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Year of the Monkey

Now’s your once-in-12-years chance to order this special $850 pot of pickled plums!

The pickled umeboshi plum is a common food in Japan, but can you guess what makes these plums special enough to warrant a US$850 price tag?

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Adorable Japanese kitty cosplays as a primate to kick off the Year of the Cat-Monkey! 【Video】

Since there’s no spot for the cat in the Chinese zodiac, this Japanese kitty turned to some cute cosplay to get in on the Year of the Monkey fun.

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Watch monkeys spell “monkey” in the year of the monkey at the monkey center in Hyogo Prefecture!

Monkey see, monkey…spell?!

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Happy New Year from RocketNews24!

And just like that, 2015 was no more! It’s now January 1 all the way across Asia, which means it’s officially the Year of Monkey! Happy New Year, everyone!

We’ll be putting our feet up for the rest of today, but we promise we’ll be back tomorrow with more of the news, cuteness, cats, food, fukubukuro, Mr Sato and all the weird and wonderful stuff from Japan and Asia that you know—and hopefully love—us for.

Thank you for continuing to visit our site, share our stories and follow us on Twitter and Facebook (281K and counting!!), and for helping us to grow and grow. 2015 was very good to us, but here’s hoping that 2016 will fill us all with the sprightly energy of a whole mess of merry monkeys and that we can continue to make our little site even better—although hopefully without any poo-slinging.

Stay tuned, Rocketeers, and have yourselves a great New Year’s Day!

Kit Kat celebrates the Year of the Monkey with special Chinese Zodiac packages

Japan loves sweets, cute animals, and seasonal celebrations, so this had to happen.

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Japan Post continues the New Year’s stamp tradition with cute Year of the Monkey story

Last winter, while people in Japan were getting ready to send their nengajo (New Year greeting cards) to family and friends, Japan Post did something amazing. Instead of releasing just any ol’ stamp for the Year of the Sheep in 2015, they made what was obviously a continuation of the stamp from 12 years prior. You see, in 2003, there was a darling sheep knitting a scarf on one of their special stamps, and in 2015 that same sheep was proudly wearing the finished product.

The story was a nice, feel-good moment for many, and people starting wondering whether this was a one-time occurrence or if Japan Post was going to continue this “stamp story” two years in a row. We are happy to say that they appear to be starting a tradition, as the Year of the Monkey is also getting an adorable back-story!

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