can motivate you into a more active lifestyle by seeing a Chinese lady in her 50s doing her morning stretching routine that will be sure to shame you into eating healthier and exercising more!

Absolutely wow: Dawn of the new year seen from 30 km up【video】

Preston Phro
Jan 12, 2014

The new year has arrived and it feels like we’ve already fallen into the same old routine. A well-known and comfortable routine, so we’re not complaining! But it is a bit sad to let the wintry festivities go.

Fortunately, there’s still a bit of fun to be had leftover from New Year’s Day: One enterprising Hokkaido resident took it upon himself to film the dawn of the new year–from the freaking stratosphere! He posted the video on YouTube and it is absolutely beautiful.

Lights! Shadows! Action!! 3 awesome videos from Japanese performance troupe Shiro-A

Philip Kendall
Jan 10, 2014

Shiro-A have been around for over 10 years now, but it’s surprising how few people have actually heard of them. Combining technology, music, dance and comedy to create visually spectacular shows, they continue to wow audiences all over the world, and the snippets we have for you today are bound to leave you wanting more.

The group members perform in front of (or was it behind!?) a series of screens, onto which numerous graphics are projected while live DJs create an accompanying soundtrack. The performances always begin relatively simply, but soon explode into what we can only describe as perfectly choreographed visual chaos, with pumping beats accompanying splashes of colour as group members appear to be physically manipulating the digitally mapped images in real-time.

Be sure to check these guys out!

Watch the “world’s largest firework” go off 【Video】

Master Blaster
Jan 9, 2014

That bad boy pictured above is the Yonshakudama (Four Shaku Ball) and it claims to be largest single firework in the world. At a pot-smoker pleasing weight of 420kg (926lbs) and with a diameter of 1.2m (4 feet), most people tend to take the maker’s word for it.

Fireworks of this immense size are launched during a show at the Katakai Festival in Ojiya, Niigata Prefecture and are said to have a beautiful blast radius of 800m (2,625 feet). But enough talk. Let’s kick the tires and light some fires watching them in action thanks to a video uploaded to YouTube by Temple Fireworks.

Festive bikini-clad volunteer randomly giving directions in Chinese subway

Mike
Jan 8, 2014

If you’ve ever found yourself lost in one of Asia’s complex subway systems, you’re not alone. Since underground rail is the preferred form of transportation in many of Asia’s sprawling cities with hundreds of stops, subway maps, even those printed on the back of your necktie, tend to look like the aftermath of an infant feeding itself a plate of spaghetti unsupervised, and can easily confound locals too.

So it’s good news that a newscaster in Guangdong Province, China – whose dresser apparently teleports all of her normal clothes to Narnia – has decided to help commuters navigate the area’s labyrinthine subway system on a strictly volunteer basis.

How glam is your pussy? Cat wigs hot in 2014

Philip Kendall
Jan 8, 2014

Meet Shiro and Mimi, just two of the stars of Kago Neko, a blog all about one Japanese cat fan’s pets. Sadly, the pair were not, in fact, born with such luscious barnets, but their owner, perhaps sensing their inner glam rock star, provided them with a couple of rather fetching blonde wigs. We think you’ll agree that they look pretty rockin’.

Guy takes a dump in the middle of the road, refuses to move even for fire truck 【Video】

Jessica
Jan 7, 2014

OK, we’ve all been there. Maybe it was the venti coffee this morning or maybe you’ve caught a bug, but one thing is certain: you need a bathroom right now or a change of pants is going to be in order. Most of us manage by hook or crook to find a toilet or at least a concealing clump of trees in this situation, but one guy decided that the middle of the road seemed like a nice place to drop a deuce and he wasn’t going to let anything – even an emergency vehicle – disturb him.

Michael Bay loses it on stage, pretty much ruins Samsung’s CES presentation

Philip Kendall
Jan 7, 2014

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2014 is currently underway over in Las Vegas, giving the industry’s big players a chance to flaunt their wares and drum up publicity for the coming year. With so much shiny new tech on show, it will be difficult to pick an overall winner, but Samsung’s presentation earlier today with special guest world-famous director Michael Bay will no doubt go down as most memorable, though not as the South Korean company might have hoped.

There to discuss Samsung’s gorgeous new 150-inch curved TV set, the Transformers director fluffed his lines and promptly marched off stage, leaving executive vice president Joe Stinziano with little left to do but ask the audience to thank Mr. Bay for coming, prompting one of the most awkward rounds of applause in CES history.

Train enthusiasts gone wild! Are Japan’s train photographers losing their social graces?

Master Blaster
Jan 4, 2014

Back in the day you might have called them “train otaku” but they would have preferred “tetsudo fan” a Japanese translation of the British “railfan” label for those who enjoy riding, viewing, and appreciating everything about railway transportation.

Around the turn of the millennium a new Japanese term for train buffs arose: tetsu (iron). The name also has many derivatives such as “tetsuko” for a female train enthusiast, and “hitetsu” (non-ferrous) for people who are train laymen. Two main groups of tetsu are noritetsu (iron riders) and toritetsu (iron filmers).

The latter of these two are the focus now, as there has been an increasingly troubling trend of rude and dangerous behavior from what many would assume to be the tranquil hobby of train photography. The following are five examples.

Japanese granny busts a move on the streets of Tokyo 【Video】

Scott R Dixon
Dec 24, 2013

To show the world that young people do not have a monopoly on dancing, a choreography group from Japan has put together a video showing an elderly Japanese woman busting some mean moves on a trendy street in Tokyo. Made in honor of “Respect for the Aged Day,” it shows a kimono-clad woman getting down with her bad self to fast-paced electronic music.

Tea cups and biting breasts: Japanese phrases that sound like weird English

Mike
Dec 20, 2013

The Japanese love to have fun with words. Kotoba asobi (wordplay) makes up a pretty large portion of Japanese humor on variety programs and comedy shows – possibly a side effect of so many kanji characters sounding phonetically identical despite wildly different meanings.

But YouTube’s The World Video Tour has taken it to a whole new level with a video series of Japanese words and phrases that sound a lot like totally unrelated English terms. Below, we’ll watch the series’ host have some fun with foreign tourists to see if they understand what he’s trying to say.

Top 10 YouTube videos in Japan 2013

Michelle Lynn Dinh
Dec 19, 2013

It’s almost the end of 2013 and that means it’s time to sit back and reflect on the events of this past year. Was it a good one for you, filled with PS4s and all-you-can-eat Whoppers? Or are you anxious to get on with the year of the horse? Whatever 2013 looked like for you and no matter where you are located in the world, we’re sure you spent a good portion of your time on YouTube. So why not ring in the new year by watching the top 10 most popular YouTube videos in Japan during 2013.

Chinese Juliet is not impressed with her suitor’s attempt at serenading her【Video】

Philip Kendall
Dec 17, 2013

Ah, young love. The furtive glances; the sheer ecstasy of receiving that very first text message; the tears and emo music marathons when it all goes pear-shaped… We’re sure this young man is far from the first – or last, for that matter – to have his romantic advances cruelly spurned, but it makes tremendously amusing viewing nonetheless.

Young woman saves time, does her best Friday the 13th impression on the subway 【Video】

Philip Kendall
Dec 17, 2013

In Japan, it is still considered “rude” to do things like talk on the phone or apply makeup on the train. Although the latter is becoming far more common as people come to realise that a girl touching up her war-paint in public is hardly the most scandalous act one can engage in, there are still many, mostly of the older generation, who believe that it should not be done in shared spaces and to be so openly “vain” is simply shameful.

We wonder, then, what the average older Japanese citizen would think if they saw a commuter like the young lady in the following video, who has thrown caution to the wind and slaps on a cleansing face mask during her travels.

00

【Monday Kickstart】Lion Kitty is not pleased

Michelle Lynn Dinh
Dec 16, 2013

It’s Monday again and you know what that means! Your Monday Kickstart video is here to get you going through another week.

This week, we found a cute cat that seems more interested in lounging around being a kitty than living up to his bushy lion mane.