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Studio Ghibli adds mini pillows and massive mats to its anime merchandise store in Japan

My Neighbour Totoro is here to help you look and feel cool in traditional Japanese style. With the weather heating up in Japan, people across the nation are reaching into their cupboards and bringing out their fans, cotton bedding, and other cooling items to help cope with the rising temperatures.Those who like to stay cool in traditional Japanese style, however, will be reaching for items made with igusa, a soft rush grass that has been used here for centuries. Commonly used for tatami flooring

Self-proclaimed Americans arrested for breaking into Punch the monkey’s Japanese zoo habitat

Intruder enters home of beloved stuffed animal-loving macaque.Japan’s Ichikawa City Zoo attracted worldwide attention earlier this year as animal lovers around the globe heard about Punch, a newborn monkey who, after being rejected by his mother, bonded with an Ikea orangutang stuffed animal. Though Punch is the facility’s most famous resident, it has other adorable animals as well, such as alpacas, capybaras, and lesser pandas.However, despite the Ichikawa City Zoo not having any donkeys, there

Kanji ice cream becomes a sell-out hit in Japan

A fun new way to learn kanji… and reward yourself for it at the same time.  It’s been just over two weeks since Kanji Ice opened a store in the historic district of Kamakura in Tokyo’s neighbouring Kanagawa Prefecture. The opening on 1 May was perfectly timed to precede Golden Week, a string of holidays on 3-6 May, which is known for being a busy travel and shopping period.While the store’s operators had hoped it would be busy, they couldn’t predict just how sought

This Tokyo Station sweets sensation sells out daily, but we finally got our hands on it

Mont Blanc The Hakuzan is a sweets shop so nice it’s named twice.Tokyo Station isn’t just one of the most important places in the city for travelers and commuters, but for sweets fans too. Both within the station itself and inside the attached Daimaru department store are an array of dessert specialty stores, and we’ve been wanting to try one of them for months now.Make no mistake, the reason we haven’t yet tried the desserts from Mont Blanc The Hakuzan, which opened in October, has nothing to d

Shochu maker on remote Japanese island plays music as its spirits age, flavor varies by genre

Rock shochu and reggae shochu really do taste different from each other.The island of Amami Oshima is part of Kagoshima Prefecture, and Kagoshima is usually pictured as making up the southwest tip of the island of Kyushu, one of Japan’s four main islands. Amami Oshima, though, is far, far away from the Kyushu coastline, so far away that the ferry from Kagoshima City takes 13 hours to get there.▼ The route from Kagoshima City to Amami Oshima, which can alternatively be reached by plane from Tokyo

Choc mint ice cream season hits Japan with a spectacular drinkable ice cream from Tully’s

Why go to Starbucks when you can find hidden gems like this at a locally born chain?Are you a Chokomintou supporter? If you are, then you will be gearing up for a very busy, and refreshing, summer in Japan, because Chokomintou means “Choco Mint Tou”, where “tou” (“political party”) humorously refers to the chocolate mint party, a faction despised by some and strongly supported by others.Choc mint is certainly a divisive flavour combination, but here in Japan,

Baskin-Robbins Japan’s 2026 popularity poll results are in and the champion flavor is crowned

One flavor still rules the nation.For the last five years, Baskin-Robbins Japan (colloquially known as “31”) has been holding an annual Flavor Election that petitions fans of its ice cream to vote for their top flavors to discover the nation’s favorite.Out of a possible 1,400 original flavors that could have been potentially chosen from across the 53 years it has been operating in Japan, Baskin-Robbins narrowed down the contenders to the top 100, based on their own data, for fans to vote on and

Melbourne to Host 2026 Asia-Oceania Satellite Conference

Meteorology is a global science Sharing knowledge and expertise benefits all nations, including Australia.We contribute to this global effort, working

7-Eleven Japan now sells canned water, but does funky packaging mean funky flavor?[Taste test]

Lotte’s canned water makes its convenience store debut.The first time you take a look at the drink section in a Japanese convenance store, you might be surprised by some of the packaging, specifically the things that you can buy in cans. Canned coffee and cocktails can be found in pretty much every convenience store in the country, and while not as common, canned teas aren’t all that shocking to see here either.But even we were surprised to find out that 7-Eleven Japan now sells canned water.The

The top 12 incomprehensible school rules, as chosen by high school students

Plus some surprising extra requirements, like having to say “thank you” at least 10 times a day. Every school in Japan has its own set of rules, and while many of these guidelines are perfectly understandable, there are some that are baffling, to say the least.This topic of nonsensical school rules was recently explored by Jukusen, one of Japan’s largest online directory and comparison platforms for cram schools, in a survey that targeted 104 high school students nationwide.Mor

Let’s hike a Japanese mountain (that isn’t Mt. Fuji) – Mt. Tsukuba[Photos]

A beautiful, highly customizable hike that’s an easy day-trip from Tokyo.We’re finally in that not-too-cold, not-too-hot sweet spot of spring weather in Japan, providing a prime window for all sorts of outdoor activities. While “climb Mt. Fuji” might be the one that most quickly comes to mind for travelers in Japan, the country’s tallest mountain won’t be open to hikers until midsummer, but today we’re taking a look at a different great mountain to hike that’s doable as a day trip from Tokyo.Mt.

Hundreds of rose bushes in bloom at Tokyo’s off-the-beaten-path, next-to-the-tracks flower street

Local road goes from trash dump to treasure.One of Tokyo’s largest and most beautiful collections of roses is in bloom right now. However, you won’t find them blooming inside a park or private garden, but right on the street in the Otsuka neighborhood in Toshima Ward.These beautiful flowers, which are in bloom right now, are located on what’s now called Otsuka Rose Road (or Otsuka Rose Street – the signage is sort of inconsistent). However, such a pretty name wasn’t always so fitting for the pla

Studio Ghibli’s president is leaving the company. Will it change how they make anime?

Three years after being acquired by Nippon TV, there’s a shakeup at the top levels of Ghibli’s leadership.Between its unparalleled commitment to anime artistry and larger-than-life creative keymen, it can be easy to forget that Studio Ghibli still is a company. So while the animators and designers play crucial roles in producing what we see on screen, they’re not the ones running the place. Studio Ghibli does have a president, and the current one is going to step down next month.Studio Ghibli an

Tokyo’s life-size Gundam anime mecha statue will be removed this summer

Goodbye (again), Gundam.Seeing Tokyo’s life-size Gundam statue is an amazing experience, but also surreal one. Sure, Japan is the land of anime and all, but even then, a 19.7-meter (64.6-foot) tall mecha feels like something too awesome to be standing outside of the Diver City entertainment complex in the Odaiba district.And sadly, it’s not going to be standing there much longer.Both the official Gundam franchise website and the site for Tokyo’s life-size Unicorn Gundam statue have posted notice

161-year-old Kyoto confectionary maker releases new edible Pokémon lineup

Transforming iconic characters into delicious works of art.Pokémon is a beloved franchise, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in Japan who has not heard of it, even if they have never personally interacted with any of its media. Through collaborations with famous brands from all areas of the market, the cute and charming character designs can be seen in many places throughout the country.Despite both being of Japanese origin, the combination of a 161-year-old traditional Japanese confectio

7-Eleven Japan is releasing Greedy chocolate chip and whipped cream sandwiches

We’re not sure if we can say greed is good, but it does look delicious.Japanese convenience stores are not exactly the sort of places that inspire one to a philosophy of stoic minimalism. Each and every shelf and cooler case is packed with tempting treats, and while they may not necessarily be things we need to eat, they’re definitely things we want to, and the ease of access from Japan’s dense network of such shops makes them little open-24-hours palaces to quick gratification.7-Eleven Japan ha

Saltiest ramen in Japan? Ikebukuro White goes viral for crazy salt levels

We challenge you to find a saltier ramen in Japan.Once you start diving into the world of Japanese ramen, you’ll find that the waters are deep, with an incredibly diverse array of varieties, and new dishes being created somewhere every day.A great example of that can be seen at Kuwabara, a ramen restaurant in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro that specialises in “shio soba“, a light, salt-based ramen. The store’s full name is “Shio Soba Specialty Shop Kuwabara” so it pr

Nintendo reveals live-action Legend of Zelda movie is coming sooner than we’d thought

The wait just got a little shorter for Nintendo’s return to live-action movies.With the smash-hit success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie in 2023, and its recently released sequel The Super Mario Galaxy Movie getting a similarly enthusiastic response from audiences, there’s been a lot of talk about how long it took for Nintendo to come around to the idea of theatrical adaptations of its games. However, as CG animated features, both movies have the benefit of being close in nature to video game gr

7-Eleven Japan upsizes popular products like egg sando and pork ramen but how big are they really?

Getting more convenience store food for our yen is always a fun time, but this campaign is bordering on ridiculous.On 12 May, 7-Eleven Japan kicked off its its “Founding Anniversary Sale” by giving us over 50 percent more of some of our favourite products in the first phase of its so-called “Thank You Extra Large” series.▼ We immediately visited our nearby 7-Eleven and managed to get our hands on four of the upsized products.The products we procured were:Corn & Mayonn

Live-action Princess Mononoke stage cast appears in costume for first time[Video]

Kabuki adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki Ghibli anime opens in Tokyo this summer.Princess Mononoke is one of the most celebrated anime films of all times, and with every frame bursting with Studio Ghibli’s distinct animation artistry, it’s hard enough to imagine what it would look like in live action, let alone as a kabuki play. That’s exactly what we’re getting, though, with the stage adaptation set to open in Tokyo this summer, and now we’ve got our first look at the main cast in costume.The produc