Japanese Analysis Search Results

News: Next Professor Layton Game to Include 100-Hour Long Bonus RPG

Games have been getting shorter in length over the last decade. RPGs like The Elder Scrolls series are still tremendously long, but most single-player game experiences have gotten shorter as production values, costs, and manpower requirements to create them have gone up. It seems that elite Japanese developers Level-5 and Brownie Brown have decided to completely disregard that trend for their forthcoming collaborative effort Professor Layton and the Last Specter, which will feature what might...

Takoyaki: Decadent Japanese Street Food with Foie Gras and Caviar

Takoyaki, a very popular Japanese street food, is a spherical dumpling with grilled octopus. What's fun about cooking is that you don't always need to follow the classic recipe for things. I wanted to take this humble snack and turn it into something a little more decadent. Mine includes scallop, foie gras, dried mushrooms, and caviar. Here's what you'll need:

How To: Fold origami tulips with stems

Looking to add a rare and exotic specimen to your paper garden? Perhaps something Dutch? Make a paper tulip using origami, the traditional Japanese folk art of paper folding. This free origami video lesson presents complete instructions on how to fold your own cherry blossoms from paper. For more information, and to get started making paper bulb flowers yourself, take a look! Fold origami tulips with stems.

News: World's Most Magical Treehouses

What is it about the fantasy of the treehouse? Escapism. Other worldly, bird-like elevation. Beauty and peacefulness. Backwoods simplicity (although in some cases, truly elaborate works of fine architecture). Whatever the draw is, I'm dying to have my own treehouse in the woods, and I'd gladly take any of the examples below.

How To: Make Hanging Dried Persimmons (Hoshigaki)

A seasonal tradition brought over from Japan to America by Japanese-American farmers, making hoshigaki (as they're called in Japanese) is a fun outdoor autumn project you can do before the winter season really kicks in. Hang a bunch of peeled persimmons on a string outside, wait for three to five weeks, and harvest yourself some naturally dried persimmons during the winter months. Though peeling the fruit and then regularly massaging the fruit every few days after hanging may be more labor in...

News: Japan's Flying, Tumbling Reconnaissance Sphere Soars at 37 MPH

Flying orbs. At first, you might think of the Tall Man and his army of flying sentinel spheres, equipped with zombie brains and a mini-arsenal of saw blades, drill bits and shooting lasers. But these flying orbs weren't conceived from the evil mind of a superhuman mortician—they were designed by Fumiyuki Sato, a researcher at the Japanese Defense Ministry's Technical Research and Development Institute—for something other than deadly deeds.

News: Enter the Weird World of Hojamaka Games

Without Japan, video games would not be very fun. Atari's early work was important, but Japanese developers, publishers, and hardware makers were responsible for almost every major advance in video games for the first 25 years of their mainstream existence. In recent years, it has often been said that they have become less relevant than Western developers. In the indie games movement— (our area of greatest interest here at Indie Games Ichiban)—Japan does not have anywhere near the presence th...

News: Video Game Landscape Brought to Life: A Real World Tour of "Fallout: New Vegas"

Following in the footsteps of great historical figures is a great way to learn about them. Michael Wood famously did so in the 1980's for his PBS documentary and book In The Footsteps of Alexander The Great. This March, UK-based marketing director Chris Worth completed a similar endeavor—not by tracing the path of a real-life emperor or explorer, but a humble video game character. One known simply as "The Courier".

News: Creepy Facial Reconstruction of Iceman Mummy

It's tough to figure out what a mummy would have looked like when he was alive; soft tissue of a human body decays, even in ice. But, Dutch brothers Adrie and Alfons Kennis took the challenge. Using techniques that belong to both science and art, they managed to reconstruct the face and body of Otzi the Iceman, a mummy who was found in the Italian Alps in 1991.

News: What if Super Mario Was a First Person Shooter?

The classic Super Mario Bros is perhaps the most beloved video game on Earth. Almost daily, homages to Mario pop up on the web over and over and over again. Everybody loves the charming 2D world of Mario. But what would Mario look like in 3D… and moreover, what would Super Mario feel like as a First Person Shooter game?

News: Introduction To The Fingers

This is the first of two Video's introducing you to your fingers from a Hand Analysis perspective. The Fingers mainly govern the mind and thinking. Somewhere in the vast fabric of time somebody discovered that the length and inclination of each particular finger can bring out certain personality traits. I still find it amazing and satisfying to see somebody with a longer than average 'little finger'(Mercury-communication), that sticks out that can't stop talking and buzzing around all excited...

How To: Fold an origami rose out of a paper napkin

Looking for an easy way to impress your date (when at a not-so-impressive restaurant)? Make a rose from a paper napkin using origami, the traditional Japanese folk art of paper folding. This free origami video lesson presents complete instructions on how to make your own paper flowers from folded paper napkins. For more information, and to get started making paper napkin flowers yourself, take a look!

How To: Make an origami shirt out of a folded dollar bill

When does a brand-new shirt cost a dollar? When you make it yourself. With this guide, you'll learn how to make a shirt from a folded dollar bill using origami, the traditional Japanese folk art of paper folding. For more information, including a step-by-step overview of the folding process, as well as to get started making your own $1 shirts, watch this free origami lesson. Make an origami shirt out of a folded dollar bill.

News: Obsessively Crafted Sculptures Made of Salt

Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto's medium of choice is none other than your simple household table salt, fragile and completely ephemeral. Yamamoto creates beautiful installations with the medium, salt being a strong symbol in Japanese death culture (as well as several other cultures around the world:  Hinduism, Catholicism, Egyptian and Aztec mythology).

News: World's Greatest Bento - Plastic Japanese Meal

Anna The Red is the greatest Bento artist I have come across on the web. She's so highly regarded she even did an ad for Google. Check it out: For those of you who don't know, Bento is a "single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine". When bento is arranged in an elaborate style (such as people, animals, characters, plants, etc.) it is referred to as kyaraben or charaben (a shortened version of character bento).

How To: Make kanzashi fabric flowers

Kanzashi are hair ornaments used in traditional Japanese hairstyles. One of the hairstyle's main features is the application of intricate little fabric flowers. With a step-by-step video tutiorial will you how to make your own cute kanzashi flowers. These can go on brooches, bags, hairpins, or serve as fridge magnets... oh, how kawaii! Make kanzashi fabric flowers.

Level-5: The Biggest Indie Game Developer in the World Invades America

Most stateside gamers have probably never heard of Level-5. If they have, it's more than likely due to the charming and maddening line of Nintendo DS puzzle games, Professor Layton. Some might even remember Dark Cloud and its sequel from the early days of the PlayStation 2, and all eight of you PSP owners in the U.S. might recognize the epic Jeanne d'Arc. These games alone make Level-5 a noteworthy company, but they've quietly surpassed "noteworthy" status to become one of the largest and gre...

How To: Make a Cold Japanese Soba Noodle Salad

This summer, I am looking forward to eating light. Lately I've been eating a lot of cold noodles, whether it be pasta salads or cold soba noodles with vegetables. I took inspiration for classic Japanese soba tsuyu dishes to compose this dish. Mine includes four different vegetables and delicious crisp fried tofu. This version is really a 'Kitsune Soba'—in Japan, Kitsune Soba just means there are fried tofu slices added on top. This recipe is also vegan friendly.

News: Goodbye Takahashi Meijin, World's Fastest Button-Presser

Pressing the button on a video game controller quickly is like running the 100 meter dash. Both require dedication and a precise exercise regime. There is also an odd quality about both in which the range between the very best and complete neophyte is tiny. Sprinter Usain Bolt holds the record in the 100 meter run at 9.58 seconds, only three seconds faster than I ran in freshmen high school track. And yet there are thousands of sprinters from a hundred years of Olympic competition in between ...

News: Fashion Loves the Pixel

Not since JC de Castelbajac's infectiously fun LEGO fashion line have I seen such energetic geek-inspired ware. Japanese designer Kunihiko Morinaga pays homage to ye olde 8-bit days with his extensive catwalk of video game inspired womenswear—ranging from dresses to suits to streetwear. The pixel-printed Fall/Winter 2011/2012 collection debuted during Tokyo Fashion Week under his label Anrealage. Not only did the models don classic pixel prints, but they also strutted to a live pianist perfor...

Neuro-Fashion: Wiggling Cat Ears with Brainwaves

While most people go to great lengths to conceal their emotions, Japanese company Neurowear is offering a product that would reveal states of tension, excitement and relaxation—all by the up-and-down motion of a pair of cartoony cat ears. Necomimi is a "new communication tool that augments human’s body and ability." The device reads your brain waves and communicates your emotions before you even open your mouth:

News: 4 Years of Spectacularly Pointless Marble Machines

So very pointless, yet unquestionably spectacular. The best kind of "art" performs no other function than to delight the viewer, and Japanese YouTube user Denha's complex marble machines do just that. But are marble machines art? You can call them that—or toys, scientific contraptions, engineering feats—but however you choose to label them, the best marble machines are complicated, skillfully crafted, and driven by the principles of potential energy, kinetic energy and gravity.

News: Self-Electroshocking as Art, Live

Daito Manabe is awesome. Last we heard of him, he was setting up Japanese school girls with glow-in-the-dark grills. Before that, he was playing himself like a human drum kit. And before that, he was just plain old electroshocking himself. In his most recent appearance, he takes his electro-pulsed facial twitches to the stage, with fellow artist Ei Wada, before an audience at Berlin’s Transmediale Festival.

News: DIY Instant Indoor Skydiving

If you're like me, just the idea of skydiving triggers nearly-pee-in-the-pants petrification. But with a little imagination, plus Google Image Search and a projector, and all of us ninnies out there can pretend to do the real thing: