From Ningin: Ningin’s victorious defeat over Wirebot in MLG Tournament I, has done much to rile the emotions of many Mixr sites within the Mixr Kingdom. So much so, that football site BlitzNation.com, Japanese entertainment site Rekuru.com and gadgets site ZiggyTek.com have joined forces to become BlitzKuTek, a team of allied bloggers from each respective site. After all, how could it be that a team of non-gamers (Ningin) beat a team of gamers (Wirebot) in a flash game tournament? More »

If you thought swine flu was last year’s news, think again… More »

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After my depressing last post, I thought I’d lighten up the mood a little. I’m not exactly sure what to say about this new product but it definitely made me laugh out loud. The title is enough to describe the item, but I think the picture goes a lot further in describing this “Snuggie gone wild.”

I’m holding you in anticipation by making you click the MORE link to see it. I want you to be as surprised as I was. More »

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What: Studio Ghibli Museum and Nakano Broadway indoor shopping mall Where: Tokyo Area, Nakano and Mitaka stations on the Chuo-Sobu line What to do: Get out of Tokyo, but still enjoy all the good things about it

Go West, Young Man is proverbial advice, funny when you consider that Japan (the “East”) is actually west of the States; but this is also good advice if you find yourself in Tokyo and crave a bit more animanga culture than Akihabara gives you, and especially if you’re a fan of director Hayao Miyazaki. Just jump on a west-bound train to the suburb of Mitaka for the Studio Ghibli Museum, and hit up Nakano Broadway en route. More »

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From Ningin: What better way to ring in the New Year than with another giveaway? To celebrate the newly released Rekuru-favorite film, 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End, 10 lucky people have a chance at winning 20th Century Boys posters, pins and a DVD. More »

This article is going to make you feel bad. No matter how I write it, this will inspire guilt (or thankfulness) over all the great new gadgets we got at Christmas and the huge houses we all live in.

Over the New Year’s holiday, the Japanese government opened emergency shelters in order to help the homeless after many out of work citizens pitched tents in front of public buildings to protest their plight. The small amount of government help has done little to help the nations record 5.2% unemployment rate.

Numerous workers, who have been jobless since Christmas or earlier, have been forced to choose alternate housing due to the recent global economic downturn and inability to maintain rent payments. Many of these people have found refuge in Japan’s popular capsule-style hotels, which offer small berths no bigger than a standard twin bed. More »

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From Girlybubble: Looking at Parcoala, the mascot for new Japanese department store, Parco, you have to wonder. Why don’t department stores here ever have cute mascots? Or mascots at all? When was the last time you walked into a Macy’s only to be greeted by cute, furry animal mascots decorating every piece of advertising? Personally, cute animals are enough to make me want to spend. More »

The infamous Japanese blogging website, Ameba (also known as “Amebo” or “Ameblog”) had a security breach recently. It seems some random hacker decided they would make the passwords of over 400 celebrity bloggers available to the public.

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As the international popularity of Japanese rock rapidly increases, 2009 can count itself amongst the most noteworthy years for the scene. Below is my list of the most significant events in the J-Rock world for the past 365 days. More »

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From Ningin: Alot of great/well known anime have been based on a light novel. Series such as Toradora, To Aru Majutsu no Index, Bakemonogatari, Baccano all started as a light novel. Translations for the original novels are available for some series at Baka-tsuki but most of them have little to no progress. Still, it gives hope that someday I’ll be able to read the original stories. Even if I didn’t like the anime for some series such as Kaze no Stigma or Shakugan no Shana maybe the source was a lot better. Some of the best anime have also come from light novels More »