Twentythree

Vintage-look shirts celebrate the original vintage of the landmark anime series.

As one of the most popular anime series of all time, Evangelion has had plenty of remasters and visual upgrades over the years. But way back in the beginning, viewers were watching the original series on CRT TVs, either as part of its original TV broadcast in Japan or on VHS tapes (of either the fansubbed or professionally released variety).

So for many long-time Eva fans, their memories of the series have a measure of visual grain to them, and that should match up nicely with a new line of Evangelion T-shirts from Uniqlo’s sister brand, GU.

The designers describe them as “vintage-like” T-shirts, with a pre-weathered/washed look that gives the fabric the aura of something that’s been in your wardrobe since you picked it up at the Anime America ’96 dealers’ room at the San Jose Red Lion hotel, but without 30 years’ worth of actual wear and tear on the fabric and stitching.

Adding to the old-school appeal is that all of the artwork, featuring Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and their respective Eva Units, are taken from the original Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series, as opposed to their subtly updated redesigns seen in the Rebuild of Evagelion movies that came decades later.

The lineup consists of a total of four shirts, each with a graphic print on the front and marked with “Nerv Tokyo-3” on the back, right underneath the collar.

The shirts are each priced at 1,990 yen (US$13) and are scheduled to go on sale in late June at GU physical shops and through the chain’s online store here.

Source: GU via Denfaminico Gamer
Top image: GU
Insert images: GU (1, 2, 3, 4)
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Matsuya makes the step from beefy bowls to milky drinks, but only at select locations for now.

Hamburgers and milk shakes have been happily coexisting on fast food restaurant menus for generations…so why not add them to the offerings at other beef-centric eateries? This week Matsuya, one of Japan’s big-three gyudon/beef bowl chains and rival to Yoshinoya and Sukiya, started serving up a brand-new line of milk shakes.

▼ Matsu シェイク = Matsu Shake

Well, it sort of started serving them up. Matsuya has over 1,300 branches across Japan, but currently Matsu Shakes are only available at five of them. Luckily for us, one of those, the Adachi Rokucho branch in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward, is withing striking/snacking distance of SoraNews24 HQ, and so as soon as Matsuya’s milk shakes went on sale on April 28, we rushed out to try them.

And when we say try them, we mean all of them. The initial lineup consists of three different shakes, and while our dietician may not recommend a triple-serving of dessert drinks, we’re willing to defy such guidelines to bring you, our cherished readers, the full story.

We started off with the Vanilla Matsu Shake (180 yen [US$1.15] for a small, 240 yen for a medium). Taking a sip, we found an orthodox vanilla shake. Matsuya isn’t trying to do anything tricky or quirky here. They’ve simply taken aim at the creamy sweetness you’d expect in a vanilla milk shake, and they’ve hit the mark, with a deliciously satisfying flavor profile that’s exactly what one would anticipate.

Things start to get a little cleverer with the Strawberry Matsu Shake (290/350 yen). Rather than using strawberry ice cream, the base here is the same as with the Vanilla Matsu Shake, but with pieces of fruit as a topping, with strawberry sauce drizzled in too. Again, there’s nothing shocking here, but this is a perfectly tasty treat with the strawberry adding some extra tart complexity to the flavor profile and also adding some variety to the texture. Matsuya serves its shakes with a wide-diameter straw of the type you’d get for boba/tapioca bubble tea, but you can also get a spoon and eat the Strawberry Matsu Shake like it’s a little parfait.

And last, we come to the Vanilla and Choco Cocoa Cookie Matsu Shake (320/380 yen).

Once again, we’ve got the vanilla base, but this time topped with chocolate sauce and chocolate cookie crumbles.

This was the standout of the trio. Sure, a cookies-and-cream-style shake isn’t anything earth-shattering on the conceptual level, but we were blown away by just how many cookie pieces Matsuya gave us! From our first sip to our last, we had a joyfully strong stream of cookies coming through the straw.

With only five Matsuya branches (Adachi Rokucho in Tokyo, Misato Shimohikogawa in Saitama, Kashiwa Aobadai and Higashi Kamagaya in Chiba, and Ayase Teraonishi in Kanagawa Prefecture) currently offering the Matsu Shakes, they appear to be in a test phase, so it’s possible that the recipes might be tweaked if/when they go nationwide. For now, though, the Vanilla and Choco Cocoa Cookie Matsu Shake is unique and delicious, so hopefully it’ll stay that way when it makes its all-Japan debut.

Related: Matsu Shake-serving Matusya location finder
Photos ©SoraNews24
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Do they live up to the hype of their Taiwanese inspiration?

Taiwan has a bustling street food scene, and some of the more popular items that’ve risen to prominence are the milk donuts covered generously in a milk sugar coating.

Our Japanese-language reporter Yui Imai, who often finds herself shuttling back and forth between the two countries, Yui Imai, has eaten them frequently due to how irresistibly delicious they are, so when she learned of Mister Donut selling a new type of airy donut taking inspiration from those popular Taiwanese donuts, she couldn’t fight the temptation to try them.

Released on April 26, two varieties of Sakupofun Crisp and Puff Donuts made their way into Mister Donut stores across Japan: Milk Sugar and Custard Sugar. Both have the distinguishing characteristic of having a crisp outer layer with a light and airy center, and cost 248 yen (US$1.55).

Yui visited her local Mister Donut branch on the first day, but was only able to get her hands on one of the new donuts due to their seemingly overwhelming popularity, so with a visit to a second store, she was finally able to complete the duo.

Holding them in her hand, Yui felt they were slightly firm to the touch, and looked very similar to the donuts she ate in Taiwan, so it was a very promising start.

Starting with her beloved Milk Sugar donut, Yui cut it in half to reveal that crispy outside and the inside with so much more hollow space compared to usual donuts.

Taking a bite, Yui was greeted with the satisfying crunch, followed by the light and airy texture, within which the gentle sweetness of the milk sugar spreads out. It’s a simple taste, but heartwarmingly delicious.

Next up was the Custard Sugar, which instead has a rich sweetness and a scent that makes you think undeniably of custard, and it was no less delicious than the Milk Sugar one.

Comparing the two donuts, Yui could definitely see many similarities between the Milk Sugar donut and its Taiwanese inspiration, although Mister Donut’s version might possibly have a slightly more pronounced crispiness to the outside. Also, in Taiwan, they were always served piping hot and freshly fried, so she admits that she could feel a difference in that regard. Nonetheless, Mister Donut has done an exceedingly good job crafting such high-quality donuts to be offered on a nationwide scale, Yui thinks.

If you hold any interest in Taiwanese street snacks, or you just can’t resist a good donut, be sure to stop on by a nearby Mister Donut to pick up the latest Sakupofun Crisp and Puff Donuts, although with their apparent popularity, you might need to be lucky to find a store that still has some in stock.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Local residents thought a robbery was in progress when they saw police cars outside the bank, but something even more unexpected was going on.

For the most part, Japan is a very safe country. However, there is still a universal police emergency phone number, 110, and at approximately 12:15 in the afternoon on April 27, a call came in reporting an intruder at a bank in the town of Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture.

The intruder had entered the Kashiwazaki Higashi branch of regional bank Daishi Hokuetsu through the ATM area, and was refusing to leave the building. Police were dispatched to the scene, and when some locals saw squad cars converging on the building, they thought a robbery might be in progress. It wasn’t a thief who was inside the building, though, but a deer.

▼ The Kashiwazaki Higashi Daishi Hokuetsu bank

With a population of roughly 74,000 people, Kashiwazaki isn’t a bustling metropolis, but neither is it a bucolic village. The bank which the deer had found its way into is just a few blocks from Kashiwazaki Station, on a fairly developed street where wild animals aren’t a common sight, with one nearby shopkeeper saying she’d never seen a deer in that part of town before.

As the deer had made no demands of the bank tellers, the incident was not treated as an attempted robbery by the police. However, even after being given ample time to make any legitimate withdrawals from the ATM, the animal remained in the building, and so some sort of response was needed. While hunting organizations are often called on in Japan to cull potentially dangerous wild animals such as bears and boars who wander into human-inhabited areas, the deer was deemed to be a lesser threat, as no injuries had been sustained by bank staff or customers during their evacuation from the building. So instead, the deer was subdued with a tranquilizer dart, with the administrator forgoing a rifle and instead choosing the much more awesomely old-school method of propelling the dart through a blowgun, as seen in the video below.

The incident follows another unexpected deer sighting which took place in Aichi Prefecture on April 25, when a deer was spotted on the campus of Nagoya University.

Taken together, these occurrences would seem to suggest that we’re on the cusp of a period of upward social mobility for deer in Japan, as they seek increased access to financial services and higher education. However, the Kashiwazaki administration is taking the stance that bank access is still for humans only, and announced that the tranquilized deer would be returned to its traditional natural habitat in the mountains.

Source: TBS News Dig, YouTube/メ〜テレニュース
Top image: Pakutaso
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Japan’s all-for-fun spring holiday season is a little tarnished these days.

Japan has three major vacation periods, but two of them come with social obligations. For both Oshogatsu (the New Year’s holiday period) and Obon (which takes place in early August), tradition holds that you’re supposed to go back to your hometown and spend a week or so reconnecting with parents, grandparents, and other extended family members.

That leaves Golden Week, the string of spring holidays that straddles the end of April and the start of May, as the purest vacation period in Japan, one in which you’ve got no cultural obligations beyond going out and having fun. This year, though, a Golden Week survey shows that roughly a third of respondents aren’t planning to do anything during their time off this year.

▼ Woooo…Golden Week…

Tokyo-based marketing research company Intage conducts an annual Golden Week survey, with this year’s iteration collecting 5,000 responses from participants aged 15-79 at the end of March. When asked what they had on their schedules for Golden Week, which started on April 29, 41.2 percent said “Nothing.” Even among those who did have “plans,” they often didn’t involve traveling or going out for other leisure activities, with 35.1 percent saying they would be “spending Golden Week at home.”

How are you planning to spend Golden Week this year?
● At home: 35.1 percent of respondents
● Going out to eat: 17 percent
● Shopping: 15 percent
● Domestic travel: 12.3 percent
● Exercising: 9 percent
● Spending time with friends or acquaintances: 8.7 percent
● Going to my parents’ home: 8.3 percent
● Going to movies, museums, theme parks, or other entertainment facilities: 8.2 percent
● Visiting relatives: 7.7 percent
● Going to nearby parks, temple, or shrines: 5.5 percent
● Overseas travel: 1 percent

When asked what their estimated Golden Week budget was for this year, the average worked out to 27,660 yen (US$179), which isn’t a whole lot when you consider that for many people Golden Week this year covers a span of eight days, with holidays on April 29 and May 4, 5, and 6, and many workplaces closed on April 30 and May 1 in order to form a string of days off with the weekend in the middle. The average Golden Week budget of 27,660 yen is down 5.4 percent compared to last year, and is even lower than in 2023, the first full year after Japan pulled out of the coronavirus pandemic.

So what’s causing the Golden Week leisure cutbacks? 49.2 percent cited a combination of rapidly rising consumer prices in Japan and the falling value of the yen. With spring also being the start of the business year in Japan, there’s been a recent flurry of companies announcing price increases for their products, and with no sign of that trend slowing down, a lot of households are tightening their belts to brace against the possibility of even more price hikes to come.

The low numbers of people planning to travel are especially telling. As mentioned above, Golden Week has long been the one extended vacation period in Japan that doesn’t include a responsibility to visit family members, which should make it one of the easiest times to travel. With the yen being at its lowest value against foreign currencies in decades, though, international travel is also beyond the budget of many Japanese people. The ongoing war in Iran is further dampening enthusiasm for overseas trips, with 25.4 percent of respondents saying it’s affecting their desire to travel abroad. Not that Iran itself was a particularly attractive destination for Japanese travelers, but air travel safety and reliability are a concern on many people’s minds.

As for decreased domestic travel demand, there are several factors at play. While the weak yen is making it harder for Japanese people to travel abroad, it’s made Japan a bargain for inbound foreign tourists, and many travel providers have realized they can raise their prices but still feel attractively affordable to visitors from overseas. This has resulted in higher hotel prices even as Japanese residents find themselves with less disposable income as they grapple with higher prices for groceries, utilities, and other necessities, and the prospect of straining an already stretched household budget just to travel somewhere that’s going to be packed with tourists from overseas isn’t a particularly appealing way to spend your week off. This, though, then encourages travel providers to orient their services, and prices, even more towards foreign tourists, further reducing their appeal and affordability for Japanese domestic travelers.

Hopefully, the Japanese economy will bounce back and Golden Week will once again become a period of pure fun, but for now, for a lot of Japanese people they don’t have the cash for a flashy vacation.

Source: Intage
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso (1, 2)
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Special collection includes the Spirited Away train that lights up at the push of a button.

In Japan, keychains are hardly ever dull and boring, and right now Studio Ghibli is showing us just how good they can be, with a brand new release through Donguri Kyowakoku, the studio’s specialty retail chain.

There are three new keychains to choose from, covering three of the studio’s most popular films. Making them even more special is the fact that each one has a cute interactive element, so you can connect with them whenever you need to inject a bit of Ghibli magic into your day.

▼ The first keychain, simply called “Medium Totoro and Small Totoro“, features those two characters from My Neighbour Totoro.

The white Small Totoro isn’t immediately visible from the front, but when you turn the keychain to one side, you can see it’s firmly attached for the ride. The dynamic duo have been captured mid-run, recalling the scene where they flee from young character Mei, who chases after them.

▼ The face of the White Totoro as it bumps into the larger one is another faithful nod to the charming movie moment.

Turn the keychain around and you’ll see an acorn falling out of the blue Totoro’s shoulder sack, just as it does in the movie.

▼ And because the sack is meant to be full of acorns, the keychain rattles when you shake it!

Whether you use them as a keychain or zipper pull, these little Totoros will put a smile on your face whenever you see them.

With gorgeous details all around, this product has been meticulously crafted, and the Totoros aren’t the only characters getting the keychain treatment, as Hin, the dog from Howl’s Moving Castle, is also making an appearance.

This keychain depicts Hin (or “Heen” as he’s known to overseas audiences) from the scene where he hangs from Sophie’s arms as she carries him up the stairs to the palace. True to character, Hin appears unfazed to now be hanging from a keychain, with his nonplussed expression making him seem even more adorable.

The neck, ears, and tail are all separate parts that you can move independently from each other, adding an extra element of fun to the keychain.

▼ Hin’s limp body and humorous expression will make every zipper pull a fun one.

▼ Rounding out the keychain collection is the train from Spirited Away.

Though not technically a character, this train has so much magical charm that it might as well be one. The way it glides over the water-covered tracks while whisking Sen/Chihiro and her movie companions off to a mystery destination makes it one of the most memorable modes of transport from the film.

▼ Every detail has been beautifully replicated on a miniature scale.

The train is already beautiful on its own, but when you press the top button it becomes even more adorable, as it activates the front light.

▼ The light adds a gentle glow to the train’s trajectory, just as it does in the movie.

▼ The keychain train looks gorgeous from every angle.

All the above items can be attached to bags, pouches or keys, allowing you to subtly incorporate the world of Ghibli into your everyday life. While the Hin and Totoro keychains are priced at 1,540 yen (US$9.65) each, the train retails for 3,520 yen, and they can all be purchased now at Donguri Kyowakoku stores in Japan and at the online store (links below) while stocks last.

Source, images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2, 3)
Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2, 3)
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