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Customizable Yukimi Daifuku shop makes an amazing variety of sweet treats so that you can find the perfect one for you.

There are certain problems in life that it’s nice to have. For example, Japan has so many amazing desserts that just picking one can be a tough decision, and that’s not going to get any easier with the opening of My Yukimi Daifuku, a new sweets shop coming to Tokyo’s Nakameguro neighborhood this summer.

As the name implies, My Yukimi Daifuku is a place for Yukimi Daifuku, confectioner Lotte’s brand of mochi ice cream dumplings, and it’s going to very much be contributing to our delicious dilemma of having so many dessert options, as it’ll be offering 648 different kinds of Yukimi Daifuku.

▼ Pictured: Less than 3 percent of the My Yukimi Daifuku dessert lineup

My Yukimi Daifuku arrives at this amazing amount of variety by letting you customize the dumplings to your liking. You start by choosing from one of eight ice cream flavors, matcha, hojicha (roasted green tea), vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, banana, cream cheese, or mint chocolate chip. Next you choose one of eight “toppings” for your scoop of ice cream, but it’s really more like a filling, since the cream and its topping are going to be wrapped in mochi. The options here include chocolate ganache, tsubu an (sweet red bean paste), kuromitsu (brown sugar molasses), strawberry sauce, and mascarpone cheese. Finally, you select one of eight “finishers” to be spread over the top of the wrapped mochi dumpling, such as matcha or cocoa powder, kinako (roasted soybean powder), or cookie crumbles.

▼ The menu, with photographs showing the various stages of production for the Yukimi Daifuku

And even those aren’t quite all the flavors to choose from, as My Yukimi Daifuku will have special treats for early summer (June and July), midsummer (August), and the “lingering heat” of September. For early summer, the featured flavor will be a combination of frozen yogurt, blueberry sauce, and cookie crumbles, for a refreshing, cooling sensation.

The mochi ice cream dumplings are handmade to order to deliver the freshest flavor possible, and also likely because it’d be impossible to keep so many different combinations pre-made in stock. Perhaps in recognition of how hard it’d be to narrow down 600-plus choices, My Yukimi Daifuku sells its mochi ice cream dumplings in sets of two, with prices ranging from 900 to 980 yen (US$5.70-US$6.20) depending on the exact ingredients you choose. Even then, though, you’re going to have some decisions to make, especially since the shop will only be open from June 17 to September 23, meaning that even if you were to go every day, you’d still never run out of new treats to try.

Shop information
My Yukimi Daifuku / my雪見だいふく
Address: Tokyo-to, Meguro-ku, Kamimeguro 1-13-11
Open 1 p.m.- 8 p.m. (weekdays), 11 a.m.-8 p.m. (weekends, holidays)
Open June 17-September 23

Source, images: PR Times
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Cunning bear managed to escape stand-off with police and hunters.

As we’ve been seeing in recent years in Japan, not only has the number of bear encounters and attacks been steadily rising, but it appears bears have been coming closer and closer to populated areas as well.

Once an incident that only those deep in the mountains and forests of Japan had to worry about, more and more people have been spotting the large and powerful animals in unlikely places, like train stations, and now on the outskirts of Fukushima City, a regional population center with a population of 275,000 people.

In the evening of 1 June, Fukushima police started to receive scattered reports of what appeared to be a bear wandering around the Sasakino area in the northwest part of the city. The next morning, the vice principal of Noda Elementary School in the same area was driving to work when a bear suddenly started chasing his car. The street is also a route many students take to the school, but luckily, the bear appeared hours before any kids were outside.

▼ The main area where the bear was active.

Things only intensified after that. At about 6:30 a.m., the Asiatic black bear, measuring about one meter in length, attacked an employee in his 20s approaching the entrance of Fukushima Steel Works. It then charged through a glass door at the company’s building and mauled a man in his 60s inside.

From there, the bear ran off to a residential area, where it jumped clear over a one-meter (three-foot) wall to enter a nearby field. There, it found and attacked a woman in her 80s, injuring her face. The animal then headed about 500 meters (1,640 feet) to the northwest and attacked the 66-year-old guard of the OKI Symfotech manufacturing plant before entering the building.

Police arrived at the site and surrounded OKI Symfotech with the bear inside, evacuating a perimeter around the plant. Other local businesses and Noda Elementary, which was only a block away, closed for the day. The events so far had all unraveled so quickly, the municipal government could only catch up by this point and issued an emergency cull order around noon that day, granting the local hunters’ association permission to shoot and kill the bear.

However, by this time, it was too late. The bear had managed to hole itself up in a building full of machinery and chemicals. One misplaced shot or a ricochet could have triggered a fire or explosion. Unable to use live ammunition, the hunters resorted to tranquilizer darts, but the bear was in such an agitated state that its own adrenaline counteracted the sedative when struck by a dart.

For the next 35 hours, the standoff continued with the bear surrounded and hunters unable to kill it. Traps were set up to catch it when it would finally try to leave one of the building’s exit points. However, at approximately 11:00 p.m. on 3 June, the animal managed to unlatch one of OKI Symfotech’s windows, climb out undetected, and flee into the night.

▼ A news report with various times the bear was caught on camera

It wasn’t until the following morning that anyone realized the bear had escaped. The cordon around the manufacturing plant was removed, but citizens remained on high alert. Schools and some businesses remained closed, while some operated on increased security, such as disabling automatic doors.

Despite a few scattered reports, one of which turned out to be a wild boar, there were no significant encounters with bears in the area. On 5 June, OKI Symfotech reopened for business and Noda Elementary resumed in-person classes, but requested all students be dropped off by car. Meanwhile, authorities continued searching for the bear, even employing thermal imaging drones, but the creature’s location has not been found.

It might have just returned to wherever it came from, but it’s hard to rest easy when an animal that managed to overcome several obstacles and even outwit the police remains at large. Hopefully, things will return to a state of normalcy for residents soon, but it certainly seems like these kinds of problems are going to get worse if nothing is done on a larger scale to keep bears away from inhabited areas.

Source: FNN Online Prime, Fukushima TV, Yomiuri Shimbun Online, Asahi Shimbun, My Game News Flash
Photo ©SoraNews24
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20-year-old on family trip to Japan had been missing since May 29.

On May 25, 20-year-old James “Weston” Higginbotham arrived in Japan with his parents and younger brother on a family vacation to celebrate the younger sibling’s high school graduation. During the trip, the environmentally minded James argued with his mother over her use of AI, and the ecological impact of such systems, and on May 29, when the family was in Kyoto, James decided to break off from the group and spend time alone. Before James turned off his phone’s location sharing function, it showed that he visited a home supplies store and took the train to Yamashina Station, in the foothills to the east of downtown Kyoto. After exiting Yamashina Station, he could be seen on security camera footage approaching the entrance to a hiking trail after sundown.

James neither contacted his family nor returned to the hotel, and so his parents reported him as missing to the police. Search efforts were hampered by a powerful storm that swept through the area following his disappearance, and despite the use of helicopters and tracking dogs, the police were unable to locate him. In the afternoon of June 6, though, local volunteers who had offered their assistance found a body matching his description near Bishamondo Monzeki, a temple in Yamashina Ward, and the following day investigators were able to confirm that the body was James’.

“Our family is heartbroken to share that Weston was found deceased by a volunteer search-and-rescue group in a mountainous area outside of Kyoto,” said James’ family, who had remained in Japan while the search was ongoing, in a social media post, along with “We are deeply grateful to the countless people across the United States, Japan, and around the world who shared Weston’s story, prayed for our family, offered encouragement, and helped in the search efforts. The outpouring of kindness and support has carried us through the darkest days of our lives.”

The Kyoto Prefectural Police have said that they will not be publicly releasing the cause of death, but that there were no signs of foul play.

Source: Yomiuri TV, Teleasa News, Facebook/Nancy Higginbotham, CNN
Top image: Wikipedia/SONIC BLOOMING
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A tale of four Matsuyas, and a whole lot of gourmet wagyu beef.

As one of the country’s big-three gyudon/beef bowl chains, Matsuya is among the top choices for those looking for a cheap but hearty meal in Japan. But maybe it doesn’t always need to be quite so cheap, and so Matsuya has made the decision to open a new, more expensive, and more gourmet, branch inside Matsuya.

Actually, we should back up a bit, because there are no fewer than four different Matsuyas we’re going to be talking about here. First is just plain old Matsuya, the beef bowl chain. Then there’s Matsuya Foods, the Matsuya restaurant chain’s parent company. Next there’s the Matsuya department store chain, whose branch in Ginza is going to be the site of the new Premium Matsuya gyudon shop.

The Matsuya department store chain is a totally separate company from Matsuya Foods. Founded 101 years ago, the Matsuya department store has an upscale image, offering not only fancy fashions but also high-end food items at its flagship store in Tokyo’s posh Ginza neighborhood. There’s some comic irony in a luxury department store and budget-friendly restaurant coincidentally sharing the same name, and the two companies decided to explore the idea of some sort of promotional collaboration, with the result being Premium Matsuya, which will be opening in Matsuya Ginza’s food section later this month serving special, upscale items you won’t see on a regular Matsuya restaurant menu.

For example, Matsuya’s signature dish is their standard beef bowl, which is priced at 460 yen (US$3). Premium Matsuya’s beef bowl, pictured below, will cost more than three times as much, 1,390 yen, but that’s because it’s made with Kobe beef!

Other delicacies offered by Premium Matsuya will include a hamburger steak bento boxed lunch with domestically raised kuroge wagyu (Japanese Black) beef (1,681 yen)…

…a tonteki (pork steak) bento (1,681 yen)…

…and beef curry rice sets, also with the options of sliced Kobe beef or a kuroge wagyu hamburger steak (1,050-1,681 yen).

While some Japanese department store food shops have seats for eat-in dining, preview images for Premium Matsuya suggest it’ll be a take-out only operation, though the staff will also have dapper uniforms unique to the upscale offshoot to help create an elegant atmosphere.

It should be noted that the menu and prices at regular Matsuya restaurants will remain unchanged, so this isn’t an example of Matsuya trying to reestablish its preexisting branches as higher-priced eateries, unlike the course recently taken by curry chain Coco Ichibanya. As for whether Matsuya Ginza’s clientele will be interested in gourmet Matsuya meals, Premium Matsuya’s opening as a permanent part of the food department comes after a similar limited-time pop-up at Matsuya Ginza last year was met with an overwhelmingly positive reaction from shoppers, so hopes are high for when Premium Matsuya opens on June 10.

Related: Matsuya Ginza
Source: Otakuma Keizai Shimbun via Livedoor News via Hachima Kiko, PR Times
Images: PR Times
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Some might say you haven’t truly seen Japan if you haven’t colour hunted.  

Recently, an activity called “colour hunting” has been gaining popularity in Japan. Simply put, it involves choosing a colour theme and then, while walking around town, taking photos of things that match that colour, before compiling them into a single image.

The results are remarkably mesmerising, but what’s even more interesting is the way it encourages you to notice details you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise, giving you a whole new perspective on your surroundings.

Always keen to try out a trend, we decided to conduct our very own colour hunt, both in a rural residential area and in the heart of Tokyo, to see what we could find. The theme we chose was yellow, and as we set out on our walk, which was a familiar one, it didn’t take long for us to spot things we’d never noticed before.

▼ Like the fittings on a metal barrier…

▼ … flowers growing by the side of the pavement…

▼…netting over garbage collection areas…

▼…and, of course, the road signs.

Moving further down the street and into the main hub of town, our eyes began to spy yellow in slightly more unusual places, like the cube of partially melted butter on the “butter chicken curry” banner outside an Indian restaurant.

▼ The yellow “prescription services” sign outside a local drugstore…

▼ …and the yellow on a pack of Calbee chips.

With our eyes now instinctively zoning in on shades of yellow, the sunny colour began to lift our mood. It also became something of a scavenger hunt, and after around an hour of walking, our prize was this composite image of all the yellow we’d seen.

The images actually painted a picture of quaint countryside life, and now we were ready to take things up a notch by colour hunting in the heart of Tokyo.

Walking around Shimbashi, it didn’t take long for our eyes to zone in on yellow, with this “Money Exchange” sign being our first find of the afternoon.

▼ We also spotted a large bee on a coin locker nearby.

This was already turning out better than expected, and our search for the sunny hue continued in earnest when we stopped to photograph a yellow lantern advertising Suntory whisky highballs.

▼ Crates of Hoppy, a beer-flavoured low-alcohol drink were also outside.

▼ And nearby, a branch of the Go Go Curry chain.

At this point, we were so honed in on yellow that people wearing the colour, or carrying yellow items, began to stand out as they attracted our gaze.

▼ When our eyes landed upon Sora-jiro doing a live weather forecast, we couldn’t help but smile.

▼ Sora-jiro is the mascot character for Nippon Television and its weather forecast.

Continuing on our stroll, we came across even more yellow sightings.

We began to realise just how well yellow works in attracting the eye, leading it to be used on a number of signs like the “advertising recruitment” ones on these coin lockers…

▼ …and this one, which reads “Last two buildings”.

Just as we thought we were done for the day, we came across these figures, which are actually designed to be used as seating benches.

Compiling our photos from Shimbashi, the look and feel was entirely different to our rural collection, capturing the finer details that give Tokyo its unique charm.

Hunting for the same colour in two different locations revealed an interesting contrast in subjects and mood – whereas the rural scenes mostly contained images of flowers and signs, in Tokyo there was more grit and extra variety, as objects and characters played a greater role. It was such a fun, eye-opening adventure that we’re now keen to hunt for more colours around town, and connect with all the hidden finds areas we would otherwise miss.

Images©SoraNews24
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Quick and easy, this is a meal that’ll have you going back for seconds.

One of our favourite hacks when it comes to making Japanese-style meals is to whip out our rice cooker and stuff it with all sorts of unconventional ingredients. These so-called “rice cooker recipes” almost always result in surprisingly delicious meals, and our latest culinary experiment turned out to be so tasty and easy to make that we wanted to share it so you can enjoy it too.

The recipe itself is adapted from one created by Marudai Foods, the makers of “Smoked House Aged Wiener” sausages (a household staple), so you can rest assured that its foundations have been tried and tested for deliciousness. While the brand’s sausages are, as you might expect, on the ingredients list, the recipe also includes vegetables, making it ideal for people looking to add more nutrition to their diets, and for parents wanting their kids to eat vegetables.

So let’s get cooking, starting first with the ingredients you’ll need.

• Marudai Foods “Smoked House Aged Wiener” sausages x 1 pack
• Carrot x 1
• Canned sweetcorn x 1 can
• Uncooked rice x 2 go (“go” is a traditional rice-measuring unit that equates to about 150 grams, so you’ll need 300 grams)
• Granulated dashi soup stock x 1 tablespoon
• Soy sauce x 1.5  tablespoons
• Cooking sake x 1 tablespoon
• Chopped green onions to garnish

Method

1.  Cut the wieners diagonally in half. Peel the carrot, and drain the corn from the can.

2. Add the rice to the rice cooker, then add the dashi and then water to the scale of 2 go on the side of the bowl. Place all the other  ingredients on top and press the button to start the rice-cooking cycle.

3. After it’s cooked, mix everything well and top with green onions. Then add extra soy sauce, and butter, if you like, and you’re done!

The moment you open the rice cooker, the smoky aroma and the umami of the wiener emanates upwards, instantly stimulating your appetite. Though the whole carrot might seem large, it’s so soft that it can be easily cut with a shamoji rice paddle and mixed around.

When you go to serve the meal, it’ll look so colourful and appetising that even the most veggie-averse diners won’t be able to resist trying it.

Everything is so soft and moreish you’ll be going back for refills, and the mix of carbs and protein will fill you up nicely.

As the rice cooks, it absorbs all the savoury flavour from the sausages, making everything extra tasty.

Related: Marudai Foods, Twitter/@marudaiwanpaku
Photos ©SoraNews24
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And yes, there is a reason Mercy is dressed that way.

With Japan being home to many of the world’s most passionate gamers, Japan Railways Group periodically partners with popular video game franchises to add a little extra fun to fans’ train travel in Japan, like we’ve seen in previous tie-ups with the Final Fantasy and Pokémon series. For its next video game collaboration, though, JR Central (a.k.a. JR Tokai) is teaming up with a series that hails from the U.S.

This summer, characters from the cast of Blizzard’s Overwatch will be taking a ride on the Shinkansen as part of the Payload to Osaka campaign (a reference to the game’s “payload escort” missions). The promotion’s key art shows Hanzo, D.Va, Genji, Kiriko, Mercy, Hammond, and Jetpack Cat getting off the bullet train at Shin Osaka Station, the closest stop on Japan’s high-speed rail network to downtown Osaka. The artwork contains a few tips of the hat to Osaka’s famous food culture, with Hammond snacking on takoyaki octopus balls and Hanzo scarfing on a steamed pork bun (and you’ll note that Hanzo is eating it after getting off the train).

From July 17 to September 23, passengers onboard JR Central Shinkansen trains can take an Overwatch-themed quiz via their smartphones, and correctly answering the questions gets you one of seven phone wallpapers. While the wallpaper you win is randomized, you can take the quiz as many times as you want during your ride (10 questions are randomly pulled from a pool each time), and JR Central guarantees you won’t get any duplicate wallpapers until you’ve completed a full set of all seven.

Even if you’re not up to taking the quiz, you can still receive a PC wallpaper image of the illustration just by answering an online questionnaire, which, like the quiz, can be accessed through the promotion’s official website, while onboard the bullet train. This also serves as a record of your Shinkansen ride, which you can then show at the Osaka Nipponbashi branch of anime merchandise store chain Animate to receive an Overwatch cleaning cloth with the same illustration.

Animate Osaka Nipponbashi will also be hosting an Overwatch Payload to Osaka popup store with character pins and acrylic mini standees from July 17 to 26.

While Overwatch does have fans in Japan, the series’ most passionate supporters tend to hail from other countries. With international tourists accounting for so much travel in Japan these days, though, especially on the JR Tokai section of the Shinkansen network that connects Osaka with Kyoto and Tokyo, JR Central most likely expects to get a lot of interest from non-Japanese fans, enough so that the company felt the need to follow up on its official Twitter announcement for the collaboration with a statement that “These items are available in Japan only.”

Speaking of the Twitter announcement, at least one non-Japanese fan was furious about the clothing that Mercy is wearing in the artwork.

What is this kind of OUTFIT? ugly as hell pic.twitter.com/4wkggD4fpR

— 𓆩♡𓆪 ✦ÆØNLIZ ✦𓆩♡𓆪 (She/Her) (@AEONFLUX_85) June 4, 2026

From the choice of words and capitalization, that was probably meant as a rhetorical question, but hey, there’s actually a reason for this outfit (sorry, OUTFIT). Aside from having a vibrant food culture, Osaka is also known for its flashy fashion sense, in particular its ladies’ fondness for animal prints. Granted, it’s usually associated with women of a more mature age than Mercy, but a little touch of Osaka style isn’t completely out of place here.

Related: JR x Overwatch Payload to Osaka official website, Animate Osaka Nipponbashi
Source: JR Central via Hachima Kiko
Images: JR Central
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