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Adorable Totoro acorn key holders come with a special guest hidden inside[Photos]

Donguri Kyowakoku lives up to its name with this Ghibli gear.Generally speaking, businesses tend to chose straightforward names for themselves. When you see a sign that says Mr. Donut, you know exactly what that place is selling, and you likewise don’t need to be a master detective to figure out that if you walk into Tokyo’s “Coffin Meditation Space,” yep, they’ll have coffins inside for you to lie down and relax in.A notable exception to this pattern, though, is Donguri Kyowakoku. The chain’s n

Yakuzen ramen restaurant in Tokyo is very different to a yakuza ramen restaurant

This tonkotsu ramen has medicinal benefits that can boost your energy after a long day of sightseeing.Have you ever heard of yakuzen? Not to be confused with yakuza, yakuzen literally translates as “medicinal meal“, and is made up of the kanji 薬 (“yaku” or “medicine“) and 膳 (“zen”, which refers to a meal, traditionally served on on a tray).The concept behind yakuzen is food as medicine, and you’ll see it being used to describe meals that cont

Osaka establishes first designated smoking area in Dotonbori canal district to fight “overtourism”

Street food hot spot wants to be cleaner, but it might just be pushing the smoke down the street.A new facility opened last Thursday in Dotombori, the Osaka canal district that’s the biggest tourism draw in the heart of central Japan’s largest city. It isn’t a new restaurant, shopping center, or manzai comedy venue, though. Instead, it’s a designated smoking area.Last year, the Osaka Minami-Dotonbori Overtourism Countermeasures Promotion Council came to the conclusion that public service announc

Tokyo Skytree turns pink for the cherry blossom season

Japan’s tallest tower transforms into a cherry blossom-viewing spot, complete with pink projections and themed drinks.As the cherry blossom-loving crowds prepare to descend upon Japan’s plethora of sakura-viewing spots this springtime, the blossoms are ascending to the sky in a special seasonal event called “The Sakura Skytree: Meeting the Cherry Blossoms in the Sky”. Held between February 26 and April 14, Japan’s tallest structure, Tokyo Skytree, is set to be adorned with pale pink petals

Hey, 2020s kids! The ’90s have a sticker picture message waiting for you in Tokyo

30th anniversary celebration looks to link Heisei and Reiwa eras with shared love for purikura.Life was different before everyone had a smartphone in their pocket. If you were meeting up with people, you had to be on time, since you couldn’t just fire off a text to tell them to wait for you because you were running late. If you were grabbing something to eat, you had to check how to get to the restaurant beforehand, because you couldn’t just pull up a GPS-enabled map. And if you and your friends

Burning through cash just to throw things away tops list of headaches when moving house in Japan

Spring relocations in Japan can drain your budget faster than expected, and garbage disposal fees are the biggest surprise.For many people when they think of spring in Japan, the first thing that comes to mind is rows of cherry blossom trees in full bloom lining the riverbanks of the country’s towns and cities. However, for the working residents of Japan, spring also heralds a procession of cardboard boxes.From late February through early April, the country enters into moving mode as new jobs an

Last chance coming up for amazing east Japan for all-you-can-ride Shinkansen-inclusive train pass

Get your Kyun Pass while you can.Ever since Japan Railways Group, a.k.a. JR, raised the price for its nationwide rail pass, a lot of the luster has been lost for what used to be widely considered Japan’s best tourism transit deal. But even if the nationwide pass has priced itself out of consideration for many travelers, there are still great bargains available for those looking for a more geographically focused trip in Japan, thanks to some great regional rail pass bargains, with the pass we’re

566 million yen in gold bars donated to Japanese city’s water bureau

Osaka Municipal Water Bureau suddenly becomes quite a bit closer to being flush with funds.Ironically, it’s hard to imagine a drier type of website than “municipal water bureau.” Browse through the one for the city of Osaka, for example and you’ll see announcements such as “Seminar held to exchange information on overseas expansion in water and environmental sectors” and “Second expert meeting held to discuss improving water supply sustainability.” Important stuff, to be sure, but not exactly co

Starbucks Japan complexly raises prices, will now charge for takeout bags

Ecological goals and economic concerns mean no more free bags and more by-location price variations.There’s been a lot for Japanese Starbucks fans to be happy about over the last few days, as the chain rolled out its new sakura beverages and drinkware. But while those additions to Starbucks’ menu and merch catalog are putting smiles on many people’s face, there are some less crowd-pleasing ones going into effect too.Starting with the one that has a silver lining, as of February 18 Starbucks Japa

Shibuya Station’s Hachiko Gate and Yamanote Line stairway locations change next month

Minor changes to majorly congested Tokyo train station are good to know before you go.Shibuya Station is one of the most crowded stations in Tokyo, and arguably the most chaotic too. Part of that is simply due to the huge number of people that pass through it every day. Another factor is that, as one of Tokyo’s most vibrant and social media snapshot-able neighborhoods, Shibuya attracts not just locals who know their way around the place, but also out-of-town and out-of-country visitors who might

Japan’s new “Cunte” contact lenses aren’t pronounced like you’re probably thinking they are

Cunte Jelly Trick and other lenses’ names might be too clever for their own good.In many ways, Japan has a very playful attitude about language. The Japanese language is richly expressive, with all sorts of nuanced vocabulary and colorful onomatopoeia. There’s a great enthusiasm for foreign loanwords, especially when trying to lend an air of stylish modernism or trendy fun, and when it comes to thinking up names for brands or products, ones that might not seem obvious at first, but have some sor

Starbucks Japan adds new sakura Frappuccino and cherry blossom drinks to the menu

Limited-edition spring drinks make their way to Starbucks, but are they worth buying? With February now coming to an end, spring is about to start, and with it comes sakura (cherry blossom) season in Japan. Here to get us in the mood for the blooms is Starbucks, with the release of not one, not two, but three cherry blossom drinks, all based around the theme of “saku yo” (“bloom!”), which captures the beauty and excitement of the pre-blossom season.Our resident Starbucks

Cherry blossom mochi lattes arrive at Japan’s Pronto cafe chain to start sakura sweets season

What’s creamy on the outside, jiggly on the inside, and pink and delicious all over? This new sakura dessert drink.There are three signs that we’re getting closer to sakura season. The weather is gradually getting warmer. The buds on the cherry blossom trees are growing larger. Most exiting of all, though, is the increase in the number of sakura sweets to tempt us.One of the newest to make its debut comes to us from Japanese cafe chain Pronto, which on February 17 began serving the Ice Sakura Wa

Japan just had its first same-month foreign tourist decrease in four years

One country is clearly the cause, but fewer foreign tourists might not put the pressure it expects on Japan.On Wednesday, the Japan National Tourism Organization announced its latest statistics regarding foreign tourists. In January, nearly 3.6 million travelers from abroad arrived in Japan, and while that might sound like a lot, it’s actually the first same-month decrease, compared to the previous year, since the end of the pandemic.Japan welcomed approximately 3,597,500 foreign visitors last m

The 10 most annoying things foreign tourists do on Japanese trains, according to locals

Train etiquette can be hard to navigate for tourists, but locals need to watch their manners too.Every now and then, we see a number of work and business-related companies conducting surveys on train travel in Japan, but the most definitive and sizeable survey comes from the Japan Private Railway Association, which is made up of 72 private railway companies nationwide.Through an online multiple choice questionnaire, conducted between 1 October and 30 November last year, the association sought to

Japanese zoo’s monkey bonds with Ikea stuffed orangutang following abandonment by mother[Video]

Punch’s life started with a metaphorical gut-punch, but things are cuddlier, and happier, now.At just about any zoo, you’ll see a lot of kids holding plushies, either one they brought from home or one they just got at the gift shop. So ordinarily, it wouldn’t be all that noteworthy to visitors to Japan’s Ichikawa City Zoo to see a six-month-old cuddling a stuffed animal…except this six-month old is an actual monkey.～お知らせ～現在、サル山の中にぬいぐるみを持った子ザルがいます。2025年7月26日に生まれ、放置されていたところから人工哺育で育ち、今年の1月19日

New service lets you turn manga pages into T-shirt designs, over 200 titles to choose from

Manga Plus adds feature that lets fans put manga page art they’ve fallen in love with onto a shirt.Odds are manga publisher Shueisha didn’t spend all that much time coming up with the Manga Plus name for its online platform. Obviously, couldn’t just call it “Manga,” so they needed a linguistic accouterment for what they were offering, and “Plus” implies some sort of vague but positive potential, right?However, now there really is a significant addition to Manga Plus’ offerings, since in addition

How to make curry in a rice cooker with zero prep work and no water[Recipe]

Two steps, one piece of cooking equipment, and zero problems.The SoraNews24 office is, well, let’s call it “creatively cluttered.” That’s especially true at this time of year, when we’re still divvying up the contents of our annual lucky bag shopping spree.As such, we’re not always able to keep a current tally of all the trinkets, gadgets, and other artifacts in our workspace. Still, we were pretty sure we didn’t have a “curry maker” appliance…or at least we were pretty sure we didn’t have

We tried six Japanese burger chains’ coffee to test the state of fast food coffee in Japan[Taste test]

In a rare twist, we headed to McDonald’s Japan, Mos Burger, and more without buying a single sandwich, because today we’re all about the beans.Our reporter P.K. Sanjun is a big coffee fan. For more than a decade, hardly a day has gone by without him having at least one cup of coffee. And though he may not consume them with quite as much regularity, P.K. is also very fond of hamburgers.But for a long time, P.K. was not a fan of the coffee served at Japan’s burger chains. No matter which he tried,

Japanese potato chip Rubik’s Cubes coming soon

Delicious difficulty added to the classic puzzle.Of all the puzzles that I constantly get about 80 percent through and then give up, my favorite has to be the Rubik’s Cube. A timeless marriage of elegant design and mental exercise, these cubes have kept hands busy for generations, and now, they come with pictures of potato chips!MegaHouse, Japan’s official licensee of Rubik’s Cube, has partnered with the country’s leading potato chip brand Calbee for a line of cubes bearing their most famous fla