Hiroshima’s Mr. Kure mascot
Making his debut this month, Mr. Kure, or Kure-shi as he’s known in Japan, is the new mascot of Hiroshima Prefecture’s Kure City. And despite looking like an inspired, mom-made Halloween co…
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banzaitokyo's articles — page 111
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Nishi Rokugo Tire Park
In the Tokyo metropolitan area, where nearly everything is crammed for space, about 40,000 square feet of land is designated for Nishi Rokugo Park, one of the strangest and most innovative playground…
The Things That Make Tokyo Feel Alive In Yakuza 0
Crafting a game world that players care about is difficult. We’re used to rushing our way through digital spaces, leaping from ancient ruins to racetracks to the far flung future at a whim. Grounding…
Why Japan Will Lose 20 Million People by 2050
According to the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, a US think tank dedicated to research, analysis, and better public understanding of the US-Japan relationship, Japan is experiencing a "twin …
Japan's "independent" schoolchildren are more supervised than it appear
Indeed, there is nothing unusual in Japan about elementary schoolers traveling to and from school along busy roads, on crowded buses, or aboard rush-hour trains. Compared to other industrialized…
2020 Tokyo Olympic organizers to open mascot applications to public
Applications for designing the official mascots for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be open to the public, including children, the Games organizers panel announced Monday. “We will assess them on t…
A guide to the Sapporo snow festival2017
The Snow Festival, which is being held in Sapporo’s Oodori Park through February 12, 2017, features 116 different snow sculptures of all different sizes. One of the highlights is a recreation of Nara…
Tokyo fish supplier wants fresher sashimi and higher-paid fishermen
Ryohei Nomoto wants to put fresher sashimi on your plate, and more money in the wallets of Japan's struggling fishermen. His venture airfreights freshly caught fish from across Japan, proce…
Japan goes fishing for space junk but 700-metre 'tether' fails
An experimental Japanese mission to clear space junk from the Earth’s orbit has ended in failure, officials said on Monday, in an embarrassment for Tokyo. More than 100m pieces of rubbish are th…
A Tokyo hotel for bookworms
A hotel in Japan is defying the digital books trend and appealing to guests who prefer to curl up with a traditional paper book. Book and Bed Tokyo, a variation of Japan's famous capsule ho…