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Designed by Kazuyo Sejima, Sumida Hokusai Museum opens in east Tokyo
Tokyo has a major new museum in the form of the Sumida Hokusai Museum, which opened on November 22nd in east Tokyo’s Sumida ward. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Kazuyo Sejima (SANAA) with bold use...
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Bookstore hotel Book and Bed Kyoto opens in Gion in December
Book and Bed, the bookstore where you can stay overnight, welcomes guests to its new branch in Gion, Kyoto, on December 2nd. Somewhat confusingly called Book and Bed Tokyo Kyoto Branch, it is the...
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Domino’s Pizza Japan trains reindeer to deliver takeaways in snowy Hokkaido
Recently Tokyoites were shocked by the first November snow in over 50 years, but spare a thought for those shivering folk who live on the northern island of Hokkaido. Need that slice of pizza in a...
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Tokyo Metro Ginza Line now has free wi-fi on subway trains
The Tokyo Metro Ginza Line will start offering subway passengers free wi-fi on trains from December 1st, aimed particularly at visitors from overseas. Tokyo Metro partners with NTT Broadband Platform...
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Japan’s 2016 word of the year: kamitteru
The word of the year is “kamitteru”. Every year, the publisher Jiyu Kokumin Sha organizes a prize for the buzzword or phrase that seemed to capture the zeitgeist or spread like wildfire around Japan....
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JR West debuts Twilight Express Mizukaze luxury sleeper train in summer 2017
West Japan Railway Co. (JR West) will debut a luxury sleeper train in June 2017. First announced in 2014, the Twilight Express Mizukaze is billed as “a hotel rolling through the beautiful Japanese...
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Christmas 2016 Gift Guide: Unique ideas from Japan Trend Shop
Struggling to find that perfect gift for that special someone? Or that relative who seems to have everything already? A hour or two spent browsing some of the awesome items available in Japan will soon...
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Domino’s Pizza cancels reindeer delivery plan, offers reindeer-cosplay bikes...
Last month the world suddenly got interested in Domino’s Pizza in Japan, specifically what it was doing in Hokkaido: apparently trying to train a reindeer to deliver pizzas. So far, so wacky....
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Moominvalley theme park to open in Saitama in spring 2019
A Moomin theme park will open in Saitama, on the outskirts of Tokyo, in spring 2019. Moominvalley Park will join a “Scandinavian village” theme park set to open in autumn 2018 as part of metsä, a new...
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Attack on Titan live stage adaptation coming summer 2017
It may well star huge creatures that won’t fit inside any known theater, but Attack on Titan is nonetheless coming to the stage. Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan will be adapted as Live Impact “Attack...
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Virtual reality entertainment space VR Park Tokyo opens in Shibuya, Tokyo
The virtual reality revolution in Japan continues. Following several high-profile attractions such as the Namcom entertainment space VR Zone Project i Can and Zero Latency in Odaiba as well as the...
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Take a first look at Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World, opening...
Here is a first look at the concept art for Super Nintendo World, set to open in Universal Studios Japan, Osaka, in 2020. Universal Studios and Nintendo have partnered to create new attractions at...
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Tokujin Yoshioka creates new prism installation for Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo
Japanese artist and design extraordinaire Tokujin Yoshioka will create a new prism-themed installation at Shiseido Gallery in central Tokyo. Once again Yoshioka is returning to his regular...
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Virtual reality biking sports gym Cycle & Studio R opens in Shibuya in March...
New and exciting virtual reality services just keep on appearing in Tokyo. After the announcement of VR Park Tokyo now comes another virtual reality center. And this time it is sports-themed. Cycle...
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Nescafe Harajuku and Shuta Hasunuma create Coffee Moment Ensemble, a giant...
Is it a musical instrument? Is it a coffee maker? Or just a wacky Rube Goldberg machine? Well, it’s kind of all three. At the Nescafe Harajuku cafe from December 2nd until December 25th, visitors can...
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Shonen Jump launches first virtual reality magazine in Japan
People sometimes say that the niche magazine market in Japan is so strong that everything has its own dedicated publication. That may no longer be the case as the publishing industry continues to...
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Takara Tomy Beyblade Bar opens in Ikebukuro celebrating spinning top toy series
A new venue opens in January dedicated to the toy series Beyblade. Called the Beyblade Bar, the name alone makes it obvious that this pop-up is aimed not at the current generation of Beyblade fans but...
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American ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, scores viral hit with...
As we know, Christmas in Japan is different breed: it involves strawberry shortcake, KFC, and romance. Now United States ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, has got into the festive spirit by making...
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Takeshi Kitano (Beat Takeshi) meets Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike dressed as...
The actor, film director, TV host and comedian Takeshi Kitano (aka Beat Takeshi) has met with Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike. There would be nothing news-worthy about that in itself, except for the fact...
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Your Name (Kimi no Na wa) pop-up themed cafes in Tokyo, Nagoya in January 2017
Makoto Shinkai’s anime Your Name (Kimi no Na wa) has been the biggest film of the year in Japan, so it was surely only a matter of time before we had some spin-off cafes. These tie-in spaces have...
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