Butt-Gold, Immigration Woes, and Ramen [Sunday News]

by 11 Comments

Compared to the crazy amount of news last week, this week was fairly slow in terms of news. That being said, there were still five stories that caught my eye this week. Here are some of the highlights in this last week of news:

8 South Koreans arrested over alleged scheme to smuggle gold to Japan in their rectums: One of my favorite parts of writing for Tofugu is coming up with interesting, catchy headlines. Needless to say, I don’t think I will ever be able to beat this headline about gold butt-smugglers. A man can dream, though; a man can dream. [via ]

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Shipping $36000 worth of Japanese candy: Last summer, we wrote about this cool candy delivery service out of Japan. Six months later, and Candy Japan has shipped more candy than I have eaten in my life. Think of all the cavities! [via Reddit]

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Macho urinal game makes a splash in Japan: We covered Sega’s urinal-controlled video game Toirettsu when it was first announced, but since its release the game has taken off and become immensely popular. It appears that the Japanese have finally monetized one of the fundamental facts of life: guys love peeing on things. [via News on Japan]

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Japan—How Bad is Japanese Immigration?: A little over a week ago, a Canadian journalist caused a bit of a stir when he posted his account of going through Japanese immigration. Our pal Hikosaemon gives a summary of the story and his analysis of the situation. As always, great insights from a man who knows a lot about Japan. [via Hikosaemon]

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The Ramen Rater: Momofuku Ando Day January 19th, 2012: One of the most important figures in Japan in the last hundred years wasn’t a politician, celebrity, diplomat, or bureaucrat; he was Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen and founder of Nissin. Both Erin and myself have written a little bit about Mr. Ando and his wonderful ramen, but The Ramen Rater goes more in-depth and celebrates the life of Ando. [via The Ramen Rater]

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That’s it for this week’s news. Did I miss an important story? Have something to say about the stories I chose? Tell me in the comments!

P.S. Eternally grateful for the gifts of Mr. Ando? Follow us on Twitter.
P.P.S. Have a love/hate relationship with instant ramen? Check us out on Facebook and Google+.

  • Kai_sin

    Mmmmm ramen :D

  • http://twitter.com/shollum Shollum

    It’s kind of disturbing thinking of the shape the gold had to be in to fit… I can’t think about it any longer.

  • ( ﾟдﾟ)

    Presumably when they were caught, they got so scared they crapped (gold) bricks.

  • http://profiles.google.com/evolutionxbox Jonathan Cousins

    I saw that too… mmmmmm.

  • Kiriain

    I’m quite sure the photo at the top of the article is shopped.
    Good job nonetheless.

  • Kiriain

    I’m quite sure the photo at the top of the article is shopped.
    Good job nonetheless.

  • The Ramen Rater

    Hey thanks for mentioning The Ramen Rater! Especially the Momofuku Ando Day! Got mentioned in the Seattle Weekly – didn’t realize there was aa Momofuku Ando Day until just over a week ago – next year I’m going to go all out to let the people know! – TRR

  • ( ﾟдﾟ)

    You never know, they could’ve just been sitting on it until they could make a post about gold, immigration and ramen. It’s a very niche photo.

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

    What? How’d you see through my awesome Photoshop skills?

  • (^U^)/ Roren

    Nice. Loved you mentioning about Momofuku Ando. I actually went to the Momofuku Ando Raamen museum on one of my trips to Japan. We got to make our own raamen noodles from scratch, designed the packet and packaged it. Love raamen! Mmmmmm!! And ya gotta love Japan! And thanks for the interesting headlines!

  • Dustin (>^w^)>

    i read the story of the immigration detention center (the original), and it scared me so bad…i honestly dont think i can go over there until the laws are improved. im absolutely terrified now, and the bad thing is i really wanted to go the Bunka Fashion School after I graduate high school…but now, its like i dont even want to step foot anywhere in japan. i love japan’s scenery, the culture, the language, the music, the literature, just about everthing, but reading that.. its like a nightmare :/