We reported on this story the other day over at Japan News Junkie, but here is a follow up by the good folks over at ROK Drop who actually went out to check on the report on their own.
It seems that Dunkin Donuts in Korea is running a publicity campaign in which they are offereing […]

What’s your favourite ice cream flavour? A quick poll I took of Japanese kids revealed banira (vanilla) to be the undisputed champion. Which surprised me. In English slang, after all, vanilla-flavoured has come to mean boring. Anyway, what do kids know. Chocolate is obviously the best flavour.
I didn’t find out […]

A restaurant located at the Naokata City, Fukuoka prefecture government office building has added a new Oppai Lunch (Breast Lunch) to their menu to mark the release of the movie Oppai Volley (Breast Volleyball), which was shot in the city.
The Oppai Lunch consists of two cups of breast-shaped chicken rice with strategically placed green peas, […]

The temperature in my house was over 30 when I awoke, sweating and fully unrested at 7.30 this morning. We’re in for a warm one.
And if ice cream is too fattening, and solace can’t be found in only-good-for-one-glass Japanese beer, what respite is there?
One recommended way of dealing with the oppressive summer is apparently […]

Check out this post over at Occidentalism,which takes gaijin - turned - Japanese - national Debito Arudo (David Aldwinckle) to task and then some for “race hustling” and spreading misinformation about Japan that eventually has a negative effect on foreigners who live here.
It even contains a video by a young gaijin woman who apologizes […]

or yet another entry in my long series of crap that no one reads
in response to the horrible stabbing spree in akihabara, tokyo, japan a few weeks ago the japanese national police agency has once again shown why policy changes proposed during the height of public panic and tragedy have such a reputation for being […]

Koreans will not be seeing any Japanese condoms as they slip into the tube each morning now that Seoul Metro has decided to pull prophylactic posters for Okamoto condoms from its subway carriages.
The ads, 54 by 39 centimeters, were placed next to the train doors - one of the most eye-catching spots. They did not […]

according to an article in the new york times online,written by norimitsu onishi, the ashes in a japanese urn are an apt metaphor for the future of the system of funeral buddhism in the country.
where as in the past, the japanese reliably counted on buddhist priest’s and their rituals as a source of […]

The other day I ate soba noodles for lunch, and I was amused at a sign I saw above my head, which said narubeku kin’en, translatable as “No Smoking As Possible, Please.”
I found it quite amusing for the restaurant owners to ask customers not to smoke “if they can possibly avoid it.” Although smoking […]

Check out this video in which Oiwan Lam talks about how China pays people to go onto blogs and into chatrooms to tout the party line.

Via Danwei
More on this story here.
By some estimates, these commentary teams now comprise as many as 280,000 members nationwide, and they show just how serious China’s leaders are about […]

No need to look uncute as your home and the world as you know it is crashing down all around you with this fashionably pink Hello Kitty disaster kit, which includes:

Disaster hood (covering Body)
Flame retardant blanket
Pouch
Crime-prevention buzzer
Bandanas

Price: 9,800 yen

It’s official! Osaka prefecture has been declared the sexual assault capital of Japan according to statistics maintained by Japan’s National Police Agency.
According to the data, last year one in every 4,200 female residents of Osaka was raped or otherwise sexually assaulted. This compares to one in every 4,600 in Tokyo.
The Osaka rate is […]

The Associated Press has a story of a unique defense against an assailant… a cup of tea. No word on whether the tea was oolong or green. I wonder if sake would have worked as well.

A man who appeared to be a laborer in his 60s allegedly pulled a knife and demanded money from a […]

What Japan Thinks has a report on an Internet survey about what Japanese people think are the greatest attributes of Japan and the Japanese people.
The top 10 responses. . .
1. A sense of the four seasons
2. Diligence
3. Kindness
4. Rich food culture
5. Ability to create cutting-edge technology
[…]

I guess not *all* Japanese are eating healthfully. ESPN is reporting that 6-time Nathan’s hot dog eating champion Takeru Kobayashi lost for the second year in a row to his rival Joey Chestnut; this time in an unprecedented overtime period. Kobayashi is 30 years old and from Nagano. Do you think he trains for these […]

Meat is a killer and should be avoided, and you should get your protein by eating plenty of soy products like tofu, right?
Not necessarily so if research coming out of the U.K. is to be believed. According to a study led by Loughborough University and reported on in the journal Dementias and Geriatric Cognitive […]

JAPUNDIT has become quite the talk of the Japanese Internet, which has been boiling over with anger over the now-defunct Mainichi Wai Wai.
It seems that someone has picked up on this JAPUNDIT post that quotes from a Wai Wai column we found particularly amusing because it was so incredibly outlandish. Of course, we intentionally inserted […]

The following is from a Washington Post report on the cancellation of a trip to Seoul by U.S. President George Bush due to demonstrations against U.S. beef imports there. Emphasis is mine.
President Bush canceled plans Tuesday to visit Seoul next month amid protests over U.S. beef imports, and his administration made a key concession to […]

Gold & Jewelry Tamaya of Sapporo has started selling an 18-carat gold Hello Kitty mobile phone strap.
Tamaya came out with the mobile phone strap to mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the series of Hello Kitty products made to commemorate particular places in Japan. The 1.8 gram gold Hello Kitty was made by […]