Because apparently three plus two equals morphophonology.

We’ve seen some strange questions on Japanese kids’ math homework before, but this recent one posted to the Internet by Japanese Twitter user @17_workout_kengot is on a different level. Or, at the very least, in a different school subject.

Here’s what they tweeted:

▼ “This is my daughter’s first-grade test. Huh? ‘Five birds’ is read as go-ba?? Is it because you’re being asked how many ba of birds there are instead of how many wa? What is this??”

Let’s break down what’s going on here. First off, the translation of the math question:

“Question: There are 3 baby chicks. When 2 more baby chicks come, how many are there?
Answer: 5.”

Seems simple enough, but there’s something else going on here. For those unfamiliar, Japanese uses what’s called “counter words,” words that come after a number when counting certain things. Just like how in English we say two loaves of bread or three sticks of butter, Japanese does the same but with a lot more variety. In fact, sometimes too much variety.

Usually, birds are counted using the counter wa. One bird is ichi-wa, two birds are ni-wa, three birds are san-wa, and so on. However, in the above question, the teacher decided to forego using wa and used ba instead to count the chicks… for two out of three times.

Here’s what the question would look like halfway between Japanese and English:

“Question: There are 3-ba baby chicks. When 2-wa more baby chicks come, how-many-ba are there?
Answer: 5-wa.”

While the child got the math part of the question right, their 5-wa was marked incorrect and changed to 5-ba instead.

▼ Wa? Ba?? It’s making me angry enough to eat napkins!

Why does this matter? And why the discrepancy? Well friends, it’s time to go deep.

Anyone who’s studied Japanese before knows about the particle wa, used to mark the topic of a sentence. However, it has a bit of an oddity: instead of being written using the character わ (“wa”) it’s written using the character は (“ha”) instead.

This is because the particle used to be pronounced ha, but underwent a sound change, turning into wa. It’s kind of like how in English we still spell “knight” with a “k” at the beginning and a “gh” in there, even though they’re not pronounced anymore.

So, because of this sound change, other words that were originally pronounced with ha changed to wa, such as the counter for birds. While birds were counted using ha in the past, it’s rarely done today. Though not quite as bizarre as an English person pronouncing “knight” as “kuh-nig-uht,” it’s not too far off.

▼ I’m gonna eat the whole tablecloth at the Kuh-nig-uhts of the Round Table!

But wait a second! If it used to be ha, then what’s the deal with the ba in the math question? That’s due to another quirk of Japanese linguistics: morphophonology, the sound changes that take place when words combine together.

Depending on the number that comes before the counter, sometimes the counter changes to make the word flow more easily. For example, when counting “long cylindrical” things like pencils using hon, you say i-ppon, ni-hon, san-bon.

Similarly, back in the day before the sound change, instead of counting chicks as ichi-ha, ni-ha, san-ha, they would likely use i-ppa, ni-ha, san-ba.

But! Here’s the kicker. Even if birds were counted using ha (which they’re not really anymore), the teacher’s corrected answer of go-ba would still be wrong. The number for five (go) does not induce a change on the counter’s pronunciation. Just like you don’t say go-bon when counting five pencils (you say go-hon), go-ba is just not correct Japanese in any way.

Even the NHK’s broadcaster guide, the standard for Japanese spoken on the news, lists san-ba (“three birds”) and yon-ba (“four birds”) as possibilities, but not go-ba (“five birds”).

Basically the only way it’s correct is if the teacher made up her own counter word, and her distinction between it being wa or ba is based on whatever she wants.

▼ Waaaaa baaaaa!

At the end of the day, while the correction on the homework is a bit silly, at least we all got to learn a lot about Japanese linguistics.

And hey, as long as the assignment didn’t instill a sense of existential dread into the students, I’d call that a victory!

Source: Twitter/@17work_kengot via Itai News
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

The true, and truly weird, story of the time our hostess-bar-loving reporter went out for a drink, and couldn’t come back.

Let’s get one thing right straight right off the bat. Hostess bars are not brothels. Customers pay for the privilege of sitting, drinking, and chatting with attractive women, with nothing else built into the transaction.

That said, as a sector of the economy that’s almost entirely dependent on adult titillation, hostess bars exist in sort of a shadowy part of Japanese society, and so you can run into some very unexpected kinds of trouble at them, as our Japanese-language reporter Hirazi knows all too well.

Before we dive into his shocking tale, we should explain the exact type of establishment Hirazi likes to drink with pretty girls at. Called “aiseki lounges,” they’re a little different from a standard hostess bar. At a standard hostess bar, the hostesses are all employees, and paid to drink with the male customers. At an aiseki lounge, though, the women are customers too, but they get to drink for free, in exchange for sitting with male customers, who not only have to pay for their own drinks, but also a cover charge and a continually increasing bill the longer they sit with the same female customer.

“Aiseki” literally means “mixed seating,” and the lounge staff are the ones who arrange the seating assignments, directing female customers to open seats at the same table as unaccompanied men. Ostensibly, aiseki lounges are supposed to be a place for singles to meet, and if two people hit it off, they’re free to pay their bill and head out for a private date whenever they want (there are rumors that a lot of the female “customers” are actually ringers employed by the bar, but that’s a topic for another time).

As a sociable guy with a taste for booze and hunger for female companionship, Hirazi is a big aiseki lounge fan, and when he’s really cutting loose, he’ll hit up several in the same night. So on a Saturday evening a while back, he and another social butterfly friend were flittering from one aiseki lounge to another in Tokyo. As they walked down the street of a bar district, laughing happily and discussing their next destination, they passed by an aiseki lounge they’d been in earlier that night, and that’s when things started to get shady.

“Excuse me,” called out a 40-something employee with neatly trimmed graying hair who was standing outside the lounge’s entrance. “The two of you were drinking here earlier, right? Can you come inside? There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

Hirazi was a regular at this aiseki lounge, and so he cheerfully agreed. Maybe the owner was going to personally thank him for his continued patronage, or maybe, even better, they were going to show him to a seat with some cute girls!

But instead, the man lead Hirazi and his friend to a private room, asked them to sit down, and then left them alone for a while. As he left, he made a point of closing the door almost, but not entirely, all the way. Hirazi found this unsettling, as though the man were saying “For legal purposes, I’m not locking you in, but don’t even think about trying to leave.”

Eventually, the man returned, looked Hirazi right in the eye, and told him:

“You stole the call button. Can you give it back?”

Hirazi was baffled. As mentioned above, at aiseki lounges, the staff controls the seating assignments. However, if the customers aren’t hitting it off, they can press a call button on the table, after which the staff will arrange for a different woman to come and sit with the male customer.

However, and obviously, the button only grants one the power to summon women when it’s pressed on the premises of the lounge itself. It’s not like taking the button with you when you leave, then pressing it when you’re feeling lonely at home, in the office, or elsewhere will compel the aiseki lounge staff to escort an eligible bachelorette to your present location.

“We didn’t take it,” Hirazi immediately explained, but the employee wasn’t buying it, though his deductive method was highly unorthodox. “No, no. You stole it. When you were walking past the entrance and I called out to you, you reacted.”

Hirazi was now even more confused. Would he have had to completely ignore the man in order to convince him of his innocence? “We didn’t steal it,” he repeated. “What possible merit would there be for us in taking it?” he asked.

Once again, though, the employee displayed an unusual line of thinking. “Maybe you were mad that you didn’t get to sit with girls you thought were cute, and you took it as a form of revenge against us?”

Hirazi was now grinding his teeth in frustration, but the man’s next words quickly switched the mood from infuriating to frightening, as he told our reporter:

“Anyway, give the button back. Then you can go home. Until you give it back, you’re not leaving this room!”

As a last resort, Hirazi and his friend placed their bags on the table and, item by item, removed everything that was in them. Surely now the man would believe them, right?

But no sooner did they have everything laid out on the table did the man say:

“OK. So where’s the button?”

“I DON’T KNOW, BECAUSE WE DIDN’T TAKE IT!” Hirazi wanted to scream in the man’s face, but he somehow managed to keep his cool. Since he couldn’t produce a call button out of thin air, he decided to rely on the only other thing that he could see ending the conflict: a police officer. “What you’re doing is imprisonment,” Hirazi told the man as he pulled out his phone. “I’m gonna call the police,” he added, figuring that this would put an end to what he was beginning to suspect must be a shakedown.

Instead, the employee responded with:

“Go right ahead! Call ‘em!”

So Hirazi did just that, calling 110 (Japan’s emergency police response number) and telling the operator “We’re being imprisoned in a bar called [redacted]. They won’t let us leave. Can you send someone right away?”

A few minutes later, one of Tokyo’s finest arrived on the scene and joined the discussion. Thankfully, he seemed to have a much higher capacity for logical reasoning than the lounge employee. “If they don’t have the button on them or in their bag, there’s no reason to believe they stole it,” the officer told the employee. “And since you sort of ruined their weekend, maybe you should refund their bill from earlier in the night?” he added.

Unfortunately, in the end Hirazi and his friend didn’t get a refund, and instead got a curt “I apologize” from the employee. They also got to go home, though, which is all they’d really wanted in the first place.

▼ Plus it was nice to have the Tokyo cops freeing us from confinement this time, as opposed to that time when they detained us themselves (though they kind of had a good reason).

Even today, Hirazi can’t quite figure out what happened. The lounge employee’s unshaken confidence when he told our reporter to go ahead and call the cops suggests that the whole thing wasn’t some attempt to scam him and his friend out of a phony “replacement fee” for a stolen call button. Maybe one really did go missing, either getting misplaced by a worker or accidentally knocked off a table by another customer, but in any case, Hirazi didn’t take it.

Despite the sour taste that particular evening ended on, Hirazi doesn’t bear the lounge itself, or the rest of the staff, any ill will, since he’d been there several times before and had nothing but fun. Still, it’s a reminder that if you’re going out for a drink in one of Japan’s hostess/pseudo-hostess bars you’ll want to keep your wits about you and your phone charged.

Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso, SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Intentional or not, there’s no way to see this park in one of Japan’s largest cities and not think of Pikachu throwing down.

After months of excruciating waiting, the latest games in Pokémon franchise, Pokémon Sword and Shield, came out on November 15. This time around the big changes are a full 3-D world map with, for the first time in the mainline series’ history, visible Pokémon wandering about. Early reviews are applauding this enhanced level of immersion, but it’s important to remember that Sword and Shield’s Galar region is a fictional setting. It’s not like real-life Japan has fused with the world of Pokémon or anyth-

ポケモンバトルするために作られたとしか思えない公園見つけた https://t.co/pMfNPPE27v

—
2月7日＠ネギ (@kusakakiri) November 12, 2019

We stand corrected, because it’s impossible to look at this actual Japanese park and not wholeheartedly believe it’s destined to be the site of epic Pokémon battles. Seriously, the layout of the walking path and grass forms almost an exact match for Pokémon’s persistent Poké Ball motif, and the oblong dimensions look tailor-made for two Trainers to stand opposite one another while their Pocket Monster champions duke it out in the central ring.

“I found this park, and I can’t imagine it was designed for anything other than Pokémon battles,” tweeted Japanese Twitter user @kusakakiri along with the above photo, and he also posted a few shots of the plaza in winter.

雪！！！ https://t.co/8boUfPhNQx

—
2月7日＠ネギ (@kusakakiri) November 15, 2019

例のアングル https://t.co/NfDaKCynnL

—
2月7日＠ネギ (@kusakakiri) November 15, 2019

All that snow might have you guessing that the park is located in one of the chillier parts of Japan, and you’d be right. It’s in Sapporo, the capital city of Japan’s northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, and not too far from Shin Sapporo Station, which is serviced by the JR Chitose Line and Tozai Sapporo Municipal Subway line.

▼ Pokémon park (red arrow) and Shin Sapporo Station (blue)

The park is unnamed, and so doesn’t have an official address. However, it’s pretty easy to navigate to thanks to a handful of landmarks. For starters, it’s on the north bank of the Notsuporokawa River, slightly east of where it’s crossed by the road called Genshirindori. It’s also just across the street from the Kobayashi Farm Vegetable Market (“Kobayashi Noen Yasai Chokubaijo” in Japanese), which does have an address: Hokkaido, Sappro-shi, Atsubetsu-ku, Atsubetsu Higashi 2-jo 1-chome 1 (北海道札幌市厚別区厚別東２条１丁目１).

▼ Park (red), Notsuporokawa River (blue), Kobayashi Farm Vegetable Market (green), and Genshirindori Road (yellow)
Note: in this image, north is at the bottom, and south at the top

From Shin Sapporo Station’s exit 7, it’s about a 10-minute walk to the park, and there seems to be a 7-Eleven along the way where you can buy snacks and drinks, though unfortunately the convenience store chain doesn’t stock Poké Balls.

▼ Park (red) and Shin Sapporo Station exit 7 (blue), with north at the top of the map

While the park looks to have been there for some time, it’s only now that’s it’s attracting attention for its unintended, but spot-on, Pokémon theming. As such, it’s not known whether or not it’s a good place for catching Pokémon GO specimens, so we recommend bringing your own Pocket Monster to snap photos with, like maybe that gorgeous kimono-fabric Pikachu plushie that just went on sale.

Source: Twitter/@kusakakiri via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Google
Insert images: Google (1, 2) (edited by SoraNews24)
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

What happens in Day Service Las Vegas thankfully doesn’t stay in Day Service Las Vegas.

At first glance, a sign in your neighborhood for an elderly care facility that reads “Day Service Las Vegas” might be a cause for alarm. After all, seniors are frequent targets for scams, and Las Vegas is notorious as the place where Joe Pesci crushed Tony Dogs’ head in a vise that one time.

But looking closer, it’s actually a novel solution to a growing problem among the rapidly aging population in Japan. Day services have become a growing industry as they provide elderly people with the daily care they need while giving them the independence of remaining in their own homes.

However, in Japan, the methods used in these places haven’t evolved much, offering only basic activities designed to promote physical, mental, and communicative activity. Some of these include games with balloons and coloring books, which are great for some people, but certainly not everyone.

▼ “Are you ready to do some coloring?”

▼ “…”

The creators of Day Service Las Vegas noticed that as a result of current practices, there was a significant lack of male seniors attending day services. One survey found that attendance was 80 percent women and 20 percent males on average.

So, they decided to look abroad and noticed that in American facilities, while the general health and rehabilitation techniques were similar, there was much more emphasis on fun there.

Many activities involved going outside and jogging or playing golf, and some had poker or mahjong tables set up. Beyond that, one only needs to spend a few hours in the actual Las Vegas to know that elderly people love casinos.

▼ “Are you ready to break the bank?”

▼ “Hell yeah!”

▼ “Alright, but if I catch you capping the pile or spooking again, I’ll have to smash your fingers with a hammer.”

So, this spirit was put into Day Service Las Vegas which has now grown to 23 locations across Japan, attracting seniors that might have otherwise become dangerously reclusive in their old age.

Of course, no actual gambling happens in these places. Instead the wagering is set up as a point based competition in which top winners are honored with the title of Las Vegas Champion. Throughout the games which include slots, pachinko, mahjong, baccarat, blackjack, seniors are along the way given regular physical exercise and encouraged to open up to others to relieve stress. The strategic gaming is also said to help stave off dementia.

▼ Staff dress the part and also pick up visitors in Toyota Alphard luxury minivans.

This kind of alternative care is also great at luring in volunteers. Teens might not be overly enthusiastic to pitch in at a standard Japanese old-age home, but the prospect of being a blackjack dealer at one is considerably more attractive.

Although a growing industry, specialized adult day care like this is still largely unknown in Japan, so when a Twitter user mentioned Day Service Las Vegas recently, it received over 24,000 retweets, 48,000 likes, and comments such as the following.

“I heard of this place. They have a Lady Gaga impersonator doing aerobics and the whole place is really energetic. I recommend it.”
“I heard they also have debt relief programs and specialized rehabilitation. I want to go there.”
“There’s one in my neighborhood! I thought the name was strange at first, but now I’m convinced.”
“The black luxury cars they use to pick people up are a nice touch and I think playing games is a good way to encourage social interaction.”
“That’s awesome!”
“I hope when I’m old they come up with a video arcade version of this.”

While Day Service Las Vegas is certainly a much needed alternative in the industry, it too doesn’t appeal to everyone. But its growing success will likely lead to other themed day care centers and ultimately a happier and healthier elderly population–something that’s much needed here.

Source: Day Service Las Vegas, Facebook/Day Service Las Vegas, Twitter/@nami_mirairo, Hachima Kiko
Top image: @Press
Insert images: @Press, Pakutaso 1, 2, 3, 4
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Slurping is the norm in a Japanese noodle house, but is it OK to bite off your ramen if it’s more than you can chew?

One of the first things you’ll hear in any discussion of Japanese table manners is that it’s customary, and even polite, to audibly slurp your noodles as you eat them. It doesn’t matter if it’s ramen, soba, or udon. Japanese-style noodles are meant to be slurped, with the sound showing that you’re enjoying the meal.

However, once you start slurping, you may find that you’ve got more in your mouth than you can take down in a single go, so what do you do then? Is it OK to bite through the noodles and put the unconsumed portion back in your bowl to wait for your next mouthful?

One user of Japanese women’s interest Internet portal Girls Channel says it’s not, posting:

“Some people may think I’m being too strict, but I don’t like people who don’t slurp their whole mouthful of noodles, bite through them, and put the rest back in their bowl. Even if they were a good person, seeing that just shatters my image of them.”

The comment garnered support from other users who left comments such as:

“I honestly hate that too.”
“I remember someone saying the same thing on TV, and I have to agree. It doesn’t look classy, so I always try to make sure I only pick up as many noodles with my chopsticks as I can slurp in one go.”
“It makes them look more like animals chomping feed than a human having a meal.”
“My mom does this every time, and it seriously bugs me.”

However, a larger number of people said they have no problem with a mid-slurp bite, as the original comment generated 1,030 “disagree” votes compared to just 608 “agrees.” The bite-if-you-feel-like-it group represented itself with:

“Whoa, pretty picky there!”
“Eh, sometimes the noodles are hotter than people expected, or they picked up more with their chopsticks than they meant to. No need to get that upset at people for it.”
“It doesn’t bother me at all. I don’t even really watch whether people do it or not.”
“If the noodles are really long, it’s impossible to slurp them all at once.”
“I’ve got a sensitive-to-heat ‘cat tongue,’ so I can’t slurp that much at one time.”

Overall, the feeling seems to be that most Japanese people think the bite-through is OK, but some sticklers would prefer if you didn’t. That said, there are two very important points to keep in mind.

First, if you are going to bite through, don’t just let the uneaten noodles free-fall back into the bowl. That’s bound to end up splashing the surrounding area/diners with broth. Instead, keep a grip on the uneaten noodles with your chopsticks, and gently lower them back into the bowl, like you’re putting a baby to sleep in its cradle (though please ignore the baby simile when you come back and eat those noodles later). Honestly, it’s generally a good move to keep your chopsticks on your noodles whenever you’re slurping them, to prevent them from whipping around wildly as they enter your mouth.

And second, while most people won’t have a serious problem with you returning your uneaten noodles to your own bowl, it’s something to avoid if a friend is giving you a taste of their ramen from their bowl. If your noodle-loving pal is willing to share, make sure to only grab as many noodles as you’re sure you can consumer in a single slurp, and also to return the favor by letting them partake of your ramen as well.

Source: Girls Channel via Niconico News via Jin
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso 
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

This feast includes much more than just fried chicken, sides and desserts.

KFC made everyone’s dreams come true when they opened an all-you-can eat buffet restaurant in Osaka back in 2015. However, while the popularity of eat-till-you’re-stuffed fried chicken has brought us limited-time deals on occasion, people in Tokyo have generally been starved of the opportunity to gorge on a KFC buffet…until now.

So when news broke of the new all-you-can eat KFC restaurant opening in Tokyo for the first time ever, we headed down on an empty stomach to report on all the morsels available for this hotly anticipated feast.

▼ Called KFC Restaurant, the eatery is located at the new Minami Machida Grandberry Park shopping complex in Tokyo’s Machida district.

It was busy inside the complex, and seeing as it had just opened on 11 November, we anticipated the wait to be seated would be long.

However, when we got there, the number 124 was allocated to us, meaning there were 123 people waiting in line before us. So despite arriving before the 11:00 a.m. opening time, we ended up waiting for FIVE HOURS, which meant our buffet lunch turned out to be a buffet dinner instead.

The one saving grace was the queuing system, which meant we could wander around the area, or even head off somewhere else and return again, as we would receive an alert on our phone to let us know when it was our turn to enter the restaurant.

Once the afternoon had come and gone, it was finally our time to enter the restaurant. Like many buffets in Japan, KFC Restaurant has different pricing plans depending on the day or time, starting at 1,980 yen (US$18) for adults for the 80-minute lunch buffet on weekends, while on weekends the price is 2,180 yen. The 90-minute dinner buffet, meanwhile, is always 2,580 yen, and adding all-you-can-drink alcoholic beverages tacks on 1,250 yen.

▼ Just a selection of the KFC morsels on offer at the buffet.

While the display case at the front of the restaurant acted like a teaser for what lay in store at the buffet, we couldn’t wait to see exactly what type of food was on offer. So as soon as we were shown to our seat, we stood right back up again and walked around the entire buffet section, photographing everything as we went.

▼ There was, of course, a variety of KFC’s famous original recipe fried chicken…

▼ Along with other classic menu items, like crispy pieces, biscuits, and cole slaw.

▼ And it wouldn’t be a KFC buffet without the Colonel’s famous mashed potatoes and gravy.

As we made our way around the bain-maries, we saw some more unusual dishes, like:

▼ A hot bacon and vegetable salad.

▼ A meatball and grilled vegetable stew

▼ A prawn gratin

▼ Garlic rice

▼ And bread quiche

There was also a selection of “KFC Special Chicken Menu” items, including a “Japanese-style grilled chicken” made with yuzu kosho, a spicy citrus-flavoured hot paste.

▼ And next to it, tandoori chicken.

There was also a variety of baked goods on offer, including garlic toast…

▼ And rich, buttery croissants.

In the dessert section, there were bowls filled with fruity offerings…

▼ Along with more creamy morsels…

▼ And even some coffee jelly.

And because we were there at dinner, we were able to enjoy some dishes only available in the evening, including the chicken paella…

▼ The meat lasagna…

▼ And the rotisserie chicken.

The mash, lasagna, tandoori chicken and paella were particularly moreish, ranking as some of our favourites.

One of the most unusual offerings we found, though, was the Special Soup Curry, which has been specially designed to act as a dip for the original chicken pieces.

They also suggest adding plain chicken pieces to it, so it can be eaten like a soup. This is what we opted to do, and we were surprised by how tasty it was.

Of course, we didn’t leave without trying absolutely everything on offer, but what we found ourselves going back for again and again was the biscuits and fried chicken pieces, which were crispy, juicy, hot, and incredibly delicious.

With so many different meals available, the buffet was an absolute bargain, and one we highly recommend trying. Just be prepared to wait a while, especially if you’re heading down on a weekend, as all-you-can-eat KFC is a dream come true for many Tokyoites, especially in a country where Kentucky Fried bath salts and KFC bento lunchboxes are extremely popular.

Restaurant information
KFC Restaurant / KFCレストラン
Inside Minami Machida Grandberry Park / 南町田グランベリーパーク駅
Address: Tokyo-to, Machida-shi, Tsuruma 3-4-1
東京都町田市鶴間3-4-1
Hours: 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. (lunch) 5:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. (dinner; last order 8:30 p.m.)
Website

Images ©SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Organizing Committee considers relaxing rules for the Games during Japan’s always hot and humid summer.

With the Tokyo Olympics less than a year away, excitement continues to grow as the city gets ready to host the grandest spectacle in sports. Will the overseas attention usher in a new age of internationalism for Japan? Will newly reconfirmed Japanese citizen Naomi Osaka take home the gold in tennis? Will Mr. Sato’s wardrobe choices get him barred from the competition venues?

Right now, no one can say for sure, but one thing we know with absolute certainty is that the weather will be hot, humid, and extremely sweaty.

With the opening ceremony scheduled for July 24 and the closing for August 9, the Games coincide with some of the Japan’s most sweltering weather patterns. It’s not unusual for Tokyo temperatures to rise past 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in midsummer, and coupled with extremely high humidity, heatstroke is a serious concern, for both athletes and spectators. Keeping yourself hydrated is a must during a Japanese summer, but if you’re planning to bring your own water, sports drinks, or other beverages to an event, you’ll probably be limited as to how much you can take into the venue.

Japan’s Kyodo news organization reports that the Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee will be allowing spectators to carry one, and only one, bottled beverage into venues for the Games. While this might seem like another senselessly strict regulation in the same vein as the Tokyo Olympics’ ban on fans posting videos they record on social media, it’s actually a relaxing of the regular rules. For security/anti-terrorism purposes, past Olympic venues have often banned any outside drinks, and so Tokyo allowing one per person is actually an unusually accommodating gesture.

Moreover, the Organizing Committee is reportedly also considering distributing free bottles of water to spectators once they’re inside the venue. This idea is still in the proposal stage, however, and would require the cooperation of the Coca-Cola Company, which has exclusive drinking water vending rights for the Tokyo Games.

It’s also worth noting that currently there appears to be no restriction on how big the allowed bottle can be, and if that’s the case, two-liter (67.6-ounce) bottles of water and sports drinks are available in just about every Japanese convenience store. There is, however, the chance that the Committee will cap the bottle size at 500 milliliter (the standard single-person size in Japan), so you might want to also consider one of those strange-looking hats Tokyo’s governor is pushing to keep the sun off of your head.

Source: Kyodo via Otakomu
Top image: Pakutaso
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

But really, the Pikachu Tail should be called the “Pikachu Butt.”

Being the huge Pokémon fans that we are, we burst out of bed on the morning of November 15. No, not because it was the first day we could play the new Pokémon Sword and Shield games, but because it was the first day we could eat Japan’s new Pokémon donuts!

Yes, the popular Mister Donut chain is once again teaming up with the beloved video game/anime franchise, this time bringing us not one, not two, but three different delicious expressions of Pokémon passion: the Pikachu Donut, the Pikachu Tail, and the Pon de Ring Poké Ball.

Now, as a country with an unbridled love for both sweet foods and cute characters, we realized demand would be intense. However, we also figured that with the donuts coming out on a weekday, young Pokémon fans would be in school, and grown-up ones would be in the office. But we’re lucky enough to have jobs where “going out to eat Pikachu donuts” isn’t ditching work, but the purest form of devotion to our professional mission, so we rolled up to our local Mister Donut branch at 10:30, just 30 minutes after it opened and hours before we expected the after-school-and-work crowds to appear…

…only to find a massive line. After 30 minutes of waiting as the people in front of us beamed in triumph as they secured their donuts, the staff informed us that they’d sold out of their day’s supply of both Pikachu types. So we started pounding the pavement, searching other Mister Donut branches in a real-life Pokémon hunt. Location number two was sold out as well, but the third branch was just pulling its batch from the oven, and we got to try all three!

First up, the Pikachu Donut (259 yen [US$2.40]) is largely unchanged from the one Mister Donut temporarily sold last year, because you don’t tamper with pika-perfection. A banana chocolate-coated cake donut with M&M-like chocolate eyes, a whipped cream filling, and the adorable aura of the most famous Pokémon of all is a combination that needs no further embellishments.

Next we moved on to the Pikachu Tail (180 yen), but if you’ll forgive us for being pedantic and/or posterior-fixated, it really should be called the “Pikachu Butt” (or maybe the “Pikachu Tush,” if you want to keep the name as cute as the Pocket Monster’s backside), because the tail part is a non-edible decoration, and the only part you don’t eat.

Whatever it’s called, though, this is a French crueller donut, once again with a banana chocolate coating and custard inside. A mix of sweet, buttery flavors with just a hint of fruity tang, this is so good that it’d be worth eating even without the Pikachu theming.

Last, but not least, we come to the Pon de Ring Poké Ball (180 yen). The connected-sphere Pon de Ring donuts are a mainstay of the Mister Donut menu, but the Poké Ball version is an extra-special variant, with one half covered in strawberry chocolate, the other in white chocolate, and small strips of dark chocolate connecting them.

▼ Because when was the last time someone complained about having too much chocolate?

While we were there, we also got to check out the special dishware that’s being offered to celebrate the Mister Donut/Pokémon tie-up.

While you can’t purchase the cups and plates on their own, there are several different combo packs (detailed here) that get you your choice of one of the four items along with a selection of donuts or drinks.

▼ We opted for the plate with close-ups of Pikachu and the three Sword and Shield starters.

However, at this point we realized that six donuts makes for a very poorly balanced breakfast. We mean, that’s all food, with no drinks! So to correct that, we also ordered one each of the three starter Pokémon tapioca bubble sodas: Muscat grape Grookey, lychee Sobble, and peach Scorbunny (637 yen each), all of which were doubly tasty with their specially flavored boba balls.

Seeing as how we went one for three finding the donuts on a Friday morning, if you’re looking to catch all these Pokémon on a weekend, you’ll probably need to get to Mister Donut before the branch opens its doors for the day. On the plus side, none of the locations we went to had sold out of the tapioca drinks, so at least you won’t be thirsty if getting your Pikachu donut fix requires some legwork.

Related Mister Donut location finder
Photos ©SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

The two very different faces of a self-professed “ossan”.

Over the years, we’ve seen a number of video tutorials showing us the amazing power of makeup. And while many of these tutorials are often aimed at young women wanting to glow-up, today we’d like to introduce you to one of Japan’s most stunning transformations, involving a self-professed “middle-aged man” called Himeni.

Himeni says they’ve had the nickname “ossan” since the age of 17, due to having a lot of facial hair, and while ossan — the shortened form of “ojisan”, which literally means “uncle” but commonly refers to a middle-aged man — can be considered either rude or friendly depending on the context, Himeni embraces the moniker as it adds even more allure to the videos and images posted on social media.

▼ Because this middle-aged man loves to wear makeup and dress in feminine clothing.

皆気になってるので、動画出しました。 おっさんでも可愛くなれるメイク講座 youtu.be/A_VPSbMrqhk https://t.co/4q6ExiEaOw

—
ひめにぃ様⚤ (@1293Maron) November 09, 2019

Himeni embraces both the masculine and feminine by dressing in frilly cosplay costumes while speaking in a deep masculine voice that has all the brevity and richness you’d hear from a period actor on stage or in a movie trailer voiceover.

And there’s no pretence involved either, as Himeni is happy to share all the tips and secrets behind the cute cosplay look, with this latest video catching everyone’s attention in Japan right now.

Take a look at the video below:

The clip starts with Ossan looking as far from the “after” result as possible, donning glasses, fake long hair and a fake long beard while sharing the origin story behind the nickname.

It doesn’t take long for the transformation to begin, though, as the hairy accessories come off, coloured contact lenses go in, and the perfect base foundation is set.

Then it’s just a matter of embellishing the facial features with brow pencils, mascara, blush, and lipstick.

▼ Once the makeup is complete, a new cosplay “angel” appears.

▼ “How do you like it? In a world like this we don’t need two angels”, says the masculine movie-like voiceover.

Needless to say, Himeni has been showered with compliments for the skilful transformation, earning praise from people around the country for the stunning glow-up.

And now that we’ve seen all the hacks for creating the look, we can’t wait to give our very own ossan, Mr Sato, an equally gorgeous makeover. Oh, wait, he’s done that already.

Source: Net Lab
Image: YouTube/ひめにぃ様
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

It’s sure to become one his fondest childhood memories.

When you’re still a pre-pubescent teen, it seems like your youth will last forever, but the truth is it’s really only a brief, precious period in your life. So it’s important to make the most of it, and do all the things you won’t be able to do when you grow up. Splash in puddles! Play on the swings! Start a schoolgirl prostitution scam operation!

OK, that last one might not fall into the same category of innocent, child-like whimsy as the others, but a recent incident in Osaka highlights how it’s also something that you can only do when you’re still very young, at least if you’re using a certain modus operandi. The Osaka Prefectural Police announced that they have arrested six junior high school boys on charges of assault and theft, in relation to an attack that took place in a park in Osaka City’s Ikuno Ward before dawn on October 6.

As a prank, the group of boys created a profile for an online dating app, pretending to be a high school girl. Since the app allows for voice chat between users, to deepen the ruse one of the boys, who’s in his second year of middle school (and thus 12 or 13 years old), did the speaking duties, since puberty hasn’t caused his voice to change yet, and he could still approximate the high pitch of a schoolgirl.

Using the app, the group managed to lure a 20-year-old male college student to the park, offering to have sex with him in exchange for money. However, when he arrived the group of boys (minus the one who’d been playing the role of the schoolgirl in their voice chats), assaulted the man, kicking and otherwise pounding on him and breaking his nose before stealing the 900 yen (US$8.30) in cash he’d had on him.

It’s unclear whether the man reported the incident or not (“So I was going to the park to pay some schoolgirl less than the price of two Frappuccinos to let me hump her, but then a bunch of junior high kids smacked me around” is a pretty awkward, as well as self-incriminating, way to start a conversation with the cops, after all). However, on October 9 four of the boys once again were lying in wait to ambush another target they’d found via the dating app. However, when their mark didn’t show, the boys decided to cut their losses and just beat up some random 55-year-old man who happened to be in the park at that time.

▼ When life hands you lemons…beat the crap out of them?

The subsequent investigation of that assault led to the police tracking one of the boys down, who then spilled the beans on their previous bout of recreational violence. During questioning about the October 6 attack, the boys told the police “It was fun making fun of him and beating him up.”

As with the Tokyo man who was recently targeted by a fake schoolgirl extortion scheme, this is a story where no one involved is a good person, and along with the dirty-underwear-wrap con that also just took place in Japan, yet another reason to avoid skeevy offers you find online.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun via Jin
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!