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February, 2015 (Page 5)
The Wonderful Cosplayers of Winter Wonder Festival 2015 【Photos】
- Casey Baseel
Feb 11, 2015 - Tweet
Last weekend it was time for Wonder Festival, the garage kit and model extravaganza held in Chiba Prefecture’s Makuhari Messe. But while the plastic and resin replicas of anime and video game icons may be the ostensible reason for the event, there’s also plenty of flesh and blood (and cloth) passion for the industries’ hottest franchises as cosplayers converge on the convention to show off their costumes and pose for the cameras.
One of those cameras happened to be ours.
- Japan
- (anime • cosplay • Hatsune Miku • Kantai Collection • Sword Art Online • video games • Wonder Festival)
Hitachi invents “happiness meter” which monitors your every move (and then tells your boss)
- Scott Wilson
Feb 11, 2015
Have you ever been unsure about whether or not you were happy? Maybe you thought, “Gee, it sure would be nice if I could wear a device around my neck that would tell me how happy I am.”
Well you’re in luck! Japanese technology company Hitachi has come up with a “happiness meter.” It’s a device that you wear around your neck, letting it pick up little signals that measure exactly how happy or unhappy you are. Best of all, it’s designed for use in companies, so that your boss will know exactly how happy you are all the time. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?
In the mood for love and pizza? Domino’s will deliver your pie with romantic kabe-don wall pound
- Casey Baseel
Feb 11, 2015
Valentine’s Day falls on a Saturday this year, which makes it a perfect opportunity for an elegant dinner out with your special someone. Of course, if you’re single, you may want to bypass a meal in a restaurant surrounded by couples making kissy faces at each other and just call Domino’s for a pizza instead.
But even if you’re not headed out, Domino’s understands that maybe you’re in the mood for both pizza and love. That’s why this Valentine’s Day the popular pizza providers are offering a deal that includes a cute heart-shaped pizza, and, if you’d like, a romantic kabe-don wall pound as part of the delivery service.
- Japan
- (cheap eats • dominos pizza • food • funny • pizza • romance • Valentine's Day)
Stay hydrated with Attack on Titan water coolers
- Anime News Network
Feb 11, 2015
Drinking more water is one of those New Year’s resolutions that everyone seems to have, but always falls by the wayside. With a cool enough water cooler, though, that might just change things. After all, who wouldn’t want to visit sexy armchair Levi every hour for some more water?
- Japan
- (anime • Anime News Network • Attack on Titan • merch • water cooler)
Hachiko, Japan’s most loyal dog, finally reunited with owner in heartwarming new statue in Tokyo
- Casey Baseel
Feb 11, 2015
Even in a country that adores its pets, none have captured the hearts of Japanese animal-lovers like Hachiko. The Akita dog touched the hearts of people across the nation by devotedly waiting every day for more than nine years in front of Tokyo’s Shibuya Station for his master to return from work, not knowing that he had died from a cerebral hemorrhage and wouldn’t be coming back.
Today, a statue of Hachiko stands in Shibuya, showing the dog patiently waiting. But while the bittersweet quality of the story made Hachiko famous, it overlooks the fact that before his master’s passing, the two would happily reunite every evening and walk home together. Now, it’s that moment’s turn to be immortalized, with a new statue showing Hachiko as he’s rarely been depicted before, bursting with joy upon seeing his owner.
English hot spring manners poster is so thorough, even Japanese people are learning from it
- Audrey Akcasu
Feb 11, 2015
With the invention of indoor plumbing and bathtubs (not really news to anyone, we’d hope), the traditional public bath houses and hot springs of Japan are now used for relaxing getaways more than actual hygienic necessity. Heck, even capybara soak in hot springs to relax!
Hot springs, known as onsen in Japanese, are also becoming popular with foreign visitors, at least those brave enough to bare it all in front of strangers. For health and safety reasons, there are quite a few rules to pay attention to when soaking in a public bath. A very nicely designed etiquette poster, which recently surfaced on TripAdvisor, is very thorough and is even teaching Japanese people a thing or two about the bathing experience!
- Japan
- (etiquette • hot springs • manners • onsen • public baths)
Say “I love you” with seaweed: Message kombu is the tastiest way to tell her you care
- Michelle Lynn Dinh
Feb 10, 2015
As you may have noticed, Japan has pretty much mastered the art of sprucing up food. We’ve already seen a plethora of tools to create bear-shaped rice or smiley face sausages, but we’re particularly excited about a certain product we just discovered up north in Hokkaido. They’re called “message kombu” and the heartfelt messages made out of seaweed are sure to put a smile on anyone’s face.
Tekken 7 intro movie released
- Master Blaster
Feb 10, 2015
Ohhh I can feel it. It’s that time again: time to piss experienced players of the Tekken franchise off by mashing buttons wildly and winning! This will be the seventh time I have done it, and I’ve become exceedingly efficient at it.
That’s right Tekken 7 is about to hit game centers across Japan and to get people into the fighting spirit Bandai Namco Games has uploaded the game’s opening movie to YouTube. Let’s watch!
- Japan
- (Tekken 7 • trailer • video • video games)
Coffee wizard performs snack alchemy in not-so-secret lair
- Jessica
Feb 10, 2015
Last week, we gave you a recipe for the tasty caffeinated treat called coffee jelly. This week, we’d like to introduce a coffee shop that is taking that quotidian treat to the next level of taste and presentation. Behold Coffee Suzuki, where the coffee jelly forms right before your very eyes!
- Japan
- (coffee • food & drink • shop • travel)
Japanese pizza isn’t always weird: Deep-fried pizza enters the ring and it’s delicious
- Audrey Akcasu
Feb 10, 2015
Japan is known for a lot of things, such as its culture, its safety, and its traditional foods, but it is definitely not known for making delicious pizza. In fact, some of the pizza chains have come out with some really wacky creations over the years.
However, there are quite a few independent pizza places throughout Japan, which can, of course, be found in the cities, but sometimes can even be found in small towns or along mountain roads, yet they will still often be equipped with special pizza ovens. If you want good pizza in Japan, you should search for these places, it will be well worth the trouble!
One such independent place is Amici in Ibaraki Prefecture, where they serve pizza and the lesser known Italian pie, the pizza fritta, or deep-fried pizza. Our reporter visited Amici, but not just to try the delicious fried pizza pockets, he went to experience the cooking process too!
- Japan
- (Amici • Ibaraki • Italian food • pizza • pizza fritta)
The amazing papercraft model from the Ghibli Museum — see the museum in intricate miniature detail!
- Kay
Feb 10, 2015
For Ghibli fans, the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo could be considered a holy Mecca of sorts, a place to make a pilgrimage to. The museum offers delightful entertainment filled with creative fun, which we guess is something you would expect from Ghibli, and it’s bound to be a hugely enjoyable place to visit, even if you’re not a die-hard Ghibli fan.
And one of the attractions at the museum has to be its gift shop, full of original Ghibli goods that can only be purchased there. In fact, we think that the shop alone could be reason enough to visit the museum, and we’ve even brought to you a previous article featuring 10 cools items from the shop that we thoroughly recommend. And now, we have another special item to share with you, also from the museum shop, that one of our Japanese reporters Yoshio found absolutely fascinating. It’s the Ghibli Museum original “Minituart”, a detailed miniature replica of the museum, and we just had to see for ourselves how exact a replica it was!
- Japan
- (Ghibli • Ghibli Museum • miniature model • video)
Despite their hardworking image, are the Japanese really just as lazy as the rest of us?
- Evie Nyan
Feb 10, 2015
Workers in Japan are often perceived by the rest of the world as possessing an extremely strong work ethic, which drives them to daily acts of unpaid overtime, selfless sacrifice of rightfully accrued holiday time, and occasionally even to karoushi, or death by overwork. So pervasive is this perception that the image of the exhausted salaryman splayed out across train carriage floors after a hard day’s work has become a sort of unofficial symbol of Japanese working life.
But what people who have actually worked in Japanese offices will tell you is that, while simply existing in the strict hierarchical system of a Japanese workplace can be an exhausting feat in and of itself, it doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody’s getting loads of work done. In fact, Japanese workers may be just as lazy as the rest of us. So how come everybody still thinks they work so hard?
Frozen marshmallow cream: Just two ingredients, at least as good as ice cream 【RocketKitchen】
- Casey Baseel
Feb 10, 2015
Every now and again, we stumble across a dessert recipe that’s so simple and tasty, it almost feels like we’ve discovered some sort of hidden secret that man wasn’t meant to know. Last year, we found out that instead of making pancakes one at a time, we could just make one huge one in a rice cooker, sprinkle in some green tea powder, and have a dessert that looks and tastes great with no fuss at all.
But what if you prefer chilled desserts to hotcakes? No problem. We recently tried a recipe for a frozen marshmallow dessert that may or may not technically be ice cream, but amazingly creates something that tastes even better from just two ingredients, and takes almost as few steps to make.
- Global, Internet, Japan
- (cooking • dessert • food • how to • ice cream • marshmallow • RocketKitchen • sweets • video)
Love Ghibli? Here’s our pick of 10 souvenir items you should buy when you visit the Ghibli Museum
- Kay
Feb 9, 2015
If you’re a Ghibli fan, the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo’s Mitaka is probably high on your bucket list of places to visit. Sadly, you won’t find any Ghibli-themed roller coasters there, but various attractions are housed in the museum, where you can also learn about how Ghibli animation is made, meet the giant robot from Castle in the Sky, and do much more. Adults can even enjoy unique “Valley of the Wind” beer, so it’s a place that visitors of all ages can enjoy.
One thing you’ll definitely want to do if you go to the museum is to check out the gift items and souvenirs sold at the museum shop MAMMA AIUTO. That’s exactly what one of our Japanese reporters Daiichiro Tashiro did, and he was quite impressed with what he saw — so impressed, in fact, that he’s come up with a list of 10 items only available at the Ghibli Museum shop that he would definitely recommend.
- Japan
- (anime • Ghibli Museum • Hayao Miyazaki • souvenirs • Studio Ghibli • toys)
Continuing our tour of the best sushi in Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market with Mr. Sato! (Part 2)
- Preston Phro
Feb 9, 2015
After the first part of our Mr. Sato-lead tour of Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market, we’re sure a lot of our readers are excited to see what else our resident gourmand had for us. And now the wait is over! Here are the last four sushi establishments as visited by Mr. Sato and his daring accomplice in raw fish consumption Nakano.
Whether you’re preparing for your first trip to Tokyo or just looking for some great places you might have missed, this is one article you’ll definitely want to read!
- Japan
- (food • Mr. Sato • restaurants • sushi • Tsukiji fish market • Tsukiji-shijo)
Our writers trade kamehamehas at Dragon Ball event in Tokyo, Sato goes Super Saiyan!
- Master Blaster
Feb 9, 2015
Previously on RocketNewsZ, tensions flared between our reporters Yuichiro Wasai and Mr. Sato after Wasai used Mr. Sato’s mankini and returned it without washing. The two were just beginning to levitate off the ground and fight when the chief editor told them to take it outside so as not to damage the office’s complete collection of sushi cat figurines.
Knowing who pays the bills around here, both complied and went down to Shibuya Parco in Tokyo where an event was being held inviting fighters such as these two to compete by hurling kamehameha energy blasts at each other. Will these two settle their differences before it’s too late? We’ll soon find out after they manage to flag down a cab.
- Japan
- (Dragon Ball • kamehameha • Mr. Sato • Shibuya Parco)
Touching new Subaru commercial traverses time to win to our hearts
- Krista Rogers
Feb 9, 2015
When they aren’t filming commercials involving attacks by Titans or epic 60-hour-long miniature car model shoots, Japanese car manufacturer Subaru has proven to us that they’ve also got some commercials designed to hit you right in the feels.
Take this endearing new clip set in a snowy winter’s scene, for instance. It will surely warm your heart, despite the cold!
Minimal effort, loads of flavor: Make juicy roast beef in your rice cooker with vacuum cooking!
- Krista Rogers
Feb 9, 2015
Our Japanese sister site Pouch would like to let our English-speaking readers in on a simple, time and effort-conserving way to cook a flavorful roast beef. This method also allows the meat to retain all of its natural juices, so you can impress your friends with an incredibly tender home-cooked meal.
But get ready for the best part of all–you get to let your rice cooker do all the hard work!
- Japan
- (cooking • easy • how to • recipe • rice cooker • roast beef)
How to make delicious tofu chocolates: all the taste with half the calories 【RocketKitchen】
- Oona McGee
Feb 9, 2015
Leading up to Valentine’s Day in Japan, there’s one thing that’s impossible to escape – and it’s not swarthy, rose-touting Lotharios. It’s chocolate. In pretty packaging and delicious displays, store counters come alive with the sweet stuff at this time of year, and one of the more luxurious and decadent types is the rich, creamy nama choco (fresh chocolates).
The only problem with this type of chocolate is the fact that it blends an already creamy chocolate with even more cream and butter, making it heavy on the calories. Net users in Japan, though, have discovered an unusual way to cut out the extra fat – by replacing it with tofu! Using just three ingredients, we’ll let you in on the latest diet tip from Japan and show you how to make delicious, creamy nama choco with only half the calories.
- Japan
- (chocolate • food and drink • nama choco • recipes • Valentine's Day)
The 2015 Sapporo Snow Festival! 【Pics & Video】
- KK Miller
Feb 8, 2015
Every February brings another amazing display of artful snow and ice carvings, and RocketNews24 loves to bring you the details for those who aren’t able to make the trip up to Hokkaido. While we weren’t able be there ourselves last year, we are pleased to bring you the firsthand account of the 66th annual Sapporo Snow Festival. Grab a cup of hot chocolate and join us for a photo tour!
- Japan
- (frozen • Hokkaido • ice sculptures • Sapporo Snow Festival 2015 • snow sculptures • Star Wars • video • Yokai Watch)
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