SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.

Featured

Weird
Studio Ghibli
Jobs

animals (Page 41)

Kitties wrestle before bedtime in their cat-sized futon【Video】

Jamie Koide
Oct 22, 2015
Tweet

Cats have a reputation for being solitary creatures, but that isn’t always the case, as proven by a recent video uploaded to popular Japanese video-sharing site, Niconico Douga.

Taken by a proud cat parent, the video, which features two kitties turning in for the night in a cat-sized futon, is sure to put a smile on your face.

Internet, Japan
(animals • cats • cute • futon • Niconico Douga • video)

This adorable tubby bunny wants to pole-dance for you【GIF】

Oona McGee
Oct 21, 2015

When we’re down in the dumps, there’s nothing like a cute animal to get us back in a good mood. While cats are the undisputed overlords of internet animal therapy, there’s one little bunny that’s bringing a smile to thousands of Twitter users in Japan with nothing but some adorable dancing skills and a pole.

Japan
(animals • animation • cute • funny • GIF • rabbits)

“No dogs allowed”: Why one service dog was refused entrance to these restaurants in Japan

Meg Murphy
Oct 16, 2015

It was Saturday, October 3 when a hearing-impaired woman and her service dog, a hearing dog for the deaf, attended an event promoting the awareness of service dogs at the Hankyu department store at Hankyu-Umeda Station in Osaka. After the event, the unnamed woman, her dog, and a friend went for a bite to eat at one of the restaurants located inside the same department store on the same floor as the event. Ironically enough, and much to the surprise of the woman, a member of staff stopped her from entering the restaurant, stating that animals were not allowed inside.

The woman’s friend pulled out a guidebook about hearing dogs for the deaf, trying to explain that the dog wasn’t a pet but an animal trained to assist its owner. The staff still refused, however, and the pair finally gave up and went elsewhere, thinking that it must have just been an unfortunate misunderstanding. Perhaps this was just one uninformed staff member who didn’t realize service animals are actually allowed in public places, they thought.

But even at the next restaurant they were turned away yet again…

Japan
(animals • deafness • disabilities • dogs • hearing dog • service dogs)

Cat caught with grass up his nose adds a little humor to Japanese Twitter

Jamie Koide
Oct 16, 2015

Over the past few days, this photo has become an instant Twitter favorite. But what exactly is going on with this cat? It appears he’s got some grass stuck up his nose.

Can you guess why? We’ve got the answer after the jump.

Japan
(animals • cat grass • cats • cute • funny • pets)

Japanese restaurant’s mouth-watering bento lunch models entice adorably hungry kitty 【Photos】

Casey Baseel
Oct 15, 2015

Many foreigners who travel to Japan are relieved to find that it’s common for restaurants here to have a display window filled with plastic models of the food they serve, which is a huge help in getting around the language barrier. That’s not really why restaurants have them, though. After all, the potential number of foreign customers is a drop in the bucket compared to the native Japanese population that has no trouble reading the menu or placing an order.

The real reason for those plastic models is that they catch the eye and stimulate the appetite of passersby, be they foreign tourist, local resident, or adorable cat.

Japan
(animals • bento • cats • cute • food models • funny • restaurants)

Wall dogs: Pups poking their heads through holes wanting to join you on your walkies 【Pics】

Oona McGee
Oct 13, 2015

When we recently came across an adorable Shiba Inu peering out of a wall of shrubbery and an Akita dog poking his nose out of a hole in the wall, we figured these were one-off, rare sightings, much like the sight of a hedgehog riding on the back of a rubber duck or a cat dressed in an elegant kimono.

But it turns out we were just scratching the surface of a well-known pastime in the canine world, which involves dogs of all shapes and sizes squeezing themselves into holes in walls to catch a whiff of what’s going on outside. And no dog is immune to the trend, with bulldogs, collies and beagles getting in on the cute act too!

Japan
(Akita dogs • animals • cute • dogs • Shiba Inu)

Playful leaping cat melts hearts online as it entreats its fellow feline to play

Preston Phro
Oct 8, 2015

An energetic cat can sometimes seem less like a fuzzy animal and more like a spring bouncing wildly around the house. Fortunately, not every cat is so hyperactive, but there certainly plenty that are — and they love attention too! But nothing shows the dichotomy of excitable kitties and lazy cats like these tweets of one Twitter user’s adorable rescue cats.

Cute, Japan
(adopted cats • animals • ballerina • cats • cute • pets • rescue cats)

Japanese cat-shaped curtain rail decorations tie your interior together with feline awesomeness

Casey Baseel
Oct 6, 2015

There comes a time in your life when you realize it’s time to upgrade from the plastic trash bags, newspapers, or dirty T-shirts you’re too lazy to wash that you’ve taped over your windows to block out excess sunlight. Buying some actual curtains is a big step, but it can really help improve the look of your living space, plus marks you as a proper and full-fledged member of drapery-owning adult society.

And while you’re up there hanging those drapes, why not add a set of these adorable napping kitty curtain rail decorations?

Japan
(animals • cats • curtains • cute • interior)

Cute cat’s curiosity kills the Japanese sliding paper door 【Video】

Casey Baseel
Oct 6, 2015

If you’ve ever seen shoji, the sliding wood-framed paper doors that are a common element of traditional Japanese architecture, you’ve probably been overcome by two strong emotions. First, a sense of admiration for the timeless beauty of the elegantly simple aesthetic. Second, a burning desire to know just how hard you can poke that translucent paper before you puncture it.

Poking holes in the shoji paper is a major faux pas, however, and even young kids in Japan know they’re supposed to resist the temptation. It doesn’t look like this kitty got the message, though, as it unleashes its adorably destructive hunting instincts on a defenseless shoji in this video.

Japan
(animals • cats • cute • funny • interior • pets • shoji • video)

Kitty down! But don’t worry, this cat is actually just fishing for hugs 【Photos】

Casey Baseel
Sep 30, 2015

Imagine you’re out and about, strolling around town, when suddenly you come upon one of your fellow citizens sprawled out on the sidewalk. Granted, the fact that it’s not a human, but a cat, would make the situation a little less alarming, but still, you’d be worried right?

That’s how one Japanese Twitter user felt, but it turned out the kitty wasn’t just OK, but adorable too.

Japan
(animals • cats • cute)

This cat’s posture is terrible

Master Blaster
Sep 28, 2015

In Japanese, one word for slouching or stooping over is nekoze or “cat back,” which is a term I never really understood until now. For years (maybe even longer) we humans have been deceived by these creatures into thinking that they’re elegant as they smoothly jump to impressive heights and stealthily crawl along the ground into narrow spaces.

But when it comes time to stand on two legs like you or I often do? Bah! Cats have all the grace and poise of one of those damn teenagers who listen to Ray Parker Jr. on their boomboxes and play Burger Time all damn day on my lawn.

Japan
(animals • cats • cute • funny • pets)

Adorable, whimsical pictures of animals painted by old-school Japanese masters

Krista Rogers
Sep 28, 2015

Japanese ukiyo-e painters from the Edo period (1603-1868) are now famous throughout the world for their exquisite woodblock prints depicting everyday Japanese life and the natural world. Such master painters are less well-known, however, for their humorous contributions to the art world, which often feature whimsical scenes of anthropomorphic animals. Fortunately for us, though, these types of pictures are experiencing a recent wave of popularity among Japanese Internet users, and these images are simply too cute for us to just pass up. We’ve got fish, cats, puppies, monkeys, and a few more surprises from the masters in store for you after the jump!

Japan
(animals • art • cute • paintings • sumi-e • traditional • ukiyo-e • whimsical • woodblock prints)

Luxuriously lounging kitty does not care that you want to play this arcade game

Casey Baseel
Sep 25, 2015

The musical rhythm games that are fixtures at Japanese arcades blur the line between video games and public performance. Even those who don’t see what’s so special about a 10-hit Tekken combo or one-credit shooter play-through can find themselves enthralled with tempo-perfect drumming or dancing, and expert rhythm gamers often garner a crowd of impressed onlookers watching them play.

The audience for this arcade dancer, though, didn’t consist of a throng of people, though, but instead a single kitty.

Japan
(animals • Arcades • cats • cute • funny • video games)

Research from Japanese university claims kissing pets can cause stomach cancer

Scott Wilson
Sep 24, 2015

Who doesn’t love animals? They’re cute, funny, and sometimes you can even use their poop to keep your skin clean!

But now, thanks to a study by a Japanese university, we may want to re-think that last one a bit. According to their research, contact with pets’ bodily fluids, either by kitty kisses or scooping up puppy poops, can significantly increase your risk of stomach cancer.

Japan
(animals • bacteria • cancer • disease • kissing • pets)

In the classic battle of cat versus paper, who will win? 【Video】

Meg Murphy
Sep 21, 2015

Even if you haven’t been with us for very long, it’s not hard to see that we here at RocketNews24 love cats. Big, small, fit, fat, even stretchy, cats of all shapes and sizes win our hearts! We even love them when they’re wreaking havoc on small towns of people, like the devilish little cutie in this feline remake of a man versus monster flick…

Internet
(animals • cats • cute • funny • videos • YouTube)

Tired of cat cafes? It turns out Japan has reptile cafes too!

Casey Baseel
Sep 18, 2015

With cat, rabbit, and owl cafes, Japan has you pretty well-covered as far as furry, fluffy, or feathered companionship goes. But what if you prefer your animals with scales?

Then you’ll want to stop by the reptile cafe, where you can sip tea and nibble on sweets in the company of iguanas, snakes, and tortoises.

Japan
(animals • cafes • reptiles • restaurants • weird • Yokohama)

Fisherman catches unreal-looking fish off the coast of Japan, turns out to be quite harmless

Krista Rogers
Sep 16, 2015

Yikes! What must have been going through the minds of a group of Japanese fishermen when they caught the shocking fish pictured above off the coast of Hokkaido? It’s a face that could keep anyone up at night with that gargantuan, gaping mouth.

Actually, on second thought, the big guy’s kind of growing on us…

Japan
(animals • fish • fishing • Hokkaido • weird)

If I fits, I sits! Adorable kitten playing with tissue box finds even cuter surprise inside

Scott Wilson
Sep 15, 2015

Here at RocketNews24, we love cute animals! From Shiba Inu to fuzzy ferrets to sleepy hamsters, we’ve got your daily dose of d’aww covered. So here is your latest fix: a kitten playing in a tissue box!

But wait! There’s more! This is not your ordinary tissue box. There’s a surprise waiting inside, so read on to see what it is!

Japan
(animals • cats • cute • kittens • pets • video)

Dogs in Japan keep sticking their noses where they don’t belong, are adorable, Akita puppy shows

Casey Baseel
Sep 14, 2015

We tend to think of silly Internet and photo memes as being strictly a human pastime, but is it possible that our pets, in an attempt to further increase their influence over online culture, have decided to get in on the act? The answer may be yes, since after a pair of Shiba Inu captured our hearts by squeezing themselves into narrow garden spaces, this member of the breed’s domestic rival, the Akita dog, is getting in on the trend with a bit of Tetris-style contortionism as he pops out from a garden wall.

Japan
(Akita dogs • animals • cute • dogs • funny • pets)

Would you like paper or plastic for that adorable puppy?【Video】

KK Miller
Sep 11, 2015

Cute and amazing events happen when you least expect them, but the convenience of smart phones makes it possible to capture those special moments no matter where you are. You might see something at a crowded festival or a totally random happenstance as you’re cruising down the street. Just whip out your phone and share away.

It’s no surprise thatoften times, animals are featured in our smart phone camera moments as they are constantly doing the cutest things, like carrying their puppy in a plastic shopping bag.