“Rice Babies” Help Japanese Parents of Newborns to Respect Social Distancing Rules
Japanese parents are sending bags of rice that weigh as much as their babies to relatives who can’t visit them because of the Covid-19 pandemic. As is customary in many cultures around the world, when a Japanese couple welcomes a baby into the world, relatives come to visit the family and celebrate, but because of […]
Chinese Reality Show Blurs Christmas Symbols to Boycott Western Holidays
A popular Chinese reality show sparked controversy last month after pixelating all elements relating to Christmas on an episode shot in a luxurious hotel decorated for the Christian celebration. Mango TV, a subsidiary of state-controlled Hunan Television, aired the first episode of the sixth season of Who’s the Murderer, a popular online reality show, on […]
The Sri Lankan Shops Where You Have to Pay to Do the Cleaning
Businesses usually have to pay someone to keep their work spaces clean, but the shops on Sea Street, a popular jewelry hub in Sri Lanka’s capital city, actually require a fee to let people clean their premises. Hong-Kong based media outlet South China Morning Post recently featured the sad story of a heroin addict from […]
Japanese Province Is Struggling to Stop People From Sleeping on Roads
Police in the Japanese province of Okinawa have been struggling with a phenomenon called rojo-ne, which translates literally as “sleeping on the road”. Imagine driving home late at night and seeing someone laying in the middle of the road. Or worse yet, not seeing that someone in time to actually slam the brakes. Such nightmare […]
Japan’s Square Watermelons – Nice to Look at But Hard to Swallow
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade or so, you’ve probably seen pictures of Japan’s square watermelons doing the rounds online. I know I have, but what I never knew was that these weird-looking fruit are basically inedible. Perfectly sized and shaped fruits are big business in Japan, and it’s not […]
Ethiopia’s Bizarre Love Affair with Raw Meat
In most places around the world, people are taught that eating raw meat is bad for them due to the high risk of contacting parasites and harmful bacteria, but in Ethiopia raw meat is a popular delicacy. Walking through the streets of Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, it’s not uncommon to see groups […]
The World’s Oldest Lie Detector – Licking Hot Metal in the Name of Truth
The Ayaidah, a Bedouin tribe in north-eastern Egypt is the last to practice the Bisha’h, an ancient ritual used to determine whether a suspect in a crime is innocent or guilty. They have to lick a red-hot spoon or rod in the presence of tribal authorities, and if their tongue blisters, they are guilty, if […]
Japan’s Unusual Obsession with Moss
As a very insular society, Japan has developed a culture that can be very interesting and sometimes bizarre to the outside observer. For example, in recent years, many Japanese have become infatuated with moss. Nature excursions centered around observing the thousands of species of Japanese moss have exploded in popularity to the point that the […]
Japan’s Stylish-Looking Trash-Collecting Samurai
The Gomi Hiroi Samurai – “trash collecting samurai” – are members of a street performance group who walk the streets of Japan collecting trash with their katanas and trusty garbage grabbers. These modern-day samurai are part of “Issei Ichidai Jidaigumi”, a performance group that originated in Kyoto but has since opened branches in other Japanese cities as […]
Female News Anchor Suspended for Calling Male Colleague ‘Handsome’ on Live TV
A Kuwaiti female news anchor was recently suspended by the Ministry of Information for jokingly calling a male correspondent ‘handsome’ during a live TV broadcast. Basima al-Shammar a news anchor for Kuwait TV, was covering Kuwait’s municipal election last weekend, when she made the mistake of jokingly complementing a male correspondent live on air. In […]
The Shocking Story of a Cuban Community Who Chose to Infect Themselves with HIV to Escape Persecution
It’s hard to imagine why anyone would voluntarily infect themselves with one of the deadliest viruses in human existence, but for “Los Frikis” – a Cuban punk community living under the regime of Fidel Castro during the 80s and 90s – injecting themselves with HIV-infected syringes was the easiest way to escape persecution and police […]
Fair Beauty – Vietnam’s Obsession with White Skin
For most Vietnamese women, white skin is synonymous with feminine beauty, sophistication and high social status, and many of them cover themselves completely even in the middle of summer in order to protect their fair complexion from the sun’s rays. In Vietnam, as in the majority of South East Asian countries, dark skin has always been associated with poverty […]
Manipur, the Indian State Ruled by Korean Pop-Culture
Despite being a part of India, the northern state of Manipur can culturally be described as Korean. Ever since local authorities banned Bollywood movies and Hindi TV channels in a bid to “stamp out Indianisation”, a vast majority of the local population have turned to Korean pop-culture. They are now big fans of Korean films and […]
Meet the Moranbong Band – North Korea’s Version of Spice Girls
Believe it or not, North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, is actually a big fan of K-pop music. In fact, he’s so passionate about it that he hand-picked every member of the girl group ‘Moranbong Band’ – his country’s answer to the Spice Girls. As a result of Kim Jong-un’s endorsement, the band has been […]
Aptly Named Aztec Death Whistle Makes the Creepiest Sound You’ve Ever Heard
The Aztec death whistle produces a sound so horrifying, it will chill you to the bone. Described as the ‘scream of a thousand corpses’, the death whistle sounds like the cry of the un-dead, or the torment of a human being burned alive. Interestingly, the skull-shaped whistles were discovered 20 years ago by archaeologists, but were dismissed as […]