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Any volunteers to eat at this terrifying cliff-side restaurant?

Mike
May 18, 2014
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It seems the Chinese countryside isn’t exactly a friendly place for people who are afraid of heights. We already talked about the horrifying Huashan path that winds up a cliff side and sometimes narrows to barely perceptible wooden planks hovering out of the fog, but it turns out life-endangering attractions involving great heights are all the rage in China.

This is the cliff-side Fangweng Restaurant, located just north of Yichang City.

China
(cool • food • travel)

Elsa comes to the world of Minecraft in Japanese fan’s shot-for-shot Frozen video

Casey Baseel
May 16, 2014

Years after its first version was released, Minecraft is still captivating gamers around the world. By giving players access to a plethora of Lego-like building blocks, plus a consistent set of rules for how materials interact with one another, the title simultaneously challenges and inspires its fans, who’ve gone on to recreate both real and fictional locations within the game.

Now, one Minecraft enthusiast in Japan has combined his skills in the game with his love of Disney by recreating an entire scene from the animated hit Frozen.

Japan
(cool • Disney • frozen • Minecraft • video games)

Enjoy the perfect glass of beer anytime, anywhere with the “Premium Beer Server GOKUREI”!

Kay
May 16, 2014

Do you love nice, cold beer? If, like us, you’re not averse to enjoying a frosty glass of beer now and then (if not more often), then this gadget may be something you’d want to check out. Takara Tomy A.R.T.S, a subsidiary of major Japanese toy and children’s products manufacturer Takara Tomy, proudly presents the super-cool “Premium Beer Server GOKUREI“. While a beer server may not exactly seem like a conventional product to come out of a toy company, the GOKUREI (literally meaning “extreme cool”) will ensure that you can have the perfect glass of beer at anytime, wherever you are!

Japan
(beer • cool • GOKUREI • Takara Tomy Arts)

Welsh onion umbrella is perfect for vegetarians and Hatsune Miku fans alike

Casey Baseel
May 14, 2014

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine gave me an umbrella with a handle that looks like the hilt of a katana. It’s actually really well-made, while I’ve never had to use the crosspiece to protect my hand from rival swordsmen’s strikes, it does provide a nice bit of extra grip during typhoons and lesser storms with gale-force winds.

There is one problem, though. When it’s closed up, and all you can see is the handle, it looks a little too much like a samurai blade, and I feel a little self-conscious carrying it in public. So maybe it’s time I switched to something a no less unique but a whole lot more innocuous: like an umbrella shaped like a giant Welsh onion.

Taiwan
(cool • fashion • Hatsune Miku • umbrella • weird)

Awesome castle-like café in Shikoku lacks dragons, does have crepes and coffee

Casey Baseel
May 13, 2014

Despite its well-deserved reputation as an extremely hard-working nation, Japan is also a country that knows how to relax. Every city has a number of cafes where you can stop, sip a drink, and soak in the soothing ambiance.

Some of these establishments style themselves after a comfy living room, while others feel more like a stylish library or lounge. Or, if you happen to be in Tokushima Prefecture, there’s the café built into what appears to be a crumbling castle.

Japan
(cafe • castle • cool • restaurants • weird)

Kids today get all the best toys! “Sketch Aquarium” turns doodles into lifelike swimming fish

Krista Rogers
May 12, 2014

Remember all those toys you had as a kid that seemed so cutting-edge at the time? They probably don’t seem quite as exciting any more with all the advances in technology over the years. In fact, you’ll be willing to trade your Furby in a heartbeat once you see what these Japanese kids get to play with nowadays!

Take the “Sketch Aquarium” for example – a play area where children can foster their creative skills by designing a fish and then interact with it in a virtual tank. I wonder if adults are allowed in, too…

Japan
(children • cool • creative • digital aquarium)

Japanese Twitter user discovers the perfect Halloween decoration in the form of…a flower?!

Krista Rogers
May 10, 2014

Who’s afraid of the big bad…flower?! Sure, we’ve seen the pitch-black Turkish rose that would harmonize perfectly with the home decor of any hardcore heavy metal fan…but we never thought that a flower could be downright terrifying! The following pictures posted by one Twitter user prove that Mother Nature has cooked up some pretty creepy recipes. You might even have nightmares after seeing what this certain kind of flower looks like after wilting. On the bright side, you can make a veritable Halloween bouquet!

Internet, Japan
(cool • flowers • scary • skull • snapdragons)

The awesome artwork hiding in the Japanese word processor: sakura, dragons, and sake

Casey Baseel
May 5, 2014

With over 1,800 commonly-used kanji characters, plus two different sets of 46 phonetic characters each, typing on a word processor in Japanese works a little differently than in English. Many words in Japanese have the same pronunciation but are written differently, so first you have to type the word phonetically, then select the proper rendering from a list that pops up.

The cool thing is that sometimes the selections aren’t just written characters, but drawings of the object in question. Poking around in a Japanese word processor is like a linguistic treasure hunt, and our searches turned up illustrations of mythical creatures, delicious food, and famous landmarks of Japan.

Japan
(art • cool • culture • cute • Japanese language • technology)

Kirby’s angry American version re-imported to Japan for the first time

Mike
May 4, 2014

Even as an American, it never occurred to me that the in-game cuteness of the iconic Kirby character doesn’t really carry over to the box art – where he’s typically portrayed as a Pokemon ripoff in need of anger management courses.

Don’t believe us? Take a look at this decade-old print ad for a new Kirby game in the U.S.:

Somewhere down the line, Nintendo America producers decided that Kirby should be portrayed as tough and menacing on American shores in order to appeal to U.S. audiences, who at the time were still in love with macho heroes from the ’80s action movie heydays. Even if the hero in question was a puffy pink ball of cute, Americans apparently craved sheer anger in their main characters – a far cry from the Japanese, who were raised on Kirby as an adorable, smiling murderer that ate his victims whole and gained their power like some fantasy world maniac.

Japan, USA
(cool • cute • nintendo • video games)

New Laputa amulet actually responds when you incant the anime’s magic spells

Casey Baseel
May 1, 2014

Castle of Cagliostro was the first film anime legend Hayao Miyazaki ever directed, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind the first he wrote on his own, but Castle in the Sky Laputa was the first motion picture produced by Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli. As the title suggests, Laputa features a floating civilization, as well as airships, incantations, and magical pendants.

While the flying castle and airships are still as fictional as a catbus or bread-delivering witch, this summer, fans will be able to get their hands on a replica of Laputa’s pendant that reacts when they recite one of the anime’s spells.

Japan
(anime • cool • fashion • Hayao Miyazaki • Laputa • Studio Ghibli • toys)

“Shut up and take my money”: DeLorean selling real-life flux capacitors

Mike
May 1, 2014

Never has something been the focus of so much simultaneous nerd love and outrage than the venerable flux capacitor from the equally venerable film series that popularized time travel, Back to the Future. After all, it was the defining technology for time travel in the films that made screeching about time travel paradoxes all the rage in geek communities.

And now, it can be yours in all its ’80s glory with this official DeLorean Motors Company-licensed hardware that you can actually install in your real DeLorean – or presumably (and much more likely) – the crappy Pinto you’re currently borrowing from your grandpa.

Internet, Japan
(cars • cool • entertainment • technology)

Projection mapping coming to Cinderella’s Castle at Tokyo Disneyland 【Video】

Casey Baseel
Apr 29, 2014

Given Japan’s unbridled love of things technologically advanced or just plain pretty, it’s no surprise that the country can’t get enough of projection mapping. High-tech artists have put on projection mapping shows at this year’s Sapporo Snow Festival, and just a few weeks ago Kawasaki hosted an event which recreated the monstrous villains from hit anime Attack on Titan in full scale.

But if Sapporo is too cold and the Titans too terrifying, there’s another display coming up that’s sure to be milder in both climate and content though just as visually impressive, as projection mapping is coming to Cinderella’s Castle at Tokyo Disneyland.

Japan
(cool • Disney • Disneyland • events • projection mapping)

Amazing photography from the 1860s shows us some of Japan’s very last samurai

Casey Baseel
Apr 28, 2014

Between the way Japan has embraced technology and just how incredibly safe the country is, it’s easy to forget that it really wasn’t so long ago that the whole nation was still under the feudal system. Until 1868, “samurai” was still very much a viable career choice, as the ruling shogunate relied on a trained warrior class to keep the peace.

How much the traditions of Japan’s fabled swordsmen live on in Japanese society today is something scholars love to debate, and while there are points to be made both for and against their importance, there’s one thing that unquestionably remains, and that’s photography of real-life, genuine samurai.

Japan
(cool • culture • history • photos • samurai)

Purchase these bizarre capsule toys because… reasons

Mike
Apr 26, 2014

Capsule toys are basically just useless collector’s items that you can buy in Akihabara and other areas of Japan where nerds hang out. They almost always cost one single coin; That is, deceptively, 500 yen (US$5) or less, because that’s the largest coin currency available in Japan.

They’re usually a cheap pickup that combine the low cost of molded plastic trinkets with the inherent collector’s value of some popular video game or anime characters. Of course, there are also capsule toys like these that defy any explanation whatsoever and seemingly exist just to capture the attention of extremely drunk or eccentric people.

Japan
(art • cool • otaku • toys)

First-of-its-kind towel is totally worth its 5,000 yen price, customers say

Casey Baseel
Apr 24, 2014

A good towel is always nice to have, especially in a country like Japan where bathing is a hobby, hand dryers and paper towels are largely nonexistent in public restrooms, and the three to five months a year of blazing heat and sweltering humidity will make you itching to wipe off all that sweat.

Yes, it’s hard to overstate the value of a good towel, though some might say Japanese textile maker INI is coming close with its 5,000-yen (US $49) bath towels. That price, though, gets you a towel unlike any that’s been made before.

Japan
(cool • fashion • technology)

Shut up and take my money: Awesome handmade Lego video game art on sale now

Philip Kendall
Apr 23, 2014

If you like old-school video games and loving fiddling around with bits of Lego, then this is something that you absolutely need to see.

These scenes from Super Mario Bros 3, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and even action platformer Mega Man are all made out of Lego, placed carefully, brick by brick, onto a backboard to create startlingly accurate 8-bit graphic art. Needless to say we’re sold already, and haven’t even asked their maker how much he wants for them yet.

Global
(art • cool • LEGO • Mega Man • Super Mario Bros. • video games)

“Miniature Calendar” reveals a magical world where tiny people live among our things【Photos】

Joan Coello
Apr 23, 2014

Have you ever been in a situation where you could have sworn you left an object in a certain place, yet couldn’t find it when you needed it, but it pops up at some unexpected place some time later? Have you ever thought that, perhaps there are tiny people hiding in your room, mischievously fiddling with your things?

That’s probably what fills the mind of Japanese designer and photographer, Tatsuya Tanaka, as he shows in his imaginative portfolio of miniature people having fun among everyday items around us!

Japan
(calendar • cool • cute • miniature • photography)

Enjoy the ambiance of Okinawa’s aptly named Cave Cafe (plus “chest hair of the ancients”!)

Krista Rogers
Apr 23, 2014

The folks at popular Japanese travel site Another Tokyo have given us the itch to go traveling again. We’ve gotten used to drooling over their cool photos of off the beaten track places around Tokyo, but this time they’ve branched out a bit — all the way to tropical, sunny Okinawa!

Although we have to give the Tokyo area credit for its share of unconventional cafes, you’ll be blown away by the photos from this “Cave Cafe” in Okinawa, which is located inside – you guessed it – an actual cave! If you’re traveling to Okinawa soon and looking to do something a bit extraordinary, be sure to add this spot to your sightseeing list. After all, how many people can claim to have sipped coffee in a cave?

Japan
(cafe • cave • cool • Okinawa)

Patlabor’s giant robot gets taken out to the ballgame, keeps the peace in Chiba 【Video】

Casey Baseel
Apr 23, 2014

In planning any large-scale sporting event, organizers have to take security needs into consideration. Any time you combine thousands of people in a confined space with heightened emotions and flowing alcohol, there’s at least the chance that some individuals will be tempted to cross the line of polite behavior or even public safety, so it’s always a good idea to have a few security guards or uniformed police officers on hand.

Or, as shown in this awesome time-lapse video filmed outside a stadium in Chiba Prefecture, the giant robot from Patlabor.

Japan
(anime • cool • Patlabor • robots • technology • time-lapse • video)

Stunning 22-year-old HD footage brings Tokyo of the ‘90s back to life

Casey Baseel
Apr 23, 2014

When looking at old photographs and video, there’s a strange phenomenon that sometimes occurs. Between the visual grain and the way colors bleed together, sometimes those images don’t seem like they’re just from another time, but from another world, one somehow less defined and concrete then the one in which we now live.

Of course, that’s all just outdated technology playing tricks on you. While camera and monitors have certainly gotten better over the years, the resolution of real life hasn’t gone through any upgrades, and the physical world has always been as sharp and vibrant as what we see today. As proof, take a look of these amazing HD videos of Tokyo taken over two decades ago.