Lawson opens its first “mini supermarket” in Tokyo.

Lawson is one of Japan’s big-three convenience stores (the others being 7-Eleven and Family Mart), but Lawson itself has multiple sub-brands. For example, there’s also the budget-minded Lawson Store 100, with most items priced at 100 yen, and on May 28, the Lawson family expanded once again with the opening of L Minimart in Tokyo’s Kodaira district.

L Minimart says its mission is to be a “mini supermarket,” which sounds like a bit of a contradiction, doesn’t it? But Lawson believes there’s room for a new type of store in between convenience stores and supermarkets, with more fresh produce and ingredients than a standard Lawson would carry, but still offering more convenience and simplicity than a full-scale grocery store.

This first branch of the new L Minimart chain is about a 10-minute walk from the South Exit of Kodaira Station, and on opening day was scheduled to start welcoming shopper at noon. We rolled up at 11:15 to take a peek, and saw the staff busily taking care of their final preparations.

After killing some time wandering around the neighborhood, we came back at around 11:45, and were startled to see that in the 30 minutes we’d been gone, a line of some 70 people had formed!

We took a spot at the end, and as the time got closer and closer to noon, more and more people started showing up. By the time the doors opened, we estimate there were about 200 people waiting to get in.

But once they started letting people in, the line moved briskly, and it only took about 10 minutes for us to get to the front of it. Outside of the store were produce stands stocked with melons and kiwis…

…and there were more fruits and vegetables inside.

Looking around, we spotted lots of attention-grabbing yellow signs trumpeting especially low-priced items. Some of these were special discounts as part of the store’s opening sale (like 98-yen [US$0.65] bunches of bananas), and others were touted as everyday low prices, like tofu for as little as 49 yen a pack.

The meat section was far more expansive than anything you’d find at a regular convenience store, but L Minimart hasn’t forgotten its roots, as it has a very large selection of bento boxed lunches, sandwiches, salads, ready-to-eat-noodles, and onigiri (rice balls) as well.

The bento come in two price tiers, 499 or 399 yen, but with one exception. L Minimart has a Karaage Nori Ben (fried chicken and seaweed bento) that costs just 298 yen (US$1.95). At that price, it was too tempting to pass up, so we grabbed one for taste-testing, along with a few other items.

▼ The onigiri are also incredibly affordable, with seaweed-wrapped ones for 129 yen and non-seaweed ones for even less. It’s been years since major convenience store chains had prices this low.

▼ Five-kilogram (11-pound) bags of rice for 2,680 yen is also a glorious throwback to an era of more affordable groceries.

Don’t worry, L Minimart has sweets too. In addition to packaged cookies and cakes…

…they’ve also got a self-serve section of traditional Japanese desserts, like daifuku mochi dumplings, for just 100 yen each!

We also noticed that L Minimart sells packs of frozen meat. These aren’t always so easy to find in Japan, even at supermarkets, and look like they’d be very handy to keep on hand for meal prep.

As we mentioned above, we bought one of those ultra-affordable 298-yen karaage nori bento, and it turned out to also include a croquette, isobeage (tempura seaweed), and a bit of kimpira gobo (diced carrot and burdock root).

They all tasted good, but we have to admit that the portions were a little small. We didn’t feel ripped off, but in terms of how much food you get, this feels more like a fair price than a full-on bargain.

Of course, with the bento only costing 298 yen, there’s room to add something on the side, like an extra piece of the tasty karaage for 168-yen…

…or a 96-yen shio musubi (salted rice ball), made with delicious Koshiibuku rice from Niigata Prefecture, famed for having some of Japan’s best rice-growing farmland.

L Minimart takes another page from the supermarket playbook with rotating discounts for certain staples, and a calendar posted in the store showed the upcoming blocks of 10-percent-off days for eggs, natto, kimchi, and sandwich bread.

We came away happy from our shopping experience, and the huge crowd that L Minimart attracted on its first day shows there’s potential for a class of store between convenience stores and supermarkets (even L Minimart’s hours sort of split the difference between the two, as it’s open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. The Kodaira neighborhood is out in the suburbs of west Tokyo, but as major Japanese cities grow increasingly densely populated, we just might start seeing more stores like this that don’t need a large physical footprint in order to offer a full range of both groceries and ready-to-eat foods.

Shop information
L Minimart (Kodaira Nakamachi branch) / Lミニマート（小平仲町店）
Address: Tokyo-to, Kodaira-shi, Nakamichi 251 Excellence
東京都小平市仲町251エクセレンス
Open 7 a.m.-11 p.m.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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There aren’t enough breath mints in the world to save us, but we’re going in anyway.

Japanese folk wisdom holds that garlic is a food that boosts physical stamina, and it’s supposed to be helpful in dealing with the adverse effects of hot weather too. The actual science behind those claims gets a little indistinct, but for garlic lovers, we’re getting into a time of year that provides ample excuses to load up on the seasoning. Today that leads us to Yoshioka, a ramen restaurant in downtown Tokyo’s Mejiro neighborhood.

You might have a little trouble spotting Yoshioka, because it actually shares space with a branch of the izakaya (Japanese pub) chain Torimero, with Yoshioka operating in the hours when Torimero isn’t and vice-versa.

▼ The Yoshioka (吉岡) and Torimero (鳥メロ) signs, and the stairway that leads up into the hybrid eatery.

Making the place a little easier to find for us on this day, though, was the sign that was placed at the bottom of the stairs advertising Yoshioka’s Garlic Ramen (“Ninniku Ramen” in Japanese), which included the bold statement:

“Try it once, and you’ll never be able to go back.”

We weren’t sure if this open-ended prophecy was meant to imply that we would never be able to go back to less garlicky versions of ramen, or whether we’d have such strong garlic fumes coming out of ourselves that we’d never be allowed back into regular society. That second possibility might sound a little overly dramatic, but consider this: Yoshioka boasts that it uses 200 grams (7.05 ounces) of garlic in every bowl of its Garlic Ramen. To put that in perspective, an average-sized clove of garlic weighs about 5 grams, meaning that eating a bowl of the Garlic Ramen should be the equivalent of eating roughly 20 cloves of garlic.

And yet, when the restaurant staff set our bowl down in front of us, it had what looked like even more garlic than that.

This is an insane amount of garlic. Like, there’re enough cloves that you could eat them by the spoonful, like the world’s most powerfully pungent cereal.

Oh, and in addition to the dozens of cloves of garlic, you get a sizeable squirt of garlic paste waiting to be mixed it into the salty soy sauce-based broth too.

And the taste? Pretty much the fiercest punch of garlic we could imagine. This is an edible declaration of the idea that one can never have too much garlic, and if that’s a conviction you share, you’ll fall in love with this instantly.

The seasoning is so powerful that by the second bite of noodles it was no longer shocking, either because of the bliss we were wrapped up in or because we’d already consumed so much garlic that we were transitioning into a clove of garlic ourselves, and so the flavor now felt natural.

Speaking of the noodles, they’re of excellent quality, with a smooth and slippery surface and firm consistency. Actually, even the broth has a noteworthy texture, as there’s so much garlic in it that the liquid takes on some fluffy, sticky characteristics.

At 1,500 yen (US$9.70), Yoshioka’s Garlic Ramen is on the pricier side, but with how much garlic you get, it doesn’t feel like a bad deal at all, especially when you take into account that you’re allowed one refill of noodles for no additional charge.

All in all, the Garlic Ramen is an unforgettable food experience, but there is one potentially negative aspect to it. Remember how we said Yoshioka shares its space with another restaurant? Because of that, Yoshioka is only open for lunch, meaning you’re going to have to eat this garlicky-loaded bowl of noodles in the early afternoon, or maybe even the late morning, and there is no imaginable way that you won’t smell have the smell of garlic emanating from you wherever you go for the rest of the day. Still, if you’re a garlic lover, it’s worth it, and if you’d rather have some super-salty ramen, we can show you where to find that too.

Restaurant information
Yoshioka (Mejiro main branch) / 吉岡（目白総本店）
Address: Tokyo-to, Toshima-ku, Mejiro 35-13, Fujiya Building 2nd floor
東京都豊島区目白3-5-13 フジヤビルM2F
Open 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Practical and horrifying!

Usually when we’re talking about Japanese lifestyle brand Felissimo, we’re highlighting one of their animal-themed creations, like the Shiba Inu-shaped hot water bottle cover or red panda nap cushion. But Felissimo also has a “Museum Division” that draws inspiration from the arts, and who’ve come up with something a little less cute and cuddly looking.

Felissimo has entered into a creative partnership with the Kyoto Kanze Kaikan, or Kyoto Kanze Noh Theater. Noh is Japan’s oldest form of stage theater that’s still performed today, with its origins predating kabuki by more than a century. Noh performers wear masks while on stage, and with many of the stories dealing with demonic possession, madness, and other such chilling topics, the masks too are often unnerving in design, but the amount of undeniably skilled craftsmanship that goes into them also makes them, one could argue, in a way, beautiful.

Of course, Felissimo realizes that the average person doesn’t really have many occasions on which to slip on a Noh mask, so they’ve instead applied three classical designs as motifs for organizer pouches. With help from Kyoto Kanze Kaikan, Felissimo has produced a hannya mask pouch, showing a female demon consumed by jealously and sporting intimidating horns, and also a Okina mask, showing an old man with a long beard.

Being roughly the same size as a person’s face, they can actually hold quite a bit of stuff, with interior zippered sections and pockets to keep everything nice and organized.

Also part of the lineup is a pouch styled after a Kasei mask. Also known as a manbi mask, this type of mask is meant to create different atmosphere depending on the angle it’s viewed from, switching from a beautiful woman with a demure smile to something bolder or even sinister. The Kasei mask pouch was actually created by Felissimo’s designers prior to the start of their collaboration with Kyoto Kanze Kaikan, but as you can see, they were still able to achieve some terrifying results.

As further proof of just how committed Felissimo was to authenticity, even the backsides of the pouches mimic the interior surface of Noh masks.

The whole lineup is available from Felissimo online store here, priced at 2,860 yen (US$18.50) each. And should you find yourself instead in the mood for something that’s still strange but not quite so scary, don’t forget about Felissimo’s steamy Myaku-Myaku photo album.

Source, images: Felissimo
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Can you please pass the soy sauce, No Face?

Explicit exposition has never really been Studio Ghibli’s thing, but even by their standards, No Face’s character arc is an impressive case. Without saying a single word of dialogue, we watch the Spirited Away scene-stealer go from covetous to considerate over the course of the film, learning that there’s more to life than a cycle of gorging and coercing people with regurgitated pricy baubles.

By the time the movie ends, No Face has become a sympathetic, even heartwarming character, and his new life as a generous, helpful sort can continue in your kitchen in the form of a cute and classy No Face soy sauce dispenser.

The porcelain bottle stands 10.8 centimeters (4.3 inches) tall, with its glaze catching the light in a hazy way evocative of the indistinct nature of No Face’s physical form within the anime.

Instead of pouring from the very top of the bottle, the soy sauce comes out of No Face’s extended arm, which is crafted to bring to mind his on-screen posing.

A silicone seal helps keep the connection between the two parts of the bottle snug and secure, and separating them also makes for easy cleaning of the inside.

While this is technically classified as a soy sauce dispenser by Ghibli specialty shop Donguri Kyowakoku, you could use it to hold whatever liquid you want (although the modest diameter of the opening means that thick condiments or lotions probably won’t flow too easily through it). And if your diet isn’t all that saucy, there’s always the option of using the bottle for decorative purposes like a very unique anime figure.

While the No Face soy sauce dish shown in the above photo is sold out, the soy sauce dispenser is back at Donguri Kyowakoku following a recent restock, and can be ordered through the chain’s online store here, priced at 2,640 yen (US$17). Just be careful not to spill any sauce on your new Totoro necktie.

Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku, Studio Ghibli
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Local road goes from trash dump to treasure.

One of Tokyo’s largest and most beautiful collections of roses is in bloom right now. However, you won’t find them blooming inside a park or private garden, but right on the street in the Otsuka neighborhood in Toshima Ward.

These beautiful flowers, which are in bloom right now, are located on what’s now called Otsuka Rose Road (or Otsuka Rose Street – the signage is sort of inconsistent). However, such a pretty name wasn’t always so fitting for the place. The street used to be cluttered with illegally dumped trash and improperly parked bicycles, and had become a full-fledged eyesore. During projects to clean the place up, workers came across 100 or so rose bushes that had been planted on the roadside long ago, and the decision was made to lean into this floral theme, in hope that it would improve the aesthetics and atmosphere of the neighborhood.

Since then, the number of rose bushes has grown from 100 to 1,210, representing 710 different varieties of the flower. The community even designates the period when the most roses are in bloom as the “Otsuka Rose Festival,” which is celebrating its 25th year from May 3 to 24.

As this is a free event held on a public street, there’s no admission charged. Otsuka Rose Road runs from Otsuka Station to Fujiwara Station, with beautiful scenery the whole way.

▼ Walking route from Otsuka Station to Fujiwara Station via Otsuka Rose Road

Looking at that map, you might notice that Otsuka Rose Road follows the path of the Arakawa Line. Also known as the Tokyo Sakura Tram, the Arakawa Line is Tokyo’s only remaining streetcar line, so if you’re not in the mood for a stroll, you can also hop on the tram and view the roses while you ride.

Of course, doing the route on foot gives you the opportunity to snap photos of the flowers and tram together, and even if you’re not a train otaku, the combination is a really cool snapshot of how connected the roses are to the local community. Honestly, with the walk between Otsuka and Fujiwara only taking about six minutes, walking Otsuka Rose Road in one direction, then taking the tram back in the other, is a perfectly viable option and lets you see the roses from both perspectives.

Without any flashy, high-profile tourist attractions, Otsuka isn’t on a lot of people’s Tokyo sightseeing itineraries, but it’s located just a bit east of the Ikebukuro neighborhood, and easy to tack on as a side trip if you’re planning to visit the more well-known part of Tokyo, maybe to get some of its newly famous super salty ramen.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Bleach, Yu-Gi-Oh, Spy x Family, and more come to Uniqlo’s continuing celebration of a century of manga/anime hits.

Uniqlo is no stranger to the T-shirt collaboration game, having previously partnered with such major franchises as Pokémon and Tamagotchi. Their current partnership, though, gives them possibly their biggest pool of inspiration ever to pull from, thanks to the involvement of Shueisha.

As the publisher of Weekly Shonen Jump and numerous other manga anthology magazines, Shueisha is one of Japan’s biggest manga companies, and also one of its oldest. 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of Shieusha’s founding, and part of the century-mark celebration is the ongoing Shueisha 100th Anniversary UT T-shirt line from Uniqlo. The first two batches of designs arrived in stores this past spring, but there are still plenty of great series to salute, and now Uniqlo has unveiled the third batch of Shueisha anniversary, featuring five series from the Jump manga family.

First up we have supernatural sword fighting saga Bleach.

Creator Tite Kubo is well known for his penchant for stark-contrast monochrome artwork, which translates to a pair of striking T-shirts featuring protagonist Ichigo and a host of other friends and adversaries from the series’ sprawling cast.

Moving on to lighter and brighter fare, Spy x Family shows up four times in Uniqlo’s Shueisha collab.

Precious and precocious Anya gets a lot of the attention here, with shirts showing her playing with psychic pet Bond, shooting a withering glance at stuck-up classmate Damian, or plopped in front of the TV, but the entire Forger family gets together on one of the designs, and there’s also a shirt featuring Yor with red hair.

▼ Backside of the Anya/Damian shirt

Switching back to a darker tone, we come to a quartet of Yu-Gi-Oh shirts, one of which is a double-sided design where Yugi poses dramatically with the Dark Magician on the front.

A different dual-sided design places the Millennium Puzzle on the chest with more monsters on the back…

…and a third is for fans of the Toon Summon Skull, or “Toon Demon” (トゥーンデーモン), as the entity is named in Japanese.

The final Yu-Gi-Oh shirt is the only one with artwork on just the front, perhaps because the designers realize that Blue-Eyes White Dragon would be a hard act to top.

Also part of the new round of Uniqlo Shueisha shirts is Black Clover, with a pair of designs.

Neither of them has artwork on the back, but in both cases you do get an embroidered clover on the sleeve.

And finally, there’s a shirt for fans of Mashle, also known as Mashle: Magic and Muscles, with main character Mash repeatedly intoning “I can use magic.”

All of the shirts will be priced at 1,990 yen (US$13) and available through Uniqlo’s online store here in August.

Source: Uniqlo
Top image: Uniqlo
Insert images: Uniqlo (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
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Too much of a good thing, or just enough?

We weren’t sure if curry pizza is something that should exist. You could make the argument that the combination seems too weird to work. Alternatively, one could contend that, with curry and pizza already being two of the world’s most delicious foods as separate entities, combining them carries the risk of creating some sort of super cuisine that, once tasted, we’d all be unable to stop eating, leading to the collapse of society as all other human activity is preempted by thoughts of “…or we could just go get more curry pizza instead.”

But regardless of whether or not curry pizza should exist, it does exist. On June 15, Pizza Hut Japan started baking its new Drinkable Cheese Curry Pizza (or “Nomeru Pizza Cheese Curry” if you’re ordering in Japanese), and, even knowing the danger we might be exposing ourselves to, its siren song was too strong for us to resist taste-testing it.

Opening up the box, the initial visual impression isn’t so shocking, since the curry goes on the crust first and then gets mostly covered up by the cheese. Speaking of the cheese, Pizza Hut’s curry pizza uses two types, and neither is mozzarella. Spread on top of the curry is a cheddar cheese sauce, with a liquid-like consistency that justifies the “Drinkable” part of the pizza’s name. Then, out towards the edge of the crust, there’s gouda cheese too.

There’s so much cheese and curry that it almost overflows, but the Drinkable Cheese Curry Pizza’s crust gets thicker as it get farther from the center. It’s not a conventional thick crust, and it’s not a deep-dish pizza either, but more like a basin, keeping the gooey goodness on the dough even as each individual slice doesn’t have all that much verticality.

And yes, this gooiness is good. Taste-testing duties fell to our Japanese-language reporter Yayoi Saginomiya, who found the mix of cheese and curry to be captivatingly delicious. As is often the case with curry in Japan, the focus here is more on the dish’s savory qualities, and the intent isn’t to pummel you with spiciness. So while the flavor of curry shines through, it doesn’t hit you with any particularly piquant properties, making the Drinkable Cheese Curry Pizza easy to share with friends or family even if they aren’t spice fiends.

▼ A medium-size Drinkable Cheese Curry Pizza is priced at 2,230 yen (US$14.50) for carry-out and 3,190 yen for delivery.

But while Yayoi’s notes indicate that Pizza Hut Japan’s curry pizza is every bit as tasty as we’d hoped/feared, this doesn’t mean that society is doomed. It’s only scheduled to be on the menu until June 15, or while supplies last, so we will eventually have to go back to doing things other than eating curry pizza…but not for a while.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Stay salty, everybody.

Shibuya is one of Tokyo’s most exciting neighborhoods. Between world-famous tourism landmarks like the statue of faithful dog Hachiko and the scramble intersection, plus shopping options from iconic stores like fashion mecca 109 and Nintendo Tokyo, there’s a lot to see and do in this part of downtown, and if you’re visiting this summer you might want to stop by the Shibuya Ward Office too and grab a little something to eat.

No, this isn’t another semi-secret ward office cafeteria we’re talking about. Instead, the Shibuya Ward Office is giving out free sodium tablets as of June 1.

Shibuya Ward’s goal isn’t to promote snacking, though. The complimentary salt tablets are part of Good Sweat Shibuya Action, a multi-faceted public awareness campaign aimed at dealing with the high heat and humidity that come with summer in Japan. While it might not be as much of an issue in countries with higher salt intakes in their daily diets, in Japan profuse sweating leading to dangerously low levels of sodium in the body is a legitimate concern for many people, with supplements for replenishing sodium and other vital minerals lost during perspiration, such as Kabaya Foods Corporation’s Enbun Charge Tablets being sold in pharmacies and convenience stores.

However, not everyone carries a supply of tablets on them, and as the effects of heat stroke can sneak up on people, Enbun Charge Tablets are now being offered free of charge at the Shibuya Ward Office. Anyone who wants one can simply grab a tablet from the box located in the second-floor atrium of the building.

▼ The Shibuya Ward Office is just one black away from the Shibuya Parco shopping center, which houses the Nintendo Tokyo and Shibuya Pokémon Center stores.

▼ A banner announcing the free Enbun Charge (塩分チャージ)

Boxes of free sodium tablets will also be placed at 29 other locations in Shibuya Ward, primarily libraries, public gyms/sports facilities, medical centers, and government offices, tying into the ward’s initiative to promote “cool sharing spots,” climate-controlled common-use areas where a large number of people can cool off in a more aggregately energy-efficient manner than simultaneously running their own home air conditioning units.

As the tablets are individually wrapped, there’s no need to use them right away, so swinging by the ward office and grabbing one to keep on hand for later in the day is an option too.

Source: Shibuya Keizai Shimbun, PR Times
Images: PR Times
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Famed anime house isn’t worried about losing relevancy by limiting access to its films.

Studio Ghibli has a reputation for preferring to do things the old-fashioned way, and so fans weren’t really shocked when the famed anime production house was initially reluctant to licensing its works for online streaming. The studio eventually softened its stance, striking deals with HBO Max in 2019 and Netflix the following year, and while the Netflix agreement has since expired, HBO Max still offers the Ghibli catalog for streaming…but not if you’re in Japan.

To this day, there’s only one Ghibli-produced film that’s ever been made available for streaming within Japan, and it’s the one film that Ghibli itself didn’t control the rights to, Grave of the Fireflies. Everything else, like My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Howl’s Moving Castle? Not available to view online in Japan.

▼ “Ashitaka, will I ever see you online?”

On-demand online streaming may not dominate the video entertainment landscape in Japan to quite the same extent as it does in many other countries, but things are moving in that direction, especially with Japan’s physical media rental stores fading away at an accelerating pace. It’s getting to the point where one could question whether Ghibli’s attitude about making its anime available for streaming in Japan has gone from being quaintly old-fashioned to detrimentally outdated. That was the sentiment one attendee alluded to at a regular press conference held by Hiroyuki Fukuda, president of Japanese television broadcaster Nippon TV, which acquired Studio Ghibli as a subsidiary in 2023. At the press conference, held on May 25, the attendee asked Fukuda:

“Ghibli’s works remain unavailable for streaming within Japan, which limits their audiences…Concerns have been raised that without opportunities to view these titles, some of them may become forgotten [by the public], so is there any chance of Ghibli’s anime becoming available for streaming on your company’s Hulu service?”

As alluded to in the question, Hulu Japan is a subsidiary of Nippon TV, which would make it the natural, and theoretically easiest to negotiate with, online host of the Ghibli catalog. Users shouldn’t go typing “Ghibli” into the Hulu Japan search box just yet, though, nor that of any other streaming service in Japan, as Fukuda answered that there are no plans to put Ghibli’s films online, because Nippon TV and Studio Ghibli want to preserve the relevance of the TV broadcasts of Ghibli anime.

“Presently, Studio Ghibli and Nippon TV are of the shared belief that we want to preserve the specialness of Ghibli’s films appearing on broadcast TV through our Friday Roadshow program. We are of course aware of the various requests for and different opinions regarding streaming, and this is a matter we intend to continue discussing moving forward.”

Friday Roadshow, or Kinyo Roadshow in Japanese, is Nippon TV’s Friday night movie block, in which it shows a different classic, popular, or family-oriented film each week. Ghibli anime are featured several times per year, with mega-hits like Totoro often saved for dates during summer or other vacation seasons, becoming appointment television for fans.

▼ Hurry home, Chihiro! Friday Roadshow is about to start!

Still, not every Ghibli anime airs every year, and even those that do usually do so only once annually. Nippon TV and Ghibli aren’t currently worried about that lessening the relevance of the studio’s films, though. In his press conference response, Fukuda went on to say that permanent facilities like the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo and the Ghibli Park theme park near Nagoya help build interest and excitement for Ghibli’s anime, as do celebratory events like Ghibli’s art exhibitions that travel around the country. Though Fukuda didn’t mention them, Ghibli’s kabuki stage play adaptations, like the one for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and the upcoming one for Princess Mononoke, also help to spark interest in their source material, and even if there’s no Friday Roadshow broadcast of them in the near future, Ghibli’s anime are always readily available for purchase on physical media in Japan.

Occasional overseas events and London’s My Neighbor Totoro stage play notwithstanding, the average overseas Ghibli fan has far less access to these kinds of Ghibli touchpoints than fans in Japan do, which in turn makes easier access to the anime movies themselves, though online distribution, a greater necessity outside Japan, which would explain why Ghibli has come around to the idea of streaming its works in foreign countries. And the day may come when Ghibli shrugs its shoulders and says “OK” for streaming inside Japan too. Nippon TV and the studio aren’t at that point just yet, though, and Fukuda’s treatment of Ghibli as a partner, as opposed to just a subsidiary, in the matter is probably a wise call, considering how committed Ghibli is to presenting its creations in the way it feels best conveys their vision.

Source: Nippon TV via Oricon News via Otakomu
Top image: Studio Ghibli
Insert images: Studio Ghibli (1, 2)
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Beefy gauntlet has been thrown down once again by Burger King Japan.

Burger King Japan understands that there are times when a regular-size hamburger just won’t cut it, which is why they offer what they call the One Pounder series, a line of sandwiches with four patties. Sometimes, though, a person’s bottomless well of burger love equals the infinite capacity of their stomach, and so for them, later this month Burger King Japan is offering all-you-can eat One Pounders.

First, let’s take a look at the exact kind of One Pounder that’s being served in the One Pounder Challenge, as the promotion is called. This is the Smoke House The One Pounder. Linguists might take the position that it really should be called the “The Smoke House One-Pounder,” but apparently all that beef leaves no room for such minute syntax or punctuation quibbles. In addition to four all-beef patties and cheddar cheese, the burger has both smoked bacon and a smoked bacon sauce. It looks like there might be some pickles in there too, but they appear to be the only things between the buns that aren’t meat, cheese, or sauce.

A single Smoke House The One Pounder weighs 545 grams, which converts to roughly 1.2 pounds, so its name is actually a bit of an understatement. It also packs 1,615 calories, so you may be questioning how many a person could possibly eat. Well, back in the spring, Burger King Japan also ran an all-you-can-eat Smoke House The One Pounder promotion, and the customer who ate the most put away 11 of them, which works out to 5,973 grams, or approximately 13.17 pounds, of burgers.

If you’re wondering where the break-even point is, Burger King Japan is charging 4,900 yen (US$31) for a 45-minute all-you-can-eat session, and with the Smoke House The One Pounder costing 2,790 yen when ordered off the menu normally, that would mean you’ll need to eat 1.75 of them to get your money’s worth. That calculation doesn’t take into account that the One Pounder Challenge also includes unlimited refills of French fries and soft drinks, though, so if you do manage to get to the 1.75-burger mark, you could say you’re actually coming out ahead. All entrants also receive a One Pounder Challenge 2026 T-shirt, Burger King Towel, and two stickers.

The One Pounder Challenge will take place daily from June 19 to June 26 at 80 Burger King Japan branches, with seatings at 2:30, 4, 5:30, and 7 p.m. Advance reservations must be made through the event’s website here, and seating is limited. Should you miss out on this chance, though, take heart that this is the second of three planned One Pounder Challenges for 2026, and they’ll be followed by a fourth promotion, the One Pounder Challenge 2026 Final, in December, with free tickets to the Final being given as prizes to the three customers who eat the most burgers at each of the first three One Pounder Challenges.

Source, images: PR Times
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Totoro and friends want to keep you cool and smiling this summer with these traditional non-folding fans.

Summer presents a bit of a conundrum in Japan. On the one hand, it’s not a matter of if the weather will be hot and humid, but whether it’ll be extremely or just very hot and humid. At the same time, summer is full of festivals, fireworks shows, pop culture events, and even beautifully blossoming flowers, so there’s tons of fun to be had if you can find a way to cope with the heat.

And if you have a fun way to do so, all the better, right?

Filling that role nicely are these fans from Studio Ghibli specialty store Donguri Kyowakoku. This type of fan is called an uchiwa, and because they have an easy-to-grip handle, it’s easier to generate a cooling breeze with uchiwa than with than sensu (folding fans), making them a classical summer lifesaver.

The Ghibli uchiwa are made from bamboo frames and textured paper. A total of four designs are available, representing two of Ghibli’s greatest hits and with unique artwork on each side. On the fan above, we see Spirited Away’s Chihiro riding through the sky on Haku in his dragon form on the front, and when you flip the fan over, you can see Mouse Boh and Haedori having a somewhat less elegant flight.

Also here from Ghibli’s Oscar-winner is No Face, which is fitting since uchiwa are said to be shaped like koban, Japan’s traditional oval gold coins. The back of the No Face fan bares the kanji for Abura, as in the Aburaya bathhouse of the gods where most of the movie takes place, along with illustrations of some of the establishment’s more prominent patrons.

No Ghibli movie captures the vibes of a carefree summer day like My Neighbor Totoro, though, and so it’s also part of the lineup, with one of its designs featuring sisters Mei and Satsuki along with the Catbus.

▼ The back of the fan reveals that the Catbus leaves adorable pawprints behind as it scampers around the countryside.

And finally, the fourth fan shows a gathering of all three Totoros, big, medium. And small, with them dancing under fireworks and the kanji for matsuri (“festival”) on the back.

The fans are all 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) in width and 37 centimeters in length, with the exception of the Catbus uchiwa which is just a bit longer at 37.5 centimeters. The long handles make them easy to tuck into a tote bag or slide into the sash of a summer kimono, and since uchiwa don’t fold up, they also work great as interior decorations, since they’re essentially little mini posters that you can also use to make a breeze. All four of the fans are priced at 880 yen (US$5.70) and recently restocked at Donguri Kyowakou, with online orders available here.

Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2, 3, 4)
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A taste of the U.S. via Okinawa.

Our intrepid reporter Mr. Sato was recently in Fussa, a part of Tokyo west of the downtown area, where he discovered Tampopo, a retro pachinko parlor that lets you try your hand at the game without worrying about the gambling part of it. Fussa has more invitingly old-school vibes to offer, though, as Mr. Sato found while walking along National Route 16.

National Route 16 is actually a bit of an international thoroughfare, since it runs right along the edge of the United States Air Force’s Yokota Air Base. The base’s exact boundaries have shifted a bit over the years, and some former base housing sites and structures are now part of the civilian cityscape, with many of them having been converted into shops and restaurants with nods to their former occupants.

There’s even a section of Route 16 that’s been dubbed the Fussa Friendship Promenade.

As Mr. Sato ambled down the road, heading towards Ushihama Station, the next stop over from Fussa Station on the Ome Line, he spotted another sign representing a meeting point between Japan and America.

Blue Seal is a Japanese ice cream brand from Okinawa, but before that it was an American ice cream brand…but still one from Okinawa. Originally, Blue Seal was produced on, and only available at, U.S. military bases in Okinawa, created to supply American personnel and their accompanying family members a taste of home at a time before ice cream became readily available in Japan. In the 1960s, Blue Seal became available on the civilian market in Japan, and while ice cream is no longer hard to find in the country, among Japanese sweets fans Blue Seal has a reputation for being some of the very best.

However, Blue Seal isn’t so easy to find in the Tokyo area, and it wasn’t until 2006 that the chain finally came to east Japan, when it opened this Fussa branch.

As its first location in east Japan, the Fussa Blue Seal has a special “Big Dip” designation on its sign, just like the main branch in Okinawa’s Urasoe. The Fussa branch’s flagship status means that in addition to 25 different flavors ice cream, it also serves apple pie.

With the sun shining down brightly on him, Mr. Sato couldn’t say no to some Blue Seal ice cream, so he decided to take a break from his walk and refuel. He opted for the Blue Seal Sundae, which lets you choose one flavor each of scooped ice cream and soft serve for 750 yen (US$4.80), and made his selections salty milk and almond pistachio.

▼ And yes, his smile was just as big after he was done eating it.

Blue Seal has only three other Tokyo branches, one in the Ebisu neighborhood, one in Kokubunji, and one inside Haneda Airport’s Terminal 2. Given the brand’s roots, though, Mr. Sato feels like there’s a special sense of fun that comes from making an ice cream run at the Fussa branch.

Shop information
Blue Seal (Fussa branch) / ブルーシール（福生店）
Addres: Tokyo-to, Fussa-shi, Fussa 2475 Yokotakichi-mae
東京都福生市福生2475 横田基地前
Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Website

Photos © SoraNews24
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