This is one of a series of videos by the comedy group “Ramens”. It endeavors to poke fun at a lot of the “how to eat sushi”, “sushi etiquette”, and Japanese culture videos that abound. Some of it’s a bit too true, and some of it is just crazy. I like the part about the…
A 48 year old police captain from Chiba Prefecture was arrested in Ibaraki for stealing an “bishojo” anime figurine at a recycle (second hand) shop. The figure was worth about 6,500 yen (about $71 now). Upon his arrest, he commented “Ma ga sashite, yatte shimatta.” Which has the sound of “the devil made me do…
There are groups being formed on the social networking site Mixi.jp and other places in support of Tatsuya Ichihashi, accused murderer of Lindsay Hawker. The one description for the one on Mixi says that they believe he is innocent, and love him because he’s so good looking. Some fans have even put their pictures on…
It seems that a Japanese husband and wife, supposedly for the sake of being non-sexist and fair, have decided on prices for various things the wife does around the house. The man is a 48 year old company employee married to a 42 year old woman. They claim that since the husband has started paying…
A new Kids show called “Mitsuketa” or “I found it” has started up on NHK. For some reason, the show’s main theme is… CHAIRS! There are skits of interactions between a real live girl, a giant talking cactus, and a chair. The cactus plays kind of a fatherly role, settling little arguments between the little…
In a nutshell, a 67 year old Japanese man is suing his country because the weekend and holiday reduced tolls are only applicable to cars that pay by ETC (the Japanese equivalent to EZPass or other automatic toll paying systems). He claims it’s unfair that he has to pay full price on weekends just because…
I could have been way more creative with the title there, but this is the kind of story that people like to read. I’ll be very simple with it although I’m sure the story is much deeper than this… (it may not be though… it may just be the case of a bosozoku tough guy…
This is easily the best April Fool I’ve seen this year… I like it because it takes people’s misconceptions about Japan and smacks them over the head with them like a big Hokkaido salmon. Digital World Tokyo (which seems like a great website that I’ve only just discovered), wrote this article on April 1st….
Google Japan is going for laughs again like last year with their April Fool’s joke, but at least it ties in with the worldwide Google’s April Fool’s Day Cadie joke. Of course, you should take a look at CADIE’S Intriguing Homepage to get the idea. Japan’s version is a little less… pop culturey and a…
The title should say it all, but sadly it doesn’t. The teacher in question is a pregnant woman in her thirties. She works at a junior high school in Handa City in Aichi Prefecture. During the beginning of third term (January) this year she scolded some students in club. She also did a seating change…
A poll shows that 40% of Japanese elementary school children refuse to do #2 at school. Writer Yachiyo Murakami has begun writing a series of books to guide parents and children through their “second” toilet training. She was recently quoted as saying that the problem is that once parents get their kids to stop using…
I’ve commented on this phenomenon before. I sit here in Japan reading and watching the news. We’ve got the full gambit of news. Top stories include the brutal murder of a professor on a college campus, Diet members sneaking cameras into closed-door meetings, internet death threats against a champion Sumo wrestler, a sex scandal involving…