In Japan they make sure everyone gets onboard.

The Japanese soda features a marble contraption instead of a bottle cap, making it a feat to open.

The Best Links:

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

CNN writes about the Geisha Guys of Japan, debonair lads who can be hired for an evening of sparkling conversation.

The Best Links:

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

A Japanese mochi rice cake in a waffle iron becomes something new: A moffle.

The Best Links:

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

A Japanese company has created a table with a built in 3-D LCD screen menu.

The Best Links:

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

A giant body pillow with a foam arm that simulates cuddling.

The Best Links:

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

Japanese parents send out personalized bags of rice to celebrate the birth of a child.

The Best Links:

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

Japanese girls in black face.

The Best Links:

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

In Japan, best-sellers are being composed on cell phones.

The Best Links:

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

Japanese eyelash perms last 3-5 weeks and will save you that 3 minutes of eyelash curling every morning.

The Best Links:

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

Skin lightening is all the rage in Asian countries, especially Japan and India.

The Best Links:

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

The latest limited edition soda flavor in Japan: Ice Cucumber Pepsi (thanks for the tip, Matt !)

The Best Links:

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

Over-sized eyelash extensions are getting big in Japan.

The Best Links:

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

Foamy, sparkling brews for children.

The Best Links:

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

Crazy condominium architecture for the elderly prevents them from becoming senile. (Only in Japan, of course.)

The Best Links:

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

Photographer and “Dwell” Contributor Misty Keasler’s new book documenting Japanese “Love Hotels.”

The Best Links:

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

Vinegar bars and cafes are the new Japanese craze.

The Best Links:

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

Anime and manga obsessed geeks are turning virtual reality into real reality.

The Best Links:

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