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Win-Compilation Juni 2026

Haben Maik und ich in der letzten Ausgabe noch verkündet, dass wir uns für zukünftige Ausgaben ein bisschen mehr Zeit nehmen und dafür den Druck der Pünktlichkeit runterschrauben wollen, kommt diese Ausgabe dann doch überraschend okay-pünktlich. Was lernen wir daraus? Wir sollten das mit großen Ankündigungen lassen, wenn wir uns selbst nicht sicher sind, was …

Gigantic gacha machine appears in Tokyo department store for capsule toy celebration

Monster Capsule is a gacha behemoth. “Monster Capsule” might sound like the name of some cheap Pokémon knockoff, but the capsule being referred to isn’t one meant for carrying creatures around in. No, Monster Capsule is supposed to bring up thoughts of capsule toy/gachapon machines, and the Monster part of the name isn’t because the […]

Pikachu cakes and other adorable Pokémon 30th anniversary food coming to Tokyo luxury hotel

Special sweets designed to satisfy your sweet tooth and cool you off in the summer heat. This year is Pokémon’s 30th anniversary, and the franchise is celebrating in style at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, with the hotel offering amazing Pokémon-themed rooms including one with 30 Pikachu plushies to keep guests company during their stay. But […]

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Win-Compilation Mai 2026

Hui, das hat dieses Mal doch ein bisschen länger gedauert, als Maik und ich vermutlich dachten. Wobei, so ganz richtig ist das nicht, denn wir haben uns bewusst ein bisschen mehr Zeit gelassen, denn ... gegen Ende des letzten Monats wurden wir doch ziemlich aus der Bahn geworfen. Über die Schuldfrage kann man sicherlich streiten, …

Art Fire Festival lights up the night at a unique venue in the mountains of Japan

Sarusho continues to shine in its second life. Ordinarily, summer is the season for amazing nighttime pyrotechnics in Japan, as that’s the time of year in which most of the country’s fireworks festivals are held. But rather than wait for the weather to warm up, the organizers of the Art Fire Festival decided to bring […]

The dream of riding Final Fantasy Chocobos is coming to Tokyo VR centers

Final Fantasy XIV VR experience will give you the chance to prove you’re the kweh-kist Chocobo jockey around. Fukushima recently unveiled a travel promotion in conjunction with Final Fantasy, inviting travelers to visit the prefecture and search for the video game franchise’s iconic avian character. However, as fans know, Chocobos aren’t just Final Fantasy’s mascot, […]

Japanese-style afternoon tea in this Japanese manor house outside downtown Tokyo is something special

The atmosphere is as elegant as the cuisine at this amazing restaurant. Ganko is a Japanese restaurant group with most of its locations in the Osaka area. They’ve got a whole bunch of sub-brands with different specialties, such as Ganko conveyor belt sushi or curry restaurants. Today, though, we’re talking about Ganko’s Oyashiki locations, which […]

Downtown Tokyo’s meaty monster Kaibutsu ramen will challenge your stomach, thrill your taste buds

This ramen behemoth only appears two days a week, but for serious carnivores, it’s worth waiting for. Even with the continual upward creep of restaurant prices in Japan, 1,800 yen (US$11.60) feels like a lot for ramen, considering that it wasn’t all that long ago that basic bowls of the stuff could be found for […]

Krispy Kreme Japan giving free donuts with morning drink purchases at all branches, maybe forever

This isn’t a limited-time offer – the free morning donut service has no specified end date! Usually when you hear someone say “The best things in life are free,” they’re talking about love, friendship, or the peaceful tranquility of self-realization and confidence…or maybe a really, really good nap. All fine things, to be sure, but we’d […]

30 Pikachus want to share a Tokyo hotel room with you that has separate Grass, Water, Fire spaces

Grand Hyatt Tokyo celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise with one Pikachu for every year. The Grand Hyatt Tokyo welcomes visitors from around the world every day, but summer is when the establishment’s guests include Pokémon. It’s become an annual tradition for the hotel to offer Pokémon-themed rooms during the summer months. However, […]

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Win-Compilation April 2026

Erster des Monats, ihr kennt das – vor allem möchte ich aber mal herausstellen, wie großartig das ist, dass Maik und ich auch dieses Jahr auf schlechte April-Scherze verzichten. Klar, es wäre vermessen zu behaupten, dass wir das schon immer so gehandhabt haben, weil wir so furchtbar erwachsen sind und die Menschheit ohnehin schon mit …

Japan’s Mos Burger creates tempura rice bowl bento boxed lunch burger, but not for its menu

New item seeks to put four food categories in your hand all at once. In 1987, Japanese fast food chain Mos Burger debuted the rice burger, swapping out the classic hamburger bun for a pair of lightly grilled discs of rice. By combining the joys of hamburgers and rice, Mos made something doubly pleasing to […]

7-Eleven Japan’s giant fried chicken skewer would be too big to eat, so it’s really for cuddling

Comfort food to snuggle up with is just one of the crazy prizes in the 7-Eleven Happy Kuji collection. There are a lot of things to love at 7-Eleven Japan, but one of the most lovely of all is the convenience store chain’s karaage-bo, or fried chicken skewers. Honestly, it’s hard to see how they […]

Real-life Professor Oak? Pokémon Company recruiting PhD holders in science and agriculture

Doctorate degree, bilingual communication skills, and research regarding plants and animals are only requirement for mysterious position with Pokémon Company. Professor Oak has a pretty good job, doesn’t he? As the Kanto Region’s leading Pokémon scholar, he spends his days using his intellect to deepen mankind’s understanding of, and affinity for, all sorts of Pocket […]

Pizza Hut Japan teams up with creator of one of the country’s best kinds of ramen for ramen pizza

Yokohama ramen continues to bring differently delicious tastes together with ie-kei pizza. Pizza and ramen have a lot of things in common. For both of them, the first image that springs to mind is of a simple but tasty comfort food, but they have enough history and room for variation that creative chefs have created […]

One Piece creator has hidden secret of anime treasure’s identity in chest at bottom of real-world ocean

After keeping secret for nearly 30 years, Eiichiro Oda has written it down on a paper, put that paper in a chest, and tossed it into the sea, where it remains even now. As both the writer and illustrator of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda has proven his talents as both a storyteller and a visual […]

Chance to play Teris on a massive staircase in Kyoto Station coming in March

The one time you won’t get in trouble for playing on the stairs. Four decades ago, Alexey Pajitnov created one of the most groundbreaking and universally beloved video games of all time in Tetris. It has appeared on countless gaming platforms over the years, and now it’s coming to a literal platform outside of Kyoto […]

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Win-Compilation März 2026

Erinnert sich noch jemand an die Zeit, als Maik und ich so ein bisschen gejammert und uns präventiv entschuldigt haben, dass die Ausgaben ob ihrer Anzahl an Clips doch ein bisschen dünner werden, weil es einfach nicht mehr leicht ist, passend zu unserem selbstaufgelegten Regelwerk Videos zu finden, die wir in die Compilation packen können? …

Drift ice in Japan is a disappearing winter miracle you need to see now

A trip on the Aurora icebreaker boat takes you to the southernmost point where the ocean freezes. If you’re looking for unusual sights in Japan, you can’t go past the drift ice in eastern Hokkaido. This special winter activity is one you can’t experience anywhere else in the country, and certainly not in a lot […]

Skyscraper sized Pokémon cards to appear in Tokyo all year long in Tocho projection mapping event

Tokyo’s 242.9-meter (797-foot) city hall will be lit up with Pokémon cards starting this spring. There aren’t many better examples of how sometimes big things come in small packages than Pokémon cards. They may just be little pieces of paper, but they’ve brought joy to millions of fans around the world, bridging generations, sparking imagination, […]

Crazy-cheap Tokyo lunch: All-you-can-eat curry rice for 220 yen (US$1.40)!

We go looking for faults in this sounds-too-good-to-be-true Ikebukuro offer. There’s no shortage of writers with healthy appetites on the SoraNews24 team, and as such we’ve rarely been accused of having eyes that are bigger than our stomachs. Our bank accounts, though, are of more modest sizes, and so we’re always on the lookout for […]

Is Sapporio’s Snow Festival awesome enough to be worth visiting even if you hate the snow? [Pics]

Can Hokkaido’s annual outdoor art event charm a Tohoku girl who’s always been lukewarm on winter travel? “You’ve gotta be crazy to go out of your way to take a trip somewhere at the coldest time of the year just to look at snow!” This has long been the deeply held belief of our Japanese-language […]

New Family Mart cinema opens inside Japanese airport

Japan’s first permanent cinema in an airport is called the Family Mart Lovers Theatre…but why? We’ve seen a lot of things in Japan, but one thing we haven’t seen is a mini cinema inside an airport. That all changed on 1 October, though, when the Faminchu Theatre opened inside Okinawa’s Naha Airport. While New Chitose […]

Huge Evangelion Unit-01 head appearing in lights in Japan to celebrate anime’s 30th anniversary

The Minato Mirai neighborhood is looking extra futuristic with Eva light-up and fireworks. In the grand scheme of things, there really isn’t all that much Evangelion anime. There was the original anime TV series that ran for 26 episodes, which was followed by two theatrical features made largely of recycled footage. 1997 brought the in-hindsight […]

Naruto jerseys coming to Major Leage Baseball theme nights, Hello Kitty to take over a field

The Brewers believe it! There are all sorts of fighting skills that come in handy for ninja, from hand-to-hand combat to proficiency with throwing stars, explosives, or supernatural ninpo spells. But more than anything, the definitive shinobi talent is stealth. True ninja must be so adept at infiltration that they can suddenly appear anywhere, even […]

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