In Japan they make sure everyone gets onboard. And I thought NJ Transit was bad. I get pissed off when there’s three people in a three-seater. Let’s hope I don’t get transfered to our Tokyo office.

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FOOD BUZZ: The Japanese soda features a marble contraption instead of a bottle cap, making it a feat to open. It’s not just soda, it’s a movement. There’s even tons of YouTube videos of people attempting to open the bottle. (Thanks for the tip !)

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The Best Links:

1. It’s the Fun-to-Drink Coca-Cola of Asia
2. YouTube - Videos of People Trying to Open a Ramune Bottle
3. The Company’s Official Website (It’s in Japanese)
4. Get Sprayed! It’s Part of the Fun
5. Review: Green Tea With Japanese Lemon Soda “Ramune” Flavor
6. It Takes a Lot of Upper Body Strength
7. Japanese Cartoon: How to Open a Ramune soda

CULTURE BUZZ: CNN writes about the Geisha Guys of Japan, debonair lads who can be hired for an evening of sparkling conversation. At various clubs in Japan, women will pay top dollar to be lavished with the (non-sexual) attentions of men with blow-dried, dyed hair and good manners. To be fair, this isn’t exactly a new trend, so we’re hesitant to call it “the latest craze” - the Guardian had basically the same article in 2004. Still, we’re happy for any look in into the world of Japanese escort clubs.

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The Best Links:

1. Meet the Geisha Guys: “Women see us as one of their accessories”
2. Memoirs of a Geisho
3. An Awesome Profile of Thor Williamson, Geisha Guy
4. Profile of Tokyo’s Club Ai, a Guy Geisha Hotspot (2004)
5. The Current, Hot (!) Staff Roster of Club Ai
6. Is This What Feminism Had in Mind?
7. Old Skool Geisha Dudes?

FOOD BUZZ: A Japanese mochi rice cake in a waffle iron becomes something new: A moffle. Mochi are dense and chewy, but take on a nice texture when toasted a bit. And adding ice cream and chocolate sauce sounds nice, too.

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The Best Links:

1. Headed to American Shores from Japan: The Moffle
2. A New Type of Food is Borned
3. What is This Moffle You Speak of?
4. Here’s How You Make Mochi Palatable
5. Make Your Own Moffle With This Moffle-Maker
6. Crunchy On the Outside, Chewy On the Inside
7. The Moffle

FOOD BUZZ: A Japanese company has created a table with a built in 3-D LCD screen menu. Patrons will be able to see what their meal will look like on the table in front of them. No word on smell-o-vision yet.

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The Best Links:

1. Company creates 3D touchscreen table menu
2. Tobidasu 3D Table Menu from TEC
3. Introducing the 3-D Table Menu
4. TEC develops 3D Tobidasu table menu, makes your mouth water
5. 3D LCD Table Menu - TEC Tobidasu Menu (GALLERY)
6. 3-D Burger
7. TEC Japans Tobidasu 3D Table Menu

CULTURE BUZZ: A giant body pillow with a foam arm that simulates cuddling. Make someone cry this Valentine’s Day (out of self-pity and dejection). It makes the perfect gift for that single girl in your life.

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The Best Links:

1. Buy It for $19.95
2. My First Week With Brendan, My “Boyfriend Pillow”
3. Pillow Designed for the Single Girl in Need of Some Manly Comfort
4. Don’t Forget the Girlfriend Pillow! Now With Old Lady Meth Hands!
5. Makes a Hilarious Gift for Your Pathetic Single Friend
6. The Husband Pillow Dates Back to Ancient Egyptian Times
7. “Feel the Embrace of a Real Man Without the Snoring”
8. “If you thought the Boyfriend Pillow weird, then wait till you see the Missing Husband Pillow”
9. Just Another Weird Japanese Invention

CULTURE BUZZ: Japanese parents send out personalized bags of rice to celebrate the birth of a child. Each bag: 1) has a picture of the child’s face; 2) weighs the same as the actual baby. Yes, they’re fake babies , but they’re not all that realistic-looking, and that makes them somehow less creepy.

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The Best Links:

1. Now Get Your Very Own Personalized Rice Bag Baby, Baby
2. When You Care Enough To Send The Very Best: A Rice Baby
3. It’s Hard To Eat The Rice You’ve Come To Love As Your Own
4. Announce A Birth. With Rice.

CULTURE BUZZ: Japanese girls in black face. When we came across a blog post about Gyaru girls, it was instantly like, “Ohhhh… that’s what those Japanese-girls-emulating-Paris-Hilton-but-in-blackface are called.” So we assumed you might go through the same thought process.

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The Best Links:

1. A Conversation about Gyaru Girls: “And the music they listen to is even more insane.”
2. A Very Informative Chart of Different Types of Gyaru Girls
3. A Description of the Phenomenon and Some Good Flickr Pics
4. Have you ever considered that gyaru girls are normal and we are weird????!!!
5. Gyaru Girls are Hot
6. More Wacky Japanese Fashion, from Goths to Gyaru
7. The Male Version Is Called “Gyaru-o”
8. The Lifestyle of a Typical Gyaru Girl
9. YouTube - A Clip from an Episode of Japanorama about Gyaru Girls
10. YouTube - Japan TV Investigates the Cultural Phenomenon of Gyaru Girls

TECH BUZZ: In Japan, best-sellers are being composed on cell phones. The combination of good predictive software, the ease of entering Japanese on a phone pad and those long hours on the train have created a new mobile literary genre.

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The Best Links:

1. Exploring One Hugely Popular Ketai Novel
2. These Books Sound Terrible
3. Best-Selling Author: “I typed it all on my mobile phone.”
4. Ring! Ring! Ring! Your Novel Is Calling
5. Five Novels In 14 Months
6. Publisher: “I want to establish this not simply as a fad, but as a new kind of culture.”

STYLE BUZZ: Japanese eyelash perms last 3-5 weeks and will save you that 3 minutes of eyelash curling every morning. Besides the obvious health hazards, we can’t think of any possible embarrassing repercussions that come with most perms.

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The Best Links:

1. Japanese Eyelash Perm Featured on DailyCandy
2. Lindsay Lohan prefers False Eyelashes
3. Throw Away Your Eyelash Curler: Introducing the Eyelash Perm
4. Why are people so insecure about their eyelashes?
5. It’s either this or a heated eyelash curler
6. How to Use an Eyelash Perming Kit
7. Forum Discussion: Is eyelash perming safe?
8. Forum Discussion: Have we always been this vain?
9. Perming Isn’t as Popular as Tinting

CULTURE BUZZ: Skin lightening is all the rage in Asian countries, especially Japan and India. Remember tanorexia ? That was scary. We all want what we can’t have.

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The Best Links:

1. Skin Lightening Info
2. Banned skin lightening products
3. Creepy Commercials For Skin Whitening Products
4. Changing Our Skin Color is a Staple of American Culture
5. Life After Hydroquinone (Prescription Skin Whitening)
6. In Thailand, Whitening Skin Cream Disfigures Skin
7. My Doctor Told Me to Try Lustra
8. Skin Whitening Cream TV Commercial Portrays Whiter Skin As Being More “Healthy”
9. In China, Skin Whitening is All the Rage
10. In India, Skin Whitening Products Are All the Rage, Despite Life Threatening Side Effects

FOOD BUZZ: The latest limited edition soda flavor in Japan: Ice Cucumber Pepsi (thanks for the tip, Matt !) We remember they used to have these weird but strangely delicious green apple milkshakes at McDonald’s during the summer in Japan. Mmm, green apple.

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The Best Links:

1. “What’s astounding about these limited edition drinks is that they all taste like sadness.”
2. The Top Ten Weird and Bizarre Japanese Soft Drinks
3. Cucumber Pepsi, Mmm!!!!
4. Video Taste Test: “I suppose kids would call it ‘green flavor,’ kind of like Satan’s in my mouth.”
5. “Seriously, have the folks at Pepsi completely run out of ideas?”
6. “Uh…does cucumber even have a taste?”
7. It’s Gross, But I Still Drank The Whole Thing
8. “The taste of cucumber isn’t very strong, so it doesn’t overwhelm the drink or ruin it totally. But the question remains - why?”

STYLE BUZZ: Over-sized eyelash extensions are getting big in Japan. It’s like having a fake beard. For your eyes.

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The Best Links:

1. “Trendsetters In Japan Lash Out”
2. Eyelashes So Long And Furry They Can Be Braided
3. Wear Your Fake Eyelashes To The Eyelash Bar In Tokyo
4. Yet Another Odd Trend From Japan
5. This Is More Like Freaky Eyelash Rapunzel

FOOD BUZZ: Foamy, sparkling brews for children. Sangaria’s kodomo no nomimono is just one line of Japanese non-alcoholic beers - wine and sake are also available - marketed directly at children. Your three-year-old need never miss out on family binge drinking night again.

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The Best Links:

1. If My Parents Loved Me, I Would Have Been Drinking As A Kid, Too
2. Might It Be Time For A Kodomo No Intervention?
3. Kodomo No Nomimono Homepage (In Japanese)
4. Japanese Beer for Kids!
5. Video: Ad For Kid Beer
6. Apparently Also Available In Six Packs
7. Based On The Same Concept As Candy Cigarettes
8. Yet Another Way To Get Kids Modeling Their Parents’ Unhealthy Behavior At An Early Age

CULTURE BUZZ: Crazy condominium architecture for the elderly prevents them from becoming senile. (Only in Japan, of course.) These condos keep old people on their toes, with its sloped floors and obstacle-course hallways. Let’s hope it comes with a lifetime subscription to Life Alert!

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The Best Links:

1. Architectural Idea Makes me Rethink Dad’s Nursing Home
2. Reality TV Show Waiting to Happen
3. Condos that look like candy.
4. Cartoon-Like Architecture
5. Home Uncomfortable Home
6. “Childish apartment complex inspires youth in the elderly”
7. The Missing Chapter of Dante’s Inferno?
8. “McDonald’s Playland on Steroids”
9. The Opposite of Comforting, Relaxing, Homey
10. Sure to Delight the Grandchildren as Well

CULTURE BUZZ: Photographer and “Dwell” Contributor Misty Keasler’s new book documenting Japanese “Love Hotels.” Do you enjoy masturbating to Hello Kitty, too? Then this book is totally for you!

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The Best Links:

1. LovehoMap for Love Hotels
2. “The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan”
3. Merry-Go-Round Considered Kinky and Hot
4. Borders on Disturbing
5. Themed Rooms Like the “Alien Abduction Play Area”
6. Love Hotels Are the Japanese Equivalent of a Sleazy Motel
7. Top 10 Love Hotels in Japan
8. Kate Bosworth Buys the Rights to a Book about Love Hotels

FOOD BUZZ: Vinegar bars and cafes are the new Japanese craze. Drink up! Vinegar is scientifically proven to lower your blood pressure, reduce acne, and remove moldy spores from hard-to-clean areas. Sure, it tastes revolting and smells like ass, but life isn’t a giant bed of cherries and Taco Bell chalupas .

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The Best Links:

1. Vinegar Bars for Health Nuts Open in Japan
2. Live Longer, Drink Revolting Shakes
3. So Sweet You Can Barely Taste the Vinegar
4. Apple Cider Vinegar Fends off Arthritis, Cancer, Constipation, Diarrhea, High Blood Pressure
5. Catch Fruit Flies with Apple Cider Vinegar
6. Subway Station Switches from Bento Boxes to Vinegar Shakes

STYLE BUZZ: Anime and manga obsessed geeks are turning virtual reality into real reality. Japanese nerds aren’t getting stuffed into lockers , carrying TI-82’s, or gadget raping . These social outcasts have an obsessive subculture made up of french maid cafes, role-playing outfits, and dysfunctional gender politics.

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The Best Links:

1. Weird Japanese Fetish Alert: Nose Squeezing
2. It’s Halloween Every Day in Japan’s Electronics District
3. Old Dudes Preying on Young Girls in French Maid Outfits
4. Cosplay Restaurant Opens in Toronto
5. Maid Cafes Hit Toronto?
6. “NPR Catches Otaku Fever”
7. Renting PS3 Comes with Games, Japanese Maid
8. Meathead Bullies Target Social Outcasts - Sound Familiar?
9. Mugging an Otaku Is An Action Adventure in Itself
10. Japanese Nerds Have Bad Haircuts
11. An Investigative Report of The Underground Otaku Scene
12. Porn And Electronics, Is This A Dream?