Many are familiar with the Ganguro or Lolita fashion styles that populate the streets of Harajuku but you won’t see any Shironuri enthusiasts amongst them. Considering themselves the counter-culture to the counter-culture of Japanese fashion, many Shironuri artists remain within groups of Shironuri and rarely venture out to display their art on the streets of Harajuku (there are exceptions but we’ll get to them later).

Rather than drawing inspiration from European culture, Shironuri fashion draws uses traditional Japanese elements such as heavy white face paint, kimonos, hakama and typically outfits worn by ancient Japanese stage actors and geishas. However, Shironuri fashion doesn’t follow a strict guideline of what and what isn’t considered Shironuri; you can even implement elements from other fashion trends into your outfit. The only parts of your outfit that you need to be considered Shironuri is covering any visible skin in white (can be white foundation for the face or white clothes). There are popular aspects of Shironuri that is used amongst most enthusiasts such as thick and heavy black eyeliner and the use of fake lashes to create panda-like eyes. Just like the outfit, though, you are free to experiment how you want with makeup.

Source from Tokyo Fashion

There are many famous models for various Japanese fashion trends but because Shironuri models usually congregate with each other, they aren’t as widely known as models from other trends.  However, they deserve just as much recognition as any Lolita or Erokawaii models.

N.96

Known for her implementation of monster masks or monster makeup, N.96 draws inspiration from typical Halloween monsters and famous characters from the horror genre and implemented them into her outfits. All of her makeup and masks are homemade with amazing attention to detail.

Source for this and every photo after from POPkakumei

URI

URI is a male model as belongs to both Harajuku and Shironuri fashion and often implements aspects of both into his outfits.

MINORI

Minori is probably the most popular Shironuri model and is exceptionally popular on Tumblr. She considers her outfits to be darker Shironuri and draws aspects from European fashion into the typically Japanese fashion style.

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Eiichiro Oda has been hospitalized with a peritonsillar abscess (an infection frequently caused by tonsillitis) and has caused the delay of two One Piece installments to Weekly Jump. According to Jump’s editorial announcement, Oda will be on break until June 5^th, hopefully enjoying a well-deserved rest after pumping out weekly One Piece while it is currently the most popular Jump manga in publication.

The manga is expected to return on June 10^th.

This is not a huge surprise to One Piece fans as it has been evident that Oda has followed an insane work schedule. In an interview last year, Oda stated that “I get up at 5am, and I work until 2am. It’s normal for me to sleep from 2am to 5am.” He has also stated that he rarely gets vacations, (“I have no days off. If I had them, I’d want to go on vacation with my family. I just want to go outside, it doesn’t matter where. See, I don’t get out much.”) Oda might not be working on the entirety of One Piece by himself but 21 hour work days can be strenuous, especially for the 38 year old mangaka.

Source

Hopefully Oda meets a speedy recovery and Shounen Jump treats this as a warning of overworking employees, especially those that the weekly collection of manga heavily depends on.

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When you hear about an anime that entails the life of three girls that are into building plastic models you would assume that it would be pretty boring, right? Well that’s must have been what the creator of the anime was thinking as well. Using the plastic models simply as a plot device and nothing deeper, Plastic Nee-san (stylized as +tic Nee-san) is a gag anime but not your typical gag anime.

Originally an online net animation (ONA), Plastic Nee-san is a 12 episode series with small 2-minute episodes about “Nee-san” (blond), “Okkapa” (redhead), and “Makimaki” (black hair) and their daily lives in high school. It’s a short series so any more about the plot would give too much away. So instead, I’ll tell you why you should watch it.

Plastic Nee-san is an experience to behold. It’s typical for gag animes to go for the random approach and inject as much random or unexpected moments in hopes to garner cheap laughs. Plastic Nee-san is not just a series of random events, but is a combination of random events, delightfully overacted voices, but most importantly, the series never lets the joke go on for too long. Plastic Nee-san has the perfect format for a gag anime as it is simple, short, and sweet similar to flash animations of olden times. While the manga has some semblance of plot, the anime doesn’t, at all. It is a series of short events that happen to the three girls and takes “slice of life” quite literally. There is no need to get emotionally invested in character development or even care about plot development and the series acts as a perfect “buffer anime” after watching longer one or two cour animes.

This is literally two seconds after the first picture.

Plastic Nee-san may not be heralded as a life-changing anime or be applauded for using great literary techniques but it would be a terrible disservice for people to skip over it simply because it’s not “smart”. It does gag comedy well, the voice acting is hilarious, and is an easy to digest series. (There is also a muscle-bound, bikini-clad, baseball playing student superhero giving you more than enough reason to watch).

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The World Tea Festival held in Japan every three years has begun this month and has attracted tea aficionados and different types of tea from all over the world. From English to Russian and even Turkish tea, the beverage is celebrated in all its forms at the festival.

For those that consider themselves experts in the field of tea, there are taste sessions where visitors can taste a range of teas grown in Shizuoka. Some teas are sweet while others are spicy and there is even one brand of tea that is worth 300,000 yen per kilogram (approximately $3000 USD)! The expensive brand of tea is blended by the Kakegawa Jonan Tea Industry Union and harvesting the buds for brewing takes 50 people an entire day to harvest 4 kilograms of it.

Source from AFP-Jiji hosted on Japan Times

Sado, or Japanese Tea Ceremony, was also present at the festival. For those that don’t know, Sado is a cultural activity in Japan that involves ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, or fine powdered green tea. It’s a complicated process that I’m not entirely sure of myself but it involves much of Zen Buddhist teachings about balance. For example, there is an assortment of color sugar cakes to help balance out the bitterness of the matcha.

Source

The popularity of the World Tea Festival in Japan is no surprise as tea is the part of the lives of your typical Japanese family. The green tea that many people enjoyed have been grown in Shizuoka for nearly 800 years, support 800 companies and their 15,000 farmers and provide over 100,000 jobs in the tea industry which is worth 44 billion yen ($427,267,280 USD). They actually produce 40% of all the tea that Japan’s 128 million people drink.

Source from AFP-Jiji hosted on Japan Times

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Oh my god, aren’t these are adorable?! ^^ It brightened my day after Yuna was done making these cute Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma Inarizushi! The one with Korilakkuma wearing a Rilakkuma hat? /dies!!

What?! You don’t know what the heck is an Inarizushi?! Well, it is a fried tofu wrapped! The filling is vinegared rice! Super delicious and we can show you how to make Rilakkuma Inarizushi so that it will be cute too!

What you will need:

- Steamed White Rice
- Rice Vinegar
- Inari Skins
- Seaweed
- Quail Eggs
- White Cheese
- Yellow Cheese
- Fish Sausage or Regular Sausage
- The Love for Rilakkuma & Korilakkuma

How to Make Rilakkuma Inarizushi Video

We hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you did, be sure to Like, Favorite, and Subscribe! It helps us a lot and lets us know you want more How-To videos!

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Famous East Asian fast food joint Lotteria has added a new burger to their historically strange burger collection, the ramen burger. Apparently, they’re going all-out with this burger; they’ve even developed the noodle recipe with Menya Musashi, a famed restaurant chain that specializes in noodles. Along with the burger, you will receive disposable chopsticks, bonito fish stock soup, and you can even order a second serving of noodles beforehand.

Hopefully, the ramen burger will look more appetizing in person than Lotteria’s previous experimental, limited-time burgers like the Tower Cheese Burger (which was simply five beef patties and five slices of cheese sandwiched by two buns). Normally, I am not against an ridiculous amount of meat or meat-like products but putting this much meat into a burger does not come without consequences, namely the ability of the burger to stand on its own without falling. There was a fried shrimp patty variation of the Tower Burger and it seemed to fare better, structurally anyways.

I can already feel my arteries clogging.

The ramen burger is set to be released for a limited time starting May 20^th until mid-June. The burger is lightly grilled, and is topped with mayonnaise and tender roast pork fillet (chāshū) and will sold for 634 yen ($6.41 USD).

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Couple months back, I talked about how LEGO Legend of Zelda could not come into existence. Boo… However, there appears to be an alternative spotted! Over at Hyrule Foundry, they took the item images from the original Legend of Zelda and threw it in a 3D Modeling Software. Countless hours later, they got the items printed out from a 3D Printer. Where did they get one? No idea. But it’s safe to say 3D Printing has a stronger presence than ever before so it shouldn’t be too long before we all have access to one, and even perhaps in the later future, own one in our own home! But I digress…

Keep in mind these items are about toy-sized. You won’t be wielding the Master Sword but maybe your Link action figure can! If you’re interested, you can actually purchase these! Be warned, they are expensive due to the fact that it was printed from a 3D Printer! A complete set will run you $320 USD! Each piece of item will be around $10!

If you don’t mind or want to window shop, here’s the link to the store: http://www.shapeways.com/shops/HyruleFoundry 

For more information about this stuff, head over to the Hyrule Foundry Blog!

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Stepping out: Yuzuki Reon (left, front) leading the other otokoyaku (male-role actresses) in a scene from ‘Takarazuka Japonisme-Modulations,’ while Yumesaki Nene (right, center), Star Troupe’s top musumeyaku (female-role actress), leads the ladies.
Source from Japan Times

Formed in Takarazuka, Japan in 1913, the Takarazuka Revue did not perform until 1914 where the company did a rendition of the famous story of Momotaro titled “Donburako”. Ten years after, the company became popular enough to have their own theater in Takarazuka called the “Dai Gekijo” or “Grand Theater”. The musical company proved to become even more popular causing another theater to open in Tokyo, the Takarazuka Theater.

First performance by the company, “Donburako”

Because the company has an all-female cast, women who play male parts are called otokoyaku (meaning male role) and the women who play female parts are called musumeyaku (meaning daughter’s role). Many of the performances that the company puts on are reminiscent of western theater comparably to lavish Broadway-style productions and consist of scores where the cast performs a stage-wide Rockette-style kick line.

As time passed, the Takarazuka Revue elevated in status as a performing arts and is now in the ranks of other famed Japanese performing productions such as kabuki, noh (tradition-based theatre), bunraku (puppet theatre), and rakugo (traditional comedic storytelling). Due to its prestigious nature, to become a cast member, a young woman must train for two years in the Takarazuka Music School, one of the most competitive of its kind in the world. In fact, only 40 to 50 applicants are accepted each time.

There are five individual troupes that make up the Takarazuka Revue, each with their distinct style and material that makes them unique from the other troupes. The Flower Troupe or Hana is famed to have consistently famed cast members of the company originating from it. It is often considered the “treasure chest” of otokoyaku. Performances by this troupe tend to have a larger budget than the other troupes and consist of operatic material. The Moon Troupe or Tsuki contains many of the young performers of the company and tends to perform Western musicals, drama, and often use a modern setting. The Snow Troupe or Yuki is the most traditional out in the company, upholding many of the traditions of Japanese drama. The Star Troupe or Hoshi tends to contain many of the stars (punny) of the theatre company comparable to the Flower Troupe in their output of famous otokoyaku performers. Finally, the Cosmos Troupe or Sora is the newest troupe and the most experimental.  When it first began, the troupe started out obtaining talented performers from the other troupes.

With it being at the forefront of bringing Western musicals to a Japanese audience and the adoring fans of the otokoyaku, hopefully the theatre company lives to perform for another hundred years bringing more of the female Japanese youth into the world of theatre.

The post All-Female Theatre Company Takarazuka Revue turns 100 appeared first on Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi.

Did you know there’s a certain way to eat PRETZ? You must swing the PRETZ stick across and bite it with your mouth! Okay, who cares? Am I right? But hear me out… Some people find Starbursts much tastier if they unwrap it the candy inside their mouth. And some people find throwing popcorn up in the air and catching it with their mouth fun. So why not eat PRETZ like the way they show you in the commercial! It magically makes it taste better!

So in this video, I show YOU how to eat PRETZ! Well, not really. But by watching the video, you will get the idea! Oh right, this is a Japanese Snack Review too haha! Enjoy!

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Now, Peyoung has a SPICY yakisoba that came out last year.  There are comments and reviews on the internet that says it is WAYYYYYYY too spicy.  There package looks like this:

The creator of this spicy yakisoba wanted to make this the spiciest instant noodle out in the Japanese market.  Some of the comments by people who actually tried it:

” Took one bite and had flames come out of my mouth”

“Not edible”

“Can’t feel my tongue”

“Great for penalty game or pranking someone”

Reading these comments, I don’t know if I would want to try the spicy one but just from curiosity I want to try it with my friends.

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