JAPAN TRENDS
 
Anyone who has ever trawled YouTube will have encountered videos of cats.
And probably anyone who had looked at more than a few would have soon encountered a subgenre of the YouTube cat video: cats sitting on Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners as they move around the kitchen cleaning. ...

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JAPAN TODAY
 
TOKYO - Two earthquakes jolted eastern Japan on Wednesday morning but there was no tsunami alert issued, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The first quake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 5.5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 , hit at 2:02 a.m. The meteorological...

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ROCKET NEWS
 
Yes, of course it’s made with breast meat.
Tenka Torimasu is a chain of take-out restaurants with a half-dozen branches in Tokyo (and a few more elsewhere in Japan) that specializes in karaage, boneless chunks of Japanese-style fried chicken. While fried chicken is plenty delicious ...

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JAPAN TODAY
 
TOKYO - If you asked Japanese people on the street to name one of their favorite models from overseas, chances are that Australian beauty Miranda Kerr would be on that list. Kerr’s good looks have been used to advertise everything from handbags to jewellery and even fat-shedding tea...

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JAPAN TRENDS
 
The countdown to the 2020 Olympics continues in earnest: there is now just three years until the opening of the Summer Games. While the main stadium in central Tokyo is still far from completion, along with most of the other venues and facilities, the upcoming Tokyo Olympics at lea...

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JAPAN TRENDS
 
Somenova, a do-it-yourself dyeing workspace opening this month in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district, is as much a response to today’s booming DIY movement as it is a reclamation of Japan’s crafts heritage.
 
Somenova is a venture of Katsuraya Fine Goods, a fabric and craft store founded ...

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JAPAN TODAY
 
TOKYO - While the “men” part of the word “ramen” means “noodles,” it’s really the broth that makes ramen special. The noodles themselves don’t really have much flavor, after all.
Soy, miso, and pork are the most popular choices of stock, and each imparts its own unique flavor. Regar...

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THE JAPAN NEWS
 
Tuesday will mark one of this summer’s “doyo no ushi no hi,” a traditional eel-eating day, and this year we are likely to be able to eat eel at slightly cheaper prices than last year.
Thanks to larger catches of glass eels for farming compared to last season, the wholesale price ...

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JAPAN TODAY
 
JAKARTA - After donning a blue Cinderella dress, Sind Yanti carefully arranges her pale yellow "hijab", or traditional headscarf, into folds that resemble hair.
"Wearing a hijab should not be a barrier for anything. We are free to be creative," said the 24-year-old Indonesian design...

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ROCKET NEWS
 
 
Shibuya’s giant scramble crossing will be closed to traffic for a summer street festival.
Obon, the Japanese festival to honour the spirits of one’s deceased ancestors, has been held annually in Japan for the past 500 years. The custom involves returning to the family home to clea...

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