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Braving a Japanese national fireworks competition with 10x more people than the city population
Small town turns into major city for one night.In Japan, late summer is often the season for major displays of fireworks, and the Omagari Fireworks, held at the end of August, is among the most prestigious. It’s commonly known as the “National Fireworks Competition,” attracting the best pyrotechnical artists in the country to the city of Daisen, Akita Prefecture.Our writer, Saya Togashi, has often attended the show throughout her life, but the crisp late summer evenings of her
Nintendo opens Art Gallery inside Nintendo Museum with concept art for Zelda, Mario, and more
Museum wants to show you what Nintendo’s video game stars looked like before they every showed up your screen.One of the coolest parts of the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto is the display of boxes for video games released for the company’s various home and handheld systems. Stretching back decades, the collection consists of hundreds of pieces of game-related artwork which often served as the first impression fans got when seeing the games on the shelf of a game shop or friend’s house.The cover art, t
Family Mart opens first clothing store in Tokyo
Even if you can take these clothes out of Family Mart, but you can’t take the Family Mart out of these clothes.Back in 2016, we were very hard-pressed to put together an outfit using only items bought from convenience store chain Family Mart. However, since then the company has greatly expanded on its fashionable offerings and even created their own brand called “Convenience Wear.”The constantly growing line of shirts, pants, socks, underwear, and more has gotten to the point w
Meeting Low Expectations: Analyzing President Biden’s Summit with ...
President Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi was an opportunity to stabilize U.S.-China relations and yielded some important deliverables, but the bilateral relationship will continue to be defined by competition.
Joint press communiqué by Heads of State of Central Asia and the ...
In this context, participants welcomed the EU-Central Asia Ministerial Conference on Connectivity planned for November 2022. The participants expressed their interest in strengthening joint actions in ...
The potential pitfalls of ordering a Kids Frappuccino at Starbucks Japan
You can only buy this drink at four special stores, but there’s a word of warning for those who try it. Japan is home to over 1,800 Starbucks stores, but did you know there are four unique “Special Starbucks” locations? These stores offer an exclusive Kids Frappuccino and a hands-on, child-friendly cafe experience for families, and one of them can be found at Nagareyama Otakanomori S･C in ChibaPrefecture.▼ “S･C” stands for “Shopping Centre“This Starbucks
Temptations of smartphones, high-calorie foods mean no new horse racing jockeys for Japan next year
Horse racing school says nay to those who were looking to debut in 2026.Horse racing has been enjoying a boost in popularity in recent years in Japan, thanks in no small part to smash-hit video game/anime franchise Uma Musume and its cast of anthropomorphized horse girls based on actual horses that raced in Japan. But while interest in the sport is on the rise, for the first time in more than 40 years, there will be no new jockeys making their Japan Racing Association debut next year.In 1982, th
Is Kyoto really as crowded with foreign tourists as they say?
Assessing the state of overtourism firsthand reveals some surprising results. Kyoto is fast becoming known for overtourism, with news reports often pointing out the negative impact it has on the historic city. The issue of overcrowding is said to be so bad that people from other parts of Japan are no longer visiting, but are the reports warranted?This was something that had long been on the mind of our reporter Ikuna Kameazawa, so when she found herself in Kyoto on 8 August, the first day of the
Space pilot under attack turns out to be con artist who stole 1 million yen from Sapporo senior
That’ll be the last astronaut she’ll trust.We’ve seen it time and time again, cases where fraudsters pose as anyone from your son or daughter to Mick Jagger or Shohei Ohtani. It’s what’s known as tokushu sagi, or “special fraud,” and despite the countless attention given to the problem in the media, it continues to claim a disturbingly large number of victims.In fact, the perpetrators seem to be getting even more brazen with their fabricated stories to c
Japanese convenience store showdown: Who’s got the best red rice sekihan rice balls?【Taste test】
It’s a red-letter day for sekihan fans.With most onigiri/rice balls, it’s their fillings that differentiate them from each other. In the case of sekihan rice balls, though, it’s the rice itself that makes them special,Sekihan translates literally to “red rice,” and it gets its name from the rice being steamed together with azuki, the same red beans used in many traditional Japanese desserts. While you wouldn’t mistake sekihan for a dessert in and of itself, it does have a touch of sweetness you
Man who woke up with amnesia, a mohawk, and 600,000 yen in rural Japan may have found his home
His identity may have been found, but what happened is still a mystery.Although it’s often over-represented and over-simplified in media, the reality of suffering from amnesia seems like one of the more frightening experiences anyone would have to go through. Especially if it happens while you’re alone and you have no idea how you got wherever you are.That nightmare came to visit a man who woke up outdoors in rural Shimane Prefecture with no idea who or where he was. According to rep
Parents of 10-year-old in Kyoto who spent 4.6 million yen on TikTok and more seek reimbursement
Them’s the breaks…even when you’re breaking the bank.It’s not uncommon for exhausted parents to let their kids play on a smartphone as a quick and easy way to provide a distraction. We can only imagine, however, the reaction of one set of parents in Kyoto when they finally realized exactly what their son had been up to on the phone over the course of June through August of last year.The ten-year-old boy in question spent a total of approximately 4.6 million yen (US$31,242
Wendy’s Japan’s mochi moon-viewing burger don’t just have mochi, they are mocchi too
Another part of tsukimi traditions gets drawn into the gravtional pull of moon-viewing burgers.September is the start of tsukimi, or moon viewing, season in Japan, and if you’re a regular reader of SoraNews24, you probably know it’s the start of tsukikmi burger season too.Tsukimi burgers get their name as an extension of Japan’s various tsukimi noodle dishes, in which an egg is cracked into a bowl of soba or udon noodles. The heat of the broth flash cooks the egg, and its resulting round shape l
Asia’s Economies Can Embrace Services to Boost Growth and ... - IMF
By contrast, traditional services—for example, tourism or distribution services—have lower productivity and contribute less to economic growth. Policymakers should embrace this shift to modern ...
How a Gundam Wing pilgrimage had our lapsed anime fan feeling all warm and fuzzy【Photos】
She was looking forward to a reunion with her favorite G-boy, but the new people she met were just as special.These days you can’t really be plugged into the Japanese pop culture scene without having at least a moderate interest in anime, but our Japanese-language reporter Ikuna Kamezawa doesn’t think of herself as a hard-core anime fan. There was, however, this one series that she used to be really into back in the day. Maybe you’ve heard of it?It was called Gundam Wing.Yes, there was a time wh
Mr. Sato takes on two of Muji’s most powerful Chocolate Mint ice creams*
*One of them actually sacrificed the “ice cream” designation to be more powerfully minty.Mint chocolate, or “choco mint” as it’s inversely known in Japan, is still a relatively new flavor on the mainstream snack scene. It’s only been able to seriously catch on in recent years among the younger generations, who don’t instantly liken it to the taste of toothpaste.Meanwhile, our star reporter Mr. Sato, is no such youngster and has a hard time stomaching any
Foreign tourist steals offerings and chugs booze in Japanese cemetery, sparking police investigation
People both living and dead in Japan have reason to be very angry at this moron.In early August, an Australian tourist who was visiting the town of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, uploaded videos to social media of himself in a local cemetery. Though most people would say it’s sort of weird to photograph or film a cemetery, Japan has no adamant religious taboos against it, and provided the videos were of a discreet and respectful nature, that probably would have been the end of the story.
Game over as 33-year-old landmark arcade closes in Tokyo’s Akihabara district【Photos, video】
The shutter and curtain come down on the first arcade Sega ever opened in Japan’s biggest gamer neighborhood.With Sunday being the last day of August, and so arguably the last day of summer, there was already cause to be feeling a little wistful. Things were even more bittersweet in Tokyo’s Akihabara neighborhood, though, where more than three decades of video game history came to a close.Last day #GiGO秋葉原1号館pic.twitter.com/b9XMznHDty— GiGO秋葉原のお店ビデオゲームアカウント (@GiGO_akiba_ac) August 30, 2025
Japanese Arita ware porcelain converted into jewelry to reduce waste from the traditional art
One person’s trash is another’s treasure.When we think of industrial waste, we usually imagine chemicals pouring out of factories or mountains of unused clothing from fast fashion brands. Traditional craftspeople, however, often get a pass on the matter because of their relatively small scale and cultural importance. That doesn’t mean they don’t care about their own waste though, and one company is working on ways to minimize it.Arita ware is one of the most popular style
Upcoming themed cafe answers the question “What if Hokusai had opened an eatery?”
The tie-in cafe to a Hokusai exhibition at the Creative Museum Tokyo will feature a menu that pays homage to the beloved artist’s famous works.Celebrated Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is still incredibly relevant today, garnering plenty of new fans of his timeless woodblock prints and more with ease. The latest Japanese exhibition paying homage to his works, “Everything was the Work of Hokusai” Exhibition (also being called “Hokusai: The Artist Mad About