Azia Phreak Mail Surver

Starbucks Japan to open Shinkansen platform stores at Kyoto and Nagoya stations

New stores add a fresh taste and aroma to high-speed travel on Japan’s busiest bullet train route.One of the joys of Shinkansen travel is being able to bring your own food and drinks on board. However, with the high-speed rail service being famously punctual, you don’t always have time to pick up what you need when rushing to get your train.It’s a pre-departure dilemma that Starbucks is now seeking to address by opening stores right at the platform. Late last year, the chain broke new grou

Aichi city throws year-long 20th birthday bash for giant beckoning cat statue, Hello Kitty invited

The 20th birthday of a local legend calls for collaborations with Hello Kitty, Chubu Centrair International Airport, and 15 local businesses.March 28, 2027 will mark 20 years to the day when the city of Tokoname in Aichi Prefecture erected a giant manekineko (beckoning cat) statue affectionately named Tokonyan. At 3.8 meters (4.2 yards) tall and 6.3 meters wide, Tokonyan is a popular photo spot near the entrance to the Pottery Footpath (Yakimono Sanpomichi), a local sightseeing spot that highlig

Final Fantasy plushie shoulder bags are fuzzy and functional [Photos]

Chocobo, Moogle, and two more Final Fantasy mascot creatures want to go with you on your outside-the-house adventures.Final Fantasy’s Chocobo and Moogle are always welcome presences, so any fan of the Square Enix video game series would be happy to have these cubic forms of the cute creatures gracing their home, right?Ah, but Final Fantasy is, above all else, a story of adventure. So while it’s nice to know you have a Chocobo or Moogle waiting for you when you get home, something really true to

Akita Kanto Festival, one of Japan’s most spectacular summer festivals, gets an anime twist this year

Towering lanterns, traditional balancing skills, and a special anime collaboration make this an unforgettable Japanese festival experience.There are many famous summer festivals in Japan, but the Akita Kanto Festival is one of the most magical and awe-inspiring. Held in Akita City every August, this festival features fantastical lanterns that sway to represent rice stalks, held aloft by people who balance the enormous structures on their hips, shoulders, palm, chins and foreheads in an amazing d

U.S. government reportedly planning to close Nagoya consulate

Move would leave Japan’s fourth-largest city without consular services.With a population of roughly 2.3 million people, Nagoya is the fourth-largest city in Japan. It also holds an extremely important position in Japanese industry and its connections to the global economy, by nature of being the closest major city to the head office of Toyota and many of the automakers factories and suppliers.Nevertheless, the U.S. government is planning to close its consulate in Nagoya, according to a report fr

Yoshinoya gets into fancy fish, but is the cheap beef king reaching too far? [Taste test]

Japan’s biggest beef bowl chain is now serving up simmered kinmedai.When people think of Yoshinoya, they think of beef, and not just any beef, but cheap beef. That’s not to say Yoshinoya’s beef bowls are low-quality or bad-tasting, but the chain’s flagship fare is definitely more “good honest grub” than “fine dining.”So we were surprised, and intrigued, when we found out that Yoshinoya is now also serving up fancy fish.On July 27, Yoshinoya added the Gyu Kinmedai no Nizuke Teishoku, or Beef and

APEC ministers vow to balance economic growth and ecology

According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, China has supported more than 50 forestry demonstration projects in over 20 APEC economies, providing more than $45 million in funding ...

Pokémon Center Online designates first Pokémon items that will require Japanese ID card to buy

Fans will need to be residents of Japan in order to buy these items from the Pokémon Center Online.Scalping is becoming an increasingly large problem for the Pokémon franchise, and the latest move by the Pokémon Company to clamp down on the practice is a new system that requires a Japanese government-issued ID card for making certain purchases through the Pokémon Center Online store. As unveiled last month, the system works in tandem with the Digital Identification App, an app created by the Dig

Toyota Museum’s international retro vehicle parade returns to Aichi this autumn

Cruise over to Moricoro Park for 120 vintage cars or apply and show off your own pre-1997 classic.The Toyota Motor Corporation is a household name in much of the world for being the largest automobile manufacturer on a global scale, but has also had a big impact back at home. Rooted deep in Aichi Prefecture, the city of Koromo renamed itself Toyota City in 1959 to honor the company, its primary engine of growth. Just down the road from the city, in neighboring Nagakute City, sits the Toyota Auto

Tokyo’s Haneda Airport airlines announce stricter luggage check-in deadline for domestic flights

JAL and ANA among carriers to start requiring earlier baggage check-in very soon.The convenience of using Haneda Airport isn’t just its close proximity to downtown Tokyo, it’s also how easy the station is to access by train. There’s a station right in the basement of the building, with elevators that will take you right from the platform up into the departure lobbies, and when you add in how punctual and reliable Japan’s rail networks are, it can be easy to assume you don’t need to build much bu

Sanrio characters join forces with your favorite Japanese snack mascots as prizes at Family Mart

The convenience store chain offers the summer’s most kawaii collab by bringing 26 characters from different worlds together.Major Japanese convenience store chain Family Mart is celebrating its 45th anniversary in September with some of the cutest, most recognizable mascots out there!As of August 4, Family Mart locations across Japan are hosting a Sanrio characters and manufacturers’ mascots campaign. Buying eligible products will allow you to receive promotional prizes, and saving u

Coco’s Japan is very confident in their chilled ramen, but should they be? [Taste test]

Premium-priced hiyashu chuka comes to the American coffee shop’s Japanese branches.With the summer heat hitting Japan in full force, it’s time to look for ways to stay cool however you can, even when you’re eating, and recently that search took us to Coco’s to try their chilled ramen. And just to be clear, when we say “Coco’s,” we’re not talking about Japanese curry rice restaurant chain Coco Ichibanya. No, we’re actually talking about Coco’s, the American coffee shop that also has branches in J

Is covering your entire upper body with cooling strips enough to fend off Japan’s summer heat?

Mr. Sato thinks it might be, and when was the last time he had an idea that didn’t pan out?“All right everybody, patch me up!”As loyal readers know, some verystrange things can happen at SoraNews24 headquarters. Even by our standards, though, it was pretty startling to see our ace reporter Mr. Sato whip off his shirt and issue this command to everyone in earshot. Of course, he had a perfectly logical reason for his behavior, or at least a perfectly Sato-like reason for it, so let’s go back a few

Pokémon comes to McDonald’s Japan for new Happy Meals toys, brings every generation’s starters

You can’t celebrate 30 years of Pokémon without 30 years of starters, plus a few more Pocket Monster all-stars.The Pokémon franchise is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and the latest partner in the birthday party is McDonald’s Japan, who’s just announced that brand-new Pokémon Happy Meals featuring 30 different Pokémon species are on the way.In what’s become its standard style for big-name collaborations, McDonald’s will be releasing the Pokémon Happy Meals in three rounds. Six diffe

Sweet dreams are made of cheese at this all-you-can-eat cheese and doria restaurant

Our stomachs are more than pleased after eating all of the cheese.Cheese can be a somewhat difficult product to find in Japan. Supermarkets generally stock only a few standard varieties, and anything imported comes with a hefty price tag. That’s why any deal that comes with unlimited cheese is likely to pique our interest in a big way.Our latest find is a series of eateries operated by the same parent company as the Saint Marc Cafe chain of ChocoCro fame. As of July 21, it has four restaur

Japan’s favorite popsicles add multilingual packaging to better connect with foreign tourists

Garigari-kun wants to make friends with/be eaten by people from all over the world.Garigari-kun is Japan’s favorite popsicle brand, and like a lot of sweets in Japan, part of that popularity comes from a revolving lineup of seasonal and limited-time flavors. One of the most popular versions of all just made its way back to convenience stores and supermarkets, and while the flavor is familiar to fans, the packaging is looking different, because it now features multiple foreign languages.Garigari-

Japan’s Super Volunteer, 86-year-old Haruo Obata, heads to the Kumamoto earthquake site

Your friendly neighborhood Super Volunteer.On 28 July, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture, just outside of Kumamoto City. Having taken years to recover from a set of comparable earthquakes in 2016, being hit with another major one so soon completely undid a lot of that work. In addition, sweltering temperatures are making search and rescue efforts even more difficult and hazardous.Against that backdrop, one man has decided to once again answer the call and drove out to the aff

7-Eleven Japan rethinks convenience store sandwiches with a wild new choc-mint variety

Convenience store chain tests our limits by turning the divisive flavour into a cream sandwich.In recent years, choc mint has become synonymous with summer in Japan, as the menthol component is believed to provide a cooling effect to help you feel refreshed during the hottest days of the year. It’s become such a common flavour combination that there’s even a proud term for people who love it – “Chocominto”, a pun that sounds like the Japanese pronunciation of “Choc Mint” but uses the kanji “党” (

Japanese popsicle experiment says eating one before going outside in summer helps keep you cool

Maker of Garigari-kun explores whether one of Japan’s favorite frozen treats can work as a pre-cooling agent.There’s an old adage that says the best time to fix your roof is when the sun is shining, a way of expressing that there are some things in life that are best dealt with before the potential problem actually occurs. Of course, it can be hard to talk yourself into doing much of anything when that sun is shining on you with merciless summer fire, which brings us to a new piece of wisdom, wh

We tried Starbucks Japan’s new coffee for people who don’t drink coffee

Does the new “Clear Coffee” have what it takes to bring a non-coffee drinker into the fold?For many coffee drinkers, a cup of joe is a daily ritual – skip that morning cup and something just feels off. At the same time, though, more and more young people in Japan are said to be steering clear of coffee altogether, according to research conducted by Starbucks and Shibuya109 lab, a youth marketing organisation based in Tokyo’s Shibuya district.▼ Participants enjoying some tasty market research.In