I would really like to know what's the story and tradition behind the cosplay at the Kyoto University Graduation Ceremony. Unfortunately I don't read Japanese so my imagination is running wild when I…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 8 years, 1 month ago | 1 comment

Are banana peels really slippery?

Is it possible to extract vanilla fragrance from cow dung?

The Ig Nobel Prize is awarded for study into these kinds of amusing topics. Since 1991, the US publisher I…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 8 years, 1 month ago | 1 comment

Solar panels are cheaper than ever these days, but installation costs can still be considerable for homeowners. More efficient solar panels can recapture the cost of their installation more quickly, …

posted by  banzaitokyo | 8 years, 1 month ago | 2 comments

A designer named Kosho Tsuboi has conceived a beautiful gadget idea. His product, the Magic Calendar, is an e-paper calendar that syncs with a smartphone to display your schedule. The project is asso…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 8 years, 1 month ago | 2 comments

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has unveiled an outline of a facility designed to boost young people's communication skills in the English language.

The Tokyo government is planning to open the edu…

posted by  Tanuki | 8 years, 1 month ago | 2 comments

A live-action version of Death Note is coming to Netflix later this year, and we’ve just gotten the first teaser trailer. Here, Light Turner (The Fault In Our Stars’ Nat Wolff) finds the titular Deat…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 8 years, 1 month ago | 1 comment

Maori Tezuka, a former opera singer who made her debut in Japan's flourishing "silver porn" industry at a sprightly 71, blamed her decision partly on a lack of red-blooded Lotharios able to keep up w…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 8 years, 1 month ago | 2 comments

The population in Tokyo's waterfront areas has ballooned in recent years and is only expected to keep climbing after the 2020 Olympics, ratcheting up pressure on the local government to expand its al…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 8 years, 1 month ago | 1 comment

As explained in this article (https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20170321_17/), 1 in 4 Japanese has considered suicide at some point. But the number of actual suicides has gone down; 5-10 years …

posted by  Tanuki | 8 years, 1 month ago | 1 comment

The Japanese authorities have been trying to encourage older people to give up driving after a recent spate of accidents, some of which involved drivers confusing the accelerator and the brake pedals…

posted by  banzaitokyo | 8 years, 1 month ago | 1 comment