Too Proud to Say You’re Sorry? In Japan You Can Pay a Specialized Agency to Do It for You
It’s not easy to apologise, and most people would like to avoid it entirely if possible. Well, it turns out it is possible, if you happen to live in Japan. They have these ‘apology agencies’ through which you could simply pay someone to say sorry on your behalf. I can see why these businesses are […]
Mangetsu Man – The Anonymous Japanese Superhero Keeping Tokyo Clean
Mangetsu Man is a likable Japanese superhero whose only superpower is the determination to keep the streets of Tokyo clean, especially the Roppongi district, which locals say is always in need of a dust sweep. As you might have guessed, his arsenal of super-weapons consists of a broom and a dust pan. Donning a purple […]
Try Before You Die – Macabre Festival Lets Japanese Try Out Coffins and Funeral Makeup
Trying out a coffin while you’re still alive can be a rather unnerving experience. But the Japanese seem to love it! They even have a creepy ‘try-before-you-die’ festival where people can lay down in coffins, try out funeral garments and even get a morbid makeover. Called ‘Shukatsu Festa’, the unique event has become very popular […]
Hitofude Ryuu – The Japanese Art of Painting Dragons with a Single Brush Stroke
The talented Sumie painters of Kousyuuya Studio in Nikko, Japan can paint the body of a dragon with a single stroke of the brush. The delicate technique is known as ‘hitofude ryuu’, which literally means ‘dragon with one stroke’, and it’s been around for four generations. Watching these painters create a perfect dragon – with […]
Yet Another Crazy Facial Exercise Gadget from Japan
When we wrote about the creepy Facewaver Exercise Mask last year, we thought we’d seen the worst of bizarre Japanese inventions. But now they’ve come up with an even weirder gadget – a silly-looking new product called the ‘Facial Fitness PAO’. The PAO was designed by Japanese beauty company SHLAB – it consists of a […]
Small Japanese Village Turns Rice Paddies into Awe-Inspiring Works of Art
Inakadate village, located near Hirosaki city in Japan’s Aomori prefecture, is one of the few places in the world where farming and art go hand-in-hand. The village is renowned for its unique form of landscape art created in paddy fields. These artistic paddies are so popular that they attract over 200,000 tourists a year. For […]
Lonely Japanese Teen Turns Shower Head Creepy Girlfriend
Most DIY projects are fun and interesting, but here’s one that’s downright disturbing – a lonely Japanese kid converted his shower head into a doll that he now claims is his girlfriend. He recently posted step-by-step pictures of his project on the popular Chinese social networking website Weibo, where they went viral almost instantly. Some […]
Did You Know Late-Night Dancing Can Get You Arrested in Japan?
Tokyo used to have one of the best nightclub scenes in the world, but all that has changed dramatically ever since the local police started enforcing a very old law that had been ignored for at least half a century. According to this law, commercial establishments cannot host dance parties unless they have a valid […]
Ukai – The Fascinating Ancient Art of Fishing with Cormorants
Ukai is a traditional Japanese method of fishing that employs trained cormorants to catch freshwater fish called ‘ayu’. For the past 1,300 years, fishermen along the banks of Nagara River have been spending the summer months catching fish with the help of the highly skilled birds. Some of the other rivers where ukai is practiced […]
Did You Know Japan Has a Quirky Shrine Dedicated to Curing Hemorrhoids?
Weird shrines are not uncommon in Japan. In the past we reported about Karube Shrine, where people go to worship breasts, and the Shinto shrines where they bury broken needles in tofu. But the weirdest one we found so far has to be the Kunigami Shrine, in Tochigi Prefecture, that allegedly prevents and cures hemorrhoids. […]
The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei Put Olympic Athletes to Shame
In the foothills of Mt. Hiei, to the northeast of Kyoto City, lies a huge, 1,200-year old temple complex called Enryakuji. The Tendai-shu monks who inhabit this place are better known to the world as ‘marathon monks’ for their amazing physical feats that put Olympic athletes to shame Not all the Enryakuji monks are Tendai-shu; […]
Japan’s Super Speedy Bullet Train Cleaners Have Just Seven Minutes to Do Their Job
Japan’s shinkansen (bullet train) is one of the fastest in the world, covering a whopping 200 kilometers in just one hour. But few people outside Japan know that the high-speed train service comes with a high-speed cleaning service to match, which ensures that the shinkansen have virtually no delays. The cleaning crew manage to cover […]
The Japanese Bar Where Waiters Are Princes, Customers Are Princesses and Everyone Is a Girl
Japan really does have some of the most interesting bars and restaurants that cater to a large variety of customers with strange interests. We’ve heard of restaurants catering to airsoft lovers, offering great discounts to bald patrons, using monkeys as waiters, and even a bar run by a monk. Now we’ve found out about a […]
This Japanese Water Cake Looks and Tastes Unlike Any Sweet You’ve Tried Before
It looks like a large drop of water, but it’s actually a cake. This Japanese invention is as delicate as it looks and sounds, but it needs to be consumed in only 30 minutes, after which it will simply turn into a sweet puddle of water. The water cake looks like a large bowl of […]
Japanese Artist Carves Realistic-Looking Lobster Out of Boxwood
25-year-old Ryosuke Ohtake is a master craftsman who recently tried his hand at ‘jizai okimono’ – the Japanese art of carving realistic wooden animals, complete with movable joints. He created a near-perfect lobster entirely out of boxwood. The sculpture is so life-like that when lifted, its claws, legs and tail move in the exact same […]