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martes, 29 de mayo de 2018

Gorgeous Chinese woman creates one of Japan’s favorite mobile games, encourages microtransactions

https://ift.tt/2sfTb27 Casey Baseel

President of developer of Azur Lane outshines her game’s beautiful anime-style heroines.

If you were in a harsh mood, you could accuse Chinese-developed mobile game Azur Lane of blatantly trying to ride the coattails of Japanese-made smash hit Kantai Collection. Like Kantai Collection, Azur Lane’s gameplay revolves around ship-to-ship combat between historical naval vessels, each represented by a beautiful anime girl.

▼ Japanese trailer for Azur Lane

However, fans have found enough unique about Azur Lane to make it one of the most popular mobile games in Japan in the eight months it’s been available here. Now it’s poised to get yet another boost in popularity thanks to the recent revelation that the president of the game’s developer is an incredibly beautiful young woman.

Shanghai-based Manjuu is one of the two software houses responsible for Azur Lane’s development, and a recent segment on Japanese television included footage of company president Choyan Lin.

With her perfectly styled hair, expertly applied cosmetics, and fashionably coordinated outfit, Lin quickly had Japanese Twitter abuzz as many learned that they owed the hours of enjoyment that’d received from playing the warships-as-beautiful-girls game to a woman who’s quite easy on the eyes herself.

Online comments included:

“She looks like an idol singer.”
“Wait, she isn’t a model for a recruiting ad, but the company’s president?”
“Having a boss like that would definitely boost my motivation.”
“She’s cuter than any of the characters in the game.”
“So when is she going to be added as a playable character?”

Lin’s looks and disarmingly cheerful smiles even had some softening their stance on the divisive topic of in-game microtransactions.

“So if I pay for microtransactions, some of that money will go to her.”
“Our microtransactions will become her income.”

Others found themselves suddenly very interested in seeing if Manjuu is hiring, especially since the human employees share their workspace with a company kitty.

However, one level-headed individual implored the smitten to tear their eyes off Lin for a moment and turn them instead towards a comment she made during the interview, which is captured in the left photo in the tweet below, in which she’s giving a tour of the Manjuu office and says:

“This room can hold a lot of people, so this is where everyone sleeps.”

In other words, it’s apparently not at all uncommon for the workload at Manjuu to be so heavy that employees don’t even have time to go home, and instead just have to grab what shuteye they can on the office floor. But any job is a basket of good and bad points, and for some, they’d be willing to put up with a few nights on the floor if the payoff is that they get to spend their days with Lin.

Sources: Jin, LOL Moriage Kimi
Featured image: Twitter/@kanrakarakarajp
Insert images: YouTube/アズールレーン

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Harajuku J-Pop Singer w/ Listen Flavor, UNIF, Joyrich & Jeffrey Campbell Booties

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Asachill is a Japanese model and J-Pop singer – sporting ash grey hair – who we often see around the streets of Harajuku.

Asachill’s street style consists of a black printed leather jacket from Joyrich, that she paired with a white Listen Flavor Emily The Strange printed hoodie, and a red skirt, also from Listen Flavor. She styled her outfit with black fishnet stockings, black printed socks, polka-dot lace-up ankle boots from Jeffrey Campbell with red letterings embellished. Her accessories – some from Listen Flavor – include a clear lock choker and velvet body harness. In addition, Asachill is wearing a yellow smiley face backpack form UNIF.

Listen Flavor, Vivienne Westwood and 6%DokiDoki are a few of Asachill’s favorite brands, and she loves the music of Judy and Mary. Follow Asachill on Twitter and Instagram.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Tokyo Street Style
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Japanese school’s ethics text encourages kids to “work without reward,” gets slammed online

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Casey Baseel

Exasperated mom says cute animal characters are showing young students exactly what not to do in life.

Japan’s strong work ethic is one of the cornerstones of the country’s society. Regardless of how unglamorous or low-paying a job may be, there’s an expectation that you’re supposed to put adequate effort into it, and the end result is a considerate and orderly way of life.

Still, no matter how modest the reward may be, no one expects people to work without getting anything in return, right? Except for, according to Japanese Twitter user @kaasankyoha, the authors of this ethics textbook being used at her daughter’s elementary school.

The lesson shown in the photo features a cast of cute animal characters, one of whom is named Ponta. The text reads:

“Ponta and the others said, ‘Even if we don’t get any reward, we want to keep working.’

Because, after all _____.”

Students are supposed to finish the statement, but @kaasankyoha herself was baffled by the writing prompt. “Ponta!” she warned in her tweet, “You and your friends shouldn’t work for a company that doesn’t pay the workers a salary!”

Other Twitter users also voiced their objection to the book’s scenario, seeing it as the first step on the slippery slope by which working unpaid overtime is often normalized in Japanese companies.

“So they’re teaching kids to become wage slaves under the guise of ‘ethics’ now?”
“Terrifying.”
“Sounds like a story my shitty boss would write.”
“Poor kids are getting brainwashed.”

One commenter even wrote an ending to the story.

“Ponta kept working with no reward, until he met the sad fate of living a life of always being hungry because he had no money to buy food with.”

So just what kinds of responses are the book’s authors hoping for from young learners? According to the photos below, which show the teaching notes for the book, Ponta and his friends have been cleaning their town, and the moral of the lesson is that even if they’re not given any sort of direct reward, their efforts are creating a clean community that everyone can enjoy, contributing to greater happiness for Ponta and the other residents as a whole.

Considering that Ponta and his friends aren’t presented as being waste disposal professionals, it’s possible that they’re actually acting as volunteers, or that they started the project with the promise of some sort of reward that was neither monetary nor essential. This is, after all, an ethics textbook, not an economics one, and in making a scenario that young kids can wrap their heads around, some simplification is to be expected.

Perhaps the problem is the textbook’s use of the word shigoto suru, which usually refers to compensated work. Though it can also be used to indicate an unpaid endeavor (like in niwa no shigoto, “household gardening”) that’s generally its secondary definition, and so perhaps a different phrase would have better framed Ponta’s tale as an example of the importance of charitable generosity and seeing beyond your own individual benefit.

Man, ethics and language can be tricky subjects, can’t they? At least kids and their parents can expect simple questions with cut-and-dry questions in more concrete subjects, like math…or can they?

Source: Twitter/@kaasankyoha via Jin
Featured image: Twitter/@kaasankyoha

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Japanese idol singer announces hatred of otaku faces, further solidifies masochistic fanbase

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Casey Baseel

Being sweet and coy didn’t work when discussing a photo ban, so Eren tried the brutally direct approach instead.

By now it’s pretty common knowledge that making it as an idol singer in Japan is at least as much about appearance and image as it is singing talent. Fans like looking at idols as much as they like listening to them, and sales of photos, posters, and DVDs are an important revenue stream for performers and promoters.

So it’s no surprise that idol concerts usually have strict bans on video and photography during the performance, something that idol singer Eren (@erenism on Twitter) recently took to Twitter to remind her followers of.

“Reminder: photography and filming are prohibited at my concerts!

I’m happy that people want cute photos and fun videos of me, but when we’re lucky enough to be in the same space, having you watch me through a view finder just breaks my heart. And it makes me sad when I can’t see your faces. I want to see them, OK? ⌒(❛ᴗ❛)⌒

And if you break this rule, I’ll toss your phone away.”

▼ A sample of Eren’s music, from her newest album, Soup Circus

The wording of Eren’s “no photos” warning suggests it’s a carefully constructed message to preserve the dream that the admiration and affection fans feel for their favorite idol is mutual. However, one Twitter commenter pointed out that the design of modern cameras, with their large display screens and other user-friendly features, allows people to use them without keeping their eyes glued to the screen, and so Eren’s fears of mid-concert filming and photos preventing her and her fans’ eyes from meeting were misplaced.

With her attempt to handle the situation diplomatically having hit a dead-end, Eren decided to stop mining words, and fired back the following reply.

“Geez, did you think I seriously want to see a bunch of otaku’s faces? Of course not! I’m telling you that the cameras cause problems!”

Such straight talk might carry the risk of turning away fans, but this hard-edged side of her personality is actually one of Eren’s selling points, and her existing fans ate up the saltily seasoned retort, leaving comments like:

“That’s Eren for you.”
“She really is the best.”
“So funny.”
“So salty.”
“LMAO.”

One commenter even suggested that if Eren didn’t want to see a sea of otaku faces looking up at her while she’s on stage, she could just have everyone put bags over their heads…which is something she actually did for the concert held on her last birthday.

Oh, and her comment about throwing away peoples’ phones if she catches them filming her on stage? She’s serious, as this video proves.

Maybe we should look forward to a duet between Eren and fellow phone-hater Bruno Mars.

Source: Twitter/@erenism via Jin
Featured image: Twitter/@erenism

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lunes, 28 de mayo de 2018

Japanese sento bath will let you bathe with 10,000 Sanrio Gudetamas【Video】

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

Sanrio’s weirdly adorable lazy egg wants to have a soak with you and his 9,999 doppelgangers.

Japan’s custom of communal bathing can seem odd to foreigners, but it actually doesn’t make for nearly as awkward a soak as some uninitiated outsiders imagine. Still, even most Japanese people would agree that when taking a bath at a hot spring or sento (public bath), the fewer people you’re sharing the tub with, the more relaxing the experience is.

So it might seem kind of weird that the Gokurakuyu sento chain is inviting guests to hop into baths that will already have 10,000 occupants. Of course, this is a special circumstance, since those 10,000 bathers are all incarnations of Sanrio character Gudetama.

As part of a collaboration with Sanrio’s lovably lazy egg, Gokurakuyu is preparing baths filled with 10,000 Gudetama orbs at its branches in Hamamatsu (Shizuoka Prefecture) and Suita (Osaka Prefecture).

Gudetama’s likeness will also be gracing several other parts of the facility, so that you can admire his radiant appearance while remaining fully clothed.

Despite his tireless championing of the lethargic lifestyle, Gudetama has actually been involved in a number of restaurant ventures over the years. It’s a role he’s particularly well-suited for, seeing as how he’s an anthropomorphized foodstuff himself, and so the Hamamatsu and Suita Gokurakuyu branches will also be offering special Gudetama menu items in their on-site cafes.

▼ Clockwise from top left: roast beef bowl (1,380 yen [US$12.70]), caramel parfait (780 yen), udon (980 yen), tamagokakegohan egg rice bowl (500 yen), carbonara pasta (1,030 yen)

▼ Each order gets you one Gudetama coaster (selected at random), but with six in the series, you’ll have to order something twice to have a shot at getting them all.

And finally, there’s a selection of Gudetama-themed merchandise, just in case you’ve grown so accustomed to his face during your bath that you want to take him home with you. The Gudetama canvas shoulder bag, pouches, and towels will all come in handy for carrying your toiletries and drying yourself off, and there are also T-shirts, pins, key chains, and plastic files.

The first day for the Gudetama bath is June 15, but the rest of the festivities are already underway. The promotion wraps up on June 24, after which it’s back to bathing in smaller groups than 10,000.

Sento information
Raku Spa Cafe Hamamatsu / RAKU SPA Cafe 浜松
Address: Shizuoka-ken, Hamamatsu-shi, Minami-ku, Wakabayashi-cho 1680-5
静岡県浜松市南区若林町1680-5
Open 7 a.m.-1 a.m.
Website

Gokurakuyu (Suita branch) / 極楽湯（吹田店）
Address: Osaka-fu, Suita-shi, Kishibeminami 1-2-1
大阪府吹田市岸部南1-2-1
Open 9 a.m.-2 a.m.
Website

Source: @Press
Top image: @Press
Insert images: @Press. YouTube/極楽湯CHANNEL

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Here’s an important message about macho goldfish from university baseball in Japan

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Master Blaster

Television coverage of baseball in Japan really takes you inside the game like no other.

The Japanese collegiate sports world was rocked recently by a dirty tackle executed by a football player from one of the nation’s top schools and the furious finger-pointing that ensued in its wake.

Luckily, we still have university baseball as a bastion of sportsmanship and honor, and that’s not all! In a recent University of Tokyo game, as second baseman Hirata “Hira-chan” Masaki appeared on camera, the caption below his name held a startling revelation about the player.

▼ Caption: “Wanted to make goldfish macho and put protein in the aquarium”

If you’re a completionist who likes to know everything – and I mean everything – there is to know about the game and its players, you’ll appreciate this little tidbit. Otherwise you’ll probably just be weirded out by it. It triggered the imaginations of other Twitter users, who posted what something like that might turn out like.

This is far from the first time TV graphics people have decided to have a little fun. During the last nationwide election, there was a spate of odd subtitles when winners were declared, including proclamations that Minister of Finance Taro Aso liked One Piece and PM Shinzo Abe loves Black Thunder chocolate bars.

It’s not always clear how accurate these factoids are. It’s certainly believable that Abe loves Black Thunder, because you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t love those thrifty packets of chocolatey goodness. Sure enough, a quick search reveals that he does quite enjoy them.

As for Masaki, a quick look at his bio reveals that he is enrolled in the School of Agricultural and Life Sciences majoring in Chemistry of Bio-based Materials. Therefore, feeding protein to goldfish doesn’t seem entirely out of his wheelhouse. Perhaps the broadcaster was just being facetious about his actual research.

That’s important to know, because if you happen to want to buff up your own goldfish, you shouldn’t go tossing chunks of hamburger into the bowl. It’ll probably end badly. Instead leave it to the scientist pioneers of tomorrow, like second baseman Hira-chan to find the best way to achieve fins of steel.

Source: Twitter/@Aice5_mdk, The University of Tokyo Baseball Club
Featured image: Twitter/@Aice5_mdk

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Japanese Subculture Accessories Designer in Harajuku w/ Orange Hair, Camouflage, M:E Graphic Shirt & Demonia

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We caught up with Japanese accessories designer Barokue, who has been featured on this site before due to his head-turning outfits and edgy street style.

For this outing, he donned a vintage jacket with camouflage print and wore it over a black graphic shirt from M:E. The Japanese designer styled them with black shorts and black platform wedge sneakers from Demonia. Attached to his belt loop is an orange graphic hat, and strapped across his back is a Thrasher black backpack with a fuzzy accessory. Barokue accessorized with multiple ear and facial piercings, beaded bracelets, a brain ring, a gold wraparound bracelet, a wide cuff, chunky rings, and layered necklaces. His orange-and-black shaggy hair was adorned with a green scarf and orange sunglasses. He completed his look with colorful eye makeup, black lips, and pink-and-green nails.

Follow Barokue on Instagram and Twitter.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Japanese Street Fashion
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