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McDonald’s Japan releases a Mushroom Mountain and Bamboo Shoot Village McFlurry

New limited-edition dessert fans the flames of a longstanding chocolate war. McDonald’s has a variety of items on its menu that you’ll find in countries around the world, and one of them is the frozen soft serve dessert known as the McFlurry.One thing you won’t find at every McDonald’s though, is the Kinoko no Yama to Takenoko no Sato McFlurry, which is coming exclusively to McDonald’s stores around Japan. This is massive news to any Japanese chocolate lover, as Kin

Almost exactly half of the new adults in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward are foreigners

One of the city’s most internationalized districts hits a cultural milestone on Coming of Age Day.Last Monday was Seijin no Hi in Japan. Also known as Coming of Age Day, it’s a holiday on which cities celebrate their residents who recently turned, or are about to turn, 20 years old, considered the traditional start of adulthood in Japanese culture.However, with the age of legal adulthood in Japan having recently been revised from 20 down to 18, there’s been some shifting of the perception of Com

Man with face covered in tattoos admits to repeatedly headbutting Tokyo store clerk【Video】

There was little chance this guy wasn’t getting picked out of a lineup.Defendants plead guilty in a lot of criminal cases in Japan. Some of this can be attributed to things such as cultural values about personal accountability or infrastructure advantages like a wide network of security cameras.In the case of Masayuki Echizenya, though, neither of those were really necessary to get him to admit his guilt. After all, it’s pretty hard to claim you weren’t the one who assaulted a convenience store

Japan’s Poképark Kanto Pokémon theme park area shows first attraction photos

Eevee stars in the Vee Vee Voyage.The Pokémon franchise is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and there are a slew of collaborations and special events lined up to mark the occasion. The biggest of all is the grand opening of Poképark Kanto, the first-ever permanent Pokémon theme park area, in Tokyo.Slated to open next month, Poképark Kanto is an addition to the pre-existing Yomiuriland amusement park consisting of two subsections: Pokémon Forest, a nature walk with Pokémon to encounter

Is Starbucks Japan’s new Valentine’s Day Frappuccino worthy of your love?

With three drinks vying for our attention, we pick our favourites for your consideration.With New Year’s done and dusted, StarbucksJapan has just released its first new limited-edition drinks of the year, in honour of Valentine’s Day. Available from 14 January, there are three beverages to choose from, and we made sure to try them all as soon as they were released, to find out which ones, if any, deserve your love this year.Starting with the “Cacao & Strawberry Mousse Frapp

New KitKat pizzas are coming to Pizza Hut Japan

An all-new experience to celebrate a special occasion. Last year, Pizza Hut wowed fans with the release of a brand new Handy Melts pizza filled with cheese…and KitKats. This folded, eat-with-one-hand pizza proved to be such a hit with the hungry masses that it’s now making a return in an all-new guise, with strawberry KitKats in the mix instead.According to the chain, the new pizza will contain a specially selected mozzarella cheese with extra richness and salt content to counterbala

Village Vanguard’s Blue Lucky Bag may have the most impressive piece of junk ever created

This toy may be both the greatest and worst thing ever made.As we’ve been seeing in recent days, novelty goods store Village Vanguard gifted us with seven fukubukuro lucky bags this year. Normally, these bags, traditionally sold around New Year’s Day, are full of a store or brand’s merchandise worth more than the price paid for it.Hearing that, you might think we’re a lucky bunch of devils for getting seven whole bags from one store. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, because Village Vanguard h

We try an unusual buffet of dishes made from wild game at a roadside stop in Chiba

At this store managed by licensed hunters, you can not only purchase meat to go but also try venison, boar, and more at the on-site restaurant.Recently, we were traveling through Kimitsu, Chiba, and found an exceedingly unique place to grab some grub. Smack in the middle of the forest and mountains of the Boso Peninsula, past the Katakura Dam, and diagonally across the street from the Fureai Park Kimitsu rest area is a roadside grocery store and restaurant run by licensed hunters called Ryoshi K

Fewer ramen restaurants declare bankruptcy in Japan for first time in several years

Annual study shows fewer ramen joints went bankrupt in 2025, but that doesn’t mean everything is fine and dandy for the industry.2024 was a rough year for ramen restaurants in Japan, as research firm Teikoku Databank found 79 ramen restaurant bankruptcies in its annual study of the industry, the most ever since its first iteration in 2010. 2024 wasn’t an isolated case, either, as it marked the third year in a row of increasing bankruptcies.Things are finally looking better, though, as Teikoku ha

Hokkaido has an Ice Festival that’s less famous than the Snow one, but beautiful in its own way

A fantasy realm of sculpted ice appears every year in Chitose and lasts for weeks..Sapporo’s Snow Festival has become world-famous, and its snow sculptures are undeniably amazing sights to see. It lasts for only a week, though, which is a pretty narrow window in which to both find time in your schedule and compete with all the other visitors from around the globe who are headed to the city at that time.However, there’s another outdoor winter art festival that takes place every year in Hokkaido P

Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day

Taking its inspiration from bitter and sweet chocolates, the range includes a tumbler that costs over US$120.It’s that time of year again when love hearts start appearing in stores and people’s thoughts turn to romance in the lead-up to Valentine’s Day. Over at Starbucks, the season of love has been dialled up to 11, with a huge collection of limited-edition merchandise covering gift cards, drinkware, and even a furry cat pouch to celebrate the occasion.Dubbed “Bitter &am

We followed Tokyo’s mystery walking map and ended up creating our own bar-hopping adventure

Several bumps in the road, a few glasses of beer, and a black omurice later, we couldn’t be more satisfied with our new discoveries.When planning a trip, some people enjoy meticulously scheduling out each day, knowing where and what time they’ll be doing activities, whereas others take pleasure in the more laid-back approach, keeping a rough idea in mind and leaving the rest until the day itself. However, there are also those who relish in spontaneity, selecting a location, traveling there, and

Village Vanguard tries to tickle us pink with a Pink Lucky Bag

Our love-hate relationship with the popular store continues.It’s time once again for our annual coverage of fukubukuro lucky bags, and you might have noticed our coverage leaning towards the ones sold by novelty goods chain Village Vanguard. Well, it’s not because we’re promoting them! We’re holding them accountable for the years of junk they’ve been sending us.Every year, our writers P.K. Sanjun and Ahiruneko have given these bags reviews ranging from “total

Pokémon Lego kits are finally on their way!【Photos】

After 30 years of waiting, combination Pokémon Trainers/Lego builders finally get the kits of their dreams.In the many years that Pokémon has been around, there’s been no small number of fans who’ve daydreamed about the franchise’s video games appearing on a non-Nintendo system. However, even though Nintendo, as we’ve discussed before, isn’t actually the company that makes the Pokémon video games, developer Game Freak, and by proxy the Pokémon Company that manages the overall IP, have such a str

Taste of spring coming this winter with sakura flower and leaf green tea and matcha from Ito En

No need to wait until winter ends to start enjoying the cherry blossoms.There’s no season Japan looks forward to with more excitement than spring. Not only does spring mean the end of months of “You know what? Maybe I’ll just stay home all day in my kotatsu”-level coldness, it also means the return of the cherry blossoms.Of course, we’ve still got a couple of months left until the sakura start to blossom, but green tea maker/Gunpla creative partnerIto En is ready to give us a taste, literally, o

Researchers in Japan give mouse glowing sperm

It sounds like the worst Pokémon ever, but it’s actually an important medical breakthrough that will benefit humans.There are certain wonders of the future that mankind has been dreaming about for years but which have yet to materialize. Flying cars. Self-cleaning houses. Glowing sperm.Oh, what’s that, you haven’t been fervently waiting for our world’s brightest minds to create history’s brightest sperm? Well it’s here anyway, thanks to researchers at Japan’s Hokkaido University, who have succes

New adults go wild at Seijinshiki Coming-of-Age ceremony in Kitakyushu, Japan 【Photos】

This celebration throws everything you thought you knew about Japanese culture out the window. In Japan, the second Monday of every January is a public holiday called “Seijin no Hi” (“Coming of Age Day“), where new adults who turn 20 (or 18 in some cities) in the year leading up to 1 April attend “Seijinshiki” (“Coming of Age Ceremonies“).The occasion generally calls for formal attire, with many wearing suits and kimonos, but down in Kitakyushu in

Best practices for celebrating Coming of Age Day for those turning 18, 20, or both in Japan

With the change in the legal age of adulthood in Japan, even Japanese people are confused about when and how to celebrate this milestone. Coming of Age Day (Seijin no Hi) is a public holiday in Japan celebrated on the second Monday of every January. Families with children who reached or will reach adulthood between April 2 of the previous year and April 1 of the current year typically mark the occasion by taking part in a coming of age ceremony (seijinshiki) held in their hometown. For many, esp

Starbucks Japan releases new popcorn Frappuccino at one special location

Popcorn with espresso is the new must-try drink of the year.Back in September, Starbucks opened a new type of branch in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Marui department store called Starbucks Reserve Cafe. Located on the second floor, the cafe fuses Milanese bar culture with Japanese kissaten (traditional coffeehouse) aesthetics to create a modern cafe-bakery, and since its opening it’s been incredibly popular with customers.Now, the cafe is attracting even more attention, with the announcement tha

Japanese women showing rebounding interest in giving Valentine’s Day chocolate【Survey】

Annual survey shows nearly a 70-percent increase in two years for number of Japanese women giving chocolate on Valentine’s Day.We recently talked about how the custom of sending nengajo, or New Year’s cards, is becoming less common in Japan…but also about how many have regretted quitting the tradition, not realizing how much it had meant to them until they stopped. There’s another opportunity to give the special people in your life a little something to show you care coming up soon, though