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Wakayama

This beautiful video displays two very different sides of Japan【Video】

Japan’s diversity of culture and landscape is encapsulated in just three minutes.

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Wakayama cop loses fully-loaded automatic handgun on the street while guarding PM

We all have our bad days at work, some worse than others.

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Buddhist priest at Japanese temple lodging goes viral for rude responses to tourist’s bad reviews

Many people are siding with the Mt Koya priest, who said he was frustrated by tourists who post “arrogant responses like they’re some travel pioneer”.

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Wakayama’s “Umi no Sachi” train line adds a colorful splash to the start of summer

Let a ride on the “Medetai Train”–“Joyous Train”–lift your spirits as we soar into summer!

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Wakayama man tries to woo woman by cutting her brakes

Sure, we all know that deceit and sabotage are the fastest ways to a woman’s heart, but this was over the line.

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TV program claims Japanese temple banned cats for being too cute, Japan nods in agreement

But some sources show the report is only half-right.

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Traditional craftsmen create smartphone case fit for a legendary samurai warrior

It’s a modern-day sheath made in honour of the samurai known as the “Crimson Demon of War”.

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Playing with pandas: Do Adventure World’s zoo keepers have the best job ever?【Video】

Ice cream taster; sleep research participant; full-time sperm donor. There are few jobs that could ever be described as truly enjoyable, but playing with an adorable panda cub is probably one of them.

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Acquittal of attacker who was “stabbed by smartphone rays” draws anger online

A 41-year-old man was found not guilty of assault after claiming electromagnetic waves from a smartphone were stabbing his body.

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You’d never guess this strange bubble house village is located in Japan

The architecture in Japan tends to look pretty much the same in most neighborhoods. It’s always a mix of older, traditional homes with sloping roofs and those distinctive, old-timey shingles, which butt up against the blockier modern buildings, plus decaying shanty houses on an alarming number of corners that all look like they could come crashing down at any moment. Sure, there is the occasional bizarre Halloween village out of nowhere, and the skyscrapers and such can be cool and varied, that’s generally the pattern.

So imagine how extra disorienting it would be to stumble upon this largely unheard-of village of beautifully weird polystyrene bubble houses in the Middle of Nowhere, Japan.

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Japan gets a new stationmaster cat as Nitama is officially named successor to the departed Tama

It was a sad day for cat lovers and train fans alike when Tama, the cute calico that had served as stationmaster of Kishi Station in Wakayama Prefecture since 2007, recently passed away. Heartbroken as Tama’s many supporters were, though, life goes on, and Wakayama Electric Railway has announced that Kishi now has a new feline stationmaster, as Tama’s understudy, Nitama, has officially taken over the position.

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Plum crazy Wakayama’s local take on Tabasco sauce is made with Japanese plums

There’s a pretty lengthy list of traditional seasonings Japan uses for its indigenous cuisine, including soy sauce, wasabi, and the sweet rice wine called mirin. But one condiment from overseas that the country has warmly embraced is Tabasco sauce, a dash of which is often added to pasta and pizza in casual dining.

But foodies in Japan love taking foreign foodstuffs and mixing them with a domestic element, which is why one company in Japan is now selling a Tabasco-like hot sauce you won’t find anywhere else, since it’s made with tangy plums.

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Rest in peace, Tama – Japan’s stationmaster cat passes away at 16, company funeral to be held

It wasn’t long ago that we were wishing a happy birthday to Tama, the adorable feline that was given the title of Ultra Stationmaster by Wakayama Electric Railway. Having just turned 16 in April, Tama, who lived at Kishi Station in Wakayama Prefecture and delighted travelers on a daily basis, was incredibly young for a stationmaster.

16 is a fairly advanced age for a cat, though, and the sad news has just come that Stationmaster Tama has passed away.

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Neko rail! Wakayama’s Tama Train is covered in cats both inside and out

Japan has many celebricats, and Wakayama Prefecture’s fuzzy train station master Tama is one of them. Tama serves as a station master together with her apprentice Nitama at Kishi Station along Wakayama Dentetsu’s Kishigawa Line.

Not only does Ultra Station Master Tama have an idol-like presence in Wakayama, she also has her own themed cafe, and a train created in her name, the Tama-densha (Tama Train). More pictures of the cat train after the jump!

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Wakayama City official arrested for taking fruit knife home from work

Wakayama City’s Crisis Management Division had a bit of a crisis themselves recently as their director Takashi Yamada stepped down after being arrested for possession of a 9cm-long (3.5inch) knife which he had used to peel some fruit earlier in the day.

He is suspected of violating the Weapons Control Law, which as I think we are all surprised to learn, covers peeling tools as well.

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Wakayama man arrested for attaching underwear to cars of women he doesn’t know

It tends to be the smaller crimes that are the most baffling to understand. Fraud, murder, or theft all tend to come about from a certain human ambition for money or power. However, when a bunch of daikons go missing, how could you possibly deduce it was a middle school girl who enjoys the sounds of the radishes getting run over by cars?

In the same vein we have one arrest in Wakayama Prefecture in which a man stands accused of violating the obscene behavior clause of the prefecture’s nuisance prevention order. So, slap on your detective caps and have fun trying to come up with a motive for the case of “The Guy Who Stuck Women’s Underwear to Unknown Women’s Cars.”

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Asahi Newspaper Worker Helps His Company by Punching Out Pachinko Machine

Any owner of a large corporation would be proud to have someone like Tomohiro Kimura on their payroll. This selfless employee really took one for the team by getting himself arrested on 17 February in Wakayama Prefecture on suspicion of destruction of property. In doing so he helped to generate more news for his employer, Japanese media giant, Asahi Shinbun.

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Japan Set to Erect 7.5 Meter Middle Finger Salute to Incoming Tsunamis

Needless to say, Japan has had their fill of Tsunamis.  After the devastation of the 11 March Tohoku earth quake, the nation would like to give a huge FU to any future tsunami coming our way.

And so, three huge Japanese contractors are working on a special surprise for the next tsunami that tries to hit the shores of Wakayama prefecture in the form of a gigantic steel column. If successful it would be so poetically beautiful… if the Japanese only knew the beauty of the middle finger.

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Japan’s World Heritages Fly Well Under Radar

Did you know that Japan has 16 locations on the list of UNESCO World Heritages? Could you name them all with any sum of money on the line?

Survey Research Center, Co. Ltd. conducted a survey that showed that most people could not. When asked whether they were interested in Japan’s world heritages, 67.8% of those surveyed responded affirmatively. However, only 4% of respondents knew all 16 Japanese sites.

See how many you can name before looking at the list below:

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