SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Made in Gifu Prefecture, these elegant designs reflect not only modern pop culture, but an umbrella-making tradition that stretches all the way back to the Edo Period.

Anime & Manga, Games & Tech, Japan
(anime • Anime Japan 2016 • Cinderella Girls • conventions • Gifu Prefecture • The Idolmaster • traditional Japanese craft • umbrellas)

Man demonstrates why Japanese people often carry umbrellas: they make awesome weapons!【Video】

KK Miller
Jan 14, 2016

It’s true. All Japanese people are secretly ninjas.

Internet, Japan
(funny • rain • umbrellas • video)

Upskirt umbrellas are now a thing in Japan

SoraNews24
Jan 13, 2016

We thought we’d seen everything from Japan, but this is one thing we never saw coming.

Japan
(Akihabara • anime • JK • joshi kosei • manga • umbrellas)

Japanese drinks company attaches free “rental umbrellas” to its vending machines in Osaka

Oona McGee
Oct 23, 2015

Japanese vending machines are a great example of the culture of convenience so prevalent in Japan. Whether you’re after orange juice that looks like soy sauce, or a hot, clam-packed miso soup to cure your hangover, if you want something fast, the nation’s vending machines will be there for you, come rain or shine.

Now one of the country’s largest drinks manufacturers, DyDo, is catering to customers who actually do find themselves caught out in the rain, with a free “rental umbrella” service attached to a number of their machines in Nishi Ward, Osaka.

Japan
(drinks • Dydo • Osaka • rental • umbrellas • vending machines)

Japan’s magic umbrellas reveal cute patterns in the rain

Oona McGee
Sep 21, 2015

September in Japan is the bridge between summer and autumn, with warm humid days mixed in with cool nights and passing typhoons dumping some of the year’s highest amounts of rainfall around the country.

With the rain set to continue, umbrella sales are in full swing at the moment, and some of the best ones here are simply magic. They won’t send you flying through the air like Mary Poppins, but they will reveal hidden secrets when the rain begins to fall!

Japan
(cute goods • Ghibli • japan goods • rain • spirited away • Totoro • umbrellas • weather)

Totoro and No-Face come out to play in the rain on Ghibli umbrellas that change patterns when wet

Casey Baseel
Jun 17, 2015

Unless you’ve got a bitter aversion to the cold, odds are you’ll find early summer to be the least pleasant time of year in Japan, weather-wise. Not only is it hot and muggy, it’s also the country’s rainiest period, and just about any time you’re stepping outside you’ll want to carry an umbrella with you.

Thankfully, there’s a way to make the rainy season a little more enjoyable, as a new line of Studio Ghibli-themed umbrellas means a summer squall is just the beginning of a Totoro hunt as the beloved forest spirit magically appears on the umbrella’s fabric when it gets wet.

Japan
(anime • cool • cute • Hayao Miyazaki • spirited away • Studio Ghibli • Totoro • umbrellas)

How to protect your umbrella from rampant umbrella thieves in Japan

Scott Wilson
Jun 15, 2015

Japan has a reputation for being home to some of the safest cities in the world. Having your dropped or lost items returned to you is not uncommon, and the police have enough free time to create life-like ice sculptures outside their offices.

So it comes as a surprise to many Japanese people when they suddenly realize they’ve been the victim of a most heinous crime: umbrella theft. Most buildings in Japan ask you to leave your wet umbrellas in a stand right at the entrance, and people finding their umbrellas missing when they leave is becoming more and more frequent.

How can you protect yourself from these shameless thieves? Read on to find out!

Japan
(crime • theft • twitter • umbrellas)

Panty-predicting protocol: Debate ensues over whether a woman’s lingerie matches her umbrella

Casey Baseel
Jun 9, 2015

Everyone’s got his own unique set of aesthetic sensibilities and ideal vision of beauty. In general, though, guys like looking at half-naked women, and when they aren’t in a position to look at one, they’ll settle for imagining them.

As such, it’s perfectly natural and healthy to fantasize about women wearing sexy lingerie if you’re a young man who’s reached the age of puberty (or if you’re an older man whose mind didn’t really progress that far afterwards). But when you start coming up with systems to determine what kind of lingerie a woman has on, like theorizing that it matches her umbrella, well, you might be thinking about women in their undies just a bit too much.