Seats descend from ceiling on Japanese train to provide extra comfort for passengers【Video】

Train Seat

It might look like brand new technology, but this surprising system is on a train that’s been running for more than forty years.

Japanese trains are well-known around the world for being punctual, clean, and offering a polite and courteous service that’s second to none. This focus on providing a comfortable service for passengers has been in the spotlight again recently with a video posted online by Twitter user @kijitoti_NV, which shows a seat slowly descending from the ceiling, coming to rest in front of one of the train doors and slotting perfectly in place with other seats on the side of the carriage.

▼ To see the impressive scene in action, check out the short clip below.

The unique seating can be found on the 5000 series trains run by rail operator Keihan Railways, which services the Osaka, Kyoto, and Shiga regions. During off-peak periods, some of the train doors can be deactivated, which means these seats can then descend from the ceiling to provide extra seating for passengers.

Despite having been around for some time, Japanese Twitter users were still surprised by the unique technology revealed in the video, leaving comments like:

“This is amazing! I had no idea this type of thing existed until now.”
“I absolutely love this!”
“I catch this train during peak hours and never once noticed the overhead seating storage before!”
“This is fantastic technology!”
“It’s like something you’d see on the ‘Thunderbirds’ sci-fi television series!”

This 5000 series train has actually been in operation since 1971, and is the only one in all of Japan to be equipped with the special overhead seating storage. To celebrate the train’s 45 years of service on the the Keihan-Otosen Nakanoshima line, the railway company held an event at Nakanoshima Station on 28 August to show off the unique seating mechanism to interested members of the public, who were able to film the “seat lifting demonstration” at a variety of times with ticketed entry.

▼ The event was announced on the company’s official Twitter account.

The seats are said to remain down at all times except during peak rush hour periods, when they’re raised to accommodate a greater number of passengers, so it’s a rare event to see the fancy mechanism in action. Even though we might not be able to see it in person, we’ll definitely be adding the clever device to our long list of reasons we love the railways in Japan!

Source: Iroiro
Top Image: Twitter/@kijitoti_NV



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We tried the new McDonald’s Japanese seasonal exclusive “Full Moon Cheese Tsukimi Burger”!

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What the heck is a ‘moon viewing’ burger? Why does McDonald’s Japan sell these lunar sandwiches at this time of year? Is it actually good? We solve all these riddles with this taste test!

RocketNews24 Japan writer Seiji recently tried McDonald’s newest seasonal sandwich “The Full Moon Cheese Tsukimi Burger,” the newest addition to the Tsukimi Burger (literally “moon viewing burger”) line, and delivered a report on the sandwich with a mouthful of a name!

▼ One of the company’s commercials for the burgers

Before we get to the tasty bit of this article, here’s a quasi-educational explanation about moon-viewing and seasonal imagery in Japan.

In autumn, people in Japan traditionally observe a moon-viewing festival, called tsukimi, to celebrate the change of seasons and mark the harvest time. This tradition has been a cherished part of Japanese culture since the Heian Period, when aristocratic types would use it as an excuse to get drunk and write poetry about the moon. The festival remains popular to this day, and many people in Japan still enjoy moon viewing at this time of year.

Okay, but what’s with the cute rabbit imagery, you ask? In Japan, legend holds that rabbits live on the moon and pound mochi (rice-cake). That’s why rabbits often appear alongside pictures of the moon.

So, let’s get to the sandwich already! The burger boasts an elegant-sounding name, but open the box, and you might not exactly be moved to create poetry when you look at it. Basically, the sandwich features the same brownish palette and configuration of ingredients we’ve come to expect from the American fast food giant.

▼Don’t worry, this isn’t actually a bunny burger!

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The sandwich’s defining characteristic is its fluffy, round bun. One might even say it’s moon-like when viewed from certain angles! The insides consist of your standard McDonald’s beef patty, cheese, an egg, and a large, disk-like serving of ham. What these ingredients have to do with the moon is beyond us, though I kind of get that the egg is somewhat evocative of the moon’s pocked, white surface.

At 390 yen (just a bit under US$4), Seiji went into this taste test with a slightly skeptical stance, particularly because the restaurant has offered the similar sounding, but cheaper, “Cheese Tsukimi Burger” in the past. 20 yen cheaper to be precise! According to our writer, this new sandwich doesn’t disappoint when it comes to volume, at least.

But how’s the taste? Seiji told us that the unusual bun immediately distinguishes this from other McDonald’s sandwiches, and he reportedly struggled to get all the ingredients in his mouth with one bite. After considerable effort, he simply ended up eating the ham separately.

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The verdict? The ham was a nice touch, offering an interesting twist on McDonald’s usual approach to sandwich-craft, but does it warrant the 20 yen price hike? Like a Stanley Kubrick moon-landing conspiracy, it’s ultimately up for you to decide for yourself!

Images ©RocketNews24



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Japanese vocaloid Hatsune Miku celebrates her birthday with amazing illustrations from fans

The virtual birthday cards she’s been receiving online show the popular virtual idol in a number of poses and scenarios.

Forget cakes and making wishes while blowing out candles for your birthday – when you’re a virtual pop star you get showered with images of yourself in a wide variety of poses and creative scenarios. Japanese vocaloid Hatsune Miku is the birthday girl, and while she’s just turned nine in vocaloid years, her fanbase is already filled with a huge number of talented artists who can’t help expressing their love for her through their preferred medium. Let’s take a look at some of the impressive birthday cards the virtual star received to celebrate her ninth birthday.

This fan has Miku biting into a big slice of shortcake as part of her birthday celebrations.

▼ While here she’s being showered with colourful macaroons.

This futuristic aqua-hued image pays as much attention to the stunning animated background as it does to the pretty star herself.

And this image celebrates nine years of Miku with nine different “types” of Miku, including one gleefully clutching an oversized green onion.

▼ Here, Miku appears like an angel in a gorgeous off-white outfit.

▼ There are also some stylised gothic versions of the star too.

Whether she’s singing, dancing or playing dress-up, Miku brings a sense of fun to everything!

▼ Flowers are always a pretty fit for a pretty star.

Happy birthday, Miku! You were first released into the world on 31 August, 2007, and now, nearly a decade later, you’re still loved by fans across the country. And judging from the look of these beautiful images, they’re some of the most talented folks around!

If you have a picture you’d like to contribute to Miku’s dazzling collection of virtual birthday cards online, be sure to hop on to Twitter and add the hashtag #初音ミク生誕祭2016 (“Hatsune Miku’s Birthday Festival 2016”) to send her your regards!

Source: Kai-You
Top Image: Twitter/@kuroi0



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Going from experiment to experience: Non-Korean K-pop boy band EXP heads to Korea!

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The world is still trying to figure out if you need at least one Korean person in your band for it to qualify as K-pop.

Question: What makes a K-pop band a K-pop band? Is it the sound? The choreography? The language of the music? The actual Koreans in the band? The number of Koreans in the band?

No, these aren’t trick questions. As a matter of fact, Colombia grad student Bora Kim, who is an “interdisciplinary artist and sociologist from Seoul, Korea,” asked herself these very things as she began working on her thesis titled “I’m Making a Boy Band”.

▼The name EXP comes from the word “experiment”, an eternal reminder of the group’s origin.

Instagram Photo

Kim’s thesis project entailed the auditioning and selecting of 6 talented young men that she and her collaborators, Karin Kuroda and Samantha Shao, would train and groom to become the very essence of a K-pop boy band. In addition to exploring themes such as cultural appropriation and whether their creation could still be called “K-pop” without Korean artists, Kim and her team also wanted to discover what it might mean for women to be the producers of a product primarily intended for women and generally marketed to them by men.

Instagram Photo

Of course, this experiment has already garnered a plethora of commentary from K-pop fans far and wide on some of the very topics Kim and her cohorts wished to examine. As one might expect, a fair number of the comments have been negative. Upon the debut of their first single, LUV/WRONG, one of the band members remarked that a lot of racial and homophobic slurs had been directed toward them. Others have accused them of copying the hugely popular EXO’s style and sound. Despite all of this, the EXP guys are staying positive, believing they can eventually win over their detractors.

Instagram Photo

It’s been about a year since EXP made what one might call their “debut” and they’ve had two singles released to date; now it’s time for them to head to the homeland of their adopted genre – Korea. To prepare for this move, the guys have been studying Korean language and culture, and taking “cuteness classes”. Once they arrive in Korea, their Kickstarter-funded mini-album will be released and the band has high hopes for scoring interviews, festival performances, radio appearances, and, eventually, their own variety show.

Instagram Photo

The likelihood of EXP finding success in Korea is contingent upon innumerable factors, but perhaps the most important one is whether or not the music is actually any good.

Do you think they have a chance?

Source: Fusion, NBC News, KoreaBoo, Columbia University/Bora Kim
Images: Columbia University/Bora Kim



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How many times a day do Japanese men adjust their junk? New survey investigates

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And no, we’re not talking about dudes who work in waste management.

The relationship between a man and his penis is a unique one. Odds are he feels a stronger connection with it than any other singular piece of his anatomy. At the same time, more so than any other body part, it can be aggressively individualistic in expressing its needs and desires.

For example, few things are more distractingly uncomfortable for a guy than his baby-maker being in an awkward position inside his underwear. Still, it’s a situation most guys find themselves in fairly often, so underwear maker Wacoal conducted a survey to find out how many times a day Japanese men adjust their junk.

That’s not the sort of question you can just jump right into, though, whether or not you have a professional reason for asking. So Wacoal started its Internet survey of 2,121 men, ranging in age from 10 to 69, with a less startling query, asking how many shopped for their own underwear. Of the respondents, roughly 80 percent said they handled such purchases themselves, with the implication that the remainder had their underwear bought for them by a spouse or parent. When queried about what they looked for in choosing their underwear, the respondents gave comfort, color/pattern, and ventilation as their top three criteria.

And then the survey got really personal, asking how many times a day men reposition their replicator, and obtained the following data.

● 3 times a day (25 percent)
● 2 times (18 percent)
● 0 times (19 percent)
● 5 times (14 percent)
● 1 time (11 percent)
● 10 times or more (5 percent)
● 4 times (4 percent)
● 6 times (2 percent)
● 7 times (1 percent)
● 8 times (1 percent)

Let’s take another look at the data, arranged as a pie graph, because a bar graph would just be encouraging Japan to keeping cracking dick jokes.

▼ While still leaving the door open for “dick in the pie” jokes.

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While three adjustments a day seems to be the most common lifestyle, let’s take a moment to admire the restraint, all-accepting attitude, or precision initial setting of the roughly one in five guys who slips on a pair of underwear in the morning and is set for the next 24 hours, never once needing to move his manliest part. And at the same time, let’s also appreciate the psychology of the one in twenty respondents whose daily adjustments climb into the double digits. Out of respect for their dedication to pursuing their ideals and never settling for anything less than perfection, we salute them, not just figuratively, but literally too, since we’d really rather not shake their hands.

Source: PR Times
Top image ©RocketNews24
Insert image: PR Times (edited by RocketNews24)



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Allergic to cats, but still love them? This is the perfect T-shirt for you

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Each purchase will help support animals in need and your need to hold an animal!

Even though Japan is slowly shifting towards a population of pet owners, some people are still in a situation where owning an animal just isn’t feasible. Whether it’s a space issue or deathly allergies, sometimes you just can’t justify getting a pet. Thankfully, for all the cat lovers out there who fall into this category, Felissimo and YOU+MORE have teamed up to produce the T-shirt you didn’t know you needed.

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cat 1

At first glance, it looks like a simple cat T-shirt that you’ve seen a hundred times. Sure, the furry feline is pretty adorable, positioned with the belly and paws up as if it’s just waiting to be played with. It’s only when you cross your arms in the right way that the joyous illusion is complete.

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With a simple T-shirt, you can pretend you are holding a cat in your arms all day — now you can leave that stuffed animal you’ve been carrying around at home. Every time you look down, you can visualize your not-so-secret passion for cats. Plus, there is the added bonus of an exactly zero percent chance of the cat freaking out while you are holding it and scratching you all over!

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Available in grey or white, this whimsical cat t-shirt can be found at the online Felissimo store for only 2,805 yen (US$28). Released under the Nekobu line of products, a small donation from each purchase will go on to help animals in need. Over the last 13 years, this program has raised over 185 million yen ($1.8 million) so check out their website (Japanese only) for more information. If this T-shirt sounds like a dream come true, make sure to pick one up as soon as you can, because there are millions of cat lovers and, most likely, a limited number of t-shirts.

Source: Kai-You
Images: Nekobu



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