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miércoles, 31 de octubre de 2018

The beautiful cosplayers of Tokyo’s Halloween night Shibuya street party【Photos】

https://ift.tt/2PtZHzp Casey Baseel

A costume party in one of Tokyo’s most fashionable neighborhoods brings some beauty to the scary celebration.

It might be hard to to imagine when you’re seeing packs of weirdos dressed up like demented Hello Kitties or horrific (Where’s) Waldos, but Shibuya, the part of Tokyo where the Japan’s biggest Halloween party takes place, is usually a neighborhood that attracts the city’s beautiful people. So on October 31, you’ll still find glamorous Tokyoites out and about in Shibuya, just dressed in Halloween costumes instead of the latest trendy fashions.

Granted, our own pack of surreal Hello Kitty-mimicking reporters got plenty of photo requests. But there’s also plenty of cosplay of the more orthodoxly photogenic variety, as these photos we snapped of other Halloween partiers prove.

Female costumers in Japan are especially concerned with coordination, as matching outfits are a great way to stand out from the crowd while also dividing up any lingering shy self-consciousness among your friends.

▼ Between the facial injuries and the broken-off steering wheel, these cabbies don’t seem like the best drivers, but they do at least offer service with a smile.

▼ A Dia de los Muertos-inspired quintet.

Following unruly behavior in Shibuya on the weekend before Halloween, the ward mayor promised a stronger police presence on the night of October 31. While we don’t have any official law enforcement dispatch statistics, we did notice plenty of patrolwoman costumes.

At least two escaped convicts managed to slip through their dragnet, however.

A common costume ploy for Halloween in Japan is to take an everyday cosplay outfit and add some ghastly visible injuries, like this pair of stitched up maids did.

▼ Our reporter Ahiru Neko photobombs a team of diner waitresses who apparently had a very rough shift.

▼ The theme for this group, meanwhile, seems to be “A day out shopping, circa 1990.”

While many of the outfits had a splash of cuteness or dash of sexiness, some were legitimately frightening, like those which featured copiously bleeding eyes.

Even the Minions couldn’t completely avoid carnage.

Thankfully, those feeling too frightened could take comfort in the serene presence of sisterly sisters…

…or scantily clad cat girls, who provide mental solace of a different sort.

▼ Or you could just keep your mind off of all the blood by wondering if Dr. Slump’s Arale is about to chow down on poo on a stick.

But while there were plenty of high-concept, thoroughly crafted costumes to be seen, this is, first and foremost, a party, and not a cosplay contest.

If you don’t have the time or the money to sort out a complex outfit, a few streaks of fake blood will do fine. Take a look at these friends, for example, who are pretty clearly just wearing their ordinary clothes with cat ears from the 100 yen store, plus a few lines of equally affordable face paint.

They were as welcome as anyone, because it’s not about how good your costume is, it’s about having fun together.

A big thanks to everyone who took the time to pose for us, and we hope to see you all again next year!

Photos ©SoraNews24

SoraNews24 hits Tokyo’s biggest Halloween party dressed as one of Japan’s most popular characters

https://ift.tt/2zhSlVA Casey Baseel

Mr. Sato takes our team to Shibuya’s Halloween bash, but not before setting us up with coordinated kawaii costumes.

The massive Halloween street party in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood have been given a black eye this year, with the lively celebration degrading into vandalism and mayhem on the weekend before October 31. And yet, on Halloween itself, we decided to head to Shibuya anyway.

We’re big fans of the holiday, and any party can only be as bad as the people in it. So we figured it was our civic duty to set an example by enjoying Halloween in Shibuya to the fullest, while still staying within the bounds of the law and common courtesy.

Of course, if we were going to Japan’s biggest Halloween bash, we’d need to dress up. So we gathered our staff at SoraNews24 headquarters, turning our conference room into a changing room.

Following the lead of ace reporter Mr. Sato, our staff slipped on their form-fitting white bodysuits, then put on their denim overalls (some with separate pant legs, others with skirts). Then they applied a coat of similarly snowy hued face paint.

Then all they needed for the finishing touch was their hair ribbons…

…and the SoraNews24 Hello Kitty Halloween Costume Team was ready to roll!

P.K. Sanjun and Ahiru Neko guide the squad down into the subway.

At first, we were worried that the inspiration for our costumes might not be as readily apparent as with our Where’s Waldo? getups from last Halloween. But as we walked through Shinjuku Sanchome Station, we heard several shouts of “Kitty-chan!” from passersby.

▼ Actually, each of our reporters is two Kitties in one, since Hello Kitty’s face is also part of the hat.

After a short subway ride on the Fukutoshin Line, we got off the train at Shibuya Station and made our way up to the surface, ready to cross the Scramble Intersection and head into Center-gai, the shopping street that serves as Shibuya Halloween party central

But the Scramble is world-famous for being crazy-crowded on any given day, and with so many people descending on Center-gai on Halloween night, the entrance to the street was so packed that it was impossible to move through it.

So instead we took a roundabout route, heading up the wider main street to the famous Shibuya 109 boutique tower. Along the way, our coordinated Kitty outfits earned us plenty of attention and cheers.

Finally, we came to a side street that wasn’t completely crammed with human bodies, and we worked our way onto Center-gai.

Once we got there, our forward progress pretty much stopped, but that was OK. The mass of humanity was so dense that even without taking a single step, we were surrounded by new friends to make, and many of them asked to take pictures with our Sanrio-stylish reporters.

And best of all? While we were out and about, we didn’t witness an of the vandalism or other crimes that marred the Shibuya parties last weekend. Granted, we arrived around 7 p.m. and left while the trains were still running, which allowed us to avoid the overnight, most thoroughly liquored-up crowds. Still, our experience gives us hope that Shibuya’s Halloween problems haven’t gone past the point of no return, and have us looking forward to the fun again next year.

Photos ©SoraNews24

DJ Hello Kitty drops the beat and F-bombs at all-night Sanrio Puroland Halloween event【Video】

https://ift.tt/2ERCxyz Master Blaster

“Motherf#%$ers, go!”

We all have an image of Hello Kitty as that sweet little kitten-girl who likes apples and appearing on everything from melons to bullet trains. But when you think about it, she’s really got to be like what, 45 now?

She’s certainly allowed to let her hair down and do a little wilin out from time to time. One such time is the Spooky Pumpkin Puro All Night Halloween Party at Sanrio Puroland theme park.

Now, generally a “spooky pumpkin party” at a Hello Kitty theme park doesn’t sound all that wild, but as Twitter user Yuna-cha discovered, Miss Kitty gets a little saucy after hours.

If you watched that video without sound, please go back and see it again with the volume up, because there is something strangely cathartic about watching DJ Hello Kitty open her set with a hearty “Motherfuckers go!”

However, true to her character, Hello Kitty takes any opportunity to interact with the fans by waving, blowing kisses, and making that heart-shape thing with both hands.

DJ Hello Kitty was just one act in the line-up of performers that took the stage from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in the morning of 28 October. The Spooky Pumpkin Halloween Party 2018 had an eclectic mix of 14 artists from the genres of rap, rock, EDM, and more.

With all that music and lasers outlining the faces of Sanrio’s biggest stars like Little Twin Stars and Keroppi. Even those watching online got a kick out of it.

“That looks fucking fun!”
“What the fuck is that? I wanna go!”
“I’m not sure they should be throwing around the f-word at Puroland, but that was still good.”
“Fuck desu.”
“She is a country girl – probably curses like a sailor at home.”
“Between this and Pom Pom Purin showing off his butthole, Sanrio is getting quite edgy.”

It does look like an unexpectedly fun party, but as Yuna-cha pointed out, it’s only once a year. Although the theme of the party is Halloween, this event is also in celebration of Hello Kitty’s birthday which falls on 1 November.

So, if you’re looking for an alternative to all the car flipping and gropers of other Halloween parties in Japan, you may want to plan a trip to Puroland next year where Hello Kitty will absolutely not tolerate such motherfuckery in her house.

Source: Twitter/@Ync_Bnc, Hachima Kiko
Images: PR Times

Fujisawa Enoshima Fireworks Festival results in one ton of garbage strewn on the beach

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Krista Rogers

Shocked net users lament the beachside paradise littered with garbage–an uncommon occurrence in usually tidy Japan.  

When the people of Tokyo need to escape, one popular day-trip getaway is seaside Fujisawa City in neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture. Easily accessible from the nation’s capital, its long shoreline entices surfers and beachgoers alike for a few hours of frolicking outside of the hustle and bustle of city life (and perhaps to also try some yummy anchovy pancakes). Not far from Katase-Enoshima Station is a bridge that connects the mainland to Enoshima, a small island which boasts a lighthouse, aquarium, multiple shrines, delicious seafood, and on the far side, sea caves and tidal pools to explore. While Enoshima is quite popular for its natural beauty among both locals and tourists, the area is unfortunately receiving negative attention at the moment due to thoughtlessness on the part of its human visitors.

The annual Fujisawa Enoshima Fireworks Festival was held on the evening of Saturday, October 20. While this year’s festival was predicted to involve rainy weather, the main event proceeded as planned, unlike last year’s show that eventually had to be canceled. Around 85,000 people were expected to attend and enjoy the spectacle, and enjoy it they did–a little too much, in fact, because they also somehow managed to forget their civic duty to clean up after themselves.

Check out the following photo that Twitter user @Rinado_ob posted in the aftermath of the festival, which subsequently went viral on Japanese new sites: 

“Enoshima. These were Japanese people.

At this rate, next year’s fireworks festival won’t be held.”

Notice how she specifically comments that her fellow citizens were responsible for the mess. Time and time again, Japanese people have garnered an international reputation for cleaning up after themselves no matter the venue or the circumstances–even inspiring others to do the same. Therefore, part of the shock behind this photo lies in the sharp contrast to the usual image of Japanese people leaving behind pristine surroundings.

While many families probably left the fireworks early due to the rain, it’s worth noting that event organizers blasted multiple announcements both before and after the show for spectators to either take their trash with them or drop it off at one of the specified collection stations. Despite those requests, Fujisawa City’s Tourist Association reports that one ton of garbage was left on the beach this year, which is a staggering three times the amount as at the last festival. One of the most common items left behind were tarps for sitting on. At the very least, the Association does report that 150 kilograms (331 pounds) of garbage was properly disposed of at the collection sites, which is twice as much as the previous time.

Net users responded to the scene with disgust, particularly drawing attention to the disconnect between such a beautiful event and unsightly waste and musing on the future of the event as well:

“After such beautiful fireworks, this is just sad.”

“On top of opposing the Olympics itself, I’m also worried about my beloved Enoshima, which is set to host some of the events. I’m praying that the island won’t be impacted during and after the games.”

“If children see adults behaving in this way, they’ll think that they can just litter wherever they want.”

“What a disgrace. They’re better off not holding the fireworks if it’s going to end in nothing but environmental pollution.”

“Is this seriously for real? I wish people who do this kind of thing wouldn’t come to Enoshima at all. But I actually wouldn’t mind if the Enoshima Fireworks Festival ended because of this. It’s not even the main fireworks festival around here, after all.”

On a final note, event organizers had anticipated a certain amount of trash to be left behind and already had plans for a cleanup event the following morning. Volunteers who participated for an hour and a half and then displayed the most “interesting” trash that they found in front of an audience were eligible to win a prize. Even so, let’s hope that the fireworks festival, if indeed held next year, will result in a significantly smaller amount of garbage than expected.

Source: Twitter/@Rinado_ob, Biglobe News
Featured image: Twitter/@Rinado_ob

Criminally studious Japanese schoolgirl caught stealing dozens of educational books in one night

https://ift.tt/2qnhslK Casey Baseel

Educators might applaud her motivation, but the police arrested her anyway.

It’s been a busy couple of days for police in Japan, with rowdy Halloween street parties in Tokyo leading to at least five arrests for offences including groping and assault. But it’s not just downtown nightlife districts where criminals were apprehended this week, as a bookstore in Hyogo Prefecture was also the scene of a crime.

On the evening of October 29, an 18-year-old high school girl walked into the bookstore in front of JR Akashi Station. After some extensive browsing, she left without purchasing anything, but later returned to the store for her second visit between the hours of 7 and 8 p.m.

This time, something about the way she was moving about the store struck one of the employees as suspicious. When the staff approached the schoolgirl and examined her bag, they found it filled with books that she was attempting to steal. The police were summoned, and the subsequent investigation revealed that she’d already made off with 10 books from her first trip to the store that night, and in total had attempted to steal 25.

So just what sort of ill-gotten goods was the girl after? Manga, like the middle schooler who was arrested as part of a two-person thievery team at another Hyogo bookstore earlier this year? Smutty magazines she was too embarrassed to carry up to the register?

Nope. Among the books she’d stolen was one titled An Interesting and Easy to Understand Explanation of Exponents and Logarithms, and that was pretty much representative of the rest of her haul. All 25 books she’d taken were study-aids and educational reference books. It’s not like she was planning to resell them at discounted, yet to her pure-profit, prices to her peers, either. When the police arrived and questioned her, she not only admitted to having stolen the books, but said her intent was to use them herself to study with, and that she’d taken them because she doesn’t have the money to buy them with.

While her level of academic enthusiasm is admirable, the total cost of the books she’d taken comes to roughly 36,000 yen (US$320), which is beyond what Japanese society is generally willing to write off as an acceptable bending of the law by teenagers. The girl was formally arrested on October 30, and while punishment is yet to be handed down, hopefully any court-ordered rehabilitation process will include an orientation at her local public library.

Source: Kobe Shimbun Next via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso

We take a 100-yen MP3 player for a test drive, live to tell the tale

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

What’s the lowest you’ve ever paid for a piece of tech? Our Japanese-language reporter Seiji might have you beat.

Isn’t it great to have all the technological wonders of the world at your fingertips? With the advances in audio technology, we are able to listen to the latest hit songs with just the press of a button! That button can even be on your phone! In fact, it most likely is! The world has come a long way since the clunky personal Walkman cassette and CD players everyone used to tote around, and because of the convenience of phones some people don’t even have a dedicated MP3 player anymore.

Whether you use a phone or dedicated device, the ease with which you can purchase songs in data format means they’re the number-one way to listen to music these days. You can peruse various sizes and shapes of portable music players online or in stores, but our Japanese-language reporter Seiji Nakazawa decided to filter results on Amazon by price and investigate the cheapest possible model, priced at a meagre 100 yen (US$0.90).

Would a 100-yen player even work? Who even heard of an MP3 player costing less than a pair of discount underwear? Seiji’s suspicions only mounted further as he read the instructions, which were in a very unusual brand of Japanese.

▼ “By simply copy/pasting files from your computer to the MP3 device, your preparations are ready.”

Other confusing missives inform customers that the device “is bolstered by 8GB Micro SD / TF cards (memory not included)” in the listed features while boasting “can be used with Micro SD and TF cards” in other descriptive text, leading to a lot of confusion. It definitely seems like the specifics were written in someone’s second language.

But who’s complaining? It’s 100 yen!

Seiji quickly decided that the best way to understand the secrets of this MP3 player would be to purchase it, and that is exactly what he did.

▼ Ordered on October 9, with a tentative delivery date of October 21

Twelve day delivery, eh? Seiji figured it was the price you paid for a 100-yen MP3 player (in addition to shipping, which cost significantly more than the player itself). But of course it wasn’t that easy. Is it ever?

“We’re terribly sorry, but it will take a little longer for your item to be delivered.”

Finally, on the 25th, a special package arrived! It took so long to arrive that Seiji didn’t remember what he’d ordered. Whether the delay was due to a problem with the supplier or the mail, Seiji chalked it up to being a inevitability of discount tech.

▼ Something from Taiwan…?

After tearing off the wrappings, Seiji found an actual MP3 player inside. What a relief!

▼ A really tiny, actual MP3 player!

Seriously though, is this an MP3 player for dolls? It looks like a single sleeping bag in a huge conference room.

▼ It’s more thumb-sized than palm-sized.

Anyway, time to connect it to the computer… oh.

The package came with nothing but the tiny MP3 player itself: no cords, no cables, no cards (they warned us about that last one, sort of). To test it out Seiji would need to use a Mini-B USB cable, which he did not own. Off to the electrical goods store!

▼ 518 yen.

Upon returning home, Seiji noted that the MP3 player didn’t have any internal memory (what with it being a 100-yen product and all). Sigh. Time to rush back to the store to buy a memory card, too.

▼ 1,058 yen.

This 100-yen MP3 player was getting expensive.

Finally, he could load music onto this contraption! Seiji slotted the card inside the player and hooked it up to his PC.

▼ A folder appeared!

As he copied music files into the MP3 player’s home folder, Seiji reminisced about his old personal Walkman CD player from his junior high school days. That thing sure did skip and glitch out whenever you took a step, haha! Sweet memories. Oh, the data all transferred.

“Considering it was an MP3 player I bought for 100 yen, I was impressed the data transferred at all.” – Seiji

The moment of truth…

▼ Time to face the music.

The interface on the device is pretty simple, with just two functions – music and settings. The buttons to skip forward and back on the left and right of the click-wheel serve as navigation buttons, and the ‘M’ button at the top is used to confirm.

▼ Seiji promptly set the language to English, because the only other option was Chinese

Settings lets you adjust the contrast of the screen, how long the screen is backlit for, and also the language. Moving on to the music itself…

With a simple click of his thumb, music began to play! It didn’t have any kind of list to select from, and skipping just took you to the next song in the folder. Basically what you would expect from a 100-yen MP3 player.

The VOL button at the bottom of the click wheel allows for a rudimentary way to change the volume, and the sound quality from the device itself wasn’t bad. A perfectly adequate way to listen to music, so long as you don’t need bells and whistles like “a playlist” or “the ability to select a song”.

▼ Seiji gives himself over to the beat

But guess what? This little MP3 player has another hidden feature! Tap the “M” button while playing music and you can cycle through a list of equalizers to better customize your listening experience. The four options are “POP”, “ROC”, “JAZ” and “CLA”, and Seiji thoughtfully reviewed the sound quality of each of them for us here. Expecting a graphic equalizer would be a bit much for a discount device, don’t you think?

  • POP: Makes you feel like your entire body is vibrating
  • ROC: Imbues music with the muddy mid-tones you hear when speaking with your nose pinched
  • JAZ: Like listening to something filtered through a radio speaker
  • CLA: Boosts the bass a bunch

…So kind of pointless, then. Seiji just set it back to “NOR”, which is the setting for no equalizer effects.

Seiji’s verdict was absolute:

“This MP3 player is so useless it kind of loops back to being adorable. Not only is it super basic in form and function, but it has this completely useless equalizing function that no one would ever use. If you had to add a function, why not use something useful like a song list?”

It was decided that the little mp3 player would live out its days on Seiji’s desk, gathering dust. He left us with a word of caution: while this adorable little player might seem tempting, you should remember that it comes without any accessories. In total Seiji spent 1,975 yen, what with shipping and various add-ons. If you’re seeking a no-frills cheap mp3 player it might be more worthwhile to track down an 8GB player with the memory card already included.

Still though, if you already had the accessories lying around, that’s essentially just 100 yen for an MP3 player! Amazing, right? That’s a way better purchase than some similarly cheap investments we could name.

Images © SoraNews24