Tag: Random Japan

  Tokyo looks eerily awesome in the fog Casey Baseel Or should that be awesomely eerie? Humidity in Japan reaches its peak in summer, then continues to drop as the temperature gets cooler. A late autumn Tokyo morning is usually crisp, cool, and clear, but things were very different this Friday in the capital. The …

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China’s Dynasty Warriors are here to remind Yokohama commuters how to behave Master Blaster If you take a seat on the Yokohama subway next month don’t be surprised if a warlord from China’s Three Kingdoms period advises you on proper public transport behavior. Wu leader Cao Cao showing you how to give up your seat, or legendary warrior …

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Director dad displays dastardly deeds of dino daughter with cool special effects KK Miller When raising a toddler, the one thing on every parent’s mind is: Nap time is critical. When you miss nap time, there can be tantrums, screaming, crying and your sweet little one can transform into a kaiju-like terror. One couples’ child had such an incident …

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Japanese high school teacher’s scathing, two-foot-long note to students is nothing short of epic

Meg Murphy

Being a teacher is one of the most rewarding yet difficult jobs one can do; on the one hand, you’re helping to shape the next generation, and you get to help kids learn and grow. On the other hand, though, kids will be kids, and you’ll always have those one or two students who really know how to get under your skin.

Even the most patient teacher has their limit-they’re still human after all. Like this Japanese high school teacher, who apparently had it “up to here” with students spitting their gum out on the floor. So what did he do? Wrote a scathing note of epic proportions and pinned it to the wall for all to see.

This is a picture I took of a manhole cover here in Japan

Japanese expat turns frustration with ordering from Amazon UK into a comic

Jamie Koide

Moving to a different country can be fun and exciting, but it can also be tough. Most expats go through a period of culture shock where they realize that some of the stereotypes they were led to believe about a certain country may not be true, and that the way things work in their new home may not always be an improvement on the way things were done back in their old one.

We’ve presented some things Japan doesn’t get right from a Westerner’s point of view in the past, but this time we’d like to show you a comic drawn by a Japanese illustrator living overseas, detailing some of the not-so-pleasant points of living in the UK and how some in particular made her quit shopping at Amazon.

Fans are raving over this amazing Doraemon x Grand Theft Auto V crossover



Many of Japan’s classic anime series have managed to engage young viewers from one generation to the next. Perhaps one of the most famous examples is Doraemon, which keeps gaining more viewers the longer it runs. Since its hit television adaptation in 1979, the series has slowly taken the world by storm, finally reaching English-speaking audiences last summer after a partnership with Disney.

That said, in over 30 years few changes have been made to the original series, with its characters never having to grow up like the rest of us. As viewers got older, many of them started wondering what kind of teenagers and adults the original cast would have become. Some of the franchise’s movies, along with a commercial series by Toyota featuring Jean Reno as Doraemon, have set out to answer a few of these questions, but what about fans who didn’t imagine a future quite so bright? It seems the only answer would require illustrating it on your own, which is exactly what one artist did when he decided to reinvent the main cast as characters from video game smash Grand Theft Auto.

Losing high school baseball team’s manners continue to impress, this time at a hotel

Krista Rogers

We’ve seen impeccable displays of manners from Japanese high school baseball teams on many occasions before, from the respectful bowing of Yamagata Chuo High School to the classy stadium-cleaning deed of Kyukoku just the other day. It seems like the annual Koshien high school baseball tournament in Hyogo Prefecture really does bring out the best in the promising young players, as another team from Akita Prefecture has proven after being eliminated from this year’s tournament with their grand display of thanks in a regional hotel.

Akita Shogyo Koko (or ‘Akisho’ for short) ultimately lost 3-6 to Sendai Ikuei High School during the quarterfinals of this year’s Koshien tournament. However, they have a lot to be proud of, especially considering that this was the first time in 80 years that they were able to advance into the final eight of the competition.

Freaky interior of Japanese hospital appears to be made from the stuff of nightmares

Jamie Koide

They say that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but that seems to be more of a guideline than a prescription for any and all maladies, and eventually we all find ourselves in the waiting room of a clinic or a hospital for a check-up or to get our head stapled back together.

Medical staff are well aware that clinics and hospitals aren’t exactly the kinds of places that make patients feel at home, so many medical facilities have tried improving their drab décor and entertainment options to help patrons feel more comfortable about their visit.

One clinic in Japan, however, appears to have gone a little overboard in the interior design department, and is making many of its patients feel like they’ve walked straight into a psychedelic nightmare instead.

Feast your eyes on yet more adorable 8-bit GIFs depicting daily life in Japan

evie lund

A while back, we shared a series of super-cute 8-bit GIFs created by talented Tumblr user 1041uuu which depict everyday scenes of life in Japan in a whimsically awesome, old-school way. Now we’re happy to report that the artist has been busy creating even more GIFs in the same great style!

Get ready for some super sweet moving pixel art!

Apple would rather you not blow up teen couples on your iPhone, asks developer to edit video game

Casey Baseel

In a lot of ways, digital distribution of video games is a great thing, as it allows developers to easily add new content to a title after its release. It’s a double-edged sword, though, and that same streamlined pathway from programmer to player can also be used to quickly make changes that take things away.

A few weeks ago, we took a look at a smartphone game whose lonely, jaded protagonist and his mystical, jaded companion use their powers to make affectionate couples meet with a host of calamities, including straight blowing them up. Apple, however, is not cool with this sort of vengeful fantasy, and so the iOS version of the game is being toned down and given a new name since the original title, Explode, Real Types! no longer describes the game’s contents.

Nine things that may shatter your dreams of living in Kyoto

Cara Clegg

Kyoto now welcomes 50 million tourists a year who come to experience Japan’s traditional culture and architecture, plus catch a glimpse of the city’s famed geisha. But, as anyone who lives in a tourist hot spot knows, living there is not the same as a short visit.

As such, the following is a list of some of the things that Kyoto locals probably have the urge to remind tourists of from time to time, so allow us to shatter your illusions with some of the realities that come with living in Japan’s ancient capital.

1. Kyoto City is actually the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, so when someone says they’re from Kyoto it doesn’t necessarily mean they live in the heart of Japan’s cultural capital.