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Japanese restaurant wows customers by serving meals on water instead of a revolving conveyor belt

Oona McGee
Nov 21, 2016
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People have fallen in love with the charm of floating tubs at this unusual eatery in Japan.

Japan
(conveyor belt • cool • food • Japaanese food • restaurants • revolving sushi • Shizuoka • sushi • Sushi Train • water • wow)

Art in motion: Japanese company shows off stunning 2-D animation works

Oona McGee
Nov 15, 2016

From falling cherry blossom leaves to a rabbit pounding mochi rice, these incredible slit animations are absolutely mesmerising.

Japan
(animation • anime • art • cool • design • kinegrams • moire • wow)

Japan’s Kodo taiko group creates awesome new performance with 3D sound technology

Oona McGee
Sep 30, 2016

The stunning sound and visuals in this new clip are designed to transport viewers to a Japanese festival as part of a new website for foreign tourists.

Japan
(ANA • awesome • cool • culture • drumming • drums • festivals • Japanese festivals • Kodo • Matsuri • music • performance • sound • stage • taiko • tradition • wow)

Give gifts in Japanese origami-style bird envelope pouches!

Oona McGee
Sep 29, 2016

This is the cutest alternative to wrapping paper we’ve ever seen!

Japan
(animals • aviary • bags • birds • cool • cute • cute pets • Felissimo • homewares • pets • stationery • wow)

Japanese collector buys one of the most expensive and exclusive life-sized figurines ever made

Oona McGee
Sep 26, 2016

Priced at $19,600 and with only ten ever produced, this is one special delivery you don’t get to see every day.

Japan
(anime • Aniplex • cool • figures • figurines • life-size • life-sized figure • Megumi Kato • Saekano • toys • wow)

Cute cats put Pavlov’s dog to shame by ringing bells with their own paws to get treats!【Video】

Oona McGee
Sep 21, 2016

Before-and-after videos show how one cat learnt the clever trick from his older brother in just a couple of weeks.

Japan
(cats • cute • cute pets • funny • Pavlov's dog • pets • twitter • videos • wow)

Japanese Idolmaster anime girls take over Shinjuku Station in Tokyo

Oona McGee
Sep 12, 2016

Shinjuku Station has been transformed for a limited time with anime girls on pylons and stages and huge animated digital LED displays!

Japan
(anime • anime characters • anime girs • cool • cute • gamers • games • gaming • Idolmaster • mobile games • shinjuku • Shinjuku Station • wow)

Pokémon Go craze reignites love for cute Pikachu sea slug in Japan

Oona McGee
Aug 19, 2016

We take a look at thecacera pacifica, known as the “Pikachu sea slug” in Japan, which many say is the real-life inspiration for the Pokémon character.

Japan
(anime • cute • gamers • games • gaming • mobile games • Osamu Hayashi • Pikachu • Pokemon • Pokémon GO • sea slugs • wow)

Hawaiian burger restaurant in Japan offers up a 5-in-1 monster burger

Jamie Koide
Jun 10, 2016

Say “aloha” to this 1.8 kilo (4 lb) bad boy.

Food & Drink, Japan, Lifestyle
(hamburgers • hawaii • nom • teddy's bigger burgers • Tokyo • wow • Yokohama)

Awesome carved eraser stamps are something to marvel, but leave some skeptical

Meg Murphy
Jan 22, 2015

The world is full of amazingly talented artists – people who can take ordinary everyday objects and make something extraordinary. Without question, Japan has its own fair share of talent, what with high school students creating beautiful murals with nothing but a stick of chalk, artists sketching insanely detailed drawings using a simple ball-point pen, and the awe-inspiring snow sculptures that are constructed at Sapporo’s snow festival each year.

Now, we have insanely detailed, hand-carved stamps made from erasers setting the internet abuzz.

Japan
(art • eraser stamps • talent • wow)

We have a winner! Bicycle-riding snow cat gets full marks for awesomeness

Philip Kendall
Feb 10, 2014

After bringing you photos of stunning sculptures at this year’s Sapporo Snow Festival, awesome amateur creations spotted in Tokyo, and possibly this winter’s most grotesque snow monster, we thought we’d seen more than enough of the white stuff for one year and were happy to see it melt away and Tokyo get back to normal. But then this epic creation appeared online and we just had to share it with you. Say hello to the bicycle-stealing badass that is the snownyan!

Japan
(cat • epic • snow • snowman • snownyan • wow)

Gotta size ’em all? Image of all 718 Pokémon depicted to scale leaves us awestruck

Krista Rogers
Jan 16, 2014

Haven’t you always secretly wanted to know what a puny Caterpie would look like next to the legendary Lugia? And I bet you didn’t know just how much of a pipsqueak Pikachu actually is. Well, thanks to one artist on deviantART, now you can compare the sizes of all six generations of Pokémon in one picture! We were blown away by the amount of work it must have taken to research the dimensions of all 718 Pokémon and compile their silhouettes into one image. Can you guess which are the biggest and smallest Pokémon?

Internet, Japan
(picture • Pokemon • wow)

Can you guess the most densely populated city in the world?

Krista Rogers
Jan 12, 2014

The capital city of this island nation is said to be the most densely populated major city in the world, with a mind-boggling 35,000 people living per sq km. Can you guess which country it’s in?

S Asia
(maldives • population density • wow)

Curved screens and bendable batteries: Say hello to the gadgets of the not-so-distant future!

Philip Kendall
Nov 29, 2013

No matter how shiny and slim your new smartphone is, no matter how high-definition a display it has, it’s still very much a slab of plastic and metal with a screen sitting in the middle. But what if your phone’s screen could wrap around the sides? Imagine if the edges of your tablet computer could also be used as a touch screen, removing the need for physical buttons entirely. Or how about a wrist watch whose strap could also function as a display?

Imagine no more: Japan’s SEL is already producing that very technology, and it’s positively droolworthy.

Japan
(electronics • OLED • smartphone • tech • wow)

Tekken’s latest flipbook animation will leave you crying tears of gratitude 【Video】

Rachel Tackett
Nov 20, 2013

Remember Tekken, the balding comedian with makeup reminiscent of KISS and a talent for turning out some truly tear-wrenching flipbook animations? Well, he’s done it again, with a ten-minute piece titled A Story about Family.

As with Tekken’s previous works, the story uses absolutely no dialog, but still manages to convey a message of familial piety which transcends cultural borders and is almost certain to evoke some tears. It’ll have you scrambling for the phone to call home and show thanks to those who have supported you throughout the years.

Japan
(animation • family • Tekken • video • wow • YouTube)

This adorable hopping hairball will steal your heart

Rachel Tackett
Oct 23, 2013

Would you believe that at the center of this massive hairball is a little life form?

I promise you it’s not a tribble or some other alien creature, so put away the laser guns and take a closer look! There’s a tiny nose and mouth peeking through that impressive amount of fluff, and it belongs to one of an adorable breed of ultra-soft bunnies.

Global
(Angora • cute • Fur • pets • rabbit • wow)

This Japanese island is filled to the brim with felines!

Rachel Tackett
Oct 16, 2013

About eight miles off the coast of Ozu City in Japan’s Ehime Prefecture, there lies a tiny landmass, less than a mile wide, which is completely overrun by cats! This little island is home to only 15 human residents, all of retirement age, but houses more than 100 kitties! These frisky felines have been multiplying like mad over the past 10 years or so, but only in the past couple weeks has the island caught the attention of the Internet, immediately becoming a hit tourist attraction, in spite of not having any hotels, restaurants, or even vending machines! Keep reading to see what locals and visitors alike have to say about the island’s “catty” conditions.

Japan
(Aoshima • cats • Ehime Prefecture • Tashiro-jima • tourism • wow)

Amazing Japanese grade-schooler enters fast track to playing soccer for Real Madrid 【Videos】

Rachel Tackett
Oct 8, 2013

These days, it’s not uncommon for Japanese soccer players to be placed on foreign teams. Shinji Kagawa with Manchester United and Yuto Nagatomo with Inter Milan are just two examples of Japanese athletes who play for teams abroad.

Now, the island country can lay claim to a new rising star, a nine-year-old soccer player who recently signed a contract with the world-famous Spanish soccer club, Real Madrid. Read on for a full introduction to this talented young player, as well as some videos of his amazing play style!

Europe, Japan
(child • genius • Real Madrid • soccer • sports • wow)

Handicapped man draws beautiful and detailed trains entirely from memory 【Photos】

Rachel Tackett
Sep 30, 2013

Hisashi Fukushima, a 44-year-old man from Hidaka City, was born with a serious learning impediment, but this handicap has in no way gotten the better of him. This truly gifted individual is an awe-inspiring artist with an unbridled passion for the beauty of the railway system. Fukushima’s photographic memory and steady hands have allowed him to recreate many life-like scenes of trains upon their tracks in paintings as well as paper craft. His faithful renditions of Japan’s railways have earned him a number of prizes in art exhibitions, and one glance at his work makes it obvious why! Keep reading for a sample of Hisashi Fukushima’s stellar art portfolio.

Japan
(art • handicapped • painting • railways • sculpture • trains • wow)

Best job ever? Japanese man makes 1 million yen for three months of gaming

Rachel Tackett
Sep 10, 2013

For all you fellow gamers out there, both hardcore and casual, how many hours have you wasted away powering up the pixels on your computer screens and game consoles? How many paychecks have disappeared into the latest expansion packs? How many hours of sleep have been lost to an addiction to online multi-players? Society doesn’t always understand, but we know it’s worth the time and the money when we get the fierce gratification of overcoming an in-game challenge. If we could, I’m sure many of us would love to make a living off of the lives we lead in the virtual world.

For one Japanese man, referred to by his handle name, Moru-chan, that dream is a reality. Moru-chan spends approximately 12 hours a day doing nothing but gaming for a paycheck of one million yen (US$10,043)! He’s earning this money by basically living out three months of his life in the online world of fantasy role-playing game, ArcheAge. RocketNews24 has the scoop here in an exclusive interview with this very lucky man at the one-room apartment provided to him by his company.