Meet Rabbit-kun, a plastic trash sack with pink eyes, an X-shaped mouth, and a pair of bunny ears that double as handles. Designed by Tokyo-based creative group MAQ, Inc., Rabbit-kun aims to inspire a more responsible attitude toward waste by providing a cute and stylish way for people to carry their trash home after […]
The Ooishi Hyoroku Monogatari, a largely fictional story featured in picture scrolls in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, tells of a young warrior and his encounters with trickster foxes posing as yokai. According to the National Museum of Japanese History, the story takes place in 1624 in Kagoshima, where a group of notorious […]
One day after a wild Japanese macaque caused a commotion at Tokyo’s Shibuya station and escaped back into the streets, police have received multiple reports of monkey sightings in the area.
According to this TBS video news report, which refers to the search effort as “Operation Capture Monkey,” the Japanese macaque was observed at […]
***UPDATE: The monkey has been spotted in the Omotesando area.***
Police in Tokyo are on the lookout for a wild monkey on the loose in the Shibuya area. The monkey — identified as a Japanese macaque — was spotted inside Shibuya station this morning (August 20), much to the surprise of morning commuters. (Watch an NNN […]
The streets may not be ready for Shokotan’s “cicada shell” look, but that doesn’t stop the multi-talented entertainer from decking herself out on occasion.
(Photos from the Shokotan Blog)
Shokotan, who talked about her fascination with cicada molts and showed off part of her collection in a television appearance last year, showed up at […]
Over the next two months, a team of Japanese explorers hopes to obtain indisputable video evidence confirming the existence of the legendary yeti, the mysterious apelike creature long believed to inhabit the Himalayas of Nepal and Tibet.
A 7-member crew of experienced climbers, led by veteran yeti hunter and mountaineer Yoshiteru Takahashi, will depart Japan on […]
In a technological advance that opens up new possibilities in the fields of robotics and wearable computing, researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a stretchable, rubbery material that conducts electricity and can be incorporated into electronic devices.
The researchers — led by assistant professor Takao Someya of the University of Tokyo […]
Near Tappi Saki, Aomori (Photo: Mr_M_Montgomery)
Hit the beach anywhere in Japan, and you are likely to see endless piles of tetrapods — enormous four-legged concrete structures intended to prevent coastal erosion. By some estimates, more than 50% of Japan’s 35,000-kilometer (22,000-mi) coastline has been altered with tetrapods and other forms of concrete. Critics, who blame […]
Styrofoam dome houses at Aso Farm Land (Photo by: Erika Snyder)
While styrofoam may be most commonly associated with disposable coffee cups, meat trays and packaging, prefab home manufacturer Japan Dome House Co., Ltd. uses it to construct easy-to-assemble modular kit homes.
Dubbed the “habitat for the 21st century,” the Dome House is an igloo-shaped structure […]
One of the world’s rarest fungi, an exotic star-shaped mushroom known to exist at only three locations on Earth, has been discovered in the mountains of Nara prefecture.
The Devil’s Cigar (a.k.a. “Texas Star”) — known to botanists as Chorioactis geaster — had been observed only in central Texas and at two remote locations in […]
