If you’re like me, then you have also been asking yourself for years, “when will someone jazz up my cucumbers?” Its like, geez, we have all this technology in our world, and our cucumbers are still round! I know, its ridiculous. BUT, we need to ask this question no longer, because our friends and saviors at Yamagata Prefecture have answered our calls and have changed the salad industry forever. Brace yourselves, because I nearly...

I wasn’t going to post about this, but it won’t go away…for the past few days I’ve seen it basically everywhere I look for Japanese culture news, on all the blogs/sites and Twitter pages I see. It’s just a bunch of silly nonsense, but it’s….something. Apparently, the culprits of this video, in which a cross-dressing man impersonates Susan Boyle, the woman who was such a hot topic around the globe when sh...

Some things are just…..odd This is one of them. American actress Kirsten Dunst, probably best known for her role as Mary Jane Watson in the Spiderman movies, recently danced in the streets in the Akihabara District of Tokyo in full-on cosplay garb. Decked from head to toe in shiny shimmery electric blue hair and an anime sailor outfit, Dunst was part of a music video that was, according to Yeinjee.com, produced by Japanese artist Takashi M...

As reported by a number of gaming blogs and websites today, Nintendo (NOT Square Enix) will release Dragon Quest IX: Setinals of the Starry Skies this ‘summertime’. While that’s not a specific release date, it IS a general timeframe that gamers can expect the game to finally be released stateside. The game, which was released in Japan back in July, has proven massively popular there, although previous Dragon Quest games have no...

There’s a new party game out now – The Pantie Tug Of War Game! Basically you should put a pantie on your head and your opponent does the same, you attach a cord between them and then you tug! The winner is the one who gets off the opponent’s panties first! Isn’t it just hilarious?! It’s something one really should try! If you want to buy it, go visit Rinkya. a2a_config.linkname="Pantie Tug Of War Party Game!"; a...

TELL ME WHHHYYYYY Something that always amazes me about Japanese culture is just how HUGE the Backstreet Boys still are in the country. We’ve posted a few BSB in Japan-related things in the past, and Japan Probe just posted this video recently themselves….in it, Shinichi Karube of Mezamashi TV visits with some diehard BSB fans in Japan, who talk with him about their undying love for Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell and AJ Mc...

Here are a few of the new releases available at CDJapan for this week. If you want to buy them please visit cdjapan.co.jp Among others, Masahika Kondo, JUJU, MiChi, Misono, Ryuichi Kawamura, Kra, Ayaka Hirahara, Kana Nishino, Hiragi and 12012 (pictured) are releasing new music this week! Check it out! Music DVD’s coming out include: Morning musume – Morning musume concert tour 2009 Aki – Nine Smile-, Xover – Untitled, Ali...

Just stumbled upon this mindless little game that isn’t unlike Plinko, the game from the Price is Right where you slide a big coin thing down some vertical board and rack up points. The object of Sushi Cat? Sushi Cat is lonely. Lonely and very hungry. Help Sushi Cat out by guiding him to as much sushi as possible. Watch him grow fat as he eats more and more sushi along his way. Fill up his belly to win. It’s pretty easy, and you use ...

This random video was discussed by Japan Probe, and I thought it was interesting enough to post here…I’ve always found it amusing when people have big dangling keychains hanging from their cell phones to the ground, weighing them down with little glittery cats and colorful trinkets and all that. It seems that a lot of people in Japan like to accessorize their mobile phones as well, as this video shows. It’s not particularly in...

I went to a Japanese supermarket and I found a snack that I’ve never seen before. The name was “FUKU FUKU TAI CHOCOLATE”. ”福（fuku)” means happiness, and Japanese people eat red snappers in celebration of auspicious events. I didn’t have any special reason,  it just looked good …. and was cheap ( 2 for 1 dollar ) . Where should I start to eat, from the head? Or the tail? I started to eat from the head! ...

If you’re going to represent your country in the Olympic Games, you better show up with an appearance that doesn’t ruffle anyone’s feathers. That’s exactly what has happened with Kazuhiro Kokubo, the Japanese snowboarder who arrived to the Olympics with a fashion sense that left many Japanese newspapers and some politicians in an uproar: Kokubo’s shirt was untucked, his pants hung low below his hips, and his tie w...

So I felt it was appropriate to remind everyone that we’re also on Facebook and Twitter! I know it’s fun to manually click around the Internet to this blog every day, but you can also just get quick updates via our Facebook fan page and Twitter, which directly links to each post we make! Technology is fun! Anyway, here’s the link to the Facebook page, and here’s the Twitter link….these are also listed on the right-h...

As I discovered on the Anime News Network‘s website, Studio Ghibli‘s next animated feature will be the Borrowers (Karigurashi no Arrietty), based on the 1952 novel by Mary Norton. Check out the movie’s official site here. As the Anime News Network’s article details, The original, Carnegie Medal-winning 1952 novel revolves around the “little people” — 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) tall — who live undernea...

I discovered this truly fascinating National Geographic article via Twitter, and just had to share it. Everyone knows that Japanese gardens are beautiful and calming, but I had no idea that they had such an effect on patients suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. Alzheimer’s, the disorienting and completely debilitating disease that plagues mostly senior citizens at an advanced stage of their life, is a terribly sad condition that too ...

in Japan, at least. Joystiq posted this silly commercial on its website today: The game, which comes out for the Nintendo DS this week in Japan, haven’t quite attained the same level of popularity here in the USA as they have in Japan…personally, I have always noticed that video game ads in this country are tamer and less bizarre/creative than they are in other countries (Japan included). This commercial is the type of commercial th...