Guile, as usual, is waiting.
As the cultural anthropologists who make up SoraNews24’s readership are well aware, autumn is tsukimi/moon-viewing burger season in Japan, when the nation’s hamburger providers serve up sandwiches topped with fried eggs that resemble a beautiful full moon.
However, it’s specifically early autumn that’s moon-viewing season, coinciding with the timing for the moon-viewing parties which courtly nobles use to hold. That means, sadly, that it’ll soon be time to say goodbye to this year’s tsukimi burgers, as the official McDonald’s Japan Twitter account reminded us on Tuesday.
▼ “It’s almost time for them to go back to the moon.”
そろそろ月に帰ります。 pic.twitter.com/CtXBBSWbZR— マクドナルド (@McDonaldsJapan) October 14, 2025
It’s a bittersweet moment, to be sure, but the very next day McDonald’s Japan gave us something new to get excited about.
▼ “Waiting for something…”
何かを待っている…。 pic.twitter.com/802TOIfDSi— マクドナルド (@McDonaldsJapan) October 15, 2025
So just what’s being waited for, and who, for that matter, is the shadowy figure doing the waiting? The first clue is the detailed pixel-art aesthetic, evoking memories of a pre-polygon era of video games, but not so far back as to be taking inspiration from the earliest days of the medium. But the more telling clue? Well, they say that one mark of good character design is when you can recognize who the character is from their silhouette alone, and that silhouette clearly belongs to Guile, from the Street Fighter franchise.
▼ You might think Guile’s hair is the most “could only work in a video game” thing about him, but that distinction actually goes to his crouching block, as we painfully found out.
And it doesn’t look like Guile is the only one getting set for a round at the Golden Arches, as the McDonald’s Japan Twitter account then posted another teaser featuring even more members of the Street Fighter cast, along with the name of series developer Capcom.
明日発表、やつらが会いにくる。 pic.twitter.com/cT0kcD69zL— マクドナルド (@McDonaldsJapan) October 15, 2025
The Street Fighter franchise spans nearly 40 years, with six mainline numbered entries and dozens of spinoffs and semi-sequels. For this collaboration with McDonald’s Japan, though, the focus looks to be on Street Fighter II, as the silhouettes in the tweets are all exact matches to poses the characters strike in its entries (though the second tweet’s use of the original 12 Street Fighter II characters suggests that the new challengers added for Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo won’t be part of the festivities). The second tweet also includes the message “They are coming to meet you,” a play on Street Fighter II’s tagline in Japan, “I’m off to go meet someone stronger than myself.”
As to what exactly the team-up is going to entail, a Street Fighter Happy Meal would seem like the most obvious choice, but McDonald’s Japan has been running into some problems with its high-profile Happy Meal collaborations as of late, so we might be getting special Street Fighter sandwiches like McDonald’s made for Godzilla, or they could be releasing sold-separately merch like the McDonald’s Evangelions. More info is expected to be announced later this week.
Source: Twitter/@McDonaldsJapan
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Tea with Totoro, anyone?
Fall is the most relaxing season, isn’t it? Nestled between the go-go-go excitement of summer and the chill of winter that makes staying in bed with your head under the covers all day feel like the wisest course of action, autumn is a time of year conducive to stretching out on the sofa with a good book and a nice cup of tea close at hand.
Of course, when you’re not holding that cup of tea, you’re going to want a coaster to put it down on, and if you’re a Ghibli fan, you’re going to want a Ghibli coaster, right?
So here to help keep your interior adorable and your furniture finish protected is Studio Ghibli specialty shop Donguri Kyowakoku, which has just restocked a trio of its cloth coaster sets. Each bundle consists of four designs, with the My Neighbor Totoro collection featuring the grey/big Totoro…
…white/small Totoro and Soot Sprite…
…Mei…
…and the Catbus.
▼ It’s unclear if beverages are allowed onboard the Catbus, but they can definitely be placed on this Catbus.
The gobelin-weave fabric provides an elegant touch, while still conveying the enchanting details of Ghibli art.
Check out, for example, how the designers made sure to include the coloring on Kiki’s cheeks in the Kiki’s Delivery Service set, where the texturing almost gives it the vibe of a mid-’90s Japanese PC game.
Also appearing in the set are black cat Jiji…
…plus his appearing-in-the-ending credits kids and the bread sign Kiki uses to advertise her courier venture.
Finally, there’s the Howl’s Moving Castle set.
Oddly enough, the eccentric and elusive wizard himself is nowhere to be seen, leaving it to Calcifer, Turnip Head, Heen, and the moving castle itself to hold down the figurative fort.
▼ Though we suppose you could make an argument that the moving castle is the real star of the movie, since they titled it Howl’s Moving Castle, not “Some Dude Named Howl.”
While variation-on-a-theme anime merch often takes the form of random gacha/blind-buy items, all three of the coaster sets are being offered as complete bundles of their four designs, priced at 2,200 yen (US$15) and available for order through the Donguri Kyowakoku online store here.
Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku
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A beautiful way to add a calming sense of escapism to your day.
Every animated film from Studio Ghibli will take you on a journey, but in the case of the 1989 movie Kiki’s Delivery Service, that journey begins right away, with young witch Kiki packing for a year of witch training. As she rushes around her room, picking out favourite items to pack, she reaches into her bookshelf to retrieve a red tin that’s been secreted away before stuffing it into her knapsack as one of her must-take items.
Now, that special tin has jumped out of the anime world and into the real one, thanks to a new range of teatime products produced by Ghibli specialty chain Donguri Kyowakoku.
While the tin in the film has a round blue accent on one side, the details of the design remain unclear. That gives Donguri Kyowakoku a bit of creative freedom with the product, and they’ve decided to place Kiki inside the blue circle, where she can be seen rattling the tin with a smile, just as she does in the moment she retrieves the item from her bookshelf in the film.
▼ A sweet case of Ghibli inception.
Other details around the tin depict some of the items seen in Kiki’s room, including the stuffed toys on top of her chest of drawers…
…and her knapsack, with the items she packs into it, as well as her father’s red radio, which she takes with her.
One side of the tin features Kiki’s feline friend Jiji, peering upwards and with tail upright, recalling the cat’s stance during the pre-journey bedroom packing scene.
And on the lid, we have a witch on her broomstick, with the sun and moon on either side, as a nod to the three images seen on the signboard outside Kiki’s home.
With gold accents throughout, the tin is beautifully made, and the attention to detail extends to the eight original tea bags inside, which contain a blend of Ceylon tea and chamomile. The tea is said to have a fruity aroma and is gentle and easy to drink, and the tag is gorgeous to look at, as it recalls the witch motif seen on the wooden board outside Kiki’s family home.
▼ The colourful appearance of each teabag is reminiscent of the tinctures and potions made by Kiki’s mother, Kokiri.
With the words “I’ve been excited about making this trip” appearing on one side of the tin, every sip of the tea will add a calming sense of escapism to your day.
▼ This product is aptly called “Kiki’s Departure Original Tea Blend“.
Once you finish all the teas inside, you can still enjoy the magic by repurposing the tin as a container for small items. Storing it behind the books in your bookshelf will really add to the anime charm.
With teas this good, you’ll want something equally enchanting to drink them in, and for that the chain has two options for us to choose from.
The Kiki’s Delivery Service One-Cup Tea Mug Jiji and Bread Wreath is the obvious choice for a cup of Kiki’s Departure tea.
This heat-resistant glass mug has been made by respected Japanese manufacturer Hario, and it comes with a convenient strainer that makes it easy to brew a single serving of tea.
The strainer is removable, so you can easily use the mug with teabags or loose-leaf teas. And if you turn the lid upside down, it acts as a stand to place the strainer on after brewing.
▼ With muted beige colour details, the color of the tea truly shines.
▼ The mug features Jiji on the front…
▼ …and a bread wreath design on the back.
Fans of My Neighbour Totoro will want to add the “Large Totoro and Soot Sprites” mug to their teatime collection.
▼ This design also comes with a lid and removable strainer.
▼ On the front of the glass is Totoro (or “Large Totoro” as he’s sometimes known)…
▼ …and on the back is a trio of cheeky Soot Sprites.
The Totoro mug is perfectly suited to green tea blends, which will give the characters a charming forest-like backdrop.
All these new products will warm your heart and your body as the cool weather descends, and they’re not too much of a splurge, as the tea tin is priced at 3,080 yen (US$20.20) and the mugs at 2,860 yen each. They can be purchased now at Donguri Kyowakoku stores around Japan and online (links below), where you’ll also find a collection of coasters that’ll add even more joy to your anime teatime.
Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Featured image: Donguri Kyowakoku
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Employee accused of not being devoted enough to his work.
The punctuality of trains in Japan is famous all over the world, but that level of efficiency doesn’t just happen by chance. It’s the result of a lot of hard work under very strict conditions that some would consider unbearable.
Case in point is the matter of a train driver for JR Hokkaido for “not devoting himself to his work,” as the railway put it. At about 5 p.m. on 7 October, a train was stopped at Otaru Station, when a passenger spotted the driver reading a book and reported it to the company.
This was a “local” train, meaning a train that stops at all stations along a line, as opposed to an “express” train, which only stops at major stations. Because of this system, sometimes local trains will stop for extended periods of time at lesser-used stations while express trains get the right of way to zoom through. In this case, the train was scheduled to wait at Otaru Station for eight minutes before setting off again, so the driver decided to kill some time with a book.
▼ They say you haven’t truly lived in Japan until you’ve been late for something because you got on the wrong kind of train.
Not only that, but the book he brought in to read was about railways. The driver admitted that he had done so before in the past too, and that he takes the opportunity to relax for a moment when he has the time. No incidents or delays occurred as a result, but JR Hokkaido apologized for the concern it caused among passengers.
Readers of the news online were largely defending the driver in their comments and condemning the person who tipped off JR Hokkaido about the reading. However, there were a few who felt what the driver did was inappropriate for a workplace.
“Let him do what he wants when the train is stopped. Why would someone rat on him?”
“People who report every little thing like that are really annoying.”
“There’s no safety issue, so let him read a book.”
“You’re not supposed to read at work.”
“What’s wrong with a train driver reading about trains in his spare time?”
“Nobody cares.”
“He loves trains so much he reads about them while driving them.”
“Does everyone think reading at work is a joke? Do you read books at work?”
It’s probably safe to say a lot of people read books during their downtime while on the job. It seems better that he was engaged in something during that time as well, rather than just staring at his console to make sure it doesn’t fly away.
That being said, in addition to the foibles of certain drivers, JR Hokkaido was hit with an “enhanced safety inspection system” audit by the national transport ministry and Hokkaido Transport Bureau earlier this year. This is a polite way of saying the leash has been tightened on the railway after a string of problems regarding insufficient track maintenance and safety measures were found. Knowing that, it should be no surprise they aren’t taking even the slightest inconsistencies lightly.
Source: HTB News, YouTube/STVニュース北海道
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If you were to prioritize different automated testing initiatives, unit testing would be in the top five spots. It is a central component of modern digital application QA initiatives. Unit testing ensures granular stability and resilience for any large digital application by validating the performance of its component modules.
However, over the years, software testing teams have adopted several different approaches. The diversity in approaches may prove to be confusing and challenging for enterprises when they decide on a unit testing strategy today.
Hence, it is important to know in detail about the best practices for unit testing in detail. But before going into the best practices, it is important to have a clear understanding of itself and ensure that all stakeholders within the enterprise are on the same page while discussing and agreeing upon the best practices.
What is Unit Testing?
In simple terms, unit testing refers to the testing of modular or functional units of a larger software application, done in isolation from other modules.
It tests the resilience, performance, and capacity of individual functional units in real-life conditions. The primary aim of unit testing is to ensure that their actual behavior aligns with their expected behavior.
QA teams conduct this testing without connecting the module to other external entities like databases, libraries, and file systems. In other words, each module is considered a small program that can run on its own and exhibits a diverse set of behavior for every operational scenario. With unit testing, developers get a clear idea of how their individual code blocks perform. It allows them to make quick adjustments in the event of any unexpected behavior.
Why is Unit Testing Important?
As the digital economy expands, the traditional focus on software testing and quality assurance is no longer an acceptable standard for enabling the best customer experience.
Every strategic approach in software testing needs to be given its due share of importance and allocated resources, both manpower, and tools, to facilitate seamless execution. While many leaders may stress giving more priority to areas like acceptance testing, the reality is that every test approach deserves a special focus as any let-downs may impact overall application quality.
Since more businesses are opt for cloud-based microservices architecture for their applications, there is an increased focus on the granular stability of the application. Testing cloud-based apps with microservices architecture are important, and unit testing finds a very crucial role in this regard.
With unit testing, developers can have more control over their individual code block quality before integrating different components and then sent for regression testing. Also, it is easier to identify and rectify mistakes or defects at the code level. This helps enterprises save costs significantly when compared to discovering defects later in the development cycle.
What Are the Best Practices for ServiceNow Test Management?
6 Best Practices for Unit Testing-ACCELQ
Now that you have a clear idea of what is unit testing and why enterprises need to focus on implementation, it is time to learn about the best practices.
We have outlined six major best practices for unit testing that will guarantee better results and ensure profitable and sustainable testing coverage for your application development projects.
Create reliable and clear unit tests
The first step to building a great unit testing practice is to write reliable unit tests. The test suite must be able to report the unexpected or suspicious behavior observed during testing. It should not be considered to simply report the stage at which the these test succeeds in delivering an expected output or outcome.
Mandate automation in unit testing
Manual bias may often create unsatisfactory test results. It can lead to future complications if defects detection isn’t in the early stages. It is important to mandate automated testing strategies in your technology operations to prevent this situation. Automated unit testing delivers faster feedback and provides significantly higher code coverage and controlled parallel processing of test cases. It allows test engineers to work more efficiently with less time.
Prioritize attention to use cases
One of the critical aims of unit testing is to ensure that the code is easily maintainable. Moreover, ensure that new developers can understand it without any issues. By focusing on a single use case at a time and prioritizing the rest in sequence, it is easier to validate outcomes against expected results.
Speed up tests with better isolation
You should carry out Unit tests should in isolation without depending on other tests and mocking external dependencies. Making them simpler and independent modules can help in faster code coverage. Automation can boost it further. All these measures help to speed up the test activity. This is a critical factor that makes unit testing more appealing for developers. If it consume too much time, it will be tough to convince developers to wait long to push their code into the next stage.
Integrate unit testing into the build process
While developers following a Test Driven Development (TDD) model will provide sufficient coverage for unit testing, it is always best to make it a part of the build process for additional safety. While going in for end-to-end test automation,the build process will ensure that all unit tests are executed. And will also notify the respective stakeholders about any failure when any test fails.
Follow distinguishable and simple test nomenclature
Test activities are also a stage for documentation of process workflows. If every unit test is named in a standard convention that explains the scenario being tested, it will be easier to document. The further use of these cases across the organization when different stakeholders are trained on applications also becomes easy. The naming convention also enables better identification of defect causes for other test approaches like integration testing, acceptance testing, etc.
Conclusion
Unit testing will be a critical component of modern application quality assurance initiatives. Facilitating a seamless execution of unit testing is what many enterprises will find hard to achieve. This is where automation of test activities can be a lifesaver.
Book a demo to know how ACCELQ can help you automate your end-to-end test initiatives.
