Kuronushi is a young Japanese artist who specializes in shadow art. He puts together hundreds of pieces of cardboard that, when viewed from different angles, project detailed shadows.

You’ve probably seen shadow art – expertly arranged objects that project certain shadows – before, but Kuronushi’s creations are on another level. He glues together hundreds of pieces of cardboard to create themed dioramas that project a shadow artwork when light is cast on them from a certain angle, but there is actually more to these rudimentary-looking cardboard installations. When Kuronushi turns his little dioramas, the shadows they cast change into related portraits. For example, for a scene inspired by the Wizarding World of Harry Potter featuring a broom-riding Hogwarts student and a half-moon, the installation also casts a detailed portrait of Harry Potter himself when seen from a certain angle.

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Mai Watanabe, a young self-proclaimed dating scammer, was arrested for selling how-to guides on defrauding ‘sugar daddies’ through paid dating.

25-year-old Watanabe, who hails from Nagoya, Japan, was arrested in August for selling a number of dating scam manuals to her social media followers. featuring titles like ‘Textbook for Sugar Babies: The Right Profile and Magical Words to Make Men Pay,’ these books went into great detail about the right way to approach vulnerable middle-aged men and get as much money from them as possible. One of these controversial guidebooks taught readers to tell their sugar daddies that they had had an unhappy childhood, in order to gain their sympathy and open their pockets. Other tactics included lying that they were unable to work due to ill health and that they urgently needed help to pay rent.

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A Japanese candy company has been making national news headlines for its idea to produce gummy candy that tastes like an ‘imaginary fruit’ called Kiraspika (キラスピカ).

Last year was a great one for gummy candy producers, and the market continued to expand throughout 2023, with fruit-flavored gummies being the most popular. While there are plenty of fruit flavors to choose from, including intriguing fruit combinations, companies are still limited to the fruits available in our world. But what if someone broke down barriers and started making candy that tastes like imaginary fruits? That was the genius idea that Japanese sweets maker Kanro recently came up with. Last month, the company launched a new type of gummy candy that tastes like ‘Kiraspika no Mi’, a made-up fruit with an original flavor, design, and even an origin story.

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Japanese men who carry mobile shrines known as mikoshi every year as part of important Shinto festivals are left with giant callouses on their shoulders that they display as badges of honor.

Carrying mikoshi shrines is considered a great honor among Japanese Shintoists, and while some may do it just once in their lives, the most dedicated of them actually help carry the mikoshi every year, for decades. Because these mobile shrines and the large wooden beams that support them can weigh over a ton, the pressure on the bearers’ shoulders is significant, and after years of service, the shoulders start to develop large callouses known as ‘mikoshi dako’. They are not the prettiest things in the world to look at, but mikoshi bearers wear them as badges of honor.

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A popular restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, sparked controversy for claiming to dip its delicious pork skewers in a sauce jar that has not been cleaned in over half a century.

Abe-chan, a famous pork skewer eatery in Tokyo’s Azabu Juban shopping district, was recently featured on a popular Japanese television show where it was revealed that one of the secrets to its success was a rather dubious-looking jar covered in a gelatinous mass. Apparently, this was the same sauce jar that pork skewers have been dipped in for the last sixty years, and the dark brown mass around the jar is the sauce that spilled over and hardened over the decades. According to the third-generation owner of Abe-chan, the jar has never been cleaned in the last six decades, which apparently contributes to the rich taste of the sauce.

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A Japanese producer of milk and dairy products came up with an ingenious way of motivating kids to finish their milk bottles at lunch – decorating the bottles with manga comics.

Seki Milk, a milk producer and processor in Japan’s Gifu Prefecture, has been providing its products to local schools, but in recent years the company had seen consumption of milk drop significantly. According to its own research, the majority of school students (around 65% of them) were not finishing their milk bottles at lunch, which caused unnecessary food waste and also deprived them of calcium and other valuable nutrients. However, if you’re a parent, you probably already know that getting kids to eat things that are good for them isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Luckily, Seki Milk came up with an original and fun way to motivate children to finish their milk – manga bottles.

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Japan’s population is aging at an accelerated pace, so it’s no surprise that the country now has its own old boy band, with members aged between 65 and 87.

G-Pop, a play on the Japanese word ‘Ojii-san’ for ‘old man’, is not your average boy band. J-Pop and K-Pop groups like most other boy bands, are primarily aimed at teenagers and young adults so the usual recipe for success is finding good-looking young men who can also dance and maybe have some sort of musical talent. G-Pop, on the other hand, is targeting Japan’s older population, so they are actually old men in their 60s through 80s. The Kochi Prefecture-based music troupe made its professional debut seven years ago, it’s been busy putting a positive spin on the country’s rapidly aging population ever since.

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Japanese couple Hiromi and Hidekazu Takeda have been married for many years and even have a child together, but they live an hour apart from each other and have never shared a home.

‘Separation marriages’, aka weekend marriages or living apart together (LAT), have reportedly become very popular in Japan, because they allow couples to experience the best of both worlds- on one hand, they enjoy each other’s love and support, but they also get to maintain an individual lifestyle without worrying about their partner. Basically, a separation marriage allows couples to experience the combined benefits of being married and being single, but it is important that the relationship be based on mutual love and respect.

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A 39-year-old Japanese man has been described as ‘trans-age’ after reportedly identifying as 28 because it’s an age that better describes his still immature personality.

In the age of ‘self-identified diversity’ where anyone is free to identify as whatever they want, a Japanese man has come out as ‘trans-age’, meaning that he chooses to identify as 28 years old, despite having been born 39 years ago. The Kyoto-based man known only as Jackie appeared on the reality show ABEMA Prime where he explained that he didn’t feel comfortable as a 39-year-old man, so he decided to be 28 instead. Apparently, the trans-age man settled on this particular age, because it strikes a good balance between being an adult and still having a childish side without attracting the judgment of others.

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Japan’s Mitsubishi Uni-ball ONE series black gel pen has been recognized as the world’s blackest gel pen by Guinness World Records.

When it comes to the world’s blackest paint, there is no competing with Vanta Black, but pen gel is a whole other matter. Mitsubishi Pencil Co.Ltd. now holds the record for the blackest gel pen, thanks to an innovative type of pigment-containing particles that seal the paint inside. When writing on paper, it can reduce the penetration of the gel into paper fibers, making the color look more saturated than other gel pens.

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A Japanese scientist studying the languages of birds wore a giant bird mask on his head for an entire year in order to trick a nest of great tits to allow him to approach them.

Toshitaka Suzuki, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo, recently shared a bizarre photo of a man wearing a giant bird head on Twitter. It turns out that the photo taken somewhere in the forests of Nagano Prefecture shows a fellow scientist who decided to wear the ‘disguise’ for an entire year in order to get close to a nest of great tits without triggering their distress calls. Ornithologists and bird behavior experts had noticed that certain bird species were capable of remembering human faces and that they would stop their usual chirping to put out warning calls whenever they saw these individuals approaching. Having wound up on the tits’ blacklist, the Japanese scientist decided to disguise himself as a giant bird in order to approach the birds and study their chirping.

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Bored during the last stages of the Covid-19 lockdown, a Japanese man spent a whole month catching dung beetles and creating a mesmerizing color gradient collection.

On August 17, Japanese Twitter (X) user bochimushi posted a photo of hundreds of shiny dung beetles arranged by color – from deep blue to purple – forming an impressive gradient. Apparently, the eye-catching collection of beetles was created in August of last year, as a way to pass the time during the end of the Covid-19 lockdown. Bored out of his mind, the man started hunting dung beetles and then arranging them neatly in this gradient style for a stunning visual effect. Bochimushi’s collection consists of a whopping 450 dung beetles.

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The ARCHAX is a real-life 4.5-meter-tall mecha robot created by Japanese company Tsubame Industry that can be yours for the low price of 400 million yen ($2.75 million).

If, like me, you grew up watching Gundam anime and playing video games like Armored Core or Titanfall, you probably imagined yourself piloting a giant mecha at least once in your life. Well, thanks to a company called Tsubame Industry, that dream is about to become reality. Well, if you can afford it, of course. The small Japanese startup recently showcased its newest product, dubbed ‘ARCHAX’, a pilotable robot inspired by Japanese mecha culture. Standing a whopping 4.5 meters tall and weighing around 3.5 tons, this real-life mecha is powered by a 300V battery and can switch from a standing mode to drivable mode, attaining a top speed of 10 kilometers per hour. However, in order to experience the thrill of piloting the ARCHAX, you’ll have to pay an estimated 400 million yen ($2.75 million) for one.

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The Giraffenap is a new style of sleeping pod that encourages power naps during the day as a way of improving concentration and work efficiency.

Japan is a notoriously hardworking country that emphasizes extreme dedication to one’s work even at the cost of that person’s health or general wellbeing. Working conditions can get so bad that the Japanese language actually has a term for ‘death by overwork’ (karoshi). In order to put up with this kind of grueling schedule and stress, some Japanese workers turn to short power naps. These are known to boost energy levels and concentration, as long as the person doesn’t go into deep sleep. In order to make it easier for people to get power naps pretty much anywhere, one company has begun installing vertical sleeping pods called ‘Gireaffenap’ in cafes all over the country.

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Bijin-Hime, aka ‘Beautiful Princess’, is a Japanese strawberry variety that is perfectly shaped and colored and offers an unmatched flavor. It also costs up to $350 a piece, making it one of the world’s most expensive fruits.

Developed by Mikio Okuda, a Japanese farmer with over 45 years of experience growing strawberries, over 15 years of trial and error, Bijin-Hime is one of the world’s most highly regarded strawberry varieties. The largest fruits are about the size of a tennis ball and weigh around 100 grams, but it’s not the size that makes the Beautiful Princess special. Well, actually, it is, but not in the way you expect. Generally, the larger a strawberry is, the less flavor and sweetness it has, but that is certainly not the case with Bijin-Hime strawberries. They are rated at 13 degrees Brix, which makes them considerably sweeter than the 10-degree Brix strawberry standard, and have a flavor reminiscent of roses.

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