For those that aren’t familiar with it, Japan has an annual NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen or “Year-end Song Festival” on New Year’s Eve. This year, during the 68th Kouhaku three members of the all female idol group Keyakizaka46 collapsed while performing on stage. The group was performing with Uchimura Teruyoshi when Hirata Yurina (16) was visibly shaking during the dance routine. At the end of … Continue reading Three Members of Keyakizaka46 collapse on Kouhaku Stage!

Let me tell you a tale of Samurai chefs, skilled in the art of making ramen. Residents of Seattle know this story well, but I didn’t have to travel that far, because these Samurai have settled part of their clan in Houston, Texas. This is the story of Samurai Noodle (cue cool Japanese music here). For those that want to see how these modern-day Samurai … Continue reading Samurai Noodle Restaurant Review!

Another great item we picked-up at Ramen Expo USA 2017 were Akebono Corporation’s Gokubuto (thick) and Tornado chopsticks. Both chopsticks were amazing! I consider myself an average chopstick user, but with these I felt like I was an expert. We eat quite a bit of Japanese food, and regularly use chop sticks, but the Gokubuto and Tornado chopsticks shine brightest when eating ramen–or any other … Continue reading Akebono Gokubuto and Tornado Chopsticks Review!

As most of our readers know, we picked-up plenty of ramen samples during our visit to Ramen Expo USA 2017. Today, we will be looking at Yamachan Ramen! Yamachan Ramen is a family-owned company out of San Jose, California, and are the only Japanese raw noodle manufacturer operating under Japanese management in Northern California. We decided to make Miso Ramen today, so we used Yamachan … Continue reading Yamachan Ramen-Miso Ramen Review!

A new music festival is coming to Japan—“Fantasia”! It will celebrate Japanese beauty through music, fashion and media art. It will be held at the Makuhari Messe, Chiba Prefecture on November 18, 2017. Checkout this video about “Fantasia”: The full title is “Fantasia–Episode 1 Princess Kaguya”, which will be based on the Japanese tale “Taketori Monogatari” or “The Tale of the Bamboo cutter.” There will … Continue reading “Fantasia” Music Festival In Japan!

This year the first Ramen Expo USA was held in Austin, Texas, and it was as Ramen-tastic as you can imagine! Checkout the following video of Ramen Expo USA 2017! Read below for our detailed review of the event. As you can see by the video, there were a lot of vendors providing samples of their おいしい (delicious) ramen, and other ramen-related goods. The great … Continue reading Ramen Expo USA 2017!

The Anime Tourism Association has just announced that more than 80 cities, towns, and wards have been selected for the “Anime Tourism 88-Stop Pilgrimage.” The locations will contain places that were shown-in or inspired scenes in various different anime. The 88-Anime Pilgrimage is based on the the Shikoku Henro–the 88-Buddhist Temple Pilgrimage. Some of the locations are the Shinjuku Ward of Tokyo and the City … Continue reading 88-Stop Anime Pilgrimage In Japan!