A $100 Giveaway, The End of a Convenience Store, and More [Sunday News]

by 17 Comments

2011 is coming toan end, but there’s still a lot going on in the world of Japan-related news. Here’s our top 5 stories from this week about all things Japan:

Win $100 in Flutterscape’s “All I Want For Christmas Contest”: Our friends at Flutterscape are throwing a pretty great contest: you post a product you love from Japan, people vote for you, then Flutterscape gives you a $100 Amazon gift certificate. Pretty good deal, right? [via Flutterscape]

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Experience the tsunami-affected areas of Japan through Street View: Google has, for once, used Google Street View for good by using it to survey the damage done by the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami. Of course, many of these areas have since been rebuilt, but it’s still nonetheless an interesting and sobering reminder of the disaster. [via Google LatLong]

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ampm Closes in Japan: The perennial gas-station favorite ampm announced this week that all ampm stores in Japan will close in Japan or be re-branded as Family Marts. Given the sheer number and awesomeness of convenience stores in Japan, it’s not too surprising that this American chain had a hard time keeping up. Looks like Japan just had too much good stuff. [via reddit]

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[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1-Z_z4iT9k']

Néojaponisme Videocast #1 – Japanese Third-Category Beer Tasting: The always well-dressed Marxy of Néojaponisme is joined by Matt of AltJapan and author Patrick Macias to taste some so-called “third-category beer,” a type of alcohol that makes Pabst Blue Ribbon seem like a dark, flavorful drink. [via Néojaponisme]

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Japan Airlines To Start The World’s First In-Flight e-Comic Next Spring: Some airlines are introducing in-flight wi-fi to their airplanes to please customers, but you know what? Internet is pretty passe. Japan Air is opting to pimp out their planes with electronic manga instead. Who needs Facebook when you can bury your nose in some digital comics? [via Asiajin]

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That wraps up this week and, seeing as Christmas falls on the last Sunday of the year, will be our last Sunday news post of 2011. See you all in 2012!

P.S. Know how to pronounce Néojaponisme? Please, please tell me on Twitter.
P.P.S. Look down upon me for my linguistic ignorance? Check us out on Facebook or Google+.

  • Ian Smith

    WHY IS LAWSON THE IMAGE ON TOP?! Heh, I read the title and got scared for a sec, ’til I remembered that it was probably (hopefully) about ampm.

  • ヽ(´ー｀)ノ

    Why Facebook when you could face book and read?

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

    It was the most generic “guy walking into a Japanese convenience store” picture I could find. But if it instilled great fear in you, then that’s good too.

  • http://www.vietamins.com Viet

    Ahhh… I also thought Lawsons was shutting down after looking at the header image. Too bad for AMPM… At least 7-11 is still around, yeah?

  • Ian Smith

    At least I’ll no longer have to explain to people how their local interstate truck stop is also a bento/aquarius/calbee-chip-carrying combini in the oh-so-foreign land of Japan as well…

    And you know, Family Mart’s got some good chicken (second to Lawson) as well as the occasional 無印良品 grooming kit/notepad/etc. There were plenty of 7-11s when I went, but then there were ampms then too…　😳

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NMMV6AXYY4MPQ67ULYXG542TKA Jen

    “Of course, many of these areas have since been rebuild.” Rebuild should read “rebuilt” #corrections

    Poor ampm. I haven’t seen one in Japan in a really long time. Of course, that’s not saying much, since my town has 3 7-11s and 2 Lawsons. They don’t seem to be big on combini diversity

  • Bubandbob1

    OMG PHOENIX WRIGHT MANGA HNNNNNNNNGGGGG

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001079326564 Michael Baltazar

    I LOVE Lawson. Goddammit, Hash, you got me paralyzed for a minute. Why couldn’t you just get a picture of an ampm store being burned to the ground?? =

  • Ian Smith

    http://www.frankzappa.org/japan/DSCN0895.jpg

    Defenders of the ampm! (Or you know, just some Zappa fans chillin’ outside the convenience store)

  • Anonymous

    I wish I could read that comic >_< (I mean, I know a little Japanese, but there's a lot of kanji in it I don't know and some of the kanji are too small to read!)
     
    Also, I'd love to visit a Japanese convenience store someday; the idea of picking up a bento box, other Japanese snacks, and even anime goods at a convenience store really appeals to me.  But I didn't realize that ampm was an American chain.

  • I’ma liking.

    飛行機に乗って、漫画を読むことはすごいでしょう。今私は日本の飛行機の中にいるのが欲しいんだ。ハハ

  • http://hgsasaki.com/ Scott

    Well, that explains why the ampm in my local train station flipped the switch to Lawson overnight. Guess day-old hot dog on a stick never caught on in Japan.

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

    Whoops, good catch. What a difference one letter can make ^^

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

    HNNNNG

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

    But what’s not to love about day-old hot dog on a stick? I thought that processed meats got better with age?

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

    Well, if you want to get REALLY technical, ampm is owned by BP America, which is of course owned by BP (British Petroleum). It’s way too complicated for a store that sells slurpees and cheap beer.

  • Hajime Crea

    逆転裁判が大好き :D