“Horse Feces Cafe” opens in Tokyo, looks stylish and delicious【Photos】

https://ift.tt/SouZEvP Casey Baseel

Bafun Yasai cafe looks like a fun place to dine and drink with friends.

Harajuku is one of Tokyo’s most fashionable neighborhoods, filled with trendy boutiques and cozy cafes. Among the newest of those eateries is Bafun Yasai TCC Cafe, which opened up just a little over a month ago.

The cafe is located on a quiet side street, not far from the neighborhood’s main boulevard, Omotesando. The interior decor is airy and stylish, with a feel at once both contemporary and rustic.

The food and drink, too, is meant to be both a treat for the taste buds and the eyes, making use of ingredients directly sourced from ecologically minded farmers.

Oh, and many of those ingredients were grown in horse poop.

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A post shared by BafunYasai TCC CAFE – 馬とつながる、食でつながる – (@bafunyasai_tcc_cafe)

The horse poop connection is something the cafe’s management absolutely wants you to be aware of, too. Getting back to the restaurant’s name, Bafun Yasai TCC Cafe, ba is one of the ways to say “horse” in Japanese. The “fun” part doesn’t mean “enjoyable,” though. It’s Japanese too; fun means feces, droppings, or manure.

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A post shared by BafunYasai TCC CAFE – 馬とつながる、食でつながる – (@bafunyasai_tcc_cafe)

Working through the rest of the name, yasai means “vegetables,” and TCC is the name of an animal welfare organization focused on making sure retired racehorses live out the rest of their lives in health and happiness. The cafe is part of TCC’s efforts to promote empathy and respect for horses, and so it prioritizes agricultural products from farmers that use horse manure when sourcing ingredients for its kitchen.

You’ll find little equestrian touches in the interior design too, like the horseshoe patterns in the floor here.

The cafe also plans to host workshops and organize events in which participants go to farms to meet poop-producing horses.

▼ “Connecting people and horses through dining” reads the cafe’s motto, alongside a diagram of its hope that increasing the demand for horse manure will help farmers secure the economic means to take good care of their horses.

The concept itself of using horse manure as fertilizer isn’t especially new in Japan, but it’s unusual for a restaurant to so unabashedly tout equine poop’s power to boost the flavor of food. It could be a risky move, marketing-wise, in a country as conscious of cleanliness as Japan is, but with a recent rise in interest in racehorses among young people in the country, it’s definitely a way to help Bafun Yasai TCC Cafe stand out from all the other cafes in Harajuku.

Restaurant information
Bafun Yasai TCC Cafe
Address: Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Jingumae 5-12-8, Jingumae Hamaya Building 2nd floor
東京都渋谷区神宮前5-12-8 神宮前Hamayaビル 2F
Open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday), 11 a.m.-10 p.m. (Friday, holidays), 10 a.m.-10 p.m. (Saturday, Sunday)
Closed Tuesdays
Website

Source, images: PR Times
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Here’s why you should visit Japan’s best winter-night hot spring town on a summer afternoon【Pics】

https://ift.tt/0OdsvkE Casey Baseel

We went looking for an anime connection, and found a whole bunch of new reasons to love this Yamagata onsen town.

A lot of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’s story arcs are named after the locations in which they take place. For example, the anime’s third season, which started in April, is known as the Swordsmith Village Arc and takes place in a setting with the following characteristics.

● A small, secluded village, surrounded by mountains
● Taisho period architectural styles and multi-storied pavilions
● Located near a former mine
● Became popular for the therapeutic properties of its hot spring waters, which now attract leisure bathers as well

Within the series, the location of the Swordsmith Village is a closely guarded secret, with even the members of the Demon Slayer Corps not knowing exactly where it is. Fans of the series, though, have noticed that the four points described above are also applicable to the real-world hot spring town of Ginzan Onsen, in Yamagata Prefecture.

Ginzan Onsen literally translates as “Silver Mountain Hot Springs,” and yes, there used to be a working silver mine nearby. But while there are no more precious metals being excavated these days, Ginzan Onsen still has a plentiful supply of something arguably just as valuable: hot spring water, which fills the baths at the numerous bathhouses and inns along the river that runs through the center of town.

There’s no official statement from the Demon Slayer production staff that Ginzan Onsen served as the model for the Swordsmith Village, but if you’ve been reading the manga or watching the anime, the similarities will be apparent right away. Even before visiting, our traveling Demon Slayer fan/reporter Saya Togashi had thought that the Swordsmith Village’s bridge handrails and hanging lanterns reminded her as much of a hot spring resort as a blacksmith district.

We should point out that while Ginzan Onsen is experiencing a bump in attention as Demon Slayer’s third season is airing, the town isn’t exactly a secret among travelers in Japan. Its beautiful buildings and elegant environment have made it one of the country‘s premiere onsen destinations for domestic and inbound international travelers alike.

Here’s the thing we learned on our visit, though. Ask just about anyone when they want to go to Ginzan Onsen, and they’ll say “Winter.” That’s a fine choice, too. Yamagata is one of Japan’s most northern prefectures, and the way Ginzan Onsen looks blanketed with snow on a midwinter night, bathed in the soft glow of the streetside gas lamps, is picture-perfect for posting on social media.

But you know what? Ginzan Onsen is also a wonderful place to visit in late spring/early summer.

For starters, Ginzan Onsen isn’t in a particularly train-accessible place. It’s about a 40-minute bus ride from the nearest station, so if you’re planning to skip rail travel altogether and rent a car for you and your friends, you’ll find the drive much more pleasant if you avoid the winter months, when many roads and parking lots in and around the town are closed due to the inevitably snowy weather.

But the real bonus to heading to Ginzan when the weather is warmer is that it lets you relax and enjoy your time out and about in the town itself, instead of stepping out of your hotel for a quick selfie, then scampering back inside before the winter winds chill you to the bone.

Visiting at this time of year, you’re able to appreciate how the entire center of the town feels like one gigantic strolling park. As we walked along the street, time and again we found public benches and other places to sit and rest our feet (even dipping them into free, open-air onsen foot baths on occasion) while also refreshing our spirits by gazing up at the blue sky and listening to the sound of the river flowing by.

Being able to linger longer outside without freezing, we got to pore over all sorts of beautiful architectural details, like the second-story murals here.

Another thing we’re pretty sure we wouldn’t have wanted to do on a below-freezing night: keep walking past the inns to the Ginzan no Taki waterfall, from where especially energetic visitors can even walk along some of the old trails that were used by the silver mine workers of yore.

None of this, of course, is to say that winter is a bad time to visit Ginzan. Instead, we’re saying that there isn’t any bad one, so don’t let the time of year you’re traveling in Japan convince you to scratch this beautiful place off your itinerary.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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OxiClean officially sends detergent supply to Tokyo card shop struggling with sweaty, smelly otaku

https://ift.tt/RzE7sO9 Casey Baseel

Even players who don’t go home with a tournament prize will go home with some OxiClean.

A lot of people in Japan will tell you that though spring ends in May, summer doesn’t really start until July. June, they’ll insist, is tsuyu, which translates to “the rainy season.”

Honestly, though, you might as well call June “the sweaty season,” since the high heat and maximum humidity combine for pinnacle of perspiration-producing conditions. Even now, the weather is gradually moving in that direction, which is causing figurative headaches and literal nose-lamentations for Cardland, a collectible trading card game specialty shop in Tokyo.

【店舗からのお願い】
急に気温が上がり、温かくなってまいりました。
それに伴い、不衛生な状態でご来店される方が少数ではありますが見受けられました。
特に大会の場合は長時間同じ空間にいることになりますので、ご参加の際は入浴等を徹底して頂き、清潔な状態でご来店頂けるようお願いいたします

— カードランド秋葉原店@ONE PIECEカードゲーム取り扱い！ (@cardland_akiba) May 19, 2023

Cardland is located in the Akihabara neighborhood, Tokyo’s mecca for anime and video game enthusiasts, two demographics that aren’t traditionally renowned for their hygiene. In late May the shop sent out the above tweet, in which it says:

“A request from our shop.

The weather has become much hotter with the recent sudden jump in temperatures. With that, there’s been a small, but noticeable, increase in the number of customers coming to our shop in an unhygienic state.

We ask that customers thoroughly shower before coming to the shop and arrive in a clean state, especially when we are holding in-shop tournaments and many people will be sharing the same enclosed space for an extended period of time.”

Cardland also went on to inform prospective tournament participants that if their level of hygiene is judged to be a probable cause of discomfort for other players, they will not be allowed to participate.

However, bathing is only one aspect of proper hygienic grooming. Wearing freshly washed clothing is also important, and luckily about a week after Cardland’s request went viral, it received a care package from Graphico, the Japanese distributor of…

【店舗からのお知らせ】
なんと！！！
こちらのtweetを見られた"株式会社グラフィコ"様より、オキシクリーン(@OXICLEANJP)の試供品を頂きました！
大変感謝です…！！！

こちら、お買い物された方や大会参加された方に先着でお配りさせて頂きますので、是非ご利用頂ければ幸いですm(_ _)m https://t.co/UflloMxfKq pic.twitter.com/lrbkmTHH82

— カードランド秋葉原店@ONE PIECEカードゲーム取り扱い！ (@cardland_akiba) May 27, 2023

…OxiClean!

Inside the box were several stacks of sample packets of the world-famous laundry detergent. “We deeply appreciate this,” tweeted Cardland, who says they plan to give the samples to customers and tournament participants.

Online commenters have reacted with:

“This is the first step towards true peace in our world.”
“That’s some pretty smart marketing by OxiClean.”
“I’m envisioning OxiClean making special packaging designs with anime character on it.”
“They’d sell so much!”
“OxiClean really is very effective against accumulated proteins like sweat and body oil.”

Many, many others felt that their feeling could best be summed up with the word kusa, which means both “something stinks” and “this is funny.”

There is, unfortunately, no guarantee that Cardland customers who receive the OxiClean samples will use them. Still, anything that makes laundry less of a hassle makes it more likely to get done, and if nothing else the shop handing out detergent packs should be a pretty clear indicator of the consideration Cardland expects visitors to show before stepping through the door.

Related: Cardland
Source: Twitter/@cardland_akiba (1, 2) via Otakomu
Top image: Pakutaso
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Japanese tabloid puts out Lemon Sour with 13 percent alcohol【Taste test】

https://ift.tt/LOs1FSd Master Blaster

Extra! Extra! Drink all about it!

Fruit-flavored canned cocktails have long enjoyed popularity in Japan, with the Strong Zero brand as the standard bearer for the high-alcohol, low-cost subsection of the alcopop market. But now we have an unexpected new contender in the alcopop market: Japanese news outlet Tokyo Sports or “Tospo” for short.

It isn’t exactly clear why a major tabloid decided to release Tospo Kyogaku Lemon Sour, but they did previously come out with Tospo Gyoza and Tospo Dynamite Organ Meat, so maybe this is just something to wash that all down with.

The brand of this drink isn’t the only remarkable thing either. Tospo Kyogoku Lemon Sour boasts and alcohol content of 13 percent, which might be a record for a drink of this kind in Japan. Our Japanese-language writer Ahiruneko, who often covers beverages, recalls the only other drink to come close was the Sangaria Super Strong 12 Lemon, which was sold at Lawson Poplar stores in 2018.

▼ Sangaria Super Strong 12 Lemon

Most other canned lemon sours contain about five percent alcohol and even Strong Zero only goes up to nine percent. Tospo Kyogoku Lemon Sour is indeed on a whole other level, but its can read, “This is nuts! It’s all good though, so give it a try?” Ahiruneko decided to accept their offer and bought a can for 248 yen (US$1.76).

Although he often reviews alcoholic drinks, Ahiruneko doesn’t really fancy himself a hard drinker, so 13 percent was rather intimidating. Nevertheless, he cracked it open and took a swig.

▼ Ahiruneko: “Glug… glug…”

▼ Ahiruneko: “Ouch…”

In general, Japanese lemon sours have been leaning more towards the dryness of the vodka than the fruitiness of the lemon juice, but Tospo Kyogoku Lemon Sour pretty much just said to hell with sweetness altogether and smacked Ahiruneko in the face with a bitter sensation.

To say it packs a punch is putting it mildly, Ahiruneko felt it was more like a guy who’s constantly winding up to punch you just to see you flinch, but only actually takes a swing sometimes. In other words, it felt more like a constantly intimidating force than an occasional shot in the arm.

And it seems like Tospo Kyogoku Lemon Sour anticipated reactions like Ahiruneko’s because on the very verbose can they also wrote, “It’s irresistible on the rocks!” So, that’s just what he did.

Drinking it this way was far more palatable for our writer. However, after a few sips he started to realize that by watering it down, he was basically just drinking Strong Zero.

There’s wasn’t anything wrong with that, but it made him wonder what the point of this product is in the first place. He then thought that since the alcohol content of this drink was on the level of wine or sake, maybe it’s better enjoyed like those drinks instead.

Pouring some into a sake glass proved to be a happy medium. Taking casual sips of Tospo Kyogoku Lemon Sour was far more enjoyable than chugging it from a can. It’s something to consider if you decide to try some yourself, but get some fast because while interesting, this probably isn’t the future of lemon sours in Japan.

Photos © SoraNews24
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Japanese convenience store ice cream solves plastic-vs.-wooden-spoon dilemma with edible spoons

https://ift.tt/htbgoym Casey Baseel

Japan’s favorite convenience store for ice cream may have just invented the best way to eat it.

Going out to eat ice cream is one of those things in life that’s supposed to be a moment of pure joy. That good mood can be kind of spoiled, though, if you’re someone with both a sweet tooth and an eco-conscious mind who’s been given a plastic spoon to eat your ice cream with.

Wooden spoons are the more environmentally friendly utensil, but they present a different problem. They taste pretty gross if you happen to lick the material while trying to get every last bit of cream, and what’s the point of eating ice cream if it’s not going to taste good?

Faced with the dilemma of bad-for-the-planet plastic spoons and bad-for-your-taste buds wooden ones, it might seem like a no-win situation. Here with a solution that’s awesome in three different ways, though, is Japanese convenience store chain Ministop, who’s created an edible spoon.

Ministop introduced the edible spoons in spring of last year at select branches as part of a pilot test. The response was extremely positive, with over 90 percent of the 400 surveyed customers saying they thought the new utensils were good. Wanting to make them even better, though, Ministop took customer feedback into account, adjusting the shape and length of the edible spoon to make it even easier to eat with, and now the chain is ready to start supplying the edible spoon at all of its branches nationwide.

The most obvious benefit of the edible spoon is the reduced plastic waste, coupled with reduced carbon emissions from not needing to manufacture so many spoons in the first place. Customers also get a little more to snack on, since the spoon is, essentially, a wafer, and should taste pretty good with the accumulated ice cream that seeps into it as you eat. And last, not having a spoon left over when you’re done eating means less trash that you have to carry around with you until you can find one of Japan’s few-and-far between trash cans.

To really help the edible spoon make a splash, Ministop is rolling it out at the same time as a new ice flavor, Nagano Purple, based on the purple grapes grown in the mountainous prefecture of the same name.

Plastic spoons won’t be disappearing from Ministops entirely, though. Certain frozen treats that are served in extra-tall cups will still be served with plastic spoons, and the chain also advises customers with wheat or soy allergies to ask for a plastic spoon, as those ingredients are present in the edible ones. Still, the introduction of the edible spoon is a big step, especially since Ministop is widely considered to have the best-tasting ice cream among sweets fans in Japan.

The edible spoons are scheduled to start showing up in Ministop branches on June 9, and to be available at all branches no later than June 16.

Source: Ministop via Newscast via Hachima Kiko
Images: Ministop
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What it’s like to pray for concert tickets, money, and more at Tokyo’s specialty Fukutoku Shrine

https://ift.tt/vLeiDg7 Krista Rogers

Our reporter makes a long journey in the hope that some divine intervention will help her score tickets to her favorite idols’ concert this year.

In Japan, demand often surpasses the number of tickets available for many of the country’s most popular musical acts (think of Taylor Swift’s latest The Eras Tour in the U.S.). A common solution to ensure that everyone has an equal shot at scoring a seat is for tickets to be offered via a lottery-based system in which would-be attendees enter their names in the hope that they’ll be randomly selected.

While that approach ensures fairness, it can also be an incredibly painful reason to miss out on your favorite shows. Our Japanese-language reporter Maro is someone who knows all too well the bitterness of not being selected in the lottery system when she didn’t win tickets to see her favorite idol group last year. Therefore, when the group recently announced a new nationwide tour, she was excited but also a little anxious. What if the same thing happened to her again and she missed out two years in a row? She decided that a little bit of extra luck wouldn’t hurt this time, so she traveled from her home in Shizuoka Prefecture all the way to Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district to ask for some divine oversight at Japan’s veritable “Idol Shrine.”

Fukutoku Jinja, originally founded around 865, is the actual name of this Shinto shrine known today as a power spot for praying to win the lottery, money, or concert tickets. As we’ve previously covered, it was one of the few shrines officially allowed to sell lottery tickets by the shogunate during the Edo period (1603-1867), and since then has become uniquely famous for anyone who wishes to win big.

The shrine is located right in the middle of Tokyo’s swank Nihonbashi business district within an area surrounded by the Coredo Muromachi shopping complex. It seems like this little green oasis should feel very out of place among the surrounding tall office buildings, but there’s something about it that actually blends right in on the edge of a storefront outfitted in traditional architecture and lanterns that softly illuminate the ground at night. Regardless, its vermillion torii gate against the backdrop of modern buildings certainly seems to signal a threshold to another enchanted world.

Maro visited on a Sunday when there was a considerable amount of visitors, but the line moved smoothly. While waiting for her turn in front of the main shrine, she gathered her thoughts about what exactly to say in her prayer to the enshrined kami here, Ukanomitama (associated with agriculture):

“Please let me score concert tickets.”
“An arena seat would be nice.”
“If possible, let me win tickets to multiple performance dates.”
“While I’m at it, it would be nice to win the lottery, too…”

She wondered if all of that was getting too greedy. After all, Ukanomitama must get tired of hearing these kinds of wishes all day long…

In any case, she successfully made her plea when it was her turn and then stepped over to the shrine counter on the side to purchase an omamori, or good-luck amulet, to take with her. Hopefully it would also strengthen her case.

Fukutoku Shrine offers a variety of omamori for 500 yen (US$3.55) each, but she had her sights set on the particular gold-colored one called tomikuji-mamori (富籤守), which is specifically meant to grant good luck for winning the lottery, tickets, or other monetary endeavors.

▼ Tomikuji-mamori, second from the left in the top row

It was definitely a super popular one among the shrine visitors. She appreciated how it glittered in the sunlight.

Another interesting service that the shrine offers is for the shrine workers to pray on someone’s behalf for them to win whatever they’re seeking. A prior reservation is required, so Maro gave up on it on this particular day. Depending on how her ticket lottery results turn out this year, however, she would definitely keep it in mind for the future.

At this point Maro’s prayer is out of her hands and in the care of the kami, and there’s nothing she can do but wait until the lottery results are announced. She hopes that her wishes will come true this year as a result of her extra efforts.

I’ve just entered the lottery for Ayumi Hamasaki’s 25th anniversary tour concert tickets myself in the past week, so I’ll certainly be holding on tightly to my own tomikuji-mamori that I purchased last year at Fukutoku Shrine. In the worse case scenario that I don’t score them, at least I can console myself by listening to one of her earliest hits that will be playing nonstop at McDonald’s this season.

Shrine information
Fukutoku Jinja Mebuki Inari / 福徳神社 芽吹稲荷
Address: Tokyo-to, Chuo-ku, Nihonbashi Muromachi 2-4-14
東京都中央区日本橋室町 2-4-14
Website

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Fans in Japan don’t sound happy with Netflix’s One Piece live-action changes to the Going Merry

https://ift.tt/V9tAj2m Casey Baseel

Photo of the Straw Hat Pirates’ ship has some fans wanting to burn it ASAP.

One Piece definitely doesn’t seem like the easiest anime/manga to adapt into live-action. It’s an epic seafaring story filled with fantastical locations, giant-sized villains, and zany superpowers, all rendered in an intentionally strange-looking art style.

And yet, Netflix is going to try it anyway, with its live-action One Piece series scheduled to premiere sometime later this year. The streaming giant has doled out precious few previews of what the series is going to look like, with only two in-costume pictures of the cast so far, both with them facing away from the camera and silhouetted by the sun.

So it’s a big development that Netflix has finally released one smile-for-the-camera photo for the live-action…but it’s not a smile a lot of fans in Japan sound very happy to see.

【本日解禁】#Netflix 全世界独占配信
実写ドラマ版『ONE PIECE』
新ビジュアルが解禁されました！

一味を乗せ、海を駆けるメリー号…
冒険の夜明けは近いです
続報をお楽しみに！https://t.co/hcll1u0Iax#ONEPIECE pic.twitter.com/Uidb12JBmy

— ONE PIECE スタッフ【公式】/ Official (@Eiichiro_Staff) May 29, 2023

That’s the live-action One Piece’s Going Merry, proud ship of protagonist Luffy and his crew of Straw Hat Pirates. Except, as preexisting fans of the franchise have been pointing out, the sheep figurehead, carved into the ship’s bow, looks a lot cuter in the anime, and a lot more unsettling in the Netflix version.

#OnePieceAdaptation — Going Merry pic.twitter.com/D3dKRSiIJn

— ONE PIECE NETFLIX FAN (@OP_Netflix_Fan) May 28, 2023

The Japanese-language official One Piece Twitter account’s tweet doesn’t allow for comments, but the same photo of the Netflix Going Merry, when tweeted by Famitsu (Japan’s most prominent video gaming magazine), prompted comments such as:

“That’s kinda scary, isn’t it?”
“It’s way too scary.”
“Kill me…please…with fire…”
“Definitely gotta burn that.”
“That aint the Going Merry. It’s the Going Baphomet.”
“Do they think One Piece is a horror series or something?”
“I think the designers got the project mixed up with a live-action Berserk.”
“Those dead eyes…”
“It looks like a sheep that was suddenly petrified.”
“There was absolutely no need to screw with the Going Merry’s design like this.”
“All Netflix ever does is screw things up.”
“No desire to stay loyal to the source material, huh?”
“’It’s the live-action Wa Piece!’”
“This looks like it’s going to be on the same high level as the live-action Dragon Ball.”

実写ドラマ版『ワンピース』よりメリー号の新ビジュアルが解禁

麦わらの一味の海賊船としておなじみのメリー号が超リアルな姿でお披露目。本ドラマシリーズは今年Netflixにて全世界独占配信予定。冒険の夜明けは近い……！

https://t.co/Y7HvmdYsm1 pic.twitter.com/33ALfhNrIv

— ファミ通.com (@famitsu) May 29, 2023

It’s really pretty startling how just a few changes can have such a big impact on the impression the design gives off. In the anime/manga, the Going Merry’s figurehead has black pupils, a closed mouth, and no external ears. The Netflix version, though, has solid gray circles for its eyes, and the angles of its stuck-out-to-the-sides ears and open maw with an inky blackness inside make it look like it’s lunging at you to swallow you whole, or at least suck out your soul.

お台場にあったやつの方が絶対いいよ… pic.twitter.com/Nf6kYd6Li7

— るかるがる．EXEverE7 (@razor0909) May 29, 2023

Perhaps making the changes even more startling for some Japanese fans is the fact that there used to be a real-world Going Merry that ferried passengers around Tokyo Bay. Pictured above, its figurehead was pretty much an exact match to the anime/manga version.

Of course, with Netflix still not having released any trailer for its One Piece, we’re all still unsure of what tone it’s going to have, and its possible the Tokyo Bay ferry’s design would have looked too cutesy for what Netflix is aiming for. It could also be that directly from the front is just the live-action Going Merry’s bad angle, as an image with a more offset perspective that Netflix released back in February didn’t provoke nearly as negative a reaction.

▼ Though that might have been because the glare of the sun here makes the ear sort of blend in with the horn and partially obscures the flat gray eye.

Come on board and bring along all your hopes and dreams - ONE PIECE sets sail in 2023. pic.twitter.com/0Kg8Ti1wfR

— ONE PIECE(ワンピース) Netflix (@onepiecenetflix) February 7, 2023

Luckily for Netflix, at the end of the day how the Going Merry looks probably isn’t going to be what sways people’s watch/don’t watch decision for the live-action One Piece. Making what appear to be changes just for the sake of making changes, though, isn’t exactly going to give the series smooth sailing with existing fans, though.

Source: Twitter/@Eiichiro_Staff, Twitter/@famitsu
Top image ©SoraNews24
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Curry house CoCo Ichibanya has 1,247 branches in Japan, but only one has this special topping

https://ift.tt/mC3MzRr Casey Baseel

Tokyo’s biggest student town has a special CoCo Ichi menu item all its own.

Curry rice restaurant chain CoCo Ichibanya has hundreds of branches in Japan, but one of the best-loved is the one on Waseda-dori in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward. The nearby neighborhoods of Waseda and Takadanobaba are home to multiple university campuses, specialty schools, and language academies, and with curry rice being an affordable, delicious, and filling meal, you can always count on a steady flow of students popping into CoCo Ichi for lunch or dinner.

Even if you’re not attending classes in the area, though, there’s still a compelling reason to go to the Waseda CoCo Ichi for your curry fix: out of the 1,247 CoCo Ichi branches in Japan, there’s a special type of curry that’s only served at Waseda’s.

It’s called the Waseda Fried Ham and Mashed Potato Curry, or the Waseda Hamupotefurai Curry if you’re ordering in Japanese. Topping your plate of rice and CoCo Ichi’s familiar pork curry roux is a fried disc with a boiled egg at the center. The egg is encased in mashed potato, which is then wrapped in ham and deep-fried.

At 771 yen (US$5.70), the Waseda Hamupotefurai is as affordable as it is tempting, and so we quickly ordered a plate. One we had it in front of us, we were happy to see that our hamupotefurai (as we’re going to call the croquette-like topping) was even thicker than the one in the menu photo.

Also, since the hamupotefurai is exclusive to the Waseda CoCo Ichi, they make them right there in the kitchen, not as a central processing plant for the chain.

We took a bite, and it was wonderful, with the crispness of the breading giving way to the softer inside, curry seeping into the potato and egg and infusing them both with the spicy, savory, and sweet notes that make Japanese curry so giddily delicious. Add in the meaty flavor from the ham, and you couldn’t ask for any singular more satisfying mouthful than this.

There’s one thing to watch out for, though. The hamupotefurai goes so well with the curry roux that you might momentarily forget about the rice. This can through off your pacing, causing you to alternate between hamupotefurai and roux but leaving the rice out of the rotation, so that your run out of roux while you’ve still got rice remaining. So we were happy to learn that CoCo Ichi will give you a refill of roux at a reduce price (145 yen).

Thanks to this supplementary curry supply, we were back in business, and even with our complete lack of restraint, we had plenty of roux all the way through to our very last bite.

Another hospitable offer from CoCo Ichi is that you can order the hamupotefurai croquette by itself, to-go, for 180 yen, from the window next to the restaurant’s entrance. So whether you want extra curry like us, or even no curry at all, the Waseda CoCo Ichi is definitely worth going to next time you’re hungry.

Restaurant information
CoCo Ichibanya (Shinjuku Waseda-dori branch) / CoCo壱番屋（新宿早稲田通り店）
Address: Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Nishi Waseda 2-18-23
東京都新宿区西早稲田二丁目18-23
Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Website

Photos ©SoraNews24
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What’s it like to work as a hearse driver in Japan?【Interview】

https://ift.tt/sjmbfNG Master Blaster

Making a living from driving the dead around.

There are likely very, very… very few kids who say they want to be a hearse driver when they grow up. And yet, when you think about it, it’s probably a pretty decent job to have. There’s always a steady flow of work and everything tends to move at a relaxed pace.

Then again, I could be wrong because I, like many people, don’t really know everything that goes into being a hearse driver. Neither did our Japanese-language writer Go Hatori, so he got in touch with one and learnt the ins and outs of one of society’s often overlooked vocations.

Go spoke with 42-year-old Mr. K, an experienced hearse driver ready to spill the prayer beads about everything the job entails from how it feels to how much it pays.

Go: Hello, Mr. K. What kind of company to you belong to?

Mr. K: I work for a company that mainly deals with the transportation of corpses by hearse.

Go: So, you don’t work for a funeral home?

Mr. K: “It’s a common misconception that I’m a driver for a funeral home, but my company is mostly responsible for transporting the deceased. Large funeral homes might have their own in-house hearse and sleeper car to handle transportation themselves, but recently there are many funeral homes that don’t have cars.

By the way, the funeral home is the business that handles all of the funeral arrangements and proceedings. They are the first point of contact with bereaved families, so in our industry they’re like major advertising agencies.

▼ A “sleeper car,” or “shindaisha,” is the Japanese term for a type of first-call vehicle used to transport bodies for non-ceremonial usage. Shindaisha usually resemble normal vans, while the more ornate type of hearses, such as the one pictured below, are called “reikyusha” (“casket cars”) and are used to transport the body to the crematorium following the funeral service.

Image: Wikipedia/MathieuMD

Go: What lead you to work as a hearse driver?

Mr. K:”I wanted to work as a driver, so I originally just started looking around at those kinds of jobs.

Go: What kind of work does the job entail?

Mr. K: The job is basically picking up a corpse at the request of a funeral home. They can either be picked up at a hospital, retirement home, police station, or their own home. I just follow the funeral home’s instructions.

Sometimes, my company with take care of the body and other times I take the deceased to their own home. Recently, it’s more common for us to take the body to our company and then transport it to the crematorium later.

Also, if the deceased is left with our company, we can make arrangements for the family to visit.

Go: You take them to their homes sometimes?

Mr. K: “Not very often, but when I do, it’s usually a pretty big home when I do.

Go: What kind of hours do you work?

Mr. K: We have a total of 30 drivers and basically we work in shifts. Of course, that includes graveyard shifts.

Go: What kind of structure does your company have?

Mr. K: Basically, two or three people will be standing by at the office and when a call comes in they’ll take out a car. While waiting, they’ll answer the phone, prepare for visits by the bereaved, and apply dry ice to the bodies if requested to do so by the funeral home.

Go: It seems like a hard job.

Mr. K: Everyone always asks me, ‘It looks like a hard job. Are you OK?” But, you get used to it after about three months. However, I do get sad when I have to transport a young person who took their own life.

Go: What things do you really need to be careful about?

Mr. K: When we get a request to take someone from a funeral home, we really need to be punctual. Because of that, we need to be on time even if there’re traffic jams or construction, so I study the roads extremely well to always arrive on time.

Also, the hearse is very long and wide, so it requires some advanced driving skills. Narrow roads can be very difficult and if you don’t know them well, you’re screwed.

Other things are knowing the polite things to say to the bereaved and staff at the funeral home, as well as smoothly moving the deceased from the bed to the stretcher so it doesn’t make a sound.

Image: Wikipedia/Ümit Yaldiz

Go: If you don’t mind me asking, how much do you make?

Mr. K: My take-home salary is about 250,000 yen (US$1,777) a month.

Go: What is your honest feeling about this kind of work and what do you think it’ll be like in the future?

Mr. K: I’ve had a few different jobs so far but this one is very rewarding and I feel very appreciated by people. As far as driver jobs go, it’s the one where I’ve felt the most appreciated.

But there are problems. Currently, there are a lot of older drivers and very few young drivers. Hearse driving also takes years of training, so people can’t just jump into it. That and the fact that people tend to shy away from jobs like this mean there may be far fewer hearse drivers in the future.

We’d like to thank Mr. K for his candor and unique insight into the world of hearse driving in Japan. Stay tuned for the next edition of “Curious Job Interview” to learn more about Japan’s lesser known occupations!

Top image: Irosutoya
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Beautiful new line of Sailor Moon shoes feature “360-degree cuteness”【Photos】

https://ift.tt/qDxa8ci Casey Baseel

New line from anime-inspired fashion design house comes as anime movie series approaches its climax.

The upcoming two-part Sailor Moon Cosmos theatrical anime is, technically, a story that’s been told before. Part of the series’ ongoing animated remake, Cosmos is a new adaptation of the Stars arc of the Sailor Moon manga, which previously served as the basis for the Sailor Stars portion of the ‘90s anime.

But even for fans who already know what’s going to happen, Cosmos is an exciting release with the potential to be one of the best-looking piece of Sailor Moon animation yet produced. And arriving at just about the same time is a new fashion collaboration with arguably the most beautiful Sailor Moon shoes ever seen.

The intricately designed footwear comes with a fancy name, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos Iconique Shoes Objet Pumps.

In addition to elegantly trailing ribbons, the shoes also have charms dangling from their straps, bearing the planetary protector emblem of their respective character.

All five of the Inner Senshi, Sailors Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus, are represented in the lineup, with their corresponding image colors leaving no doubt in fellow fans’ minds as to who you personally identify with.

▼ Multiple shades of blue for Sailor Mercury

▼ Red with purple ribbon for Sailor Mars, just like he in-anime outfit, contrasting against a burgundy shoe body.

▼ Some added earth tones for Sailor Jupiter, the only brunette Senshi

▼ And last, Sailor Venus

Aside from being colorful, the Sailor Moon pumps are decidedly dazzling in the light, as the finishes for both the shoe and heel have a reflective quality, as shown in the video here.

つやつやのエナメルアッパーに繊細なラメが輝くヒール
うしろにはキラキラのリボン⌖. ꙳
女の子の憧れとときめきを全て詰め込んだパンプス… pic.twitter.com/VWcxQwwTRj

— MAYLA (@mayla_classic) May 25, 2023

The collection comes courtesy of Osaka-based fashion company Mayla, the same label behind the jaw-dropping Violet Evergarden skirts we looked at last month. While those skirts would pair quite nicely with these shoes in an anime fashion ensemble, the Sailor Moon pumps are actually surprisingly versatile, judging from these preview photos.

履きこなしまとめ
レースの可愛いお洋服や、ミニ丈に合わせてもしっかり可愛い
色味や素材をリンクさせると、まとまって見えるのでおすすめ

Produced by #MAYLA
劇場版「#美少女戦士セーラームーンCosmos」 pic.twitter.com/G7GpEamclv

— SANAMAYLAグラフィック (@maylaclassic_s) May 25, 2023

履きこなしまとめ その2
綺麗めから少しカジュアルなものまで、幅広く合わせられます
ストームと甲ベルトで履きやすさ抜群なので、ショッピングなどにも

Produced by #MAYLA
劇場版「#美少女戦士セーラームーンCosmos」 pic.twitter.com/e01bAF8l88

— SANAMAYLAグラフィック (@maylaclassic_s) May 25, 2023

▼ Charm close-ups

Mayla says one of the design goals was to create “shoes with 360-degree cuteness,” and that apparently applies to any axis you rotate them around, since on the bottom of the soles you’ll find Sailor Moon salutes too.

▼ Even the box is pretty.

The Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos Iconique Shoes Objet Pumps are priced at 28,600 yen (US$212). Orders are open now and can be placed until July 11 here through the Mayla website. Oh, and if you’re looking for some merch that won’t hit our wallet quite as hard, don’t forget about the new Sailor Moon lifestyle products line from Japan’s favorite 300 yen store chain.

Source: Mayla via IT Media
Top image: Mayla
Insert images: Mayla (1, 2)
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