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domingo, 31 de octubre de 2021

Costumes from everyday life on parade once more in “Jimi Halloween 2021”

https://ift.tt/3GCfZhq Master Blaster

Come take walk on the plain side.

For many, Halloween is a time to let our imaginations run wild and become something paranormal for a change. But for a certain growing segment of Japan’s population, it has become a time to transform into the ultra-normal.

Now is the season of “Jimi Halloween,” which means “Plain Halloween” in English, and is observed by dressing up not as ghosts and goblins but as clerks and husbands who deal with all-to-familiar trials and tribulations associated with daily life. 

The event was created by the website Daily Portal Z and used to be an annual live event. However, with recent pandemic complications, Jimi-Halloween has expanded to the online realm as well.

Speaking of which, this year’s entries were largely dominated by relatable predicaments that have come with the new normal.

▼ “Person trying to remove their mask but pulling off their glasses too.”

▼ “Office worker who drank a coffee while forgetting they’re wearing a mask.”

▼ “Person who has no problem entering Hikarie [shopping center] because their temperature is normal.”

▼ “Staff of an izakaya that was prohibited from selling alcohol.”

▼ “Person who mistakenly wore the wrong shoes to work because they haven’t gone to the office in a long time.”

Luckily, technology has come to the aid of recent restrictions, but those too weren’t without their own foibles:

▼ “Person swallowed by their Zoom background.”

▼ “Person who had just switched to the self-facing camera.”

▼ “Person tagged in a photo.”

▼ “Person going into the shade so they can see their smart watch.”

On the other hand, there was no shortage of timeless everyday characters that ring just as true today as they did back then.

▼ “Veteran cosmetologist who sees off customers until they are completely out of eye-shot.”

▼ “Person mistaking a plastic bag on the street for a kitten.”

▼ “Someone taking out the garbage in winter.”

▼ “A person who probably has a tattoo.”

▼ “Person drafted by the Lotte Marines who really wanted to sign with the Yomiuri Giants.”

▼ “Person who failed when opening their egg carton.”

▼ “Person who encountered a cockroach while trying to sleep at night.”

▼ “Person whose friends all went to the bathroom when it was their turn at karaoke.”

Making a jimi-Halloween costumes may seem easy, but it’s very hard to strike that right balance of interesting and ordinary.

For example, this guy’s costume may seem ordinary and has an ordinary caption, but is actually a parody of the guy who found that giant python in Yokohama earlier this year. It’s a funny costume, but probably qualifies more as a regular topical Halloween costume.

▼ “Person who found something they were looking for.”

Given the online component of this year’s events, entries will probably continue to trickle in throughout the weekend, but going by the online buzz this entry has been an especially big hit.

▼ “Neighbor of a suspect in a suspense drama telling the police they haven’t seen the person in three days.”

There are plenty more creatively uncreative costumes to be seen on Daily Portal Z and Twitter via the hashtag #地味ハロウィン, and you can also check out entries from previous year’s events right here. Enjoy, and we hope you all have a truly average Halloween!

Source: Twitter/#地味ハロウィン, Daily Portal Z
Top image: Pakutaso
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We tried making natto the old-fashioned way, and the result was unexpected but delicious 【SoraKitchen】

https://ift.tt/3CytagD Shannon

Who knew that fermenting soybeans was such a delicate process?

While most people see natto (fermented soybeans) in the form of small styrofoam packages – or even on ice cream, on rare occasions –  do you know how it’s actually made or have wanted to make it yourself? Our Japanese-language reporter Saya Togashi decided to give natto making a go by purchasing a natto-making kit by the natural Japanese farmers at Fuudo Farm.

The kit, priced at 1,296 yen (US$11.41), contained two bags of dried soybeans and two packs of straw. And…that’s it!

Natto is traditionally made by wrapping cooked soybeans in straw and maintaining enough heat for the natto bacteria to grow, thereby fermenting the soybeans and creating that ooey, gooey dish that has captured so many hearts.

Saya started by soaking the beans overnight in water, then bringing them to a boil the next morning. The instructions said to boil the beans until they were soft enough to squish between your fingers, which meant a straight one to two hours of boiling. If you have a pressure cooker, though, you can reduce that time by a lot!

She also boiled the straw, but since it was so long, some of it stuck out of the pot and she had to gradually push it in there like spaghetti.

When all items were sufficiently boiled, Saya nestled the soybeans into the straw cocoon. She was worried that the beans were so hot that it would kill the natto bacteria, but this particular bacteria is pretty hardy and can survive up to 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit) of heat.

After the natto cocoon was complete, the actual prep was complete! Now came the task of keeping the beans warm for at least 24 hours. Yep, a full 24 hours. Otherwise, the beans and straw would get too cold to encourage the fermentation process.

You can use a lot of methods to keep them warm, including the use of hot water bottles, a heater, hot kairo adhesive pads, and so on. Saya had a heat-saving bag and some kairo on hand, so she tried that method.

Unfortunately, the beans got cold in the process. Maybe it was because they were old, but her kairo didn’t stay warm for more than a few hours. She tried to save the batch by adding heat as soon as she noticed, but it was already too late. She ultimately decided to let it sit another 12 hours, as per the kit instructions.

In the meantime, she started the second batch in the kit to see if it would go any better. She repeated the same process as the first batch, but this time, she used a huge, 24-hour kairo that was guaranteed to last long enough.

24 hours passed. She took a peek inside the cocoon to see how her beans were faring. It managed to stay warm for the full 24 hours, but she waited another 12 hours to make sure they had properly fermented.

Another peek. This time she could see a slimy texture on the beans, which was a good sign!

They looked beautiful! They weren’t as stringy and slimy looking as natto you can find at the supermarket, but there was definitely something going on.

The next step was to let them refrigerate for two more days to reach natto perfection. And then came the long-awaited day to try her fermented creation. She cooked up some rice and topped it with her homemade natto.

And when she took a bite…

…they just tasted like soybeans.

There wasn’t enough bacteria growth to give it that slimy natto flavor she was hoping for. You can see the barest sheen of fermentation, but it’s not nearly enough. She didn’t feel too bad, though, since it was a fairly low-effort creation.

And honestly, it was a great bowl of soybean rice! She thought it paired perfectly with the dash of soy sauce she put on it. It was like a premium version of regular soybeans.

By the way, if you’re wondering what happened to the first batch, they started to grow black flecks after another 12 hours of fermenting. Saya decided that cocoon was better left unopened.

So even though Saya’s experiment to make homemade natto wasn’t exactly a success, she knows what to do for next time! Boil them almost until she thinks they’re overboiled, then keep that warmth packed in for the next 24 hours. If you want to give it a try and end up with the same results as Saya, you can still add natto flavor by, well, adding natto!

Photos ©SoraNews24
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sábado, 30 de octubre de 2021

This photo from Osaka makes it look like Japan has turned into The Last of Us

https://ift.tt/3vX8exm Casey Baseel


These lions don’t just look like the kings of the jungle, but the new rulers of Earth’s surface.

Some of the most compelling views in Japan are the ones that have you feel like you’re looking through a window into the past. When you’re walking around a modern city but find a shrine or temple that’s been there for hundreds of years, you can’t help but feel the immensity of all the things that have happened between then and now.

Recently, though, Japanese Twitter user @yukiokon stumbled across a place that feels like the opposite, snapping a photo that feels like it’s from so far in the future that life on Earth has changed into something completely different than what we know today.

“Check out this picture I took” tweets @yukiokon. “It’s like after the fall of humanity, nature flourished, and a super-advanced society took the place of ours.” There’s definitely an uncanny contrast between the vast verdant foreground, with the pair of lions seemingly holding dominion over everything between where they’re lying and the base of the glittering skyscraper in the distance.

Don’t start hoarding supplies and otherwise prepping for the coming dystopia quite yet, though. You’ll be happy to hear that @yukiokon didn’t actually stumble on a portal to the future that revealed mankind’s eventual exodus into techno towers to preserve the lifestyles of the aristocracy. This is actually just the view from one specific point inside Tennoji Zoo in downtown Osaka, with the 300-meter (984-foot) Abeno Harukas, the tallest building in Japan, visible in the distance.

The zoo is located to the south of the most developed part of downtown, near the Shinsekai neighborhood. Because of that, at the point where @yukiokon took her photo the trees are tall enough to block out the rest of the skyline, leaving Abeno Harukas as the only visible man-made structure, creating the feeling that nature has reclaimed everything else.

▼ As these photos show, if you digitally remove Abeno Harukas it doesn’t look like you’re anywhere close to one of the largest cities in Japan (though the giraffes make it look even more like a scene from The Last of Us).

Admission to Tennoji Zoo is just 500 yen (US$4.40) and it’s located within easy walking distance of the Tennoji and Dobutsuen-mae train and subway stations, making the zoo not only an easy place to fit into your Osaka itinerary, but also to run back to the big city from if you want to make sure it’s still there.

Related: Tennoji Zoo
Source: Twitter/@yukiokon via IT Media
Images: Twitter/@yukiokon
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We try Komeda Coffee’s new meatless ham katsu burger, and never want real fried ham ever again

https://ift.tt/3mt6RU3 Dale Roll

Who knew soy meat could be so good?!

These days it isn’t hard to find meatless food options in Tokyo, and, even better, you no longer have to settle for a subpar flavor experience. Soy meat is booming in Japan, and the options are surprisingly delicious!

We found one such delicious option at Komeda Coffee, which is consistently voted as the most satisfying coffee shop in Japan. Once you try their newest menu item, you’ll understand why. The “Soy Ham Katsu Burger” is so unbelievably good you won’t even notice it’s not meat!

Our taste-tester for today was our Japanese-language reporter K. Masami. She was drawn by the advertising for the sandwich, which boasts that “this isn’t ham, but it’s equally delicious”. It’s made with soy meat sliced thick and deep-fried like a ham katsu, or a deep-fried ham cutlet.

To be honest, Masami didn’t expect it to truly blow her away, having never been truly surprised by soy products. Though plant-based meat has gotten surprisingly more meat-like in recent years, making soy taste like ham sounded like a tall ask. Without even talking about the texture, how can you replicate the unique flavor of ham?

So she went to Komeda Coffee vastly underestimating this meatless sandwich. But from the very moment it arrived at her table, she began to realize what a mistake she’d made. Just look at the size of the sandwich, for starters.

Komeda Coffee is infamous for making the food in their ads have deceptively big portions, but there was no false advertising when it came to this sandwich. It was almost as big as the 16-centimeter (6.3-inch) plate! After Masami saw it, she understood why the waitstaff asked if she wanted them to cut it into pieces for her when she ordered it.

It was also pretty heavy, and if she didn’t hold it carefully, all of the toppings looked like they would fall out. When Masami peeked under the top bun, she found tons of cabbage and a few green peppers inside, as well as a beautifully crisp-looking, thick, soy ham cutlet.

Worried about cracking her jaw, she took a bite, but she couldn’t even get a taste of the soy ham katsu, so monstrous was this sandwich. All she got was vegetables!

After tidying up the wayward strands of cabbage, she finally managed to get a bite of the ham katsu. The soy meat was a nice pink color, similar to the color of ham, if a little lighter. And the flavor was…

Shockingly ham-like! She honestly could not believe it was soy. It had just the right amount of saltiness and had somehow had a similar flavor to ham.

It did lack a little bit of the juiciness you might find in real meat, but it was still really difficult to believe it wasn’t real ham. Perhaps the fact that it was deep-fried and dressed with a special mustard-flavored burger sauce helped up the ham-like flavor of it. Either way, Masami was a fan.

They likely tried all kinds of things to come up with this recipe, but it still had no right to be that good. With a soy-meat patty as ham-like as this one, Masami would be happy never eating real ham again.

She was completely and utterly surprised. Truly, this is not an exaggeration. She’d underestimated this meatless ham katsu, and after eating it she wanted to kick herself. She felt like she had to apologize to the makers of this delicious concoction.

By the way, Masami got this huge soy ham cutlet sandwich for just 580 yen (US$5.12). With such a huge portion, she thought that was a pretty good deal! Sadly, it’s only available for a limited time at Komeda Coffee, so if you want to try it, make sure you go before the end of November. And if you miss it, don’t worry. Komeda Coffee also operates a completely plant-based restaurant called Komeda Is, which offers delicious vegan and vegetarian fare year-round.

Photos © SoraNews24
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viernes, 29 de octubre de 2021

Pad Thai oatmeal?? Our reporter tries another oatmeal cooking experiment【SoraKitchen】

https://ift.tt/3nHpXFp Dale Roll

You would be surprised to know it actually works!

Who doesn’t love Pad Thai? This delicious dish of rice noodles, bean sprouts, a meat of your choice, and a fish-based sauce is one of Thailand’s most internationally beloved dishes, and for good reason. It’s so flavorful and satisfying, you’ll always want to come back for more!

Our Japanese-language reporter Go Hatori also loves Pad Thai. So much so that he came up with a recipe for noodle-less Pad Thai…which uses oatmeal instead of noodles. Why? Because he also loves oatmeal…and trying wheat-free, gluten-free alternatives. Was he insane to try to use it in Pad Thai? Maybe. But is he also a mad genius? Definitely.

Here’s Go’s recipe for Pad Thai Oatmeal:

Ingredients (for one serving)

For the Pad Thai
5 tbsp oatmeal (Go recommends the bigger grains of old-fashioned style oats)
Shrimp, to taste (Go used defrosted frozen shrimp)
Koebi (tiny shrimp), to taste
1/2 pack of bean sprouts
Garlic chives, to taste
1 egg, scrambled
Cooking oil, as needed
Salt and pepper, to taste
Coarsely ground red chili pepper, to taste
A suitable amount of peanuts (crushed)

For the Sauce
 1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp sugar

Instructions

1. Place the peanuts in a plastic bag and use a wooden spoon or spatula to crush them into smaller pieces.

2. Heat some oil in the pan, then add the scrambled egg and cook until it becomes a fluffy omelet.

3. Sprinkle the shrimp with salt and pepper and fry in the pan.

4. Once the shrimp is cooked, add the oatmeal, tiny shrimp and sauce ingredients, and fry.

5. Add the bean sprouts, garlic chives, and cooked egg, then mix and fry.

6. Remove everything to a plate before the bean sprouts get soggy, then top with the crushed peanuts and red pepper.

And it’s finished! After tasting it, Go remarked that it was astoundingly Pad Thai-like. He said it was really delicious! He was impressed that you could get the entire flavor of Pad Thai without any noodles. Since Go loves oatmeal, and this was a pretty easy recipe, he realized this is something he could add to his weekly menu.

Who knew oatmeal could be such a great wheat-free alternative to noodles? Well, Go certainly did, and if you’re looking for more ways to use oatmeal, you can also try his recipes for oatmeal okonomiyaki and curry oatmeal. Maybe you, too, will begin to share Go’s love for all things oatmeal!

Images © SoraNews24
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New poseable figma Tutenkahmun figure is coming out of his grave, has been doing just fine

https://ift.tt/2ZATA3p Katy Kelly

Soon, now, he’ll open up his tomb now, glittering gold…

There are few joys like poseable action figures. It’s a little replica of a character you love, but you can move their arms and legs. One of the most celebrated companies producing articulated figures today is figma, a Japanese company that cranks out bevies of dewy-eyed anime girls and gutsy shonen heroes each year.

▼ Every Love Live! season heralds a new wave of Love Live! figma figures.

Here at SoraNews24, we love a good anime figure as much as the next person…but our real passions lie in these utterly bizarre figurines that figma cooks up every now and then, where they eschew the bright technicolor tones and anime sparkle for something a little more realistic. You may remember our articles on their figure of The Thinker, as well as a disturbingly accurate, muscled anatomical model. Figma has even more ancient articulated icons up their sleeve. The pharaoh Tutankhamun went up for pre-order on October 26, so you can own a fully-posable dead monarch from ancient times!

▼ King Tut’s DX version comes entombed in his own golden sarcophagus.

King Tutankhamun has been celebrated throughout the world as one of, if not the most significant archaeological find in the history of the field. Both his sarcophagus and gilded death mask are recreated in perfect detail. Though pre-orders are open at the time of writing, they will close by November 25. The figure is expected to ship in July 2022.

The model comes in two editions. The regular edition costs 9,900 yen (US$86.97) while the ultra-deluxe DX version is a treasure worthy of Tut itself, priced at 13,750 yen (US$120.79). The regular version includes Tutankhamun, his golden mask, a replacement head and hands, and a pedestal and column to pose him on. The deluxe version includes all that, plus his perfectly scaled golden casket.

▼ You’ve gotta have a golden casket, right?

You can also combine Tut with other figma products to great effect, as demonstrated by the product’s official Good Smile Company page.

▼ “I want my mummy!”

And as an added bonus, remember that The Thinker figure we mentioned? He’s receiving a re-release too, so if you missed out on his contemplative glory back in 2014 and 2016…now’s your chance! It costs 6,600 yen (US$57.97), so ponder whether you can spare that much for a fully-articulated reproduction of a famous sculpture. Preorders are open from now until November 25, and the Thinker will also ship in July 2022.

The brilliant minds at figma have also made articulated versions of the Vitruvian Man painting, the Mannekin Pis peeing cherub sculpture, and the Venus deMilo if she still had arms. Who knows what treasure from the past will be next to receive moveable limbs?

Related: Good Smile Company Tutankhamun figure (regular), Tutankhamun figure (DX), The Thinker
Source, images: PR Times
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What happens when our team starts renovating our cheap countryside house in Japan?

https://ift.tt/3jLtwte Oona McGee

The SoraHouse becomes a playhouse for our reporters.

It’s been a few short months since our boss Yoshio purchased a super-cheap property in the mountains of Saitama, Tokyo’s neighbouring prefecture to the north, for just one million yen (US$9,100).

Since then, Yoshio and some of our colleagues have been excitedly exploring the property, which covers 353 square metres (3,800 square feet) and includes a two-storey house with 131 square metres (1,410 square feet) of floor space.

▼ Can you believe we own this patch of serenity?

On a recent trip out to the SoraHouse to get started on the renovations, our Japanese-language reporter Masanuki Sunakoma snuck a little something into his backpack after being inspired by a story he’d heard from a friend who runs a guesthouse overseas.

According to his friend, this addition to their guesthouse turned it into a tourist spot overnight, when photos shared on Instagram had people everywhere wanting to come and see it in person. While there are no current plans to turn our house in the Japanese countryside into a guesthouse, you never know what the future holds, so Masanuki thought he might as well test out the idea to see how it goes before they got started on any renovations.

▼ And that’s why Masanuki brought this swing with him to the SoraHouse.

Masanuki purchased this swing, called the “Dokodemo Blanco” (“Anywhere Swing“), online, choosing it for its convenience, as you don’t need a tree branch or heavy-duty hooks to use it.

▼ It also has a maximum load capacity of 150 kilograms (330 pounds), which makes it suitable for adults.

However, as you can see, our rundown little property doesn’t have a lot of options when it comes to safe, carefree swinging outdoors.

Masanuki’s visions of swinging away in nature, watching the likes pile up on his social media accounts as he made everyone green with envy over his picture-perfect life, immediately dissipated when he actually saw the ramshackle state of the property.

To add salt to the wound, Masanuki spied this glorious setup a short distance from the property, as if someone had read his mind and was now rubbing his nose in it. Unsure of who owned that beautiful swing by the road, and if he were able to use it, Masanuki now strengthened his resolve to set up his own swing, come hell or high water.

▼ So he went straight into our ramshackle house and installed the swing indoors.

He ran into a problem when one of the belts wasn’t long enough to go around the beam, but he soon fixed that by using a broken power cord to make up the extra length.

▼ Do not try this at home.

▼ As it turns out, despite the indoor location, this spot did have a view of the great outdoors.

With the sliding glass doors fully opened, it would be almost like swinging outside, but before trying it out he let Yoshio, the official owner of the property, have a go on it first.

▼ “Whee!“

Yoshio survived, as did the swing, and so Masanuki kindly let his colleague Go Hatori have a go.

▼ “Whee!“

The glee with which his two workmates swung made Masanuki even more excited for his turn.

▼ “Whee!“

Masanuki swang and swang, getting quite a bit of air beneath him as he desperately tried to evoke the carefree abandon of an Instagram model.

However, he couldn’t escape the reality of the situation. Masanuki was just a bloke in a hard hat swinging on a swing in a rundown building, and rather than living his best life, he looked more like a sad man having a mid-life crisis.

Masanuki and the gang have quite a lot of hard work ahead of them if they’re ever to turn this place into an idyllic tourist spot with this trusty old swing. Still, now that the renovations are about to start — once they stop swinging, that is — they’ll be one step closer to achieving that goal. And if the river next to our house winds up having gold in it, there’ll be no end to the number of swings Masanuki can buy!

Photos ©SoraNews24
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