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Sushi Abominations, Fast Cars, and Dragon Balls [Sunday News]

Every Sunday we gather the week’s weird and interesting Japanese news and present it to you in our Sunday News column. It might not always be hard-hitting news, but we hope that it still informs and entertains you. Enjoy!

Rejoice, a new Dragon Ball movie is on the horizon:It’s been long enough since the release of the American Dragonball movie that most of us have forgotten one of the most traumatic movie events of all time, leading way for a reboot. This time around, the new Dragonball movie promises to learn from the mistakes of its predecessor: it’s animated, not live-action; based on the manga; and it’s made in Japan, not the US. We can only hope that it all comes together and makes us forget the awful Dragonball Evolution. The horror, the horror . . .
Japan Anonymous pick up litter to protest download laws: First, Anonymous tried hacking Japanese sites to protest new legislation that cracks down on downloading. They ended up accidentally hacking the wrong site and embarrassing themselves. Now, Anonymous is trying something a little bit different: cleaning up litter off the street and in parks to make a statement. It’s very similar to something their brothers at 2ch did a few years back. [via Reddit]
Push Out Delicious Rolls of Sushi in Minutes With Sushezi “Sushi Bazooka”: People thought we were kidding when we talked about “sushi abominations,” but you have to look no further than this so-called “sushi bazooka” to see one of the horsemen of the sushi apocalypse. You know you can’t sink any lower once you’ve hit “As Seen On TV.”

Tokyo’s Newborn Baby Panda Dies: This is literally the saddest thing to ever happen anywhere in all of history. The newly-born panda cub I covered in last week’s Sunday News has died. Apparently, it’s not that uncommon (Ueno Zoo officials said that 60%-70% of giant panda cubs die in the first weeks), but it’s still soul-crushing.
Girls’ Generation push Japanese domination with ‘Paparazzi,’ 1 million albums sold: K-pop superstars Girls’s Generation have once again done what was once thought to be impossible — bested Japanese pop stars on their own turf. Girls’s Generation reached #1 on the Japanese Hot 100 charts last week with their new single, Paparazzi. [via News On Japan]
Lamborghini
Photo by lwoodfp

Japan Lamborghini driver nabbed after online video: Guys, I don’t know if you know this, but it’s a bad idea to record yourself doing something illegal. And get this — it’s even worse to record yourself something illegal, then upload it to the internet, where anybody can see it. This is just one of my many pearls of wisdom, which also include “don’t run with scissors” and “don’t stick cutlery in electrical sockets.” [via News On Japan]

Header photo by Kyle Nishioka


Futurist, Portlander, Tofugu employee #1.

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  • ZXNova

    I never watched Dragonball Evolution, but I heard it was really bad. I can already tell all the mistakes made during production. Seriously, made in the US? LIVE ACTORS? This is no Dragonball Z.

  • Mescale

    Whoa that sushi thing is like the least useful thing ever. Rolling some rice with a filling in the middle is not general relativity people. Perfectly round sushi look really weird.

  • Xsuna

    Go back a while on Tofugu and there’s a biggish discussion of why it sucked. Sorry, I can’t remember where exactly, and I can’t say why it sucked in just one comment. Seriously, search up reviews, DO NOT WATCH. Worst use of my time EVER, and that’s saying something seeing as it was the last movie I watched on a 9 hour plane flight.

  • Tora Silver

    At the risk of sounding like a total baka gaijin… What’s so bad about the Sushezi? It seemed like a pretty cool idea when I checked out the link.

  • Mescale

    In my opinion it does really nothing useful that warrants the fact I would have to wash it up after using it. All you need is a bamboo mat and you can roll maki. Plus as an aesthetic preference I like my sushi to look hand made, those perfectly round ones seems wrong.

    When I watched the video what I took away was that the device only does very little. You need to cook and prepare the sushi rice first, you need to prepare the fillings, ok if you aren’t having fish I guess its easier, you need to lube the device up, when you’ve made your stick of sushi, you then need to refrigerate it for 10 minutes then you need to use a wet knife to cut it into slices, which you clean and wet after each stroke…

    The device had so little to actually do in the process making the sushi that it seems like its just the kind of junk you’d use once, then leave in a cupboard. 

    I would go as far to say its possible to make maki even without a bamboo mat, its really not hard, you could even use the nori to roll it, and then the nori is on the outside, right where it should be… Or you can always make nigiri cause all you need is a hand for that.

    I think in my mind its a hideous over complication of such a small part of the process of making sushi, just knowing that someone has spent thousands of dollars to design it, create the tooling and a production run of thousands of these, out of precious delicious non renewable crude oil, when the process it simplifies is already so simple that only a truly deficient reanimated zombie neanderthal with no hands would find it mildly taxing, thus increasing the complexity of the process in the process, makes me die a bit inside. Yes I know you’re thinking, but you’re already entirely dead inside, and yes you’re right, but its so bad that part of my inside comes alive and then dies instantaneously, in mind shattering pain and suffering. Worse than that time you thought you were clever you were going home for the weekend and you thought hey I’ll need some groceries for monday and I won’t be back till sunday when the shops are all closed and so I’ll buy stuff ahead making sure it has long expiration dates on it, but I won’t buy 4 pints of milk because I haven’t quite finished the four pints I have and I don’t want to take up too much room so I’ll buy 2 pints then you put it on your shelve in the fridge foolishly thinking you don’t need to label it as your own property because people can respect others property even if its just an 89p bottle of milk, milk that you look forward to making breakfast with on monday, irreplaceable milk which you can’t buy more because all the shops will be closed, milk that would make a cup of tea for you when you get back from riding from the station after catching the train, but you were wrong you come down not long after and the bottle has disappeared from your shelf and has now been subsumed with some other persons food, you’re pretty sure its yours and you figure they probably thought it would leak because it was on its side, despite it being still sealed, silly gooses, no matter I’ll get rid of my almost empty 4 pint, label it and put it in the door, ready for me when I come back on sunday. And then you come back on sunday, you eat a yoghurt and boil the kettle to make some tea and when you open the fridge there is only a 2 pint container with quarter of a pint of milk in it. What happened was it my fault, what happened in this milk misunderstanding, did they somehow think I stole their milk, was it some passive aggressive shit, was it a mistake. I don’t have a car like everyone else in the house, I don’t have the ability to just pop to the shop right now to refill, sure use my milk but replace it. what am I going to have on my cereal tomorrow? Nothing I’ll have to have toast or nothing. God its so annoying and no one says sorry man we used your milk its like a big void appears covering the fridge a mystery of what happened it will never be spoken of, and all you can think about is how not to get passive aggressive, or aggressive. How can you just chill out and take it in your stride, it was your fault right, you should have been clearer with the labeling, you shouldn’t have bought only 2 pints, that was clearly the volumetric preference of the other person using the fridge. No its like your last relationship all over again, you can’t accept the blame IT WAS ALL THEM I HAVE THE RECIEPT I HAVE TJE RECIPT IT WAS MY MILK MY MILK MDAMN YOU!!!!!!

  • http://twitter.com/shollum Shollum

    Anonymous:
    We’ll clean your streets and hopefully your cabinet too.

    I’m rooting for them. Apparently, it’s pretty bad on that front. Yet another country that thinks its people will just let them censor the internet. And just think, stopping that kind of demonstration would require them to make laws that take away the right to pick up trash. (Or shooting them with pepper spray and beanbags and beating them with batons like we do here. That totally doesn’t make you look like an evil, controlling government.)

  • kuyaChristian

    As a huge Girls’ Generation fan [what up, SONE?], I am proud of the Girls for reaching #1. :]
    If you do well in the Japanese market, you’re doing pretty darn well in general.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001462817558 Michael Baltazar

     That sucks…. BUT IMHO LiSA and Megumi are the best artists!

  • Deanthompson89

    Give it a go its pretty bad but its watchable.

  • kitsuki

    hm? this story about the driver recording himself speeding sounds super familiar. 
    Is this really old or did someone in the states do that maybe a year + ago and users on youtube called the cops on him?

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Every Sunday we gather the week's weird and interesting Japanese news and present it to you in our Sunday News ...