Brian Ashcraft

In Japan, a Fast Food Chain Is Selling $12 Burgers Until Next Spring

Like Japanese beef? Burger chain Lotteria is rolling out a series of pricey wagyu burgers, costing between $12 to $15 a piece. Yes, this is fast food! On the 29th of every month until next March, select Lotterias will have expensive burgers made from a different type of high-grade Japanese beef. The number “29” is…

The World Cup of Iffy Japanese and Chinese Tattoos

Some of the best athletes in the world are facing off at this year’s World Cup. Shame that a couple of them are sporting some rather interesting, if not unfortunate, Japanese and Chinese tattoos. Previously, Kotaku profiled the perplexing tattoo of Greece’s Theofanis Gekas that was baffling people in Japan. As noted on Mixi News,…

Why Snowpiercer Started with a Digital Pig Head

Snowpiercer, it seems, is fantastic. The movie debuted in South Korea last summer and is finally opening in North America later this week. Before filming started, the cast and crew held a traditional ritual with pig’s head—but with a slight twist. A digital twist. Note: This article contains imagery some readers might find objectionable. In…

​College Women Mysteriously Collapse in a Tokyo Street

Students getting drunk and passing out is part of the university experience. But this weekend, something strange and quite possibly sinister happened in Tokyo. Note: This article might contain content some readers find objectionable. On Twitter and Instagram (via 2ch), photos of a group of young women passed out in the middle of the street…

Pancakes on a Stick? There’s a Machine for That.

Pancakes on a stick have been a thing for a while now. Hell, Jimmy Dean has offered it with sausage. But now, there’s a machine that enables you to easily make them at home. Progress! In the past, people who wanted to make pancake on sticks resorted to using a corn dog maker—which has been…

Don’t Put Digimon Stuff in Your Butt, Please

Your pocket? Yes. Your bunghole? Just don’t. Please. If you didn’t think that was common sense, there was apparently a warning to Digimon players about just that. This week, photos supposedly of a Digimon Mini how-to book show the following warning: “Shiri ni Irenai” (しりにいれない) or “Don’t put it in your butt.” Because these little…

Chinese Supermarket Fashion Is Absolutely Wonderful

From tank tops made of toothpastes to dresses constructed with tissues, China’s in-store displays are incredibly creative. Screw clothes, check out how supermarkets and hypermarts dress up mannequins to sell vegetables, toilet paper, floor mats, and utensils. Recently, some of China’s best supermarket mannequins appeared online in Japan. The images are from Chinese social networking…

Makeup Turns Young Women into Old Dudes

You’ve probably seen photos of how makeup can change people’s appearance. Usually, makeup makes them look younger. It doesn’t turn them into old dudes. Well, makeup can do that, too. In Japan, “ossan” (おっさん）means an “old dude.” For little kids, it’s pretty much all adult males and for young people, it’s probably guys in their…

Gundam Optical Illusions Will Mess With Your Mind

To promote its Pixus printer, Canon released a video with Gundam plastic model optical illusions. They are pretty cool! In the video below, you can see how the illusions were created. Have a look: PIXUS×GUNDAM PROJECT「ガンプラ トリックアート スペシャルムービー」 [Canon@YouTube] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft…

We Didn’t Ask for This King of Fighters Music Game

As hinted at earlier this year, The King of Fighters is getting a rhythm game. Dubbed The Rhythm of Fighters, the game is a cross between a music game and a fighting game. Slated for iOS and Android, The Rhythm of Fighters should be available for download shortly, reports Gamer It’s good to see a…

Bad Tattoo Baffles Japanese Soccer Fans

When not watching one of the most boring World Cup matches in recent memory, Japanese soccer fans were watching the tattoo on the arm of Greece’s Theofanis Gekas. The tattoo fail, that is. As noted on Hachima, the tattoo reads “寒冷殺人魔” (kanrei satsujin ma) in Japanese, which literally translates as “cold (weather) murder demon.” The…

Microsoft revealed the Xbox One’s Japan launch line up, which includes Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. That title, however, will be digital download only in Japan. Other launch titles include: Titanfall, Need for Speed Rivals, Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, Strider, Musou Orochi 2 Ultimate, Onigiri, Call of Duty Ghosts…

Korean Schoolgirls Wearing Backpacks Made of Junk Food

Forget rucksacks. You want a snack pack. And you want it built with your favorite cookies, chocolate and potato chips. Well, I sure do. Recently in South Korea, photos of these junk food bags have been appearing on numerous websites, with, apparently, teens making them for each other as birthday presents. Though, it’s possible some…

The Man Was Fat Shamed. Then, He Was Game Boy Advance Shamed.

Twitter gives everyone a voice. Too bad some people use that voice to be mean to people they don’t know. Today in Japan, the following tweet appeared on 2ch, the country’s largest forum. The young woman who tweeted it, wrote, “I’m on the train now (lol). There’s a fatty taking up three seats by himself…

Watch the Metal Gear Solid V PS4 Demo Right Here

Have I kept you waiting? Probably not. But Hideo Kojima most certainly has. The Metal Gear Solid creator is showing off the MGSV: The Phantom Pain PlayStation 4 demo in this latest episode of Kojima Station. The thirty minute demo, which is similar to what was shown at E3, can be seen below: Update: The…

Final Fantasy III Art Keeps Insects Away

Twitter user Rurue0111 recreated the Final Fantasy III job classes in miniature on a screen door. 8-bit has never been so good at not letting mosquitos in the house! Each square on the screen represented one pixel, and Rurue0111 used stain glass window paint, using a toothpick to color in the characters. Via Togech and…

Sony boss Kaz Hirai was heckled at the recent investors meeting in Tokyo over Sony’s poor performance, AP reports. One investor, for example, asked how Sony had lost its glory and expressed disappointment in Hirai.

CNN Wonders Why Anime Child Porn Isn’t Banned in Japan

This week, it was announced that Japan finally outlawed child pornography. The ban does not cover 2D sexualized representations of children in manga and video games. CNN International wonders why. On Twitter, CNN International posed the following question: Note that, at the time of writing, Kotaku has attempted to select responses that show the variety…

Behold, the Forever Alone Pod

Sometimes you like being with others. Other times, you want to be alone with your hobbies and diversions. For those times, there’s this. Dubbed a “relation room for men and women,” this cozy room is a forever alone pod that lets you get away and relax, work or study, watch movies and play video games,…

You Can Almost Steal Clothes from This Japanese Store

The folks behind Uniqlo are unveiling a new concept in Tokyo: Customers can try on clothes and then leave the store to see how they look in public. Casual wear chain GU, which is run by the company behind Uniqlo, is opening a new shop in Tokyo’s Shibuya today. Until the end of the month,…