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Mobile battery starts emitting smoke inside airplane bound for Tokyo’s Haneda airport
Battery’s owner wasn’t the first to notice is was about to catch fire.Usually, flights between Okinawa and Tokyo are pretty unremarkable. It’s only about a two-and-a-half-hour trip, which is barely enough time to watch a movie or put a dent in a novel, and the flightpath is almost entirely over the open waters of the Pacific, meaning there’s little noteworthy scenery to gaze out the window at.However, things got unexpectedly eventful on ANA Flight 994 on Thursday morning, which left Naha Airport
HKTDC: Eco Expo Asia Opens at AsiaWorld-Expo in Late October to Promote Green Technologies
- Showcasing global solutions to accelerate carbon reduction goalsHONG KONG, Oct 9, 2025 - (ACN Newswire) - - The 20th edition of Eco Expo Asia, themed Green Innovations for Carbon Neutrality, will gather
Bear bites butt in Japan as ursine assaults continue
Bear attacks occurred on three consecutive days in northern Japanese prefecture.It’s hard to imagine a worse way to start your day than what happened to a 27-year-old man in Akita Prefecture on Tuesday. At around 8 a.m., he stepped out of the front door of his home in the town of Gojome, and was about to get in his car to drive to his farm, when a bear attacked him.The man was able to fight the bear off, but not before suffering injuries that, while later deemed minor, required him to call for e
Beautiful Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle pins both are and aren’t great gacha items【Pics】
So thankfully there’s a way to easily gather a complete set.Studio Ghibli’s films are exceptional in a lot of ways, but one that often gets overlooked is how comprehensively beloved their casts are. For most anime, even extremely popular series, there’ll be one or two characters that a sizeable portion of the fandom finds annoying, off-putting, or otherwise undesirable to have on screen, but pretty much every major member of Ghibli’s ensembles is fondly remembered, even the ones who sometimes cl
Human washing machine pods coming to Japanese hotels【Photos】
Pods wash you with no scrubbing or effort on your part.At hotels in Japan, the bathing facilities usually fall into two broad categories. There might be a traditional setup, with compact shower booths where you wash off before entering a large communal tub to soak in, or you could have a more modern full-size in-room shower, often as part of a combination with an individual-sized tub. Soon, though, if you’re traveling in Japan you might have the option of using a human washing machine.Designed b
Osaka Expo expected to turn an operating profit of over 23 billion yen
But is that still enough to call it a success?When the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo was set to open last April, a large number of nay-sayers came out of the woodwork, predicting it would be a colossal failure. Politician Fusaho Izumi dubbed it the “waste of the century,” and an explosion caused by a gas pocket in the landfill during construction caused some schools to turn down free tickets to the Expo.Other problems began to emerge in the opening weeks, such as clouds of harmless but gros
Starbucks Japan releases new latte containing an unusual floral ingredient
Limited-edition release turns a Japanese autumn flower into a beverage.It’s been 20 years since Starbucks expanded its range into convenience stores and supermarkets with its revolutionary chilled cup series. Now, after a run of limited-time releases covering everything from white chocolate to matcha, there’s yet another exclusive flavour here to tempt us: the Earl Grey Blossom Tea Latte.If the name sounds familiar, that’s because last year the chain released an Earl Grey Flowe
Giant real-world Kingdom Hearts Keyblade plays music and magic sound effects from the game【Video】
Recreation of Sora’s sword produces lights and sounds for all tiers of seven classes of spells.Video game developer Square took some really big risks when it first created Kingdom Hearts. Trying to fit Disney characters, Final Fantasy characters, and original characters into a sweeping, multi-dimensional narrative could have gone very badly, and putting artist Tetsuya Nomura in charge of the whole thing meant he had freedom to get as stylistic as he wanted with the costume and prop design, inclu
Tokyo’s Shibuya ward sets up English information desk to help foreigners find nightlife options
Shibuya Nightlife Guide seeks to keep the party going, but off the street.As has become tradition, Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward recently put out a warning against anyone thinking about wild partying on the neighborhood’s streets at Halloween. This is part of an effort to clean up Shibuya’s image following a period of regular late-October bedlam which saddled it with a trashy, lawless reputation that was becoming an embarrassment at a time when the ward was also trying to promote itself as a premie
Studio Ghibli adds new My Neighbour Totoro pouches to its anime merchandise shop in Japan
Totoro and the Catbus are joined by Jiji for this joyous new collection. One of the great things about Studio Ghibli merchandise is the way the products aren’t just beautiful but functional as well. That’s certainly the case with this new collection, which turns some of the studio’s most beloved characters into pouches that can be used by adults and children alike.The range begins with Totoro, from the 1988 movie My Neighbour Totoro, whose beautifully rotund belly is perfectly
German embassy in Japan reveals its staff are fans of Spy x Family anime
Diplomatic mission is as happy to see the Forgers again as the rest of the fanbase is.The Spy x Family anime was an immediate hit upon its debut in 2022, with a second season of the TV series and an anime movie arriving the next year. After Spy x Family Code: White hit theaters in December of 2023, though, the Forger family went on anime hiatus for almost two years.As of this month, though, Spy x Family is back, with Season 3 debuting on Japanese TV on October 4, to the delight of fans across Ja
USJ’s 2025 Halloween event will spook you by day and night with zombies galore and more
We’ve compiled our favorite parts of this year’s event, including the largest-ever collection of special food, goods, and a new HamiKuma variant.Universal Studios Japan (USJ) is known for the big Halloween bash that it throws every year around this time. This year’s theme is “Sanity? Who needs it?” which is running at the park from September 4 through November 5. We recently checked everything out and have compiled our recommendations for making your time there as e
Starbucks releases first-ever vending machine-exclusive drink in Japan
Limited-edition beverage is a historic first for the coffeehouse chain.Starbucks is always looking for new and ever-more convenient ways to reach its customers in Japan, and now it’s breaking ground with another sales channel — Japanese vending machines.With roughly 2.1 million vending machines operating in Japan right now, this is a significant growth opportunity for the brand’s so-called “RTD” (“Ready to Drink”) series, and it looks set to be a tasty d
Fire breaks out in Kyoto hotel, mobile battery to blame
Hotel is located across street from Kyoto Station, had more than 1,000 guests inside when fire started.When traveling in Kyoto, getting up early is definitely recommended. The most popular tourism attractions, the city’s historical temples and shrines, are less crowded in the morning, plus they often close around dusk, so you’ll want to get an early start if you’re looking to fit several into your day’s itinerary. Add in the fact that Kyoto’s nightlife options are fairly modest, and most people
Nintendo mysteriously releases Close to You CG animated video, but what is it?【Video】
Four-minute video has no dialogue, but still contains audio clues as to what it might be.Nintendo was a pioneer in creating a direct information pipeline to fans, and its Nintendo Direct long-form YouTube presentations are a strategy that several other entities in the game industry have since adopted. But while it’s sometimes willing to chat for hours on end about its upcoming projects, Nintendo now just dropped a lengthy, lavish CG animated video with absolutely no explanation at all and
Studio Ghibli releases new merchandise in honour of Mr Dough and the Egg Princess anime short
Film characters in an egg carton make this one of the studio’s most unusual releases of the year.Studio Ghibli’s animated feature films have long become famous around the globe, but diehard fans of the studio will know some the most magical storylines can be found in the short films screened exclusively at the Ghibli Museum, and more recently Ghibli Park.With the roster of shorts changing monthly, in October the Ghibli Museum is screening Mr Dough and the Egg Princess, known as Panda
Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba wins award for politician who wears glasses the best
What better note is there for a Japanese PM to go out on?The political legacy of the soon-to-be retired Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will likely be spotty. Having overseen widespread inflation, particularly with the Japanese staple of rice, with little in the way of effective countermeasures, will likely reflect poorly on him. On the other hand, he seemed to have maneuvered his way through the tariff threats by Donald Trump relatively well.I personally found his opinions on the constit
Family Mart’s tsukimi burger threatens to drown you in cheese
Well, if I had to drown in something…It’s autumn again in Japan, calendar-wise at least, not so much weather-wise. And this is when Japan celebrates the harvest moon, or as they call it, “moon-viewing (tsukimi) season,” by putting egg on hamburgers and other foods. These burgers are known as “tsukimi burgers,” and the yellow of the yolk represents the moon, which is said to glow especially bright during this time.Tsukimi burgers were invented by McDonald’
Starbucks Japan reveals new Halloween goods for 2025
Black cats lurk in this limited-edition drinkware collection, with special glow-in-the-dark details. Every October, the weather cools, the nights get longer, and Starbucks pulls the curtain back on its limited-edition goods for Halloween. This year, we’re in for a real treat, with 15 new items based around the theme of a mischievous black cat.There’s a lot to love about this exclusive range, so let’s get right into it, starting with the cups, tumblers and bottles.▼ Colour-Cha
Starbucks Japan unveils new Halloween Frappuccino for 2025
Limited-edition drink takes cat cosplay to new levels. As we get into October, Halloween is about to poke its head around the corner, and here to remind us of that fact is Starbucks, with the grand unveiling of this year’s limited-edition Halloween Frappuccino.The new drink is officially called the Acai Berry Frappuccino, but it also goes by the name Black Cat Frappuccino, due to the feline-shaped chocolate ears that make it look like a mischievous black feline is hiding inside. The body o