Richard Simmonds – SoraNews24 —Japan News— https://soranews24.com Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today. Wed, 05 Sep 2018 17:30:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 https://soranews24.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/05/en_rocket_1024.png?w=32 Richard Simmonds – SoraNews24 —Japan News— https://soranews24.com 32 32 176746664 JSDF doesn’t just protect from foreign invasion, it tackles sharks and obesity too【Videos】 https://soranews24.com/2018/09/06/jsdf-doesnt-just-protect-from-foreign-invasion-it-tackles-sharks-and-obesity-too%e3%80%90videos%e3%80%91/ https://soranews24.com/2018/09/06/jsdf-doesnt-just-protect-from-foreign-invasion-it-tackles-sharks-and-obesity-too%e3%80%90videos%e3%80%91/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2018 17:30:09 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=423794 
We learn what to do when a shark attacks, and that the Japanese Self-Defense Forces enjoy giving each other piggy-backs.
Unless Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution is one day changed, the Japanese Self-Defence Forces are limited to a purely passive, defensive role. Without any wars to fight, training and maintaining a level of readiness takes up most of their time, but what with the lack of casinos on their bases, unlike their American military counterparts, they seem to have plenty of time left over to make instructional videos to protect the Japanese populace not only from foreign attack but also from a host of other threats to life, and health.
The JSDF, as they’re also known, have their own YouTube channel full of useful tips and hints so that even keyboard warriors can benefit from some martial know-how, such as how best to carry a wounded comrade, how to stack up boxes full of provisions or manga, or what to do when you inadvertently jump into a swimming pool while still wearing all of your clothes.
As the video explains, the optimal way to carry your injured friend or battle-brother is the piggy back, but if they’re unconscious it’s not quite so easy. That’s where the fireman’s lift comes in, by rolling your dazed colleague onto their front, then manhandling them to an upright position you can sling them over your shoulder like a regimental soldier. The video explains that in most cases you’re better off not moving the injured party and calling help but in dire straits like when you’re taking enemy fire or your drunken friend isn’t likely to make the last train of the evening, you’ll now know.
▼ Military-endorsed piggy-backs, at least for injured colleagues who are still conscious.
▼ Or for those who have lost consciousness, the fireman’s lift.
The videos also cover dangerous situations that help as much in ordinary, civilian life such as how to put out a fire; how to repair broken wires, as useful for headphone cables as for setting up demolition charges presumably; and how to make a strong, long-lasting fort with sandbags although presumably less effective for pillow forts.
The video shows that the trick is laying the sandbags alongside each other like bricks in such a way that they overlap slightly and form a flat surface, and then tapping them to make the sand or soil inside as dense as possible. The gloved defenders then show off their completed wall, and call on viewers to give it a go themselves.
While the next video looks like the SDF synchronised swimming team have forgotten their swimming costumes, it actually gives advice about what to do if you fall off a boat fully-clad, or jump into a pool without getting undressed. It explains that rather than trying to organise a game of strip poker, or just frantically disrobe, it’s better to stay as you are as the air in your clothes is both buoyant and a useful insulator of body heat. Without panicking you can gently glide backwards in the water, taking care not to waste valuable energy. While the video doesn’t mention it, taking off your shoes is a good idea though.
▼ Don’t waste energy trying to rid yourself of your clothes, save that for a back crawl to safety.
Lastly, should you be so unfortunate to fall into shark-infested waters, the Japan Self-Defense Forces also have some advice for you.
As sharks don’t like loud noises you should flap about in a tizzy, and shout as loudly as you can under the water, presumably something derogatory about the shark’s lineage so as to undermine its confidence.
▼ Some things the JSDF practice for are too dangerous to use serving personnel, so expendable illustrations bravely stand up to do battle with sharks.
This week the channel also released a video stating the next enemy of health and national security the JSDF will be taking on with their Life Hack videos: obesity and slowing metabolic systems.
The YouTube channel is actually the official recruitment channel for the Japan Self-Defense Forces and features actual serving men and women. So if you like giving piggy-backs, rubbing yourself vigorously (to stay warm) and access to camouflaged bento lunchboxes, and you’re a Japanese national, your country needs you to make entertaining and educational videos. Or if you’re American, you could join up to get in on the dancing action.
Source: YouTube/自衛官募集チャンネル
Top image: YouTube/自衛官募集チャンネル
Insert images: YouTube/自衛官募集チャンネル (1, 2, 3)
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/09/06/jsdf-doesnt-just-protect-from-foreign-invasion-it-tackles-sharks-and-obesity-too%e3%80%90videos%e3%80%91/feed/ 0 423794 here's one I made earlier Gamer-friendly, non-instant yakisoba you can eat with your fingers【Sora Kitchen】 https://soranews24.com/2018/09/05/gamer-friendly-non-instant-yakisoba-you-can-eat-with-your-fingers%e3%80%90sora-kitchen%e3%80%91/ https://soranews24.com/2018/09/05/gamer-friendly-non-instant-yakisoba-you-can-eat-with-your-fingers%e3%80%90sora-kitchen%e3%80%91/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2018 03:00:55 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=423796 Make delicious yakisoba rolls you can stuff into your maw, without the use of chopsticks or cutlery!
As a committed gamer, there are times when you should really take a break and feed yourself something that has seen a vegetable or two, even if only at a distance. Eating something delicious and nutritious like yakisoba in front of the screen would be the best of all possible worlds, if only you didn’t have to try and simultaneously juggle a controller with a knife and fork or pair of chopsticks. That’s where, according to Japanese Twitter user @rekaka, rice paper may be your gaming diet panacea.
ゲーム中にいかに楽に焼きそばを食べるか突き詰めた結果、生春巻きの皮で包むことに行き着きました。天才はここに居ます
pic.twitter.com/TKPC6j2FUh
— れいか＠肥満児監視員
(@rekaka) August 21, 2018
Yakisoba, the scrumptious combination of meat, vegetables and noodles in a rich sauce that’s somewhere between Worcestershire sauce and barbecue sauce in taste, is a proper meal, but with some wrapping wizardry can be prepared in advance to fuel your gaming session without getting sauce all over your hands, controllers, and nearby furniture.
In this video, popular Hokkaido-based YouTuber Kyoichiro, who’s a food reviewer and anti-diet proponent, not only gives his opinion on this new superfood, but ends up making it, along with a cheese, egg and sausage alternative as well. While the video is all in Japanese, hang on in there and be rewarded with how to make it (around the 1-minute mark) and watch Kyoichiro’s attempts at wrapping it up. His is not the most expressive face in the world, but he seems happy enough snaffling them down.
▼ To save on washing up, you can make a crater-like bowl in the pile of noodles to pour the eggs into and mix them there.
Ingredients:
Noodles
Yakisoba sauce or flavour powder (or make your own with a mix of soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup)
Meat (optional)
Vegetables (cabbage, onion, carrot)
Eggs (optional)
Recipe:
1. Pour some oil onto your hot plate or heated frying pan.
2. Add the meat, vegetables and noodles, keeping them moving so they don’t stick.
3. Add yakisoba sauce powder (as in the video) or bottled sauce (if you don’t have access to either then barbecue sauce also works well, or if you’re feeling adventurous you could try making it yourself from scratch).
4. Once the meat is fully cooked and the vegetables have softened, form a bowl in the noodles into which to pour the eggs. Once the eggs have started to cook, mix them into the rest of the yakisoba.
5. It’s ready to eat! But if you want to make it into finger food, there’s one more step.
6. Take a sheet of rice paper (the kind used for Vietnam-style raw spring rolls) and dip it into a bowl of room-temperature water for a few seconds. Lay it out on a plate and add some of the yakisoba to the centre. Roll up the yakisoba spring roll as best you can, and you’re good to go!
▼ There is of course one problem with this recipe; it relies on you not eating the yakisoba as soon as you finish cooking it, which is a big ask.
While it probably wouldn’t be worth making yakisoba for this specially, (it’s so, so good hot and fresh) but for us, the rice paper method proved perfect for having leftover yakisoba as a snack the next day. And if you’re looking for another Japanese finger food taste sensation, it goes really well with fried tofu pizza and ‘gaming eggs’.
Source: Twitter/@rekaka via jin115
Featured image: Twitter/@rekaka
Insert images: Wikipedia/221.20, YouTube/恭チャンネル
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/09/05/gamer-friendly-non-instant-yakisoba-you-can-eat-with-your-fingers%e3%80%90sora-kitchen%e3%80%91/feed/ 0 423796 yaki Food fight(ers)! Japanese artist turns food samples into fantastic instant noodle samurai https://soranews24.com/2018/09/01/food-fighters-japanese-artist-turns-food-samples-into-fantastic-instant-noodle-samurai/ https://soranews24.com/2018/09/01/food-fighters-japanese-artist-turns-food-samples-into-fantastic-instant-noodle-samurai/#comments Fri, 31 Aug 2018 17:30:38 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=423798 These plastic warriors are trawling for a brawling, cruising for a bruising, and sampling for a trampling.
If you’ve eaten out in Japan before, you’re bound to have seen the (usually) realistic plastic food samples outside countless restaurants, tempting in potential diners. The craftmanship behind the making of these samples is an art in itself, rendering the colours and textures of food, but surely making endless bowls of plastic ramen or fried rice must get a little monotonous. Maybe that was the reason behind some phenomenal plastic art that re-imagines Donbei udon and soba noodle pots and their contents as amazingly cool warriors of a bygone age.
戦う麺類たち#食品サンプル#どん兵衛 pic.twitter.com/Ggi6LKpwwp
— Arimura Taishi (@15424578268) August 21, 2018
Graphic designer Taishi Arimura (the same artist behind the beautifully minimalist “city vs. countryside” piece we looked at a few days ago) has posted the photos of his sublime creations on his Twitter page (@15424578268), showing off not only a great concept, anthropomorphised noodles, but also his undoubted skill in having crafted the realistic, individual noodles and the accessories that set the piece off, like the disposable chopsticks sword or the armour made of shards of plastic pot or deep-fried tofu.
While some plastic, or wax, food samples are comparatively easy to make (if we managed to make some, anyone can) with the right equipment, one-off models like these with far more complex shapes and textures are another story, one as mysterious as Nissin’s other famous product, the Cup Noodle’s mystery meat used to be.
These Donbei creations are surprisingly not the first time the instant udon and soba brand has featured in artwork. But unlike their notoriously slippery cousins, don’t look like they’d try and escape if you wanted to eat them — they’d fight back.
▼ What one of manufacturer Nissin’s more pacifistic Donbei looks like.
The long strands of noodle, reminiscent of an Egyptian mummy with its bandages, loop round, widening out towards the torso and feet to form the dining table soldiers’ forms while the weapons and clothing resemble the noodles’ usual accoutrements; we were particularly taken with the tofu material on the back of the lighter-coloured noodle warrior and the shield of the fighter seemingly crafted from darker buckwheat soba noodles.
The works probably won’t be winning any food sample competitions, since they’re not actually a dish that you can order (though if they were, that’s a restaurant we’d be queuing up to eat at). Still, they have us in the mood to do battle with a pot of Donbei udon or soba noodles right now. One pot, one pair of chopsticks, one of me (sigh), only one outcome.
Source: Twitter/@15424578268 via ADB
Featured image: Twitter/@15423478268
Insert image Nissin
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/09/01/food-fighters-japanese-artist-turns-food-samples-into-fantastic-instant-noodle-samurai/feed/ 0 423798 noodle warriors Tokyo Disney will give New Year’s Eve visitors the chance to party for 26 straight hours! https://soranews24.com/2018/08/26/tokyo-disney-will-give-new-years-eve-visitors-the-chance-to-party-for-26-straight-hours/ https://soranews24.com/2018/08/26/tokyo-disney-will-give-new-years-eve-visitors-the-chance-to-party-for-26-straight-hours/#comments Sat, 25 Aug 2018 16:00:22 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=423262 
See in the New Year with some Disney magic, and maybe some sleep deprivation.
Where, and how, will you spend New Year’s Eve? For those living in Japan, the evening can be a world apart from the Hogmanay festivities back home, with very few fireworks going off at the stroke of midnight, and the only rendition of Old Lang Syne to be heard is the jingly kind played to inform customers that a shop is closing. There is one place where the party goes on throughout the night and the new year is rung in to the sound of fireworks, the Tokyo resort in Chiba that makes up two of Japan’s top three theme parks, and the ‘New Year’s Eve Passport’ as the special ticket is known, will go on sale next month.
▼ You too could be this happy for 26 non-stop hours!
Visitors with the pass will be able to enter either Tokyo Disneyland or the neighbouring Tokyo DisneySea from 8 p.m. on 31 December, although the conditions state that visitors are only allowed to stay on site for a mere 26 hours of merrymaking, far longer than the usual 1-Day pass. Can we expect to see people falling asleep on rollercoasters, since they can manage it too easily on trains, and snoozing in their Disney-fied curries? For those who can resist the call of the Land of Nod, and the chill of the early hours of a January morning, the parks will be open for business as usual throughout the early hours with revellers able to see in the new year in style.
Unlike normal day passes that expire when the park closes, visitors will see the park by night, which will hopefully be a glorious whirlwind of lights and colours from dusk until dawn, and not just look like Universal Studios Japan’s zombie-infested Halloween horror nights as sleep-deprived attendees traipse the park emitting groans. Possibly best of all, instead of osechi dishes to eat, you can tuck into the park’s delicious themed snacks and fast food.
▼ It’ll also mark the end of the resort’s 35th anniversary year.
There will be two types of passes, which will go on sale on 11 September: one for Tokyo Disneyland and one for Tokyo DisneySea. While visitors will only be able to spend the night at the one they plumped for, from 4 a.m. on New Year’s Day the pass will grant them access to both parks. The tickets can be used by children or adults, and will cost an average 9,700 yen (US$88) per person. Those wanting to get their mitts on the passes will need to apply through the special website, where there will be three chances to purchase. If, as is highly likely, there are a large number of applicants, a lottery will be held to see who gets to go to the ball, with the third opportunity only open to those not drawn in the first or second lots.
For those not able to make it, you could always make your way to your local temple; there are fewer characters willing to sing and dance for your pleasure, but what you miss out on in smiling faces, you can make up for with a traditional New Year’s celebration of watching TV and the tolling of bells, 108 times in fact.
Source: JIJI via Otakomu
Images: ©SoraNews24
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/08/26/tokyo-disney-will-give-new-years-eve-visitors-the-chance-to-party-for-26-straight-hours/feed/ 0 423262 25 Should the new Japanese national anthem be an anime song? https://soranews24.com/2018/08/21/should-the-new-japanese-national-anthem-be-an-anime-song/ https://soranews24.com/2018/08/21/should-the-new-japanese-national-anthem-be-an-anime-song/#comments Tue, 21 Aug 2018 13:00:20 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=422823 
Japanese anime fans list their contenders for a modern-day Japanese national anthem.
The current Japanese anthem, Kimigayo, has a long history, with the lyrics dating back to a Heian period (794-1185) waka poem. Its ties to pre-war imperialism, though, mean it has its detractors. Maybe it’s time for a change, something a bit more in keeping with modern Japan. What encapsulates Japan more than a song wishing the emperor a long and healthy reign? That’s right, an anime soundtrack!
Among anime song fans, there are plenty who call their favourite song their anthem, but in a recent survey fans were asked to choose one anime song, or anison, that should be elevated to the lofty heights of being sung by thousands of supporters at events like the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
▼ The Japanese anthem is one of the shortest in the world.
Survey respondents were a mix of both male (41 percent) and female (59 percent) fans, with 63 percent aged 19 or younger and more than 20 percent in their twenties. There were clear favourites for the top three anime songs which would work as a Japanese anthem, so let’s take a look at the list below.
In first place: “Tori no uta” (“Bird’s Song”), the opening theme to Air, which gained the support of about 10 percent of respondents, is sung by female vocalist Lia. Those answering the survey responded with comments about the popular, uplifting trance song like, “This is the most famous, I couldn’t even think of anything else that could beat it.” and “This would make the perfect national anthem.”
In a close second place, with about 9 percent of votes, was the song “Daydream Café“, the opening track to comedy anime series, Gochumon wa usagi desu ka? (“Is the order a rabbit?“, often abbreviated to GochiUsa) about the workers of the Rabbit Café. For many, this song sums up Japan as a nation far more than the current anthem with its healthy dose of humour and dancing anime characters.
Third, with about 8 percent (which shows how close the results were, only about a single percentage point between each of the results in the top three), was the theme for Neon Genesis Evangelion (and a personal karaoke favourite), “Zankoku na Tenshi no Tese” (“A Cruel Angel’s Thesis”) sung by Yoko Takahashi. Commenters argued that this was the best choice, given that it is famous even beyond the world of anime song fans.
Throw in some elaborate dance moves, or a fitness workout, and any of these songs could work as an alternative Japanese anthem. While the survey came out with a single winner, it’ll probably be a while yet before Japan goes full otaku and one of these is adopted. Plus, listen to any song too often and you can easily get fed up with it; maybe the next survey should include a petition for the new national anthem to have a shuffle function.
Source: AnimeAnime via jin115
Top image: Pakutaso
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/08/21/should-the-new-japanese-national-anthem-be-an-anime-song/feed/ 0 422823 161007-305_TP_V N64 controller cable tie-styles have Japanese Twitter harking back to a golden age of gaming https://soranews24.com/2018/08/20/n64-controller-cable-tie-styles-have-japanese-twitter-harking-back-to-a-golden-age-of-gaming/ https://soranews24.com/2018/08/20/n64-controller-cable-tie-styles-have-japanese-twitter-harking-back-to-a-golden-age-of-gaming/#comments Sun, 19 Aug 2018 17:30:01 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=422819 A blast of nostalgia with a N64 game controller cable guide.
Do you remember your first gaming console, and the first game you played? For this writer it was the Sega Mega Drive and the attack helicopter game Jungle Strike. The next console to stand out in my memory was the Nintendo 64 and hours of playing Goldeneye with friends.
Multiplayer, however, required multiple controllers, so often I’d need to take my controller to school in my rucksack to play after school. While I stuffed mine in with scant thought for the cable going everywhere, Japanese Twitter user @EF8CR16 shows the different ways the cable could be tidied, and prompted a blast of gaming nostalgia in doing so.
▼ “Way back when, this is what I’d do before putting the controller in
my bike’s basket and cycling over to a friend’s house.”
https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/1027908821404999680
Other Twitter users declared which style of cable tidying they had gone for back in the day, perhaps saying something about the type of person they are. Certainly the asymmetry of the second photo where the cable is tied around the left-hand side of the controller offends my aesthetic sensibilities!
The tweet spread like wildfire, with more than 150,000 people having voted in a poll for which group they belonged to. At the time of writing, photo #1 (the cross-tie type) was the most popular, with 38 percent of the votes. 28 percent were the one-side heretics of photo #2, 21 percent favoured the diagonal tie of photo #4, and only 13 percent the double-vertical tie of photo #3.
恐れながら、気になったのでアンケートやらせて頂きます！
皆さんどれでしたか？？？— ぱんぷきんぺぽ (@shitayamagogo) August 11, 2018
The number of ways to tie around the oddly-shaped controller (a design now left by the wayside), which also prompted a variety of hold styles, wouldn’t have sparked so much interest if the N64 hadn’t been such a seminal device, giving birth to such classics as Ocarina of Time and Super Smash Bros.
▼ Of course, as another Twitter user pointed out,
by the time of Nintendo’s GameCube, cord-wrapping was all academic.
ゲームキューブ世代はこうですねぇ… pic.twitter.com/dnSl6djjQl
— 介護士のハンムラビさん
(@hanmurabi_san) August 11, 2018
A simple photo brings back so many gaming memories, of cherished hours with friends before our lives of work reared its ugly head. What is your lasting gaming memory? I, for one, am off now to try and find a copy of Jungle Strike to once more take down the drug lord Ortega for old times’ sake.
Source: Twitter/@EF8CR16 via Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Twitter/@EF8CR16
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/08/20/n64-controller-cable-tie-styles-have-japanese-twitter-harking-back-to-a-golden-age-of-gaming/feed/ 0 422819 N64 Gatebox digital wife gets full-scale launch, texts you at work and can even share a drink【Videos】 https://soranews24.com/2018/08/11/gatebox-digital-wife-gets-full-scale-launch-texts-you-at-work-and-can-even-share-a-drink%e3%80%90videos%e3%80%91/ https://soranews24.com/2018/08/11/gatebox-digital-wife-gets-full-scale-launch-texts-you-at-work-and-can-even-share-a-drink%e3%80%90videos%e3%80%91/#comments Sat, 11 Aug 2018 07:00:09 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=422079 At half the price and with much more functionality than before, is it finally time to tie the virtual knot?
After a long day at work, it’s not much fun coming home to a quiet, empty home. That’s where the new digital assistant from Gatebox comes in. Not only is she happy to greet you and keep you company, but she’s already been chatting with you all day long.
Tokyo-based Gatebox, the company behind the Boku no Yome (“My Wife”) 2016 limited-edition digital assistant, have now launched their mass-production version and its little inhabitant Hikari Azuma. The company have started taking pre-orders with the first units scheduled to ship in October.
▼ This video shows how Hikari interacts with you both at home and away,
communicating with you via text messages, images, and stamps while you’re at work.
The price of the new Gatebox assistant is half that of the original limited-edition one, at 150,000 yen (US$1,352). With the average cost of a wedding running significantly higher, even just the dress itself costing the same as the Gatebox creation, it’s a bargain. Minori Takeshi, Gatebox’s CEO, hopes that the reduced price will “allow even more people to experience the joy of living with a character.”
While the Gatebox device will initially come with only one character, Hikari Azuma, the company plans to add a number of other characters for users to choose and switch as they like. These updates, along with functionality updates, will require users to pay about 1,500 yen (US$13.52) each month to share their lives with their digital loves.
▼ Similar to other products like Alexa or Siri, Hikari will wake up to
and respond to calls of “Ne, Hikari!” (“Hey, Hikari!”).
▼ Hikari can also share a drink with you. In this video she asks if you would
prefer coffee or alcohol. Watching her pour, sit, and say “cheers” is kind of charming.
Of course, all these features are in addition to Hikari’s main job: managing your digital devices. Say the word and she’ll turn on the TV, air conditioner, give you the news and weather, or even set some mood music for your romantic night in together.
▼ In this video, Hikari grows increasingly excited as she waits for her
husband to come home, before reminding him it’s their three-month anniversary.
The Gatebox digital assistants are available to pre-order now, though they are currently only shipping withing Japan.
For those who can’t afford their own personal virtual wife, but are still looking for a bit of AI company, you can always just take a quick trip to the augmented reality cafe and share a snack with Hatsune Miku herself.
Source: Robotstart via Otakom
Featured image: YouTube/Gatebox – Promotion Movie “KANPAI”
Insert image: Gatebox
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/08/11/gatebox-digital-wife-gets-full-scale-launch-texts-you-at-work-and-can-even-share-a-drink%e3%80%90videos%e3%80%91/feed/ 0 422079 maxresdefault Twitter artist brings the original Pokémon to life through mind-bogglingly amazing bead creations https://soranews24.com/2018/08/10/twitter-artist-brings-the-original-pokemon-to-life-through-mind-bogglingly-amazing-bead-creations/ https://soranews24.com/2018/08/10/twitter-artist-brings-the-original-pokemon-to-life-through-mind-bogglingly-amazing-bead-creations/#comments Thu, 09 Aug 2018 16:00:03 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=421614 At first glance it might look like a screenshot, but it’s actually a ton of magic beads.
Looking back at screenshots of the first Pokémon game, it’s hard to believe that it came out more than twenty years ago (and then again more recently for 3DS). Still, looking back at the pixellated, grey-scale images they do look a bit dated compared to later iterations. Now, a Japanese Twitter artist has breathed new life into Satoshi Tajiri’s creation with an insanely intricate, three-dimensional rendering with plastic beads.
アイロンビーズで初代ポケモンの主人公の家作ってみました
接着剤、テープは使用していません
アイロンビーズの組み合わせのみで組み立てました
主人公とピカチュウも作って添えてみました#アイロンビーズ#パーラービーズ#perlerbeads#ポケモン pic.twitter.com/VtQJdr3yg3— sappoi(さっぽい) (@sappoi_san) August 3, 2018
In Twitter user @sappoi_san‘s amazing piece, hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny plastic beads have been combined to recreate the imaginatively named ‘player character’, Pikachu and a house too. As the text explains, the beads haven’t been stuck together with glue or tape, but fused together by being ironed over. The medium is perfect for recreating the chunky 8-bit images from the classic Nintendo Game Boy and has seen other crafty types recreating characters like a certain pair of Italian handyman siblings, and Dragon Quest characters.
DQ3女賢者さんを #アイロンビーズ にしました
気品、少女の様な愛らしさ、知性的な印象全てが詰まった最高のデザインですね
アイロンがけミスって凹んでます…
並べると壮観！残り4人！シロスさんの元絵↓https://t.co/I8zO5lLRdR#ドラゴンクエスト#pixelart pic.twitter.com/3bTvToBdx7
— 嫌いなトマトも残さず食べる
きらとま (@tomato_kirai48) August 3, 2018
The fuse beads, as they’re generically known, can take hours to carefully place side by side. While particularly complex 2-D fuse bead art can sell for hundreds of dollars because of its unique, blocky, game-like quality, a 3-D image like this will have required countless layers to be built up one by one – a testament to the artist’s love of the game.
In the photo below, an amiibo figurine has been helpfully placed for scale, revealing just how large the bead art is, and give us an idea of just how long it must have taken and how many beads were needed to put it togther.
これ結構大きいんです
amiiboと比べたらこんな感じです pic.twitter.com/sODu9I38Mc— sappoi(さっぽい) (@sappoi_san) August 3, 2018
Put next to an actual screenshot of the game, it’s amazing how close to the real thing @sappoi_san’s creation is and how at first glance the mind is tricked into seeing a game image before noticing the wooden floor and background behind the piece.
ゲーム画面とアイロンビーズで再現した家の比較写真です pic.twitter.com/kgNYcvPWQx
— sappoi(さっぽい) (@sappoi_san) August 3, 2018
Somehow the bead creation looks more impressive, and more attractive than if @sappoi_san had made a more photographically realistic version, perhaps yet more proof of the beauty of imperfection.
Source: Twitter/sappoi_san via jin115
Featured image: Twitter/sappoi_san
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/08/10/twitter-artist-brings-the-original-pokemon-to-life-through-mind-bogglingly-amazing-bead-creations/feed/ 0 421614 poke Not a fan of dishwashing? Get yourself an electric, plate-scrubbing robot appendage https://soranews24.com/2018/08/07/not-a-fan-of-dishwashing-get-yourself-an-electric-plate-scrubbing-robot-appendage/ https://soranews24.com/2018/08/07/not-a-fan-of-dishwashing-get-yourself-an-electric-plate-scrubbing-robot-appendage/#comments Tue, 07 Aug 2018 03:00:29 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=421520 
The convenience of Japanese technology: making your life a little easier, and lazier, with every passing day.
Despite the number of Japanese people still owning old-fashioned, flip-open garakei mobile phones and an enduring fondness for fax machines, Japan is at the forefront of technology where it counts: being a lazy cyborg. While power-assisted lifting suits and controllable metal robots get all the attention, those of us who want augmentation on the cheap might think we’re out of luck. However, there are robot extremities even we can afford, in today’s case an automated dish-washing limb. Before you start the 48-hour ordeal of hacking your own fleshy appendage off with a blunt penknife though, you should know it’s hand-operated, meaning you can keep your arm and still be a super dishwashing droid.
▼ Given that the device can wash dishes for up to an hour on a single charge, you may need to get yourself some more tableware.
The rechargeable battery-powered dish spinner may look like a preying mantis with a thing for crockery, but it’s a labour-saving device that with a flick of the wrist adjusts to fit the size of your dishes, before spinning them at velocity, dirt and grease being whisked away by the integral brushes’ bristles. The articulated arms means it fixes itself to your dish or bowl like one of the original Alien facehuggers, but with soap.
▼ You’ll wonder how you ever managed to wash dishes with the lumpy meat sausage you call an arm.
The site selling the modern marvel, Thanko, explains that not only does the device save you from bothersome dish washing, it also protects your hands from the damaging effects of scrubbing. It’s also a time-saver, with each dish estimated to take just three to ten seconds to wash. In this summer season, where copious sweating is your constant companion, who will be brave enough to try the handy machine as a portable shower for a quick freshen up at the office? Our money is on Mr. Sato.
▼ Possibly the closest we can get to being like Inspector Gadget so far.
The Kuru Sara Wash, as it’s known, is available from Thanko for 8,800 yen, including tax (US$78.95), which is considerably cheaper than a washing machine or the US$125,000 you’d need for a power suit or the no-doubt more expensive dancing juggernaut. While it might not have the physical power to kill, crush and destroy your enemies, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be useful in self-defence in a post-apocalyptic world where only the mechanically enhanced survive; washing-up liquid in the eye can really, really sting.
Source, images: Thanko
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/08/07/not-a-fan-of-dishwashing-get-yourself-an-electric-plate-scrubbing-robot-appendage/feed/ 0 421520 hdwsmc02-p01_02 TripAdvisor reveals Japan’s top ten theme parks https://soranews24.com/2018/08/06/tripadvisor-reveals-japans-top-ten-theme-parks/ https://soranews24.com/2018/08/06/tripadvisor-reveals-japans-top-ten-theme-parks/#comments Mon, 06 Aug 2018 03:00:36 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=421275 
There’s more to theme parks in Japan than just Disney Resort and Universal Studios; there’s also ninjas, go-karts and looking through your legs.
Think of theme parks and there’s a good chance that the the local versions of big American theme parks come to mind. However, travel site TripAdvisor’s list of the ten most popular theme parks in Japan shows that a) there are other theme parks worth a visit beyond Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka; and b) what constitutes a theme park is open to interpretation.
Japan’s Ten Most Popular Theme Parks:
1. Universal Studios Japan, Osaka
Home to rides like The Flying Dinosaur and what is purported to be Japan’s slowest roller coaster, the Osaka-based theme park has seen visitor numbers increase massively, particularly with the introduction of its Cool Japan limited-time attractions and a rising number of foreign visitors to the country.
2. Tokyo DisneySea, Chiba
One of the two Disney theme parks in Chiba, outside Tokyo, the aquatic-themed DisneySea is enough to win over the most-hardened unbeliever to the magic of Disney. With rides based on the works of Jules Verne inside a volcano, and a plethora of delightful staff costumes, DisneySea managed to beat its older sibling to the second spot in this list.
3. Tokyo Disneyland, Chiba
While Tokyo Disneyland’s crown may be slipping, there’s a reason why Disney theme parks have dominated the top ten lists for Japan, Asia and the world, with their mix of rides, live shows, and curiously shaped eggs. Our own reporter Daiichiro certainly couldn’t get enough of the place during his visit to the park for its 35th anniversary this year. With a third park rumoured to be in the works, will Disneyland find itself bumped down another spot in the future, or will it reclaim its throne?
4. Adventure World, Wakayama
A post shared by アドベンチャーワールド 公式 (@adventureworld_official)
Out of the top three and into the unknown, for many. In fourth place, we have the first of the Japanese original theme parks: Adventure World in Wakayama Prefecture. The wildlife and safari park’s most famous residents are the giant pandas, five of only nine in the whole of Japan. As well as the pandas, the park hosts a variety of live shows and even night-time safaris.
A post shared by アドベンチャーワールド 公式 (@adventureworld_official)
5. Nagashima Spa Resort, Mie
After a hard day of screaming your lungs out on roller coasters and filling your belly with snacks, what could be better than a long soak in a hot bath when you get home? Or what if you didn’t have to wait until you got home? That, presumably, is the premise behind Nagashima Spa Land in Mie Prefecture. With wooden and steel-made roller coasters aplenty, a massive water park, botanical gardens and Yuami no shima, Japan’s biggest onsen hot spring park, Nagashima Spa Land has something for everyone and if all the excitement and bathing tuckers you out, there are nap rooms too.
6. Fuji-Q Highland, Yamanashi
2018.8.4
富士急ハイランド pic.twitter.com/3QDgeTgXH0— イルカのぴょって (@iruka_no_ryuryu) August 4, 2018
Featuring heavily in our previous article on the best roller coasters in Japan, with several roller coasters that at the time of building were record-breaking in terms of speed, height or length, Fuji-Q Highland also has other ways to terrify you, with haunted-house attractions like The Haunted Hospital and the Fortress of No Hope.
7. Tokyo One Piece Tower, Tokyo
The first in the list of Tokyo theme parks, and the first to be entirely indoor, the One Piece Tower can be found inside Tokyo Tower alongside the official One Piece Manga Café. As well as a number of attractions based on the hit manga and anime series, visitors can take ‘trick art’ photos, meet the members of the Straw Hat Crew and watch One Piece adventures enacted onstage.
8. Mega Web, Tokyo
https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/1025902571569864704
It may sound like Spider-Man has finally got his own theme park, but no. Mega Web, on the island of Odaiba, is a theme park dedicated to Toyota and stunning examples from the history of the motorised carriage. It’s not all just about looking though, you can also take your favourite Toyota for a test drive, provided you have a Japanese driving licence or International Driving Permit. Even if you don’t have one there are go-kart tracks too where you enjoy the thrill of driving.
9. Amanohashidate View Land, Kyoto
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmBBkzVgkDo/?taken-at=728077
While this theme park may not match the jaw-dropping roller coasters or sheer scale of some of the other places on this list, it does have a view certified as one of Japan’s top three. Situated in Kyoto Prefecture, this little park overlooks the famous ‘Bridge to Heaven’ sandbar. As well as the spectacular view, there are also a number of rides and a Ferris Wheel to take in when you’re not looking out across the sandbar in the traditional way, as in the photo above.
10. Edo Wonderland Nikko Edomura, Tochigi
While the only rides at this theme park are limited to being pulled or carried by kimono-clad servants, the park allows visitors to step back 400 years into the past and experience the Edo period. Dress up in kimono and wander the streets between the stunning buildings and watch as ninja bound from roof to roof, or as a geisha strolls alongside the river, parasol in hand. The park, in Nikko, not far from Tokyo, is often used as the scene for historical dramas and other samurai-era videos, and where you can roam around as the Edo-era character of your choice, traditional chonmage haircuts optional.
That concludes the list of the top ten Japanese theme parks, according to TripAdvisor. Did they miss out on any of your favourites? While the Disney theme parks and USJ are well worth a visit, for those seeking something a little different, or a little more quintessentially Japanese, Japan has plenty to offer.
Source: tripadvisor
Top image: Nagashima Spa Land
Insert images: ©SoraNews24
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/08/06/tripadvisor-reveals-japans-top-ten-theme-parks/feed/ 0 421275 top Is the beauty of imperfection the secret behind the popularity of Pokémon character designs? https://soranews24.com/2018/08/03/is-the-beauty-of-imperfection-the-secret-behind-the-popularity-of-pokemon-character-designs/ https://soranews24.com/2018/08/03/is-the-beauty-of-imperfection-the-secret-behind-the-popularity-of-pokemon-character-designs/#comments Thu, 02 Aug 2018 17:30:58 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=420907 Ken Sugimori, art director and character designer for the Pokémon franchise, reveals the link between pocket monsters and wabi-sabi.
Some phrases and concepts don’t translate well out of Japanese, and one of these is the aethestic concept of wabi-sabi, sometimes translated as the beauty of imperfection, where a thing’s flaws enhance its beauty rather than detract from it. It’s in the full moon, slightly covered by clouds, the transience of autumnal leaves, and the single flower in a simple vase. It’s also in… Luxray?
According to an interview with Ken Sugimori, the character designer for the Pokémon franchise, the eponymous Pocket Monsters were given design flaws deliberately to amplify their overall look and win them fans.
平成仮面ライダーと同じく20年以上トップコンテンツを走ってるポケモンのキャラデザも見た人が「引っかかる部分」をあえて作ってると仰っているので、デザインをする上でのひとつの正解なんだろうなぁ。 > RT pic.twitter.com/IPauaGTQhI
— だめたまご
(@mihori_t) July 26, 2018
Twitter user @mihori_t posted an excerpt of an interview with the famed art director, one of the main people behind the evolution of the iconic characters. In the interview, Sugimori explains the importance of balance in creating the monsters, where overly serious monsters were given some element to take the edge off, or where characters considered too cute where given intentional imperfections.
While the person questioning Sugimori finds it hard to believe that there could be anything wrong with designs like Lucario (who, while undoubtedly cool, is not someone you’d want a hug from) or Luxray, Sugimori explains that Luxray would look even better with a smaller head, and slightly more pointed eyes, but the decision not to make those changes was a deliberate ploy to stop him from being too perfect. With slightly off proportions, they figured, Luxray would make for a more memorable character.
▼ If you’re trying to imagine what Luxray would look like with those changes, wonder no more.
小顔レントラー pic.twitter.com/RckZ8m6G1Z
— ターくん / セルフィ (@selphie_mhfz) July 27, 2018
Sugimori reasons that players are unlikely to feel a connection to, or be moved by, a character that is overly perfect. Each character should have at least one feature that resonates with players if they are to be remembered and loved as the franchise goes on. He gives another example with Oshawott, with its distinctive freckled cheeks. Each cheek features three of the freckle-like dots, but take those aware, says Sugimori, and Oshawott becomes cuter but also more forgettable.
▼ The lovable sea otter on the left, and something instantly forgettable next to it.
ミジュマルのデザイン。確かにブチを消すとスッキリしすぎるのかもしれない pic.twitter.com/zlp9wNWRkj
— (み)かずき
(@kazuki_mikan) July 27, 2018
As one of those tasked with seeing the Pocket Monsters off into the world, there to fend for themselves, competing with each other for fame, glory and the affection of fans, Sugimori may well be onto something. The enduring popularity of the franchise is in large part a result of the variety and visual spectacle, an aesthetic that appeals to adults and children alike. The common features ensure characters that are recognisably Pokémon, even when they feature in awesome mash-ups, while still retaining their individuality. Consciously or unconsciously, perhaps Sugimori and other designers embracing of imperfections and flaws in their designs is a result of a culture steeped in the aesthetic values of wabi-sabi.
Source: Twitter/@mihori_t via Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Twitter/@kazuki_mikan
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/08/03/is-the-beauty-of-imperfection-the-secret-behind-the-popularity-of-pokemon-character-designs/feed/ 1 420907 RF 1 Japanese chef gives customers a subtle hint to say thanks, by putting a sign on his back https://soranews24.com/2018/08/02/japanese-chef-gives-customers-a-subtle-hint-to-say-thanks-by-putting-a-sign-on-his-back/ https://soranews24.com/2018/08/02/japanese-chef-gives-customers-a-subtle-hint-to-say-thanks-by-putting-a-sign-on-his-back/#comments Thu, 02 Aug 2018 14:00:46 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=421168 
What should you do when your customers take your extra large fried food portions for granted? Wear a poster pointing it out is one chef’s answer.
When you do something nice for someone (or get a haircut), you at least hope that they notice, and a thank you wouldn’t go amiss either. One Japanese chef and restaurant manager waited more than a week for his customers to realise something was different with one of the items on the menu, and then, rather than say anything directly, decided to let them know with a printed note stuck to his back.
お客様が喜んでくれればと、ひそかにえびフライの中のえびを大きくして約1週間。どなたか気づいてくれるかなとドキドキしていたのに、だれも気づいてくれないので我慢できなくなったIQ30の店長がついに決行した作戦がこちらです。 pic.twitter.com/3Su50hDzoT
— まるかつ(奈良・大阪のとんかつ店)奈良本店・生駒店・天理店・大阪駅イチロクグルメ店 (@marukatsunara) July 27, 2018
At first glance it might appear to be an exceptionally long appeal to the person reading to do him the kindness of connecting the end of one of their lower limbs with his backside, but the note actually reads:
‘We’ve made the prawns inside the fried prawn substantially bigger, even though the price has remained the same!’
While the tweet also suggests the boss is the owner of an IQ of only 30, you might want to take that with a pinch of salt, and a squeeze of lemon.
The photo was taken at Marukatsu, a restaurant in Nara that specializes in tonkatsu (pork cutlet), but serves other fried foods as well. According to the restaurant’s Twitter account (@marukatsunara), the deep-fried prawns, or shrimp (which, until we get to count how many pairs of legs have claws, will remain unclear), were larger than their predecessors, more delicious goodness for the same price. However, even if Marukatsu’s customers had noticed, they clearly hadn’t said so. The ebi furai fried prawns should have had customers rejoicing vocally, especially as even at normal size they’re well worth the 250 yen (US$2.24) asked (those are Marukatsu’s fried prawns pictured at the top of this article), but no.
Some Japanese claim to be able to communicate and understand each other with a minimum of communication, like a type of telepathy formed from an innate understanding of situations and how they should act. If such a thing does exist, it doesn’t extend to wordlessly thanking the chef for his generosity, or passively-aggressively complaining to customers about their ingratitude. Let’s hope that other customers also noticed the lengths the chef had gone to in order to enlighten his patrons to this noble man embiggening the smallest shrimp. It would be nice to think that his entire clientele wore signs on their chests next time they visited thanking him for the arthropodic increase, at no additional cost. And at least they paid for it, unlike at least one diner at a restaurant in Fukuoka.
And should you wish to thank the poor chap personally, there’s always the option of stopping by the restaurant yourself.
Restaurant information:
Name: Marukatsu / まるかつ
Address: Nara-ken, Nara-shi, Kodonocho 667-1
奈良県奈良市神殿町667-1
Open: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5 p.m.-10 p.m.
Website
Source: Twitter/@marukatsunara via Jin115
Featured image: Twitter/@marukatsunara
Top image: Marukatsu
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/08/02/japanese-chef-gives-customers-a-subtle-hint-to-say-thanks-by-putting-a-sign-on-his-back/feed/ 0 421168 RF 0 Japanese travellers give their answers to the Hotel vs. Ryokan Japanese inn debate https://soranews24.com/2018/07/25/japanese-travellers-give-their-answers-to-the-hotel-vs-ryokan-japanese-inn-debate/ https://soranews24.com/2018/07/25/japanese-travellers-give-their-answers-to-the-hotel-vs-ryokan-japanese-inn-debate/#comments Wed, 25 Jul 2018 01:00:19 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=420379 
Q&A website explains the good and the bad of hotels and traditional Japanese inns.
For many of those who work in Japan, long holidays are few and far between but one of those periods, the obon summer holidays, when every office worker and their dog takes to the beaches, hotels and roads of Japan, is almost upon us. For those staying in Japan who aren’t travelling back to their hometowns to pray to their ancestors or dance and enjoy local festivities, the big question is whether to go for a hotel or a ryokan Japanese inn.
To get closer to the reasons Japanese travellers pick one over the other, we’ve compiled answers to the question ‘Ryokan or Hotel?’ from Japan’s biggest Q&A website, Oshiete! goo.
The Question:
User wao2323 asked, ‘If you’re staying somewhere, which do you prefer? For me, it’s hotels. Simply put, I feel a greater sense of freedom there.’
The Answers:
User gonta-99:
‘Ryokans. Not only is the food there delicious but you can enjoy the baths. I even really like the corridors in a ryokan, looking at things like the names of the rooms, some of which are pretty unusual. I also like the tatami bamboo mats on the floors and the way you can roll around the room after they put out your futon for you. If I’m going somewhere for sightseeing I’ll stay in a hotel but with a ryokan I can just enjoy the stay and strolling round the local area.’
Gonta-99 is far from the only one to enjoy ryokan as a place to visit in itself, where guests can relax and enjoy the sumptuous meals, characteristic rooms and the hot spring baths often attached.
User s-401:
‘Hotels. The biggest reason for me is not sleeping on a futon on a tatami floor. It’s also because I’m not really interested in the baths – I want to be able to eat when I actually want to eat rather than at a set time, and I’m a bit chuffed to be able to use fancy shampoos and soaps and things from brands like L’Occitane en Provence.’
The main advantage of the hotel seems to be the freedom, as guests can come and go as they please without feeling constrained by set meal times or having to sleep on the floor, which is not to everyone’s taste.
User iscreamy:
‘I’m for hotels, too. It’s just so much easier to stay in one, isn’t it? I actually quite like those cheap hotels aimed at people travelling on business; the ones in Japan are really clean.’
Certainly, it’s a lot easier for solo travellers to stay in a regular western-style hotel than it is to stay in a ryokan. While cheaper hotel rooms may verge on the cramped or cosy side, compared to a ryokan’s more expansive rooms, they’re cheap and cheerful and increasingly popular with non-business travellers.
User hyakkinman:
‘Ryokans. At a ryokan there are so many chances to chat to the proprietors, the staff, and other guests. The huge baths are another major plus point. Then, after eating dinner in your room, I love it when someone comes to tidy up the dishes and make up your futon for you.’
With plenty of opportunities to meet and talk to other people, the ryokan has a warmth that hotels often lack, especially in the baths where nothing gets people talking like being naked around strangers, especially if one of them stands up a little bit too quickly from the near-scalding water and gets all dizzy. Not that that has ever happened, ahem.
User petunia:
‘Put me down as one for hotels. Stay in a ryokan and you’ll get to have your meal in your room, but the waiter or waitress will be in and out of your room like it’s got revolving doors; it feels like you’re staying at someone’s house so you can’t really relax. You also feel guilty for having someone come and lay out the futon for you.’
The ryokan’s warmth has its downsides, too. While, in my experience, the staff at ryokan have always been happy to natter away and tell you all about the local area and the gorgeously presented feast they array before you, for those who would rather have some time to themselves, it can be a bit of an intrusion. With a hotel, there’s far less contact with members of staff, meaning you don’t feel the need to make an effort in your own room.
User ASAYOSHI:
‘I would choose ryokans. Recently, most hotels have western-style bathrooms with the toilet and bathtub in the same room, and in many cases the bath isn’t all that big. I want to be able to soak in a bathtub as big as the bathroom itself.’
User yuyuyunn:
‘More and more people split it by destination – if you’re going to an area with onsen hot springs, the answer is a ryokan; for other places, they go to a hotel. Although, certainly there are people who go to one or the other just to stay there.’
For Japanese people, or those who have been in Japan for a while, travelling within the country might be less about going somewhere in particular than about getting away from their home and work lives, with hotels or ryokan providing an opportunity to stay somewhere luxurious or just relax in your room without all the distractions and housework you would have at home. Even not having to cook dinner, wash the dishes or make up the bed is a little luxury in itself.
User cosomo7:
‘When I go somewhere on business, I spend weekdays in a single room in a hotel, but at the weekend I stay in a ryokan. In the hotel you can do stuff like use the Internet so it’s not a problem staying there but if you’re going somewhere for nearly a fortnight, you get fed up with the food and you can’t spend the whole day there, whereas you can with a ryokan or minshuku guesthouse. They both have their good and bad points.’
Of course, the choice for someone holidaying in Japan might be a very different matter, and would likely come down more to budget. While the category ‘hotel’ includes a wide range of hotel types, from the cheap and cheerful ‘business hotels’, to capsule hotels, love hotels and through to palatial accommodations, ryokan lodging also comes in all shapes and sizes. For a real experience of travelling in Japan though, at least one night in a ryokan is highly recommended.
For this particular writer, the choice of hotel varies by season and budgeting success, but a birthday treat each year sees a relaxing stay in a ryokan with a rotemburo bath and a pile of books. Take from that what you will.
Which camp do you fall in?
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso (1,2,3,4,5)
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/07/25/japanese-travellers-give-their-answers-to-the-hotel-vs-ryokan-japanese-inn-debate/feed/ 0 420379 hotel3 New hair pins let you look like you’ve been stabbed in the head with a classic Japanese icon https://soranews24.com/2018/07/25/new-hair-pins-let-you-look-like-youve-been-stabbed-in-the-head-with-a-classic-japanese-icon/ https://soranews24.com/2018/07/25/new-hair-pins-let-you-look-like-youve-been-stabbed-in-the-head-with-a-classic-japanese-icon/#comments Tue, 24 Jul 2018 17:30:50 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=420108 
If your body is a temple, your head is a shrine? Provide easy access to your bonce for roaming Shinto gods with a torii gate hair accessory.
Along with Mount Fuji, the torii gates that stand outside Shinto shrines in their cinnabar orange-red glory are one of the most iconic images of Japan. The gates mark the entrance the gods take to enter shrines, which is the reason why visitors at some shrines are told that they should use the left or right-hand sides of the gate so as to keep the centre clear for passing gods.
While thousands flock to take photos of perhaps the most famous torii gate, the ‘floating’ torii by Itsukushima Shrine on the island of Miyajima, now you can show your appreciation of the aesthetically pleasing torii shape and colour by using it to keep your hair in place.
Now that yukata season is finally here it’s the perfect opportunity to get dressed up in the light-weight summer kimono. And while the yukata accessory of choice for some is a can of cold, delicious beer, there are other bits and pieces to set off the ensemble for the lady or longer-haired gentleman.
One of those pieces is the torii kanzashi hair pin, now on sale for 5,400 yen (US$48.65) on the Village Vanguard website. Purveyors of the weird and wonderful, Village Vanguard (who have previously offered us ninja bikinis, leftover bath drink and manga umbrellas and only asked for mere money in return) have caught our attention yet again.
With one leg longer than the other, this torii would likely only be able to walk in circles, but fortunately that’s not its job – it just has to look pretty, and that it does well.
The model above is wearing two or three of the torii hairpins at the same time, but she has a few more to go before they can rival Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, a World Heritage Site with about 10,000 torii gates lining its paths up the mountain, as seen in the photo below.
Probably its secondary selling point, after its simple beauty, is the shock value of the size and the fact that the design makes it look like a vengeful god has driven a very small piece of shrine furniture through the top of your skull, like the classic Halloween accessory of a plastic axe or dagger.
You can also double up the Shinto shrine appreciation with earrings designed to look like the giant ‘chrysanthemum rosettes’ seen as decorations on the hoko (spear) floats, rolling around like shrines on wheels at Kyoto’s Gion Festival. A pair of these cost 3,780 yen (US$34) and will draw the attention of passersby as you go about your one-(wo)man parade.
Quite fetching, I think you’ll all agree, although given this writer’s hair measuring scant millimetres in a bid to survive the summer heat, neither the torii hair pin nor its dried sardine equivalent would make the perfect gift. But pink and blue curry on the other hand…
Source, top image: Village Vanguard
Insert images: Village Vanguard, Wikipedia/Pundit
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/07/25/new-hair-pins-let-you-look-like-youve-been-stabbed-in-the-head-with-a-classic-japanese-icon/feed/ 0 420108 1 Gay Japanese Twitter user comes out to family, mother’s response moves Twitter to tears https://soranews24.com/2018/07/19/gay-japanese-twitter-user-comes-out-to-family-mothers-response-moves-twitter-to-tears/ https://soranews24.com/2018/07/19/gay-japanese-twitter-user-comes-out-to-family-mothers-response-moves-twitter-to-tears/#comments Thu, 19 Jul 2018 14:00:49 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=419808 
Amazingly open-minded mother wows son and Internet with words of wisdom.
Coming out as gay is a difficult thing to do in most Western countries, and doing so in Japan is no different. Those who do may face discrimination or ostracization from colleagues, friends, families, and dictionaries. Japanese Twitter user @_Fromage_, though, who revealed his sexuality and his long-term partner to his family during a stay in hospital, was pleasantly surprised by his mother’s heart-warming reaction.
https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/1017751509038030849
“When I became ill and had to go into hospital, I called my family and my partner. There, for the first time, I told them that I was gay and introduced them to my partner of six years,” @__Fromage__ recounts. “My sister just laughed and said that she’d known, and my mum giggled and hid her face. That day, there was no more mention of the subject, but the next day I got a message from my mum.”
The mother’s message was:
“About him, and about him being your close friend, the one who gets you, I completely understand. He seems like a really nice guy. To tell the truth, I’m actually relieved that you have someone like that.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a boy or a girl. It must have been hard to find the timing to tell me, though. In the past, people doing what they actually wanted to do must have been really hard, but the times have changed. As much as I miss some parts of the olden days, I would never deny anyone the right to follow their heart. If you make each other happy, that’s the most important thing.
First, get to know each other, then I truly hope that your partner can become the person who knows and understands you best.”
Other Twitter users, some of whom had less positive reactions, were all supportive and praised @_Fromage_’s mother for her kind and thoughtful words and treatment of a son she clearly loves dearly.
“What an amazing family! Make sure you look after them, and your boyfriend!”
“I hope I can be as good a mum to my sons.”
“What a great mum…Some parents don’t care if they don’t know anything about their kids, but she obviously wants to know and be involved in everything. Such a cool family.”
“‘I would never deny anyone the right to follow their heart’”. ‘What a fantastic thing to say. I hope we can all learn from that mother that can respect everyone’s rights as individuals, even her own kids.”
“That’s real love, I think I might cry.”
Hopefully, @_Fromage_’s open-minded mother’s words will inspire other parents to remember what’s important and help other people to come out to their friends and families and it shows that support for gay relationships in Japan isn’t limited to its youth or its temples.
Source: Twitter/@_Fromage_ via Jin
Top image: Pakutaso
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/07/19/gay-japanese-twitter-user-comes-out-to-family-mothers-response-moves-twitter-to-tears/feed/ 0 419808 iPhone7katate_TP_V We go to Kyushu’s Miyazaki Prefecture to feel like giants in (on?) a tiny party train【Photos】 https://soranews24.com/2018/07/19/we-go-to-kyushus-miyazaki-prefecture-to-feel-like-giants-in-on-a-tiny-party-train%e3%80%90photos%e3%80%91/ https://soranews24.com/2018/07/19/we-go-to-kyushus-miyazaki-prefecture-to-feel-like-giants-in-on-a-tiny-party-train%e3%80%90photos%e3%80%91/#comments Wed, 18 Jul 2018 15:00:37 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=419502 
Going slightly loco-motive in the stunning scenery of Japan’s southern Kyushu island, with bubbles!
Takachiho, in the northern part of Miyazaki Prefecture, is known the place where myths and legends dwell. While there are plenty of spots like Takachiho Gorge or Takachiho Shrine to appreciate both the stunning scenery and consider the legends of the Japanese gods, there’s a way to admire them that’s become hugely popular in the form of the Takachiho Amaterasu Railway’s “supercart,” and we had to go and discover what all the fuss was about.
The name of the railway, Amaterasu, is the name of the Shinto goddess of the sun and according to mythology the current Emperor’s great-great-great (and then a few more greats)-grandmother. What kind of train would a railway company with that name run? Perhaps a stately wooden shrine on wheels, manned exclusively by conductor-monks, and sedately running through the beautiful countryside to an accompaniment of jingly bells? Since the train we would be taking was called the Grand Supercart, maybe not.
While the railway line stopped transporting passengers in 2005, the line is now run as a tourist attraction where visitors can take in the breathtaking scenery or even try driving one of the railways’ old diesel locomotives.
Unlike the diesel train driving experience though, the supercart doesn’t require booking in advance, and you don’t need to buy a ticket for a specific time either. Our Japanese-language reporter Masanuki Sunakoma rocked up at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon and after purchasing his ticket for 1,300 yen (US$12) discovered that the next train he could ride would be just a 20-minute wait, although it’s supposed to be much busier during the summer holidays.
Incidentally, on the same day, hiring a rowing boat in the nearby Takachiho Gorge (2,000 yen for 30 minutes) had a two-and-a-half-hour wait, so those waiting about for a boat would have plenty of time to fit in the super cart ride as well.
What to do while you wait? Our writer plumped for Amaterasu udon noodles at 500 yen at the station cafe, bemused by the auspicious name of the dish and also of the cafe, Miracolo, the Italian for miracle. Unfortunately, there were no St. Peter pancakes, Solomon sandwiches or Odin omelettes to accompany it.
Having finished his repast, the time for the train’s arrival was drawing near. Other passengers started to turn up, and then it came.
Daubed in garish pink, the supercart pulled into the little station, completely unlike anything we’d expected from a railway with such a sacred name. Takachiho may be the town where gods dwell, but this mode of transport is unusual to say the least, eschewing stately grandeur for a train seemingly more at home in a children’s play park or shopping centre.
Following the driver’s instructions and clambering into, or more accurately onto, the miniature-sized train, our writer was pleasantly surprised. He had a sense of size and power in the tiny train as usually only granted by dressing up as Godzilla and stamping around on cardboard skyscrapers, or sticking four Kit Kat Chunky bars together to form a jumbo-version of the standard bar. The thirty passengers took to their seats, and with a rush of anticipation, the supercart started to pull away from the platform on its journey into the mythical landscape of Takachiho.
The train journey takes you on a two-and-a-half-kilometre (1.6-mile) trp from Takachiho station to the Takachiho railway bridge, and then back again, taking about 30 minutes. With no roof on the miniature train, our writer was able to feel the refreshing breeze in his hair as he zipped along, then suddenly a tunnel appeared and…
The roof of the tunnel was lit up like a disco, as our writer was transported instantly from the tranquil view of green hills and forests to a church of dance with bright colours swaming around him. Outside the tunnel again, the driver resumed his double-duties as tour guide, explaining some of the history and highlights of this part of the world. Another tunnel approached, but this time the train exited to reveal…
…the Takachiho railway bridge, said to have been the tallest in Asia at the time it first opened to trains back in 1972. The train paused for a moment for the driver to warn passengers that in cases of strong winds, the train would have to turn back. Fortunately, lady luck was on our writer’s side and there was barely a zephyr to be felt. With an all too clear view of the very solid-looking ground, sharp rocks and water far below, the supercart rolled forwards, until coming to a stop in the middle of the crossing.
The distance from the open-topped mini-train to the surface of the water in the gorge below is 105 metres (344 feet), more than a 30-storey tall building. The train started off again, with the driver filling the air with a stream of bubbles from a device next to him. Despite the knocking of his knees, our writer discovered that the enchanting view explained the reason why people must have thought the gods lived here, as the green, dream-like scenery spread in every direction. Stunning as it was, it’s supposed to be even prettier still during the mountain cherry blossom season in spring, or as the leaves change colour in autumn.
On the way back our writer was again amazed and filled with child-like delight by the torrents of bubbles and the tunnel light shows, but all too soon his super-cart super-adventure was over.
The supercart runs about ten times a day, with extra trains on Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays and during the obon summer holidays. After alighting from the supercart, you can even go and see its big brother, one of the trains that made up the now-closed railway line’s carriage stock. Well worth a trip to Kyushu, especially as the island is a world away from the hustle and bustle of the Kanto or Kansai conurbations and home to so much of Japan’s most stunning scenery.
Location information:
Takachiho Amaterasu Railway / 高千穂あまてらす鉄道
Address: Miyazaki-ken, Nishiusuki-gun, Takachiho, Mitai 1425-1
宮崎県西臼杵郡高千穂町三田井1425-1
Open 10 a.m.–4 p.m. (from 9.20 a.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays from 1 March to 30 November and during Golden Week and the obon summer holiday).
Closed the third Thursday of every month (unless it falls in Golden Week or the obon summer holiday)
Photos: ©SoraNews24
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/07/19/we-go-to-kyushus-miyazaki-prefecture-to-feel-like-giants-in-on-a-tiny-party-train%e3%80%90photos%e3%80%91/feed/ 0 419502 sora10 Rain’s age of tyranny is over as we get back the use of our hands with an umbrella hat https://soranews24.com/2018/06/27/rains-age-of-tyranny-is-over-as-we-get-back-the-use-of-our-hands-with-an-umbrella-hat/ https://soranews24.com/2018/06/27/rains-age-of-tyranny-is-over-as-we-get-back-the-use-of-our-hands-with-an-umbrella-hat/#comments Wed, 27 Jun 2018 13:00:14 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=417365 
Stay dry if not necessarily stylish, even as rainy season does its worst with a giant umbrella hat.
While most Olympic medals for cycling go to other countries, the true kings and queens of cycling are the Japanese. Phone in one hand, umbrella in the other, people here can reach breakneck speeds while dodging pedestrians left, right and centre on a single gear bike. That’s not even counting the ones who do the exact same thing but with a small child seated fore and aft. Most of us though have to give up a hand in order to hold an umbrella when cycling or even just walking, or at least we had to for now there’s a hands-free rain-proofing solution in the form of an umbrella hat actually large enough to keep you dry.
While the lady in the picture above isn’t trying to cycle, she is trying to carry her heavy shopping bags home on a rainy day. In the before photo she laments having to give up a hand to lug around an umbrella when she needs them both to manage her groceries. In the after image, her hands are free to carry her stuff or even to get her car keys out without getting soaked or having to resort to trying to balance the umbrella under her chin. It’s truly mind-boggling that we don’t all already own and wear these magical devices on a daily basis.
With a diameter of about 95 centimetres (a little over 3 feet), the head-worn umbrella will keep more than just your head dry. The raindrop pattern on the exterior means your umbrella will look just as good, or bad, whatever the weather.
Think of what you’d be able to do with both your hands freed up! While the advertising above suggests gardening, fishing and photography, the possibilities are near-endless. You could read manga, juggle, or use both knife and fork while keeping dry. Perfect for British-style rained-out barbecues.
Even on a sunny day the atamabrella, a portmanteau of atama, the Japanese word for head, and umbrella, comes in handy acting as a parasol whether you’re out and about or just paying homage to a classic album cover.
The atamabrellas are available through the Thanko ‘Rare items’ online shop (the same people who have previously opened our eyes to the wonders of nose-trimming smartphone attachments and clip-on armpit fans) for 1,280 yen (US$11.65) including tax. If you haven’t been sold on the concept, just remember that in the umbrella crime-ridden country of Japan, it’s pretty difficult to have your umbrella stolen when it’s physically attached to your head. And if the atamabrella is far too conventional for your tastes, Japan also has samurai sword or cabbage-shaped umbrellas for you to choose from to stop you from getting wet.
Source, images: Thanko
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/06/27/rains-age-of-tyranny-is-over-as-we-get-back-the-use-of-our-hands-with-an-umbrella-hat/feed/ 0 417365 rsz_hdumbhat-rakuten Japanese Twitter explains why plump sofas, and girls, are better than skinny ones https://soranews24.com/2018/06/26/japanese-twitter-explains-why-plump-sofas-and-girls-are-better-than-skinny-ones/ https://soranews24.com/2018/06/26/japanese-twitter-explains-why-plump-sofas-and-girls-are-better-than-skinny-ones/#comments Mon, 25 Jun 2018 16:00:05 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=417244 
Japanese Twitter user utilises photos to explain their love of girls with a little junk in the trunk, or loot in the boot.
The majority of fashion magazines and television channels may sing the praises of slim girls with skinny waists but one Japanese Twitter user has used photos to make a clever comparison and explain the appeal of a girl, or even a guy, with a little more meat on their frame.
▼ Does this count as objectifying women?
https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/1008679737206509568
‘I’m often asked what’s so good about a slightly chubby ‘pocchari’ girl, so here’s an explanation that’s easy to understand.’
Twitter user @aki_hie offers up two photographs. On the left, the bare bones of a sofa; denuded of its cushions so that only the wooden frame remains. On the right, a sumptously soft looking tubby sofa. Which one would you rather lie on top of?
The term “pocchari” isn’t equivalent to the English fat though (that’s “debu”), but to a slightly rounded plump, like a kind of puppy fat look. @aki_hie is far from the only one to find themselves enamoured with pocchari girls who might not fit the stereotypical image of female beauty, with a trend in recent years that has seen pocchari celebrities like Naomi Watanabe and cafes that cater to people who like cute, plump girls.
Given the replies to the tweet above, a fair number of fans were willing to vocally support the pocchari love.
‘That’s so true!’
‘Ah, a lover of large women!’
‘That explains everything, the skinny one just looks uncomfortable.’
‘I used to know a girl who looked just like the one on the right.’
‘Yes! Now I have another excuse to snack! I was on a diet until I saw this!’
While @aki_hie extolls the virtues of plump girls in the comparison, we’re hoping the logic also applies to men: more is more when there’s more of you to love, right? Perhaps those fans were less inclined to take to Twitter to declare their love, presumably far too busy roving the tonkatsu restaurants of Japan for their ideal man.
Fat, thin, or somewhere in the middle, it’s nice to think that there’s someone out there for everyone. Of course, lovers and sofas are very different – one supports you and makes you happy, with your mutual love and fit growing stronger with time. The other one is…your lover. When it comes to sofas though, at least you know where you sit with them.
Source: Twitter/@aki_hie via Hachimakiko
Top image: Pakutaso
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/06/26/japanese-twitter-explains-why-plump-sofas-and-girls-are-better-than-skinny-ones/feed/ 0 417244 rsz_sayapaku5460_tp_v We try 7-Eleven Japan’s latest fancy desserts: ice cream macarons【Taste test】 https://soranews24.com/2018/06/21/we-try-7-eleven-japans-latest-fancy-desserts-ice-cream-macarons%e3%80%90taste-test%e3%80%91/ https://soranews24.com/2018/06/21/we-try-7-eleven-japans-latest-fancy-desserts-ice-cream-macarons%e3%80%90taste-test%e3%80%91/#comments Thu, 21 Jun 2018 14:00:06 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=416568 
Meringue meets ice cream in convenience store chain’s latest summer-themed dessert offering.
While the temperature and humidity is still bearable, at least here in Kansai, summer is coming. While frantically fanning yourself and putting a bag of frozen edamame beans down your T-shirt are both excellent ways to try to beat the heat, cold drinks and ice creams are a rather more enjoyable way to fight off the high temperatures. To that end we decided it was high time to sample the luxurious new macaron ice creams available from 7-Eleven. It’s practically a public service announcement.
The new macaron ices, as they’re officially known, come in two different flavours, chocolate mint and mixed berry, each sandwiched in the crisp, sugary meringue goodness of two differently coloured macarons for desserts that hopefully taste as good as they look.
▼ Chocolat, because it tastes fancier when you spell it the French way.
With Herculean effort we were able to artfully place the first of the two ice creams on a plate to take a photo before snaffling it down, in the interests of a proper food review, you understand. Our first impression when we opened the cool-green packaging was the refreshing smell of mint that poured out. Our appetites were well and truly whetted.
The mint-flavoured ice cream is capped by a vivid blue mint macaron on one side, and a rich brown chocolate macaron on the other. Despite the notorious fragility of meringue-based macarons ours seemed to have survived their frozen journey intact. As for the taste, the mint of the ice cream was cool but not overpowering and the macarons were sweet yet thanks to the ice cream not sickly.
Next up was the Mix Berry and its gaudy pink and purple macarons. Again, opening the packet released a strong summery fragrance, this time of berries. The pink macaron was strawberry-flavoured and the purple one tasted of blueberries, while the ice cream is also strawberry for a full berry blast. The slight citric tang of the berry flavour and the creaminess of the strawberry ice cream complement the macarons nicely without being too much. The two elements also add to the sated feeling you get from eating just one of them, not too bad when they come in at a not-unreasonable 153 calories each.
Seven Eleven clearly have an eye on capturing the taste buds and shutter clicks of the Instagram generation, as these sweets definitely have photogenic good looks, seemingly designed to grace a fair number of profile and background pictures across social media, with the delicious mix of sweet macaron and creamy ice cream.
Convenience stores in other countries might not be known for their quality or taste, with a stereotype of convenience that makes up for other shortcomings, but here in Japan a trip to a convenience store and a look at the limited-edition goodies on sale will soon have you reconsidering that, with delicious offerings from all of the main chains.
On the packaging the words FROZEN TREATS apparently warrant capitalisation, and they’re not wrong, they are both frozen and a treat that satisfies both our sweet tooths and our dislike of overheating. The new ice cream treats went on sale on 12 June and sell for 248 yen (US$2.30) each including tax and are our latest weapon in the fight to keep cool, and happy. Also, if you need more tips to survive the four-month long heatwave that is Japanese summer you’re in the right place.
Photos ©SoraNews24
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/06/21/we-try-7-eleven-japans-latest-fancy-desserts-ice-cream-macarons%e3%80%90taste-test%e3%80%91/feed/ 0 416568 rsz_14 10 reasons real life is like a terrible kusoge video game https://soranews24.com/2018/06/20/10-reasons-real-life-is-like-a-terrible-kusego-video-game/ https://soranews24.com/2018/06/20/10-reasons-real-life-is-like-a-terrible-kusego-video-game/#comments Tue, 19 Jun 2018 15:00:29 +0000 http://soranews24.com/?p=416409 
It might have been made into a board game, but here are 10 reasons why the game of life shouldn’t get a PC or console port.
While life may be like a box of chocolates, for some people it’s that box where someone has taken all the good ones and left you with the sickly strawberry, probably half-melted ones. There’s a reason that computer games, an interactive form of escapism from hardship or the humdrum, are so popular and a superior choice to real life, as Japanese Twitter user @monayoooo explains with a full ten reasons why life would not be a game worth making.
https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/1006875802460348417
1. You can’t just keep resetting.
How many times have you made a mistake or embarrassed yourself and thought how good it would be if you could just start all over again? Unfortunately, unlike with gaming you can’t just press a button in order to try again.
2. You can’t choose your character’s appearance.
While in many RPGs you can spend hours customising your avatar to resemble the person you think, or hope, you are, in life you have far fewer choices. See that meat sack you’re wearing? You might be able to tone it up a bit, or inject nerve-deadening poisons into assorted bits, but as the saying goes, you can’t polish a turd. Although if online MMORPGs are anything to go by, that might be for the best, otherwise the world would be beset by unfeasibly large-bosomed, thin-waisted young girls and muscle-bound barbarians, and that would just be the guys.
▼ In life, there are some people who are winners, always rolling sixes, and then there are some people who…
3. You can’t save.
With rare exceptions, there are no real-life save points. Resetting may have been the first item on this list but there can’t be many of us who really want to go through the first few months, or even our teenage years, all over again. Having a save point would let us safeguard ourselves before taking the plunge and doing something risky, whether brave or just stupid. Yet again though, real life disappoints.
4. Your abilities are less important than your face.
The person who compiled this may have a bit of a chip on their shoulder, or their forehead, but they’re not wrong that the real world pays far more attention to looks than games do. Would a real-life Princess Peach have been quite so happy to have been rescued by a vertically challenged, overweight, working-class plumber with a fondness for magic mushrooms?
5. You have zero remaining lives.
Unlike computer games and cats, and possibly Buddhists, you only have the one life left. Games can have you jumping from cliff to cliff, or climbing up the outside of buildings, or challenging a ten-foot carnivorous monster to fisticuffs. Real life has rolling on the floor when you stub your toe or step on a piece of Lego.
6. If you choose the wrong path, you can’t turn back, only go forwards.
As video games have become more complex, there’s the illusion of freedom, massive free-to-explore game areas that will slowly draw you back into the main story arc in their own sweet time. There’s no such thing as going the wrong way, you can always head back and in many cases a compass will help point you in the right direction. Back in the real world, job-hunting is just one example of where that would be handy.
7. Defeat your enemy and you end up defeating yourself (socially).
In games, your enemies fall before you and your mighty gun/axe/slippery banana/fireballs, but in the real world knock your enemy over and things can get very tricky, probably with some legal unpleasantness.
8. The difficulty level for job-changing is just wrong.
Unfortunately there are very few job seminars for warrior monk, paladin, or space ship pilot. Particularly in Japan it can be hard to change careers once you’ve started. Like appearances, @monayoooo is a bit salty about the ease with which people can get stuck in a work rut, but then again very few jobs as a treasure hunter or wandering street fighter come with a pension and paid holidays so you can’t fault real life too much.
9. Even if you put tens of thousands of hours into your work, it’s hard to be promoted.
While practice makes perfect you don’t get nice easy XP for turning up to work. Your rivals also have the ability to level up as fast as you, meaning beating them for the lofty rank of Level 2 Data Processor isn’t as simple as it is in virtual land, especially if you don’t drink.
10. Completing the game is also game over.
There are no credits scrolling or a bonus movie to watch when you finally get to the end, or moving on to the next title in the franchise. That’s it.
Other Twitter users seemed to support the idea that life would make for a rubbish game:
‘Not being able to save, not even once every ten years or so, is the harshest.’
‘In real life your avatar is always randomly generated.’
‘I just think how lucky I am that my spawn point was Japan.’
‘You can level up, until you get to about 20 and then it’s just leveling down.’
‘There isn’t a reset button but there is a power off button.’
‘At least it has loads of fun mini-games though!’
Like games though, real life does come with a list of achievements you can try to complete. Like most people, I’ve managed some I’m pretty proud of, and some I’m less proud ofm but despite the cynicism in this Twitter user’s list I’m looking forward to racking up plenty more before the screen fades to black.
Stay tuned until the next article which will detail the 11 reasons why real life is so much better than gaming, an article we’ll get around to writing as soon as we get to the next save point, just a little bit longer…
Source: Twitter/@monayoooo via Jin
Top image: Palutaso
Insert image: Pixabay
]]> https://soranews24.com/2018/06/20/10-reasons-real-life-is-like-a-terrible-kusego-video-game/feed/ 1 416409 rsz_vryaruman0i9a4606_tp_v