Japan

Animatronic Rocket Raccoon is the first soldier of the Robot Uprising

Guardians of the Galaxy hit Japan this weekend – and we love some of the crazy things Japan has been doing to promote the movie. This latest bit of promotion however, might go a touch too far into the ‘oh god kill it with fire’ camp. James Gunn shared this short clip from GETNEWSJP on…

The Alley Cats of Japan Look Pretty Badass

French photographer Alexander Bonnefoy recently traveled around Japan looking for felines. And boy did he find some pretty ones. He found some pretty scrappy ones, too! The kitten-laden adventure took Bonnefoy from Okinawa to Hokkaido, down back alleys and up into trees. The cats he found ran the gamut of badassery as well. From the…

The Sad, Inevitable Oculus Rift Boob-Grabbing Game Is Here

You can do some cool shit with the Oculus Rift: You can simulate what flying feels like, or use it to pick out your next car. And if you have less experience with the female anatomy than Steve Carell in The 40 Year Old Virgin, now you can use it to simulate grabbing a handful…

A Japanese city has its own, Police-approved Batman

A few weeks ago, Japanese media blew up with twitter images of a man, completely clad in a Batman costume, riding a kitted out trike on the streets of Chiba. It turns out the city has a new popular hero, one that even the local police force are fans of: Chibatman. Header Image Credit: Doorblog…

The Guardians Of The Galaxy‘s Anime Debut Must Be Seen To Be Believed

You may remember Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers, the ridiculous, Beyblade/Pokémon-esque anime series in Japan, designed solely to sell Marvel merch to young kids. Well, the Guardians of the Galaxy are making their debut in the show next week, and OH MY GOD WHY DO THEY LOOK LIKE THAT Ignoring Star-Lord’s almost hilariously stereotypical spiky…

Watching a master chef make noodles by hand is absolutely mesmerizing

I’m not sure if this is considered just cooking or if it can be classified as high art or even a musical performance but whatever it is, it’s an absolute joy to watch. What you’re seeing is soba master Tatsuru Rai, owner and chef of Sobatei Rakuichi in Niseko, Hokkaido, making his soba noodles in…

Japan’s Spending $5 Billion to Fast Track Maglev Trains in the US

Come on guys. It’s just 40 miles. We’ll even go halfsies with you. Except, in this case, “halfsies” still amounts to $5 billion. Japan, in an effort to help DC build a maglev train that would cut travel time to Baltimore down to 15 minutes, is offering up half the cash to do it. The…

Japan’s Decade-Long Mission to Mine an Asteroid

1999 JU3: It doesn’t sound like a very noteworthy name. It’s just one of more than 5,000 Apollo-class asteroids. But 1999 JU3 could become a household name if Japan succeeds in mining it—a mission that JAXA has struggled with for decades, often disastrously. And on Sunday, it revealed the probe that could redeem it. Four…

This guy is driving a batcycle around Japan in a perfect Batman costume

Apparently there’s a crazy dude going around in Japan in full Batman uniform driving a batcycle. And that’s perfectly fine by me, quite honestly. Go Batman go! SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Watching this guy draw a dragon makes my brain go into trance mode

One stroke painting is such an impressive skill that it’s unbelievable even when you see it happen. These artists from Kousyuuya in Nikko, Japan have been mastering their craft for over four generations. The amount of detail they can put out with one stroke is just unreal. The GIF above sums it up but if…

This LED Flashlight Is Powered by Spherical Solar Cells

Solar-powered flashlights consistently suffer from one glaring problem: They’re ugly as hell. But that’s nothing that a multidisciplinary creative collective from Japan can’t solve. Enter Graf. This Osaka-based team is made up of a range of experts, from an architect to a chef to a furniture designer. The collective designed an LED flashlight for the…

Why This Japanese Village Is Full of Creepy Dolls

Guys, dolls are creepy. They have unblinking, soulless eyes. They seem like they could come alive at any moment and murder everyone with their tiny hands, their uncanny plastic features morphing from a facade of innocence to PURE EVIL. So an entire village populated mainly by life-size dolls is not an un-terrifying proposition. In fact,…

Japan Is Creating a Militarized Program To Deal With Space Junk

Last week, the world was transfixed by the story of a gecko sex satellite that Russia lost contact with after it was knocked by some space debris. Apparently, it was the wake up call we needed as a species: Japan has announced the creation of a program aimed at monitoring space debris, a military-based project…

Oculus Rift Lets You Rest Your Lonely Head on an Anime Woman’s Lap

It found you a car. It enlisted in the Navy. It gave this grandmathe thrill of her life. And now, at long last, the Oculus Rift is giving you a taste of what it’s like to know a woman’s touch sort of. Meet your new, anime, virtual girlfriend(‘s lap). It was only a matter of…

Japan is turning the manga/anime/live-action movie series Death Note into a musical. The series, about a teen with a notebook that kills anyone whose name he writes in it, and the teen detective who tries to catch him, seems like an odd fit for a musical, but it also seemed like bizarre idea for a…

This Final Fantasy-Style, Redesigned Action Figure Of Batman Is Madness

Tetsuya Nomura, best known as the director and character designer of videogames like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, and decided to take a crack at redesigning the World’s Greatest Detective. Then Square Enix USA decided to make an action figure of the results. The result? Shut up and take my goddamn money. It’s like Batman…

A Japanese soldier had no idea WWII ended—and fought for 29 more years

When Hiroo Onoda got dropped off on in the Philippines during World War II, the Japanese soldier was told two things: 1) You are absolutely forbidden to die by your own hand. And 2) It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens, we’ll come back for you. They didn’t come back,…

Believe It or Not, the World’s Fastest-Growing Drone Fleet Is in Japan

Japan is a peaceful nation, in no small part because its post-World War II constitution required it. All that changed last month when President Shinzo Abe ended the ban that’s kept Japan’s army in check since 1945. And do you know what the country did next? It started buying drones. Lots and lots of drones.…

A never-ending ocean of 4.5 million flowers in Japan

The Hitachi Seaside Park is one of the most beautiful parks in the planet: A place where millions of flowers grow every year in the most amazing displays of colors imaginable. Here you can see about 4.5 million baby-blue nemophilas blossoming in April—but there’s more, much more. Top image by Teerayut Hiruntaraporn. Photo by azure…

There’s a Trippy Walk-In Kaleidoscope Hiding In This Shipping Container

Drugs are illegal and often pretty bad for you. But who needs LSD when the world has talented designers like Masakazu Shirane and Saya Miyazaki. Last year, the Japanese duo took on the challenge of creating a mind-bending environment inside of a shipping container—and did they ever succeed. Garden is a huge origami-inspired kaleidoscope built…