Let’s find out if a cute thing for one woman is still cute for another from a different country. From Sanrio characters to starry-eyed idol singers, it’s no secret that kawaii (“cute”) culture is huge in Japan. Whole museums and theme parks have been dedicated to the concept of kawaii. Heck, it’s hard to even enter a convenience store without seeing the latest kawaii character to lend a hand at marketing some random product. Japanese entertainment company FuRyu, known for developing kawaii games, photo booths, and more, recently conducted a survey through its Girls Research Institute to try to get at the core essence of what makes something kawaii. Not only that, however, but the researchers wanted to compare cross-cultural perceptions of kawaii things–so they surveyed 1oo women between the ages of 15-35 in Japan, China, and South Korea each about what and why they consider something cute, their engagement in fandom activities, and their picks for the cutest characters. Let’s take a look at the survey results below. ▼ “In the name of kawaii, I will punish you with my cuteness!” Question: What impressions do you have of something that you think is cute? There were 24 multiple-choice responses to choose from, including “none apply.” Survey takers could select more than one response. While Japanese and Korean women both identified “I want to cherish it” as the most common response, that response didn’t even crack the top ten for Chinese women. However, interestingly, all three countries had the same pick for the second most common response: “I feel a sense of joy.” In general, responses that focused on cuteness being something that raises your spirits were more represented among Chinese women. Meanwhile, Korean women focused more on wanting to physically touch or possess something that’s cute to them, whereas Japanese women wanted to be able to look at it. Question: How often have you participated in oshi activities within the past year? Your oshi is your favorite character, idol, singer, etc. that you personally stan. Oshi activities (oshikatsu) are a top way for many women to spend their free time (and paychecks) in Japan. ▼ In the world of Japanese idol singers, someone’s oshi is often associated with “kawaii.” Question: What is your degree of satisfaction with your oshi activities? Despite the strong pull of oshi activities in Japan, Chinese women, followed by Korean and then Japanese women, were the top participants in terms of oshi activities over the past year among the survey takers. Furthermore, one hundred-percent of Chinese women also responded that they were “very satisfied” with their oshi activities. Also of note is that zero women from any of the three countries responded that they were “completely unsatisfied” with their oshi experiences. In light of Japanese women’s lower response rate in the first survey question about kawaii impressions and this question about oshi activities, FuRyu suggests that Japanese women may be slightly more passive when it comes to judging what makes something cute and/or participating in activities traditionally correlated with cuteness. Question: What character do you think is the cutest? All three East Asian countries represented in the survey have produced characters with common kawaii characteristics, but which ones will come out on top? ▼ Somehow we predict that Hello Kitty is going to crack the list no matter what. It turns out that women from each country identified both domestic and international characters as among the cutest. Characters originating from Japan such as those from the Chiikawa franchise, blue-robot-cat-from-the-future Doraemon, and Pikachu made it into the rankings in all three countries. Sanrio characters were especially popular among Japanese and South Korean women. In addition, Chinese and South Korean women picked characters known for their mischievousness–Ne Zha and Crayon Shin-chan respectively–as the cutest. FuRyu hopes to utilize the above results in tandem with its new Kawaii Research Institute to be able to bring a new kind of “cuteness” to the world in terms of creative product development. We’ll look forward to what they eventually come up with, but in the meantime, at least there will be plenty of kawaii to go around. Source: PR Times Top image: Pakutaso Insert images: Pakutaso (1, 2, 3) ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Japanese convenience store chain tempts us with a good time.  The Japanese tradition of retailers releasing lucky grab bags known as “fukubukuro” has changed over the years, with many companies now selling their bags well ahead of the usual New Year’s Day start date, and sometimes just to spread joy regardless of the season. One big name currently playing with fukubukuro conventions is Japanese convenience store chain Lawson, who recently surprised customers by adding lucky bags to select stores on 2 December. We stumbled across the bags by happy accident, when they immediately grabbed our attention with their bulging appearance, as the contents threatened to spill out of them. With no major advertising drive to promote them, the new bags are like a secret find, bringing happiness to those who discover them. We needed no convincing to purchase one of the bags for 2,160 yen (US$13.84), but before we headed over to the register we lifted a few of them up to see if there was any weight difference that might suggest some bags presented a better deal than others. As they all seemed to be evenly weighted, we picked one out at random, and on the walk home we were convinced that one of the items inside must be a bottle of drink, given how heavy it was. With a multi-bag pack of Tabekko Animal Biscuits on top of it all, this promised to be a generous haul that might just live up to the words printed on the packaging. ▼ ハッピーあふれそうな福袋 (“happy afuresouna fukubukuro” [“happy overflowing lucky bag“]) So what was inside the Lawson Fukubukuro? Let’s take a look at the contents, all listed below. ・Doritos (mild salt flavor) ・Baby Star Dodekai Yakisoba (Seaweed Fragrant Sauce Mayonnaise Flavour) ・Pocky (8 bags, strawberry flavour) ・Shrimp black pepper ・Tabekko Animal Biscuits (6 packs) ・Rice crackers ・Haribo Mixed Sour ・Cream sandwich cracker (family size) ・Mix baked donuts ・Fujiya Ginza kiln-baked brownies ・Morinaga Salted Caramel ・Salted buttered peas ・Acecook Corn Salt Butter Ramen ・Acecook Yokohama Tonkotsu Soy Sauce Ramen ・Maruchan Noodle Making (Chicken Soy Sauce) ・Donbei (fried udon noodles with dashi soy sauce) ・Donbei PRO High protein & low carbohydrate That’s a total of 17 items, which weighed in at a hefty 2.1 kilograms (4.6 pounds). By our estimate, the contents were valued at around 4,000 yen, representing a 1,840 yen discount. One thing we didn’t want to count with a bag like this was the calories, but we were surprised to find that the contents could be divided into three categories: Noodles (left, below), Salty (middle) and Sweet (right). Looking at it this way, we could see how well balanced the offerings were. With six each in the Sweet and Salty categories, and five in the Noodles, this was a well thought-out combination of products, which is a testament to the chain’s customer-minded philosophy. As for the weight of the bag leading us to believe it contained some sort of drink, we realised this was the culprit that gave us that impression. The “Mixed Baked Doughnuts”, which fails to translate the Japanese description “訳あり”, which means “imperfect”, were as heavy as a bottled drink you’d pick out of a convenience store refrigerator. Compared to regular doughnuts, these were surprisingly heavy, and although they may not be as picture-perfect as some other doughnuts in terms of appearance, they looked totally fine to us. ▼ Perfectly imperfect. The 17 items remain unchanged no matter which bag you pick up, and it’s a great way to get a taste of products you might not otherwise think to try at Lawson. Everything we tried was delicious, and we were happy to have discovered them all, which just goes to show that a Happy Bag really can bring you happiness. So if you do come across one of these bags, we highly recommend giving them a go, but be aware that there is a limit of one per person and quantities are limited, so you’ll want to act fast to try them before they disappear for good. Photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

There was no mystery as to whether fans wanted more mystery meat, and Nissin is finally giving it to them. When you start scarfing down on Cup Noodles, obviously you’re in the mood for ramen. However, there’s something other than the noodles in that cup that also get fans really excited: the mystery meat. Mystery meat is what Cup Noodle maker Nissin calls those little meaty cubes that you’ll find floating in the broth of Japan’s most popular brand of instant ramen. So strong is the love for mystery meat that in 2018, after Nissin tweeted a photo of a mystery meat-topped rice bowl, the public immediately responded with cries for the company to actually release such a product. To appease the masses, Nissin whipped up a limited-quantity batch of Mystery Meat Bowls for its Cup Meshi instant rice line, which it made available for order through its online store…and the entire stock, all 10,000 units sold out in 1.6 seconds. ▼ Nissin’s mystery meat Clearly, the people were hungry for more Mystery Meat Bowls, and now Nissin is finally ready to fulfil that desire. This month, not only is mystery meat returning to the Cup Meshi lineup, it’ll no longer be an online-exclusive item, and will instead be sold in supermarkets and convenience stores nationwide. You prepare the new Cup Noodle Kanzen Meshi Mystery Meat Bowl similarly to how you’d prepare instant ramen. First, you boil some water and pour it into the cup. Give everything a stir, wait five minutes for it to cook, add in the seasoning packet’s contents, and you’re all set. Rather than a dry rice bowl, the result has broth, like a hearty soup, and the flavor of the Kanzen Meshi Mystery Meat Bowl broth is similar to that of Cup Noodle ramen broth, with strong pepper and soy sauce stock notes, plus the extra meatiness that comes from the large portion of mystery meat. Oh, and if you’re wondering how Japan, a country that prides itself on the high quality of its ingredients, can be so enthusiastic about gobbling up something called “mystery meat,” the true identity of the substance is an open secret, and perfectly palatable, as we confirmed by contacting Nissin and asking. The Kanzen Meshi Mystery Meat Bowl goes on sale December 8, priced at 398 yen (US$2.65). Nissin hasn’t said anything about limited quantity this time around, but considering that there’s seven years of pent-up demand, individual stores will probably be selling out of stock very quickly. Source: Nissin Top image: Nissin Insert images: Nissin, SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Survey creates map of what different parts of Japan call one of its favorite traditional desserts. Every region of Japan has its own local foods, either dishes or ingredients, that it’s particularly proud of. There are some things, however, that transcend prefectural and regional borders, things that are loved across Japan, and one of them is the treat seen in these photos. These discs of pancake like batter, thick and with sweet fillings such as anko (sweet red bean paste), custard, or chocolate cream, can be found at snack stands and supermarkets from one end of Japan to another. They’re something that pretty much every single person in Japan has eaten several times in their lifetime, instantly recognizing and craving them whenever one comes into view. So what are they called? Well, that’s the thing; Japan hasn’t reached a consensus on that. To be clear, these are not some brand-new, trendy snack riding a wave of fad popularity that’s gotten in front of linguistic development. They’ve been around for generations. It’s just that different names caught on in different parts of the country, and perhaps because they’re a simple pleasure, no big-budget marketing campaign pushing one name or another has been made to unify the nomenclature nationwide. Instead, different names have gained traction in different parts of Japan, and to get a better understanding of the situation, Nichirei Foods, one of many companies who make this kind of snack, conducted a survey, gathering 14,057 responses from participants aged 20 to 79, asking them what they call these sweets. Then they sorted the responses by prefecture to determine the most common name for it in each of them, and used that to create this color-coded map showing which of six different names is the most prevalent for each prefecture. Let’s take a look at each. 1. Imagawayaki (shown in red on map) ● Most common name in 19 prefectures: Chiba, Fukui, Fukushima, Gunma, Hiroshima, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Kyoto, Miyagi, Nagano, Okinawa, Saitama, Shiga, Shizuoka, Tochigi, Tokyo, Toyama, Wakayama, Yamanashi While far from universal, the top response, both in terms of total responses and number of prefectures where it was the most common, was Imagawayaki. The exact origin of the name is unclear, but one theory is that the sweet became popular in Edo, the old name for Tokyo, at a shop located near the Imagawa Bridge, which was built by a village headman with the family name Imagawa. Imagawayaki is the most common name for the sweets in Tokyo and the prefectures of Japan’s eastern Kanto region, but the name also stretches up into parts of the Tohoku region and also has a few pockets of support far from the capital, including Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Okinawa. And though its 19 prefectures still give it a minority share of Japan’s total of 47, those 19 prefectures include some of Japan’s most populous cities, leading to 60.5 percent of the survey participants given Imagawayaki as a response. 2. Obanyaki (shown in blue on map) ● Most common name in 15 prefectures: Aichi, Akita, Ehime, Gifu, Ishikawa, Iwate, Kagawa, Kochi, Mie, Niigata. Okayama, Shimane, Tokushima, Tottori, Yamaguchi Unlike Imagawayaki, the linguistic origin of obanyaki is pretty easy to figure out, since oban literally means “big coin.” Granted, coins in the old days of Japan were more oval shaped than purely circular, but the resemblance is still close enough to warrant tacking a yaki (“grilled”) onto it to get obanyaki. With Nichirei’s survey apparently allowing for multiple responses, obanyaki was chosen by 52 percent of the respondents, so while it’s not as common as Imagawayaki, you’ve probably still got a pretty good chance of most people in Japan understanding the term if you say it, even if it’s not the top pick for their prefecture. In addition to obanyaki’s pockets of support in the Tokai region and western end of Japan’s main island of Honshu, it also claims the entirety of Shikoku as its domain. 3. Kaitenyaki (shown in green on map) ● Most common name in 9 prefectures: Fukuoka, Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Nagasaki, Nara, Osaka, Ota, Saga Chosen by 25.9 percent of respondents, kaitenyaki holds sway over all of Kyushu, as well as Osaka, one of Japan’s most enthusiastic foodie prefectures. In addition to tasty food, Osaka loves a good laugh, so that might have something to do with their fondness for the name kaitenyaki, as kaiten means “revolve,” so it’s a fitting name for a snack that could roll away if you accidentally drop it. 4. Oyaki (shown in yellow on map) ● Most common name in 2 prefectures: Aomori, Hokkaido Oyaki was the most popular name in Japan’s two northernmost prefectures, but it’s not hard to see why oyaki hasn’t spread very far. It’s just the yaki (“grilled”) we mentioned before with an honorific o- added to the front, so it could sort of refer to anything, which could be especially confusing when you’re trying to talk about something that doesn’t have a unified definitive name in first place. 5 (tie). “A certain brand name” (shown in pink on map) ● Most common name in Hyogo Nichirei gets a little cagey with the results for Hyogo, the prefecture that includes the city of Kobe, only saying that “a certain brand name” is the most common way to refer to this snack. A little digging around indicates that it’s most likely Gozasoro, a confectioner maker headquartered in Ehime (also in Hyogo) that specializes in the sweet and has a handful of shops in other parts of Japan that sell it, but is apparently most popular in its home prefecture. 5 (tie). Ajiman (shown in orange on map) ● Most common name in Yamagata Yamagata’s situation is pretty much exactly the same as Hyogo’s, in that the top response for the prefecture was also the name of a locally based maker of the snack that has modest operations in other parts of Japan. For whatever reason, though, the survey was comfortable revealing what that name is: Ajiman. Amazingly, the survey turned up even more names than these six, with some respondents saying they called them taiko (“drum”), jiman (“pride”), niju (“two layer”), or enban (“disk”) -yaki. Ultimately, with so many different possibilities, it’s probably best to be prepared for the possibility that if you’re talking about Imagawayaki/obanyaki/kaitenyaki/etc., the listener might not immediately get the mental picture of what you’re talking about the first time you say it, so you might have to use another of its possible names for things to click. Thankfully, though, these sweets really are delicious, so they’re worth putting in a bit of effort to talk about, though if it all starts to feel like too much hassle, you can always switch gears and talk about desserts with clearly correct names instead, like the Chocobo-yaki. Source: PR Times, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Lasisa Top image: Free Sozai.com Insert images: Free Sozai.com (1, 2), PR Times, Free Sozai.com (3, 4) ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Who doesn’t want to be a zombie that smokes? Although Japan doesn’t tend to have quite as prolific a drug culture as other countries, one does exist, and the newest part of it to make headlines has been “zombie cigarettes” (literally “zombie tobacco” in Japanese, but “tobacco” is often used to refer to cigarettes in the language). That’s the name the Japanese media and authorities tend to use for it, and other names include “zombie juice,” “kpods,” “space oil,” and “laughing gas,” but the true name of the key substance is etomidate. This is an extremely fast-acting anesthetic that can knock patients out in a matter of seconds and is usually used in ER settings as a precursor for regular anesthetics, because etomidate is also very short-lasting, with patients waking back up in a matter of minutes. It’s also been adopted as a recreational drug, particularly in Southeast Asian areas like Hong Kong and Singapore. However, it’s not a particularly pleasant drug, offering little in the way of euphoric feelings. It’s mostly just knocks people out and can result in a loss of motor control and spasming, hence the “zombie” nicknames. It recently made its way to the southern parts of Japan, especially the islands of Okinawa Prefecture. Last May, the Japanese government classified etomidate as a “shite yakubutsu” or “designated drug,” making it explicitly illegal for recreational use and sale. Since then, there have been 18 arrests for etomidate possession in Japan. In August, the first-ever arrest for etomidate possession in Tokyo was made when a 28-year-old was found with about 3.1 grams of it in vape liquid inside his parked car in Shibuya. The man admitted that he had been vaping etomidate since April and intended to use the amount that was found on him. ▼ News report on the arrest Readers of the news online were unsettled by the rapid spread of this drug, while others debated whether “zombie cigarette” was a cool name or not. “I would like to see a real zombie once in my life.” “It’s a zombie outbreak.” “It’s scary to think this will continue to spread.” “So that’s what zombie cigarettes are. Scary…” “Like fentanyl, it all comes from you-know-where.” “Of all the drug names, ‘zombie cigarette’ is by far the lamest.” “Don’t give it a cool name with foreign words like ‘zombie.’ That’ll just make people want to use it!” It’s probably safe to say any drug with “cigarette” in the name is inherently uncool, and the media is likely using it for that very reason. From what I read about it, it’s a pretty unappealing drug too, meaning there’s always hope that it will just never really catch on and become a problem of the past all on its own before too long. In the meantime, steer clear of anyone acting like zombies on the streets of Japan. Source: TBS News Dig, High Times, YouTube/TBS News Dig Powered by Jin, Twitter/ゾンビたばこ Top image: Pakutaso ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

A reason to make sure to walk all the way to the end of the platform. Having somewhere you need to go and being hungry aren’t mutually exclusive conditions, and so many of Japan’s train stations have places to grab a bite to eat inside the ticket gates. Among the most common station restaurant types are soba noodle stands, sometimes located right on the platform and run by a short-order cook who can whip up a bowl for you to quickly scarf down before hopping on your train. For example, if you’re at Ueno Station in Tokyo, you’ll find the soba stand Sotei in the middle of the Joban Line platform, between tracks 11 and 12. But since Ueno is one of Tokyo’s busiest stations, with roughly half a million users on any given day, Sotei isn’t its only restaurant, nor is it the station’s only soba shop. As a matter of fact, it’s not even the only soba joint on the Joban Line platform, because if you keep walking all the way to the end of the platform, there’s another. It’s kind of unusual for two different restaurants that specialize in the same kind of food to share a platform like this, but that’s not the only unique aspect to this arrangement, as indicated by the second soba restaurant’s name, Self Eki Soba, meaning “Self Station Soba.” ▼ “Self Eki Soba” “Self” often gets used in Japanese in the sense of “do it yourself” or “self serve,” and sure enough, when we stepped inside we saw that there’s no cooking or service staff here, just a bunch of counters and a terminal with a screen in the corner. But while there’s no one at Self Eki Soba to cook your noodles for you, you don’t have to cook them yourself either, because that terminal is actually a soba cooking /vending machine. Self Eki Soba is open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays, 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Saturdays, and 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays and holidays. Those closing times are actually kind of flexible, though, since it closes early if is sells out of noodles, which it already had on the weeknight we discovered it at about 9 p.m. We took this as a sign that the noodles must taste pretty good, if Self Eki Soba has enough customers to sell out two hours before closing, and so we came back on a later day in the afternoon. Three kinds of noodles are on offer, a basic tanuki soba (buckwheat noodles with tempura flakes) for 600 yen (US$4), soba with pork for 780 yen, and a tonkotsu gyokai blended pork/fish-stock ramen for 980 yen. ▼ The pork soba You place your order via the terminal’s touchscreen, which has an optional English-language setting that you can switch to, and you can even tap for more information about nutritional content and allergens for each dish. Payment is by cashless means only, either a prepaid e-money card like the Suica rail pass or credit card. We decided to order the soba with pork, and the screen kept us updated on its cooking progress. After a short wait, our noodles were ready to be retrieved from the opening on the right side of the machine. Below the slot where you get your food is another compartment from which you can grab chopsticks and, if you want, a spoon. Removing the cover from our bowl, we saw our noodles, strips of pork, and diced green onion floating in the soba broth. On the one hand, for something machine-made, this doesn’t look half-bad, but it’s not aesthetically on par with something you’d get served by an actual dedicated ramen chef. Still, the most important thing is how it tastes, and it actually tastes really good. The broth was rich with a gentle sweetness to it, and the noodles and pork had soaked up plenty of its delicious flavor. The noodles had a proper buckwheat flavor to them too, something that’s not always present in cheaper versions of soba. Adding an elegant touch to the flavor profile was the presence of yuzu kosho, a spicy paste made with yuzu citrus fruit and chili, which had been mixed into the broth. This also isn’t something you’d expect to find at a humble station platform soba joint, but it added an enticing accent to every sip of the broth. Oh, and the restaurant’s interior was nice and clean too, through a combination of either cleaning staff coming in periodically and/or customers being polite enough to not make a mess of the place. Because of its location at the end of the platform, it’s easy to miss Self Eki Soba, especially since Ueno Station has so many lines running through it that you often don’t have a clear line of sight from other parts of the building either because of trains blocking your view. Now that we know it’s there, though, we might find ourselves on the Joban platform more often, even if we’re headed somewhere on another line. Photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Gurakoro and Gurakuro came out on same day, filling fans’ hearts with joy and filling their stomachs with gratin croquettes. When we found out that McDonald’s Japan was bringing back one of its most popular winter menu items, the Gurakoro, we figured we had our lunch plans set for that day. Gurakoro is short for “gratin croquette burger,” and eating the sandwich with a deep-fried croquette filled with white sauce, macaroni, and shrimp is like devouring a cup of hot soup. Delicious, warming, and filling, it’s pretty much all fans could ask for from a sandwich on a chilly winter’s day. However, our lunch plans suddenly got less certain when we found out that Japanese cafe chain Komeda Coffee was also getting ready to add a gratin croquette burger to its menu, and on the exact same day that the Gurakoro would be arriving at McDonald’s. Komeda Coffee calls its gratin croquette burger the Gurakuro. It’s kind of an odd name, considering that the Japanese pronunciation of croquette is korokke, with an O, not a U, but Komeda’s linguistic quirkiness is something we were willing to overlook, given the chain’s reputation for excellent-quality food. Now faced with a choice of two gratin croquette burgers, we did the only sensible thing and picked up both to taste test. ▼ Komeda Coffee Gurakuro on the left, McDonald’s Gurakoro on the right And since we were already going to make this a two-burger lunch, we decided to go all-out and order the deluxe version of each sandwich. In the case of McDonald’s, that meant the 490-yen (US$3.25) Koku Uma Beef Demi Gurakoro, which adds a topping of rich (koku), delicious (uma) demi-glace beef stew to to the croquette. Meanwhile, the upgraded gratin croquette burger from Komeda is the 730-yen Shrimp and Tomato Sauce Gurakuro. Unwrapping both of them, we could see right away that Komeda’s gratin croquette burger is massive. Not that McDonald’s Gurakoro is a tiny sandwich by any means, but the Komeda Gurakuro looks to be about 50 percent bigger when viewed from above, if not double the size of its counterpart. When looked at from the side, though, the sandwiches are about the same in thickness, and they’re both very thick. You’ll need to open wide to get your mouth fully around either one, so that’s just what we did as we went in for a bite, starting with McDonald’s Gurokoro. As of last year, McDonald’s has increased the ratio of cheese they use for the croquette’s filling, and there’s so much inside that the cheese flavor is stronger even than the cream in its white sauce. It’s extremely rich and delicious, but still did a great job tying the myriad flavors of theother ingredients together. Though this is a fast food item, McDonald’s croquette was freshly fried and crisp, and the shredded cabbage had an enticing crunch to it as well. The demi-glace was no joke either, full of flavor and tasting like a proper example of beef stew, not some cheap after-thought sauce. The overall strength and heaviness of the flavors still impart an air of guilty fast food pleasures to McDonald’s gratin croquette burger, but as all of the ingredients are high quality and delicious, it doesn’t feel like a cheap substitute for something fancy, for a unique sensation of eating a guilty pleasure with a taste to be proud of. Moving on to Komeda’s Gurakuro, we had to pause for a second and once again marvel at just how big this thing is. Unlike McDonald’s croquette, Komeda’s doesn’t contain shrimp inside of it, but this top-of-the-line croquette burger does come with a shrimp and tomato cream sauce, which beautifully blends the seafood sensation with the tomato’s gentle sweet and tart notes. The white sauce inside the croquette features no fewer than five kinds of cheese: Gouda, mozzarella, cheddar, Parmesan, and Edam. The combination feels rich and fancy, like the sort of thing you’d get in a well-established restaurant with a long waiting list for tables, and the fact that it’s actually something you can order as a takeout item makes the quality even more impressive. So which sandwich do we recommend? Both of them, actually. The McDonald’s Gurakoor is the one to go for if you’re after a straightforward sandwich that really delivers a strong cheese flavor, while Komeda Coffee’s Gurakuro feels more refined and complex. You can’t really go wrong either way, though, but if you do opt for the Gurakuro, you might want to ask the Komeda staff to cut it into halves, or even quarter sections, to make it easier to eat. Photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Complete with departure bell alarms, this is a unique way to wake up for your train in the morning. As much as we love Japanese trains, we also love the stations they pull into, with all their unique sounds and cleverly designed features that give them so much character. At stations operated by East Japan Railway (JR East), for example, you’ll find clocks on the platforms with fluorescent yellow-green dials that make them look like they’re glowing. ▼ East Japan Railway (JR East) operates stations in the eastern and northern regions of Japan, including the Tokyo metropolitan area, Tohoku, and parts of the Kanto region. Photo ©SoraNews24 Now, this iconic clock is available to purchase, thanks to a new release by Takarajimasha, a Tokyo-based Japanese publishing company that specialises in “mooks“, or “magazine books“. Mooks stay on shelves for a longer period of time than regular magazines, and they generally contain a special product in a cardboard box, with an accompanying glossy leaflet that acts like a magazine for the product. ▼ Takarajimasha’s mook of the hour is the “JR East Green Station Clock Book“, which everyone is scrambling to get their hands on. This station clock has been meticulously reproduced, with the familiar JR East logo, fluorescent dial, distinctively shaped hands, and even the frame all faithfully replicated. Measuring 13.4 centimetres in width, 10 centimetres in height and 4.1 centimetres in depth (5.28 × 3.94 × 1.61 inches), the clock is an ideal size for desks and bedside tables. While the clock looks beautiful, it sounds beautiful too, with special alarms made by Eiraku Electric, a company that’s been in business for 75 years. There are two types of alarm tones, high and low, and you can also alternate between two types of “real train departure bell sounds” at the flick of a switch, making this a dream way for Japanese rail fans to start the day. With the loud sound of a train departure bell ringing in your ears, this clock will ensure you don’t miss your train in the morning. Alternatively, you can hang the clock on the wall, as it has holes for hooks on the back. If you raise it above eye level at the right height, you’ll feel like you’re at a JR East train station every time you glance up at it. The JR East Green Station Clock Book will be released on 14 January, priced at 3,422 yen (US$21.88). It’s likely to sell out through pre-order before then though, so you’ll want to head over to online retail sites like Takarajimasha, Rakuten Books, Amazon, and Yodobashi to secure yours now before they sell out. Source: Takarajimasha via Japaaan Images: Takarajimasha unless otherwise stated ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

No city in Japan is more symbolic of overtourism these days than Kyoto, so is the travel downturn from China having a noticeable effect? In mid-November, the Chinese government issued an advisory to its citizens calling on them to refrain from traveling to Japan. The statement came following remarks from Japanese prime minster Sanae Takaichi regarding whether Japan would see a Chinese invasion of Taiwan as a threat to itself as well, and whether Japan would feel justified taking military action in such a scenario. Chinese tourists make up the largest demographic of inbound visitors to Japan, with many of them cancelling their travel plans, there’s been a lot of talk about how the diplomatic disagreement is going to affect Japan’s major sightseeing destinations. We recently hopped on over to Tokyo’s Asakusa neighborhood to see how it’s been affected, but the biggest question has been what’s going to happen in Kyoto. In recent years, there’s been a growing perception that Kyoto has become so popular with foreign tourists that it often feels like they outnumber Japanese sightseers at the city’s most famous temples, shrines, and shopping districts, so much so that many domestic travelers are choosing to go elsewhere on their vacations. So with a sudden drop in Chinese tourist numbers, does Kyoto feel like a ghost town? That’s what our Japanese-language reporter Haruka Takagi, who lives in Japan’s central Kansai region but not in Kyoto, wanted to know, so she headed to Kyoto to find out. Haruka started her spot check at the Gion Shotengai, the shopping street that stretches east from the Gion Shijo train station and leads into the heart of the historical Gion geisha district. The street is lined with souvenir shops and restaurants, and the crowds weren’t small at all when Haruka stopped by, even though it was a weekday. The sidewalks weren’t packed solid, but the pedestrian mass was dense enough that she needed to moderate her walking pace depending on the person in front of her, as there wasn’t enough space to go around them. She was surprised, though, that about half the people on the street were Japanese, a more even ration than one would expect these days in Kyoto’s tourist spots. Among the non-Japanese travelers, she saw and heard a broad mix of nationalities, with no one region or country seeming to be making up a predominant proportion. However, the crowds did get suddenly sparse when she arrived at Hanamikoji Street. This classically styled street runs through a part of the neighborhood that’s been the focus of many overtourism discussions in recent years. A number of geisha houses and private reception venues are located in the area, and crowds of tourists swarming the streets and invasively snapping photos have made it difficult for geisha to go about their business and, many say, tarnished the charm of the district. While there were still tourists milling about on the day Haruka visited, the crowds weren’t anywhere near what have been shown on TV news reports about the area, and automobile traffic was flowing easily too. Curious as to whether this is a recent change back towards tranquility, Haruka asked a security guard who was out on the street, and he told her: “Yes, there’s no question that the number of tourists has gone down recently. There are usually a lot of Chinese tourists who come here, but with all the things that have been going on with the Chinese and Japanese government, I think they don’t feel like they should be visiting.” Turning her steps towards Kiyomizu Temple, one of Kyoto’s most famous landmarks, Haruka walked along the cobblestone Nene no Michi, or Nene’s Street, and also found it comfortably uncrowded, to a surprising extent. She even began to wonder if these quiet conditions would continue at Kiyomizu Temple itself…only to quickly find out that, no, they would not. As she drew close to Kiyomizuzaka, the slope that leads up to the temple and has traveler-oriented shops and eating establishments on both sides, the crowds quickly became gigantic. The ratio of domestic Japanese tourists also swiftly dropped, with foreign visitors now making up a much larger percentage. Eyeballing the crowd, Haruka felt like there were maybe slightly more travelers from Asian nations than other regions, but again, she saw travelers from all over the world here. Taking a peak at Kiyomizu’s parking area for tour buses further showed that the temple and neighborhood aren’t exactly hurting for visitors right now. Speaking of transportation methods, tourists, and pain, as Haruka was making her way back down into town she saw something that left a bad taste in her mouth. While there are tons of pedestrians that walk along Kiyomizuzaka, the street has car traffic too. Because it’s a narrow street, the cars don’t move that quickly, but many Haruka saw many tourists taking that slow pace as a free pass to cross the street in front of cars whenever they felt like add, creating even more congestion and prompting taxi drivers to blare on their horns when their path was suddenly blocked. It was, in Haruka’s words, “hell.” Back closer to the city center, Haruka made Nishiki Market her next stop. Nishiki earned the nickname “Kyoto’s kitchen” because of its many stalls selling produce, fish, meat, and other groceries, but it’s also become a popular spot with tourists wanting to get a look at, and taste of, Japanese cuisine. Even though it was a weekend evening, there were a lot of people here, and almost all of them were international tourists. In addition to the size of the crowds, Haruka was surprised by a change she noticed in what the market’s shops were offering. A decade or so ago, even though Nishiki had already become popular with tourists, there were still a lot of places selling things like fresh vegetables and pre-made staple side dishes that a typical Japanese family might eat in their home. Now, though, there’s been a noticeable shift towards fancier, flashier foods like sushi with high-end types of seafood or wagyu beef skewers with sea urchin or caviar spread across them, Haruka reports. Nowadays, the place feels a lot less like Kyoto’s kitchen than it does a tourist snack spot. If you keep following Nishiki Market down its south-side end, you’ll end up on the main street of Shijo, which is the most developed part of Kyoto and where you’ll find a lot of its big-name department stores and shopping centers. The sidewalks were packed here too, with forward progress coming at a very slow pace, and Haruka saw open irritation on the faces of some people who were apparently trying to get to somewhere in a more timely fashion. She also saw that the infamously long lines for Kyoto’s city buses, which both locals and tourists have a high demand for seats on, are still a thing. All in all, Haruka feels like the tourists crowds are probably a little smaller since the start of the Chinese government’s advisory for citizens to not travel to Japan. On the other hand, Kyoto still remains a very popular destination among the total group of foreign tourists Japan is receiving. Even if it’s less crowded than it was a few weeks or months ago, Kyoto is still much more crowded than it was a few years ago. Because of that, the downtick in Chinese tourism isn’t going to cripple Kyoto’s tourism economy or resolve its overtourism concerns, meaning that if anyone who is putting the city on their travel itinerary should still be prepared for crowded conditions and stay conscious about being considerate and respectful while seeing the sights. Photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

A Ghibli take on a traditional Japanese New Year’s decoration. We recently took a moment to ooh and aah over how cute Studio Ghibli specialty shop Donguri Kyowakoku’s Totoro kagami mochi plushie looks, and to learn a little bit about the traditional Japanese New Year’s decoration that inspired it. Stacks of rice cakes aren’t the only symbols of good fortune and prosperity that Japanese homes are adorned with at the end of the year, though, and today we’ve got another one with a twist: a Kiki’s Delivery Service shimekazari wreath. Technically, I suppose we’ve got multiple twists here, since not only is there a touch of anime aesthetics with the presence of Kiki’s black cat Jiji, the wreath itself is a braided coil of straw. Shimekazari literally means “twisted decoration,” and they’re small, home-sized versions of the larger shimenawa ropes you might encounter at Shinto shrines, which serve as a barrier of sorts to ward off evil spirits and general misfortune. Because of their more compact size, these New Year’s wreaths can be hung above your home’s entrance, on the door, or even inside, either on walls or interior doors. Donguri Kyowakoku officially classifies this as a “western-style decoration,” making it technically a secular ornament that can be used for non-denominational wishes of good fortune and festive cheer during the holiday season. The Jiji figure is made of a mix of metal and resin components, while the wreath uses both artificial and dried flowers, and the straw is natural as well, ensuring that each wreath has its own subtly unique appearance. The wreath measures 28 centimeters (11 inches) in length, putting it right in that easy-to-decorate-with sweet spot of being large enough to be noticed without being so big as to dominate the room. Priced at 6,050 yen (US$40), the Kiki’s Delivery Service wreath can be ordered through the Donguri Kyowakoku online shop here. Source: Donguri Kyowakoku Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku, Pakutaso ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!