I love this video about Ryan Neil, an American Bonsai master, because not only do I get to watch him work but I also get to hear him talk about the art of Bonsai. Neil reveals the amount of respect and consideration you need to be able to craft these beautiful pieces of art from nature. It's just lovely.
Miniature Channel is a Japanese Youtube channel devoted to cooking edible food using cute miniature kitchen supplies. There are many videos: They make curry, tajine, eggs and bacon, and of course, Japanese food. Here are some of their best Japanese miniature dishes.
Food all goes down the same but there's so much beauty in food and each ingredient that chefs like Niki Nakayam of Los Angeles Japanese Kaiseki restaurant n/naka turn the idea of putting plate of food into an art form. You're no longer eating protein and vegetables, but edible art on a plate.
If sorcery exists in this world, I'm pretty sure Japan has already discovered it. They can't quite turn water into wine but they can turn it into dessert. That water droplet you see above? It's actually a rice cake dessert, or shingen mochi, that melts in your mouth as you eat it. It's like eating a delicate water…
Poking fun at passed out drunk people is a global thing but Japanese bar chain Yaocho took the joke to a different level. The sleeping drunks were framed inside a square of white tape and turned into a PSA billboard with the hashtag #nomisugi—too drunk—written on it.
For the same baffling reasons they do many other things, the Japanese have been competing in synchronized team precision walking since 1966. They call it Shuudan Koudou and, as you can imagine, they do it perfectly well and it looks perfectly crazy.
The fascinating History of Engineering and Technology tumblr just posted this great, previously unseen photo of a Japanese weather satellite called GMS-2, from 1981.
Check out the trailer for It's Me, It's Me, a brand new Japanese film about a guy who tries to impersonate his doppelganger — only to find that there are a bunch of copies of himself, and they're multiplying.
I doodled on my textbooks like a mad man when I was a kid, but this Japanese student is taking this art to a completely new level, whitening out parts of the drawings and replacing them with his own—sometimes with hilarious results and always in a sick way. Japan!
We've been enjoying Jed Henry's pop culture illustrations inspired by Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. His new gallery show, opening tonight at Gallery Nucleus, includes some new pieces, including this showdown between Batman and the Joker.
It's one thing to have a spacious home, it's another to have a whole indoor suburb. "House K" does the latter, and puts a weird new spin on the townhouse by having its own little town inside its walls.
Go ahead and ask Siri what languages she speaks. Unlike a few weeks ago, her reply will now include Japanese. We mentioned that extra languages were going to be coming to the app soon — looks like Japanese will be the first to arrive. [9to5Mac]
Nissan's poky little electric Leaf car will be able to power your home in the case of a blackout, via a new two-way charging system called Leaf to Home, an idea that originated from March's Fukushima disaster.
A fisherman that had been swept out of his boat off the coast of Japan's Niigata prefecture managed to stay alive for 24 hours, while he clung to his plastic esky that acted as a life-aid.
After the Fukushima disaster, Japan has obvious reasons for seeking out an energy alternative to replace 1/3 of its power. This so-called "fire-ice" could be drilled from the bottom of the Pacific ocean, though it's not the safest option around.
Japan musicians Androp built a backdrop of 250 Canon cameras and programmed all their flashes to fire off in a sort of digital stop-motion screen. Watch it, though I can't guarantee the video won't blind you and give you a seizure.
Know what the latest must-have product is in Japan? While it looks like they've gone mad and are shaving their wrists, they're actually saving the planet by switching off the air-con, and cooling down using freezing cold foam-spray.
Looks like that skirmish between Japan and China last year over the neodymium and lanthanum required in the production of electronics has been resolved, now that Japan has stumbled over their own supplies in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.
Is it just me, or does this new building in Aomori look like a rectangular version of everybody's favorite Adam's Family member?
