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North Korean officials, Gaddafi and more get the heavy metal treatment from talented guitarist

ANDRES OLIVER
Feb 27, 2015
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A while back, Japanese politician Ryutaro Nonomura captured the world’s attention after a surreal outburst at a press conference regarding his alleged misuse of taxpayers’ money. No doubt seeing fertile ground for comedy, one creative musician then made Nonomura the stuff of Internet legend by setting the man’s sobs to a guitar track.

Guitarist Felix Martin and his talented collaborators operate under a similar concept, setting guitar, drums, and bass to speeches from North Korean officials, Hugo Chavez, and others. This project isn’t for laughs, though. With an ear for the rhythm and pitch of the spoken word, not to mention masterful heavy metal stylings, Martin and company elevate the aptly named Human Transcription project to the realm of art. Politics and propaganda have never sounded so good.

North Korea, USA
(cool • language • music • video • YouTube)

Japan has eggs that smell and taste like yuzu citrus fruit, and they’re amazing!

Casey Baseel
Feb 20, 2015

In a lot of ways, eggs are a pretty wonderful food. Cheap and versatile, they’re just about the quickest and easiest route to a hot, filling meal that’s high in protein and low in calories.

But while eggs may taste great, they don’t quite measure up to the standards set by other breakfast staples in the aroma department, such as sizzling bacon or freshly sliced grapefruit. Unless, of course, you’ve got your hands on some of these special eggs from Kochi Prefecture that smell, and taste, like yuzu, one of Japan’s most delicious citrus fruits. And yes, the scent is all natural.

Japan
(cool • eggs • food • fruit • Meg • yuzu)

After 23 years, Sailor Moon figures are more amazing than ever at Wonder Festival 【Photos】

Casey Baseel
Feb 14, 2015

We recently made the trip out to Chiba Prefecture for the winter 2015 iteration of Wonder Festival, where we could have spent all day admiring the awesome anime, video game, and movie cosplay going on. But as eye-catching as the outfits were, Wonder Festival is actually an event for showcasing new figures and models, and taking a look around the booths taught us something about the anime industry.

Trends may come and go, but Sailor Moon is here to stay. More than two decades after the phenomenally successful magical girl series made its anime debut, modelers are still making new figures based on its characters, and they’ve only gotten better in the twenty-plus years they’ve had to practice.

Japan
(anime • cool • figures • models • Sailor Moon • toys)

Artist makes cool Gundam, tanks, and rifles out of Amazon boxes to show they’re all secretly cute

Casey Baseel
Feb 12, 2015

You can use the phrase “paper tiger” to describe someone or something that’s not as tough as it appears to be, but you could conjure up the same image just as easily with a different pair of words. For example, “cardboard tank” seems like it could serve the same linguistic purpose. So could “cardboard Gundam” or “cardboard M16,” for that matter.

But while those might not be as powerful as their original, non-cardboard forms, they are all incredibly awesome when made out of corrugated cardboard, as proven by the creations of artist Monami Ono, who makes all those and more out of cardboard boxes from Amazon.

Japan
(anime • art • cardboard • cool • crafts • Gundam • modelling)

Awesome wooden Dragon Ball mugs let you knock back a soda like Goku (or a beer like Master Roshi)

Casey Baseel
Feb 11, 2015

Training to be the mightiest martial artist in the galaxy is thirsty work. But when you’re feeling parched after a hard day of kicking through solid rock and firing kamehameha energy blasts from your hands, doesn’t it seem just a bit below your station in life to drink from the same sort of glass as people who haven’t forged their bodies into a weapon on par with the finest blades of tempered steel?

The solution to that dilemma is one of these awesome wooden Dragon Ball mugs.

Japan
(anime • cool • Dragon Ball • drinks • toys)

New batch of socks with collars adds sailor suit style for your feet, plus lace and button-downs

Casey Baseel
Jan 30, 2015

A few months ago, we took a look at a collection of truly unique socks that took their styling cues from shirts by providing cute and quirky collars for your ankles. The offbeat idea seems to have found a market, as manufacturer Erimaki Sox is back again with three new designs that add extra femininity, button-down class, and even some sailor suit-style playfulness.

Japan
(cool • cute • fashion • funny • socks)

Japan’s Sparkling Macarons come packed with candies that burst in your mouth, not in your hand

Casey Baseel
Jan 30, 2015

Japan is always up for making snack time more elegant, and one of the country’s favorite indulgences are the dainty disc-shaped confectionaries called macarons.

Being sophisticated doesn’t mean being dour, though. Dessert fans in Japan have no qualms about mixing a little entertainment in with their snacking, which they’ll be able to do in a whole new way now that these carbonated candy macarons have popped onto the sweets scene.

Japan
(cool • food • Fujiya • sweets • weird)

Power of soybeans turns Bean-Throwing Festival into sexy action flick in awesome commercial

Casey Baseel
Jan 30, 2015

Despite being centuries-old, the core traditions of Setsubun can seem as silly as its common English rendering, The Bean-Throwing Festival. Once a year in early February, households across Japan toss roasted soybeans outside their doors, with folklore saying the practice will ensure prosperity for the next 12 months by driving off the ogre-like creatures called oni.

Perhaps the oddest thing is the way the oni are depicted in illustrations and popular culture. Generally obese and clumsy, they seem to present little if any threat, and the fact that they can be undone by a scattering of legumes doesn’t do anything to help them win street cred, either.

But what if the oni improved their eating habits and started hitting the gym? Would that make them terrifying once again? Maybe, but it also just might make them dead sexy, as shown in this stylish Japanese ad.

Japan
(cool • culture • food • setsubun • snacks • SoyJoy • video)

Handy bath pillow doubles as a smartphone holder, might also be giving you a hug

Casey Baseel
Jan 29, 2015

After a long, hard day at work or school, there’s nothing like a nice, hot bath. But then again, a lot of people also like to unwind by kicking back and sending a few emails, watching a video or two, or perusing the Internet’s most profound sources of knowledge on their smartphone.

Rather than choose between the two options, some people opt to take their phone into the tub with them. But if you’re so tired you’re craving two indulgences at once, having to grip your phone in your hand while you soak can really put a damper on maximizing your rejuvenating/loafing time.

So instead of doing that job yourself, why not get one of these inflatable bath pillows that double as a smartphone holder to do it for you?

Japan
(bath • cool • interior • Smartphones • technology)

Web series’ anime arsenal expands with real-life version of Kill la Kill’s Scissor Blade【Video】

Casey Baseel
Jan 29, 2015

You really have to respect the skills of the team behind Man at Arms and its successor Man at Arms Reforged. It was impressive enough when the web series’ blacksmiths were taking on projects as iconic or massive as The Legend of Zelda’s Master Sword or Final Fantasy VII’s Masamune. The craftsmen have since moved on to even more complicated designs, such as the gunblade from Final Fantasy VIII and Fierce Deity Sword from Majora’s Mask.

Now, Man at Arms Reforged is back with what might be its most unique creation yet, the Scissor Blade from cult hit anime Kill la Kill, made from materials as unusual as the school supply inspiration of the weapon itself.

Japan
(anime • awesome • cool • cosplay • crafts • Kill la Kill • Man at Arms Reforged)

Tokyo Disney Resort’s amazing customer service includes safety checks of guests’ cars

Casey Baseel
Jan 28, 2015

Aside from the costumed characters and colorful parades, one of the things that makes Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea so popular is the stellar customer service they offer. Even in a country where service is almost universally prompt and polite, the Tokyo Disney Resort goes above and beyond the norm in providing an unrivaled level of hospitality to guests.

As a matter of fact, Tokyo Disney Resort employees are so dedicated that not only will they make sure you enjoy yourself during your stay, they’ll even help ensure you have a safe trip home, as one park attendee recently found out when the parking lot staff performed a spot check of her car and alerted her to a potential safety hazard.

Japan
(cars • cool • Disney • Disney Sea • theme parks • Toyko Disneyland)

Autistic teen artist creates masterful sketches with help of photographic memory

Mike
Jan 26, 2015

Sixteen-year-old Yap Hanzhen of Malaysia apparently suffered through a childhood in which even the most simple of communications was difficult. Hanzhen’s parents say he barely spoke through most of his adolescence.

Like many children who display difficulties communicating during early development, Yap turned out to have a form of autism – a fact that his parents struggled to convince doctors and child psychologists, who were apparently quick to presume simple bad parenting as the source of young Yap’s speech difficulties.

In taking the special needs care of their young son into their own hands, Yap’s parents gave him a sketch book and pencil to help him associate thumbnail drawings with words for everyday objects, inadvertently nurturing a latent talent that would eventually see Yap touring the world, showing off his extraordinary drawings.

SE Asia
(art • autism • cool • education)

We swear you’ve never seen Tokyo like this before 【Video】

KK Miller
Jan 26, 2015

Art can appear in the strangest of places and what qualifies as art is as wide and as varied as the works themselves. So, what about a city? Can a city be art? You might not think so, but artist darwinfish105 is about to prove you wrong with his breathtaking shots of Tokyo.

You are about to see the largest city in the world change into a futuristic technological metropolis. In addition, all of this is accomplished with just a camera and some mirrors.

Japan
(art • cool • photography • time-lapse • Tokyo)

Tokyo University campus has its own sushi restaurant where great dining meets higher education

Casey Baseel
Jan 26, 2015

No matter how scholastically talented you are, it’s hard to concentrate on an empty stomach. Even the bright minds at Tokyo University, Japan’s most prestigious institute of higher learning, need to take a break from studying and grab some chow now and again.

Of course, it’s hard to give yourself a mental recharge eating bland cafeteria food. Thankfully, that’s not a concern for the students of Tokyo University’s Kashiwa Campus, who’re lucky enough to have an amazing sushi restaurant right on the school grounds.

Japan
(alcohol • cool • education • food • restaurants • sake • sushi)

The City of Angels is now the City of Samurai with Los Angeles museum’s awesome armor exhibition

Casey Baseel
Jan 25, 2015

Like clockwork, every winter I get a serious bout of home-sickness. It’s usually triggered by a call or email from someone back home telling me about taking a drive with the top down, watching football on ordinary broadcast TV, going out for some Vietnamese sandwiches, or one of the other things I miss about life in Los Angeles.

“But,” I remind myself, “Japan has lots of cool things too! Where else can you go to the museum and see massive collections of samurai armor, huh?”

Oh, right now you can do that at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art? Touché, L.A.

Japan
(art • cool • culture • events • history • Los Angeles • museums • samurai)

Japanese village converted into gorgeous open-air museum makes an easy day-trip escape from Tokyo

Casey Baseel
Jan 24, 2015

There’s a lot to love about Tokyo. Aside from the sheer energy of being the most bustling metropolis in Japan, it’s home to some amazing modern attractions, like the Skytree, Ebisu Beer Museum, and RocketNews24 offices.

Still, even we can appreciate the occasional longing for a simpler, slower-paced time. Thankfully, even if you don’t have a time machine, as long as you have access to the capital’s outstanding public transportation network, you can catch a glimpse of Japan’s traditional rural lifestyle at this beautiful open-air museum of thatched-roof houses that’s an easy half-day trip from Tokyo.

Japan
(architecture • beautiful • cool • culture • museums • travel • Yamanashi)

Cosplay as Sailor Moon’s classmates with official uniforms of the anime heroines’ schools

Casey Baseel
Jan 22, 2015

When most anime fans think of the core cast members of Sailor Moon Crystal, they picture them in their sailor-style combat suits. But while they do indeed don those brightly color-coded getups when it’s time to do battle with the forces of evil, the teen heroines spend most of their week dressed in the uniforms of ordinary junior high students.

If you’ve ever wanted to cosplay not as Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, or Venus, but as their alternate non-magical girl identities, now’s your chance, as you can now buy official uniforms of the schools attended by the Sailor Senshi.

Japan
(anime • cool • cosplay • fashion • manga • Sailor Moon)

Steampunk cosplay accessory that makes our heart go boom boom boom

KK Miller
Jan 22, 2015

What do steampunk fashion and a heart monitor have in common? Usually, nothing. But throw in a garter belt and you’ve got yourself a creative and original piece of fashion fusing seemingly incompatible objects. Read on to check out this awesome steampunk cosplay accessory!

Japan
(cool • cosplay • DIY • steampunk)

Burn baby burn! The Shinto inferno of Japan’s Dondo Yaki ceremony

Casey Baseel
Jan 22, 2015

When entering the grounds of a Shinto shrine in Japan, it’s customary to first stop by the water basin near the gate and rinse your hands, and sometimes your mouth, in order to cleanse them. Water isn’t the only classical element held to have purifying properties in Shintoism, though, since the same can be said about fire.

Obviously, worshippers aren’t called upon to put fire on their palms or inside their mouths. Instead, Shinto priests light pyres of charms and decorations during the Dondo Yaki ceremony, with the towering blazes regularly reaching 15 meters (49.2 feet) into the air.

Japan
(awesome • cool • crazy • culture • festivals • shinto • shrines)

Expat’s video says “Welcome to My Japan,” and you ought to take him up on the awesome invitation

Casey Baseel
Jan 21, 2015

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who moved to Japan and stayed for exactly two years. Most of the study and work opportunities that initially bring people here are 12-month programs, and while plenty of people decide that’s enough Japan for them, most people who manage to adapt and thrive during that first year reup for an even longer stay.

One such example is Canadian Thomas Simmons, who’s now been in Japan for four and a half years and counting. Given the country’s relatively small geographic size, you might think that’s enough time to see everything, but as the powerful video Simmons created about his experiences so far shows, he’s just getting started with his life in Japan.