Happy New Year from SoraNews24!

Here’s to a tiger-rific 2022!

In Japan, New Year’s is the most important holiday of the year. It’s a time for going back home to see your family, offering prayers and asking for blessings at temples and shrines, and basking in the possibilities that lie ahead as you don’t just turn the calendar page, but start a whole new calendar altogether.

At the same time, New Year’s is also the most relaxing time of year in Japan. Sure, there’s some scurrying around involved in all those visits to relatives’ houses and holy sites, but there’s a pretty solid consensus that the best way to spend the rest of the holiday is snacking, snoozing, watching TV, and not forcing yourself to do anything more productive than crafting excuses to remain sitting at the toasty warm kotatsu and not making any decisions more difficult than whether you want to eat a mikan or a manju…or both, if you share our sensibilities.

So with your permission, we’ll be taking the day to be luxuriously lazy and responsibly recharge, and if you need something to tide you over, here are a few collections of our top stories from last year.

Thank you all so much for reading in 2021, whether you’re an in-Japan local or an overseas Japanophile keeping your fingers crossed for international travel to open up again soon (and if you’re in the latter group, know that we miss you every bit as much as you miss Japan). We hope you’ll continue to visit SoraNews24 in 2022, and we can’t wait to share more stories from Japan with you…just as soon as we finish our New Year’s cat/tiger nap.

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How much money should you give children for New Year’s otoshidama? Adults weigh in

Grown-ups dish on the appropriate amounts of New Year’s money to gift depending on the age of a child.

With all of Japan now in the holiday lull that accompanies the biggest holiday of the year, New Year’s, it’s a rare opportunity for many Japanese people to kick back under the kotatsu, watch special TV programming, and spend their days eating, eating, and more eating. The younger crowd also has something to look forward to in the form of otoshidama, or New Year’s gift money that they may receive from various relatives.

While there’s no clear consensus on the age at which children should stop receiving otoshidama, there do seem to be some generally accepted practices for the giving of it–namely in terms of monetary amounts. To find out how much money adults think is appropriate to give to children of all different ages, All About News surveyed 335 people nationwide between December 11 and 20. Respondents ranged in age from their 20s through 70s with the majority in their 30s and 40s.

▼ For a young child, the sweetest sight is an envelope filled with cold, hard cash.

Here are the most common survey responses regarding how much money should be given to different age groups based on year in school.

● Preschool
1. 1,000 yen (US$8.69): 31.04 percent of respondents
2. Less than 1,000 yen: 27.16 percent
3. Don’t give any money at all: 20.3 percent

Over half of survey respondents agreed that children who haven’t yet reached elementary school age were still deserving of a small 1,000 yen-or-less gift. They backed up their reasoning by writing, “I think this amount is appropriate since they don’t have a solid understanding of money yet,” and “It’s enough for them to buy some candy.” One respondent even shared a helpful tip to maximize their happiness: “I think they’re more excited if you give them ten 100-yen coins as opposed to one 1,000-yen bill.”

Among those who don’t give any otoshidama to the preschool crowd at all, many wrote that they opt to purchase small presents such as toys and candy instead.

● Lower elementary school (grades 1-3)
1. 1,001-3,000 yen: 44.48 percent
2. 1,000 yen: 23.28 percent
3. 3,001-5,000 yen: 17.91 percent

● Upper elementary school (grades 4-6)
1. 3,001-5,000 yen: 44.78 percent
2. 1,001-3,000 yen: 28.66 percent
3. 5,001-10,000 yen: 16.72 percent

Elementary school in Japan is comprised of grades 1-6. For the purposes of this survey, elementary school-aged children were split into two groups–those in the lower grades and those in the upper grades. Otoshidama between 1,001-3,000 yen was the most common response for the lower grades while 3,001-5,000 yen was the most common for the upper. Regarding their thinking, one respondent stated, “I give 3,000 yen because they should finally be able to understand the concept of money,” while another wrote, “5,000 yen. That’s enough for them to buy one video game.”

In general, there seems to be an unofficial elementary school rule that you should multiply a child’s year in school by 1,000 yen. This system also serves as a sweet incentive for them each year as they progress through school.

▼ If I hide half my face do I look a teensy bit older?

● Junior high school
1. 5,001-10,000 yen: 45.67 percent
2. 3,001-5,000 yen: 34.03 percent
3. 1,001-3,000 yen: 8.66 percent

The cash prizes just keep rising for junior high school students. Almost half of respondents stated that they give this age group somewhere in the range of 5,001-10,000 yen for otoshidama. Once these children add up all of their money from various relatives, many of them probably make out pretty darn well for themselves.

● High school
1. 5,001-10,000 yen: 51.04 percent
2. 10,001-15,000 yen: 21.79 percent
3. 3,001-5,000: 13.43 percent

Just over half of respondents wrote that they shell out 5,001-10,000 yen for high school students, followed by an impressive bump up to 10,001-15,000 yen from the next biggest group. “It’s got to be 10,000 yen once they’re above junior high school based on what clothes and entertainment cost these days,” wrote one respondent. “I think I’d give otoshidama to them up until they finish high school, so I want them to be able to really enjoy it at the end,” wrote another.

On the other hand, in some cases the monetary amount seemed to plateau out for this age group since high school students are eligible to work part-time and can earn money on their own. Too bad for those hard workers…

● University
1. Don’t give any money at all: 42.99 percent
2. 5,001-10,000 yen: 24.78 percent
3. 10,001-15,000 yen: 19.4 percent

Survey responses were all over the place in regards to university students, with wildly varying opinions on whether they should even receive otoshidama at all, let alone how much is appropriate. “I consider university students to be adults so I wouldn’t give anything,” one person wrote. Others seemed to consider 20 years old, which is the age of adulthood in Japan, as the main cutoff criteria. All in all, it seems to depend strongly on each particular family’s customs for this age group.

▼ What do you mean I might not get any more money once I graduate high school?!

One other fun question on the survey addressed the question of unique family traditions related to otoshidama. Example responses to this question included one person who doesn’t fork over any money until the child gives them a proper New Year’s greeting, one person who throws in an extra 1,000 yen if the child answers quiz questions correctly, and one person who gives otoshidama in the form of a lottery ticket until the child has completed the lower grades of elementary school.

If you’re curious to learn more about things on the receiving end of otoshidama, read about the kinds of things that children spend their New Year’s money on here.

Source: All About News via My Game News Flash
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No need to be lonely at New Year’s with Japan’s new one-person osechi set【Taste test】

Conveyor belt sushi chain Kura Sushi single-sizes osechi, creates new desserts to keep us company.

Japan’s fond memories of fried chicken, the nation’s favorite fare for Christmas Eve, haven’t entirely faded yet, but it’s already time to start looking ahead to the next special seasonal meal, osechi…or then again, maybe it’s not.

See, osechi is a spread of elegant morsels eaten to celebrate New Year’s in Japan, each made with high-class ingredients and/or having some sort of special, auspicious symbolism. However, osechi tends to be both cost and time-intensive to cook, so usually it’s only worth making if you have a large family that’s coming together for New Year’s. As families in Japan become smaller and more spread out compared to those of their more agrarian ancestors, though, some people think it’s not worth the trouble to make osechi if they aren’t going to be eating it with their extended family, and making a single-person serving of osechi just for yourself is almost unheard of.

That’s where Kura Sushi enters the story. This year, the conveyor belt sushi restaurant chain is offering what it’s dubbed Kosechi, or “Small Osechi,” and our Japanese-language reporter K. Masami went to try some for herself as soon as it went on sale, December 27.

Like with the regular menu items at Kura Sushi, you order the Kosechi through your seat’s touchscreen panel. Since it comes down the same conveyor belt lane that’s designed for two-piece plates of sushi, the Kosechi container is remarkably compact, able to fit in the palm of your hand, but also kind of cute. Everything is laid out in an elegant and orderly arrangement, too, and Masami was impressed at the care that went into the small-scale presentation.

As for what’s included in the 500-yen (US$4.35) set, Masami started with the stewed shiitake, one of Japan’s prized gourmet mushroom varieties…

…then moved on to the stewed Ebisu kabocha Japanese pumpkin, named after the god of prosperity and said to be packed with nutrients to fend off winter colds.

Next she gobbled up the pieces of kamaboko fish sausage, in the lucky color combination or red and white, and the block of tofu with kotobuki (“happiness”) written on it in kanji, before turning her chopsticks towards the jumbo shrimp finale.

▼ Shrimp are part of osechi because their curved back is supposed to resemble the posture of a human senior citizen, with the idea being that eating the shrimp will grant you a long life.

Everything was nice and tasty, allowing Masami to get an early start on the relaxed, warm and fuzzy feeling associated with New Year’s in Japan. She did, however, feel just a little bit lonely, or perhaps it’d be better to call it homesick, since osechi is usually something you eat with your entire family, not by yourself. Obviously, the way to counter this melancholy was to assemble a surrogate family of desserts.

After a few more taps of the touchscreen, Masami had two sweet treats in front of her.

One of them looked just like a tiny little kagami mochi, a stack of two mochi rice cakes with an orange on top that’s set out as a New Year’s decoration. But remember, this is a dessert, so while it looks like kagami mochi, it’s actually anko, sweet bean paste, with a strawberry flavor.

And to finish off the meal, she also had an anko tiger (both desserts are priced at 220 yen).

This one doesn’t have any special flavor other than anko’s baseline one of sweet red beans, but if you’ve ever eaten Japanese sweets, you know that that’s really all you need to have your taste buds cry out in joy.

Kura Sushi’s Kosechi and New Year’s-themed sweets (the tiger is the Chinese zodiac animal for 2022) are on sale until January 6, so even if you are celebrating the first few days of the new year with a whole bunch of people, you’ve still got a chance to try out the solo-size osechi for yourself.

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More people travelling in Japan for the New Year’s holiday than last year, survey says

Less people want to spend the New Year’s holiday at home, according to the survey.

Now that Christmas is over and done with, New Year’s is just around the corner. New Year’s in Japan is typically a day to spend with your loved ones, eating osechi (traditional Japanese New Year food). In the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, many Japanese people return to their hometown to spend time with their family

With the arrival of the coronavirus, many people opted not to travel back to their hometown for the year-end holiday earlier this year and refrained from going out, instead choosing to spend New Year’s at home instead.

But how about this year? With coronavirus cases seemingly at a low, will more people feel safe enough to start travelling around Japan again? According to a survey by custom-made travel company Tabikoko, yes.

912 men and women aged 20 and above were asked “Where will you be spending your New Year’s holiday?“, the top answer was still ‘at home‘, although the number of people choosing to do so was 84 percent — almost 4 percent lower than last year. The second most popular answer was ‘going home (to parents/hometown)‘ with 17.8 percent of the vote — up on last year’s 12 percent.

Of course, Japan being Japan, the third most popular answer was “I don’t have any time off” (5.1 percent), with ‘Domestic travel’, ‘With friends/partner’, ‘Travelling abroad’ and ‘Other‘ rounding out the survey. While the percentage of people who chose ‘stay at home’ decreased this year, all other categories saw an increase.

The survey also asked “How will you spend your New Year’s break?” which also saw different results from last year.

The top answer, ‘relaxing at home‘, was chosen by 82.9 percent of responders, down from last year’s 88.4 percent. Second place’s ‘hatsumode‘, where people visit a shrine to pray for good luck for the upcoming year, saw an almost 9 percent increase from last year to 21.3 percent. The third most popular response ‘hanging with friends/family/partner‘ was also up from last year at 20.4 percent. Other answers (‘shopping for lucky bags‘, ‘working’, ‘travelling’, ‘seeing the first sunrise‘, ‘going to a countdown event’ and ‘other‘) also saw an increase from last year, suggesting that people are feeling more comfortable spending the holidays out in public.

However you chose to spend your year-end holidays this year, remember to stay safe and happy. And if you want to have a healthy and happy 2022, avoid doing anything like cleaning and cooking for the first couple of days, unless you wish to anger the Japanese gods!

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2021’s top stories in video game and Nintendo news【SoraNews24 Year in Review】

How to shut down anti-gaming haters, confusing fan art guidelines, an N64 personality test, and a Zelda arrest.

Video games permeate pop culture like nowhere else in Japan, where the biggest stars of the interactive entertainment world aren’t just heroes to their fans, but symbols of the potential for Japanese artistry and creativity to reach all the way around the world. There was plenty of news in 2021 that made us hit pause and take a moment to let it all sink in, and here are five stories from across the Japanese gaming landscape, plus a five-part expansion pack of Nintendo news.

Top video game stories of 2021

● “How is playing games going to help you in the future?” Japanese gamer has perfect comeback

Even in Japan, sometimes gamers run into a startling lack of respect for their hobby, but here’s a firm, polite, and undeniable comeback that’ll provide you with invincibility from snide remarks.

● World Record? Japanese trainer holds gym for 1,422 days and counting in Pokémon GO

We patted ourselves on the back when we held onto a gym for week, but this Pokémon Master can count his reign in years, and it’s unlikely he’ll ever lose it.

● Nier Automata’s creator is confused by Square Enix’s new fan art guidelines

Yoko Taro is as famous for his…let’s call it “eccentricity”…as he is his unique style of game design. So when even he says something sounds weird, he might have a point.

● Breast material shortage causing delay for explosively popular US$479 busty anime girl mousepad

Sure, the sky’s the limit for bust sizes within games. When you want to bring that character into the physical world, though, those gargantuan gazongas can crush the supply chain.

● Japanese gamers vote for most frustrating, spirit-crushing video game

It’s Dark Souls, right? Nope. The game that asks you to prepare to die, and reminds you that you just did every single time it happens, isn’t number one, or even number two, in the results.

Top Nintendo stories of 2021

● Zelda hacker arrested by police in Japan for selling modified Breath of the Wild save data

Yep, that’s a crime in Japan, and the guy got caught by police officers half-way across the country.

● Super Mario Bros. is actually a three-person co-op game, as long as you play it like this【Video】

It turns out nobody ever really had to play as Luigi after all, and the solution to the having to wait your turn was right there in front of us all along.

● With 3DS repair service ending, Nintendo once again shows its god-tier customer service【Photos】

You know all those tales you hear about how amazing customer service is in Japan? Even by those standards, Nintendo’s service department operates on an entirely higher level.

● Retro game personality test: What the way you wrapped your N64 controller cord says about you

Zodiac symbol? Blood type? Look, those are just silly superstitions. The real way to instantly reveal someone’s personality and future is to give them an N64 controller and tell them to wrap the cord.

● Mario isn’t number one? Nintendo plumber doesn’t win Super Mario series character popularity poll

The face of Nintendo put up a strong fight, and he can at least claim to be fans’ favorite human in the franchise, but there’s someone else gamers are even happier to see.

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How often do Japanese high school kids watch anime, and do boys and girls watch the same series?

Survey compiles lists of top 10 anime male and female high school students are following.

“Anime isn’t for little kids” is one of the first ways the medium gets described to newcomers, but it’s not squarely aimed at full-on adults either. Part of the reason so many anime have teenage protagonists is because high school-age viewers are a core demographic for the medium, and messaging app Line recently conducted a survey to gauge just how often Japanese high school students are watching anime.

Responses were gathered from 1,041 Line-using high school students (520 boys and 521 girls) who were asked, “How often do you watch anime?” When the results were tallied, the majority, 54 percent, said they watch anime at least once a week, and nearly one in four said they watch anime at least four times a week.

How often do you watch anime?
● Almost every day: 15 percent
● 4-5 times a week: 7 percent
● 2-3 times a week: 17 percent
● 1 time a week: 15 percent
● 2-3 times a month: 10 percent
● 1 time a month or less: 18 percent
● I don’t watch anime at all: 10 percent

Answers were almost identical for boys and girls, with the largest gaps being just 4 percent for “2-3 times a week” (9 percent for boys vs. 5 percent for girls) and 3 percent for “I don’t watch anime at all” (21 percent for girls vs. 18 percent for boys).

▼ The survey says there’s a better-than-even chance that these kids watched some anime within the past seven days.

There were also a lot of similarities among which anime the boys and girls were fans of. When asked what series they were passionately following, the top response for both male and female respondents, not surprisingly, was Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer. The guys’ number-two choice, My Hero Academia, ranked in at number four for the girls, and the girls’ second-place pick, Jujutsu Kaisen, was third among boys,

What series are you into now? (boys’ responses)
1. Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer (27.3 percent of respondents)
2. My Hero Academia (25.9 percent)
3. Jujutsu Kaisen (25.7 percent)
4. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (22.9 percent)
5. One Piece (18. 9 percent)
6. Tokyo Revengers (18.5 percent)
7. World Trigger (17. 1 percent)
8. Detective Conan (15.4 percent)
9. Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (14. 6 percent)
10. The Promised Neverland (14. 3 percent)

The names on the top-10 lists weren’t complete duplicates, though. Despite making it all the way to third place for girls, earnest-teenage-boys-playing-volleyball saga Haikyu!! was completely absent from the guys’ list, as were fellow female selections Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan and Doraemon. Over on the other side, the boys’ top-10 fondness for One Piece, World Trigger, and Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation didn’t carry over to similar support among girls.

What series are you into now? (girls’ responses)
1. Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer (36.8 percent of respondents)
2. Jujutsu Kaisen (32.7 percent)
3. Haikyu!! (26.9 percent)
4 (tie). My Hero Academia (23.5 percent)
4 (tie). Tokyo Revengers (23,5 percent)
6. Detective Conan (22.5 percent)
7. The Promised Neverland (21.3 percent)
8. Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan (20.8 percent)
9. Doraemon (14 percent)
10. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (13.8 percent)

Regarding the top 10 results, it should be noted that the survey was conducted between October 29 and November 11, which explains the absence of more recently premiered hits like the newest arc of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime. 18.7 percent of the boys and 12.1 percent of the girls also selected “not on the list/none in particular,” suggesting that they were presented with a pre-prepared list of series. That could mean that the highest-ranking series aren’t necessarily the ones with the most ardent fandoms so much as the broadest appeals, and the significantly larger number of boys who selected “other” might imply that they’re more likely than the girls to be to interested in niche series, or perhaps that they’re just in-general anime fans, as opposed to devotees of any particular series.

▼ So don’t worry, there’s still a chance that 18.7 percent of high school boys and 12.1 percent of high school girls have such highly refined artistic sensibilities that Slayers is what they’re into.

All that said, though, it looks like Japanese high school students really are watching a lot of anime, and that there’s a lot of common ground between what boys and girls want to watch.

Source: Line Research via Otakomu
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2021’s top stories in Japanese food and cooking news【SoraNews24 Year in Review】

The secrets of Japanese supermarket music and life-saving green tea, plus how to make the King of Curries and furoshiki-style sandwiches.

We don’t care if it makes us gluttons or gourmands, we LOVE to eat. We’re not alone in that attitude either in Japan, where “foodie” is the default mindset for most of the population, and here are 10 stories that had our hearts racing and mouths watering in 2021, starting with food and moving on to cooking.

Top food stories of 2021

● The crazy ordeal of putting together Japan’s 366-piece sushi plastic model kit【Photos】

Japanese cuisines is supposed to be a feast for the eyes, so what truer way to follow that philosophy than by assembling a nigiri sushi model where every grain of rice is its own piece?

● We try a rotating sushi restaurant in New Delhi, are surprised to find no rotating sushi

The surprises kept coming at this Indian kaitzushi restaurant, even if no sushi was coming down the conveyor belt.

● Here’s why Japanese supermarkets play “cheap” background music all day, according to Twitter

The low-budget music you’ll hear while grocery shopping in Japan isn’t because the stores are trying to save money by not paying royalties, this theory says.

● Why do Japanese hot spring inns give you tea and sweets at check-in? For your own safety

If you’re always on the lookout for a reason to eat sweets, here’s one to remember: they just might save your life.

● Should you add wasabi to your soy sauce at a sushi restaurant?

Wasabi’s intense spiciness makes it a love-it-or-hate-it condiment, but even in the love-it camp, some people don’t love it when it’s used like this.

Top cooking stories of 2021

● How to turn McDonald’s chicken nuggets into tasty katsudon in five minutes【SoraKitchen】

One of our favorite things to do in the SoraKitchen is use fast food as the base ingredients to make something even better, and this was one of our greatest upgrades ever.

● We mixed 43 different kinds of Japanese curry together to make The King of Curries

When cooking curry at home, most people just use one kind, and curry connoisseurs might mix two or even three types. But when you’re a bunch of full-on curry maniacs like we are, you grab every variety they’ve got on the supermarket shelf, toss them all in the pot together, and see (and taste) what happens.

● Mr. Sato’s guide to easy-peasy no-bake chocolate mousse, courtesy of Kaldi import stores

Did you finish all your katsudon and curry? OK, then it’s time to treat yourself to some wonderfully wiggly chocolate mousse (as long as you’ve got some yogurt in the fridge)!

● How to turn your leftover instant ramen broth into delicious chawanmushi Japanese egg custard

The next time you’re feeling sad that you’ve eaten your last noodle from your cup of instant ramen, remember this ray of hope: You’ve got a whole other Japanese dish you can enjoy with just a few simple steps!

● We’ve been doing it wrong – Japanese genius shows us how we should all be making sandwiches【Pics】

Our life is now divided into two parts: the part before we knew to use the furoshiki method when making sandwiches, and the enlightened joy we live in now.

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Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Grand Underground Spheres enter real world, wait for you to eat them

You don’t have to go digging into the earth to find them, either.

Not long ago both our game-loving hearts and sweets-craving stomachs were happy to learn that we could walk to the store and buy real-world Animal Crossing star fragments to eat as a snack. We devoured our whole bag pretty quickly, and now we’ve got our sights set on yet another mouthwatering game-collectable-to-edible-in-reality crossover from a beloved Nintendo franchise.

To celebrate the recent remake releases of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl a special pop-up store is opening inside the Shibuya Parco shopping center in downtown Tokyo. Called the Burishai Fes Pop-up Store (“Burishai” being the Japanese fan nickname for Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl), among the items on sale will be boxes of Spheres, as seen in the games’ Grand Underground area.

Within the games, these colorful gemstones can be exchanged for items to furnish and defend the player’s subterranean Secret Base. The real-world version, though, can be exchanged for energy to power your body, as they’re an assortment of agar sugar candies.

Despite the childlike whimsy of the Pokémon games, the Spheres have elegantly mature flavors, with the red ones made with blackcurrant liqueur, the green ones pear liqueur, and the pink ones a mixture of peach and coconut liqueur (the white and blue Spheres are mint flavored).

▼ There’s no mention of alcohol content for the finished product, though, so it seems like they’re fine for all ages.

On the other hand, if you prefer a more straightforward sweetness for your sweets, the Burishai Fes Pop-up Store will also be offering Pochama meringue cakes and icing cookies modeled after the popular B-Side Label line of Pokémon stickers.

Prices range from 1,566 yen (US$13.60) for the cakes and cookies to 3,348 yen for the Sphere candy. The Burishai Fes Pop-up Store will be open from January 2 to 12, and during that period the Pokémon sweets lineup can also be purchased through Parco’s online store here. And if you want a Diamond and Pearl treat for your ears too, don’t forget about this.

Related: Shibuya Parco
Source: Pokémon official website (1, 2) via Hachima Kiko
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The opening morning of Comiket looked very different this year, and so did the night before【Vids】

Running of the Otaku and tetsuyagumi don’t fit with the first pandemic-era Comiket.

On December 30, Comiket finally made its long-awaited return. Ordinarily taking place twice a year, Japan’s largest gathering of doujinshi (self-published manga) fans and creators had both of its planned 2020 iterations, as well as the one for summer of 2021, cancelled because of the coronavirus, making this the first time for the even to be held since a full two years ago.

But while Comiket is back, the same can’t be said for another event associated with the convention. On the morning of Comiket in most years, the exit from Kokusai-Tenjijo Station, the closest rail stop to the Tokyo Big Sight convention center, looks like this.

▼ You might want to turn down your speakers’ volume.

That mad dash of fans, all racing to Big Sight in hope of getting there before the limited-edition comics and merch they’re hoping to score are sold out, has become known as either the “Comiket Dash” or “The Running of the Otaku.” On the opening day of 2021’s Comiket, though, things looked very different.

2年振りの始発ダッシュ、当然だけど例年のような勢いはありません #C99A pic.twitter.com/WkCbU9e4LI

— うわず (@uwaz_uzuz) December 29, 2021

That’s downright orderly. Sure, there are a few brisk-paced walkers, but overall there’s less velocity and jostling than you’re likely to see from a group of respectable businesspeople heading to their offices on a Monday morning.

コミケダッシュなんて存在しなかった pic.twitter.com/vofYajm8yS

— ルドルフ§侍Χ魂§†御庭番† (@dragonwaterfall) December 29, 2021

While it’s possible the slower speeds are a result of reduced athleticism brought on by periods of extended inactivity during the pandemic, there are two far more likely explanations. First, per-day attendance at this year’s Comiket is being limited to 55,000 guests per day. That might sound like a lot of people, but considering that the winter 2019 Comiket drew 750,000 fans over four days, this year’s crowd is going to be far smaller than the norm for the event, which means less bottlenecking at transportation access points.

今日のコミケの始発ダッシュでございます。【期間限定】 pic.twitter.com/wq1ghk29lG

— じょお＠備蓄中 (@johgame3) December 29, 2021

Second, even though Comiket, as the most otaku-ish of all otaku gatherings, has uninhibited passion for the doujinshi artform as its core, attendees are well aware of how close they came to having no Comiket at all this year. Even when the 2021 event, which is taking place on December 30 and 31, was officially announced back in August, it was with the warning that “If societal conditions do not improve as expected as a result of vaccinations and other measures, we cannot say that we will not further postpone the event.” A follow-up request from the organizers, made just a month and a half ago, urged attendees and participants to take steps to “protect themselves from infection and prevent transferring infection to others [and] not think of this year as being like past Comikets,” and the heavy breathing caused by aerobic exertion and bodily contact of pushing your way through a ticket-gate crowd are both Comiket morning norms that fans appear to be having the good sense to rethink for this year.

Another departure from the normal Comiket conditions was this year’s essentially complete absence of the tetsuyagumi, or “all-night tribe,” the collective term for fans who would loiter and line up on the streets surrounding Big Sight beginning the night before the convention.

▼ Big Sight on the night before the winter 2019 Comiket

南1,2の始発最前列に来ましたがこの徹夜組の量よ… #C97 #徹夜組 pic.twitter.com/VlHWpMXT6t

— 平安貴族 (@heiankizokumanj) December 27, 2019

While the testuyagumi strategy is officially frowned upon by Comiket organizers, requests to refrain are routinely ignored by those willing to spend a night in the cold to be closer to the front of the line. This year, though, attendees were willing to at least wait until the first trains started running the morning.

▼ Big Sight on the night before Comiket this year

#コミケ#コミックマーケット
徹夜組がいない。 pic.twitter.com/AjDLVWEY2H

— モンド (@sakaimiki2009) December 29, 2021

Eventually, when the coronavirus joins SARS and swine flu as a pandemic of the past, the all-night tribe and ticket gate dash might return, and some might even argue that without them Comiket has a little less energy to its atmosphere. For now, though, it looks like fans are simply glad to have Comiket back, and willing to do what they can so that the convention can start to walk again before it, and they, run.

Sources: Jin, Otakomu
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Former SMAP member Shingo Katori announces marriage to woman he’s been dating for 25 years

The relationship hasn’t exactly been a secret, but it came as a surprise anyway. 

A lot of hearts were broken when superstar Japanese boyband SMAP broke up. Though it’s been five years and the members are all still active with individual careers, the memory still hurts for some of us. But fans should be glad to know that the individual members of SMAP seem to be doing great post-breakup, both personally and professionally. In fact, the youngest member of the group, Shingo Katori, just got married.

▼ Shingo Katori

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A post shared by 香取慎吾 (@katorishingo_official)

Katori, who is 44 years old, announced his marriage through his agency on December 28, but what really surprised fans was the news that he has been quietly dating his now-wife for 25 years. Essentially that means that he and his wife had been together since he was a teenager. His wife, who is not famous and whose identity hasn’t been revealed, is said to be two years older than him.

Apparently, they met in 1997 while SMAP was being featured in a magazine, and lately have been spotted occasionally going on dates together without any attempt at disguise or to hide from the press. In 2016 they traveled to Hawaii together and were seen with a young boy, and rumors that he and his girlfriend had a child together arose, but Katori has said on TV that he was the child of a friend and has never admitted to having a child of his own.

▼ Katori is also famous for his female persona, Shingo-mama.

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A post shared by 香取慎吾 (@katorishingo_official)

Japanese fans were touched by the announcement that he married his longtime girlfriend, and no one seemed to resent Katori’s marriage, as some idol fans are wont to do.

“Wow! They managed to date so long without being sniffed out for the most part and without any (relationship shattering) betrayals.”
“People who have been fans of Shingo Katori since he was young are probably shocked to hear that he was dating someone for 25 years, but at this level, we should all publicly state how grateful we are that he protected the dreams of his fans for so long!”
“I’m really impressed by the woman’s mental strength in waiting 25 years to get married when she probably desperately wanted to.”
“25 years is amazing! That’s a true marriage there. What a way to do it.”
“When male celebrities date non-show business women for a long time, they tend to scrap older women and marry a younger, prettier girl, but I’m glad he didn’t do that.”
“If it were me, I’d have thought there was no prospect of marriage and cut the relationship off. This must be the perseverance of women. Wow.”

Though many netizens speculated that it was Katori who made his girlfriend wait, it could very well have been the other way around. Marriage seems to have been a long-awaited dream for him, as various comments he made over the last few years indicated he had a desire to get married. In 2017, when the topic of getting married was brought up on Fuij TV show Bokura no Jidai, Katori said “There’s no way I wouldn’t. I’m already in my 40s, so I really think I will.” In 2019 at a Christmas product PR event, he said his ideal Christmas Day celebration would be spending time with his wife and children at home.

▼ Katori posing with a Paralympic athlete on the TV show 7.2 Atarashii Betsu no Mado

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A post shared by 香取慎吾 (@katorishingo_official)

But it didn’t seem like he felt sure he would be married any time soon. In 2019 on the ABEMA TV show 7.2 Atarashii Betsu no Mado, he said, “As for whether I’ll be getting married sooner or later, I think it’s probably closer to ‘later,’ as everyone thinks.” Whether that meant Katori was the one holding back or his girlfriend, we’ll probably never know.

We do know that Katori’s marriage comes on the eve of a successful year for him as an actor and celebrity, which could have contributed to his decision. At the beginning of this year, he had his first starring role in a drama since the breakup of SMAP in Anonymous, and he served as a special supporter for the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics. He is also starring in the upcoming special drama about the Pacific War, London no Yamamoto Isoroku, which is a hot topic among drama fans.

▼ And of course, he continues to be active as a member of the group Atarashii Chizu, together with former SMAP members Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Goro Inagaki.

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A post shared by 香取慎吾 (@katorishingo_official)

Katori is the fourth former member of SMAP to be married. Katsuyuki Mori, who left the band in 1996 to pursue a career in motorcycle racing, married in 1998. Handsome heartthrob Takuya Kimura married pop singer and actress Shizuka Kudo in 2000, and his daughter is now a famous model. Finally, fellow Atarashii Chizu member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi announced his marriage this time last year, making Shingo’s announcement one year later even more interesting for fans.

Though he is now married, Katori says he is going to continue to be active as a musician and actor. “I’ll still be continuing to seriously pursue my work,” he said. “Thank you for all of your support.” He’s scheduled to make his next TV appearance with his fellow Atarashii Chizu bandmates on 7.2 Atarashii Betsu no Mado on January 1, so it’ll be interesting to see if he mentions anything about his new marriage or shows any signs of being a happy newlywed!

Source: Sponichi Annex via Hachima Kiko, Hochi News
Top image: Gahag
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