Brian Ashcraft

Life-Sized Dragon Ball Z Papercraft Is Over 9000!

For this, you’ll need more than lots of space in your abode and a fanatic Dragon Ball Z love. You’ll need lots of paper. Papercraft site Paper Juke created this life-sized DBZ Goku, and earlier this year, Korean blogger Sinsis uploaded the finished piece. It’s truly impressive. Ver.Juke [Sinsis] To contact the author of this…

Miranda Kerr, Meet Your Korean Clone

We all have heroes. Some of us look up to movie stars, athletes, or even family members. South Korea’s Yuh Reum Hong adores Miranda Kerr. A lot Hong styles herself after Kerr, wearing blue contact lenses and mimicking the former Victoria Secret model’s hairstyle and make-up. As tipster Sang points out, Hong also said she…

GTA V Needs More Rickshaw Stealing and Dick Punching

SNL Korea is back with another Grand Theft Auto V parody. This time, the game is set in Korea’s colonial period, complete with katana-wielding Japanese guards, rickshaws you can steal, and vegetables you can use in fist-fights. GTA 경성 (GTA Seoul) Korean Parody w/ subtitles [KukminTV@YouTube Thanks, 유재욱 and Sang!] To contact the author of…

Buying Marijuana in North Korea Sure Sounds Easy

For all the freedoms that North Korea lacks, it has one that most Western countries don’t: Apparently, you can legally buy and smoke marijuana. As Vice reported earlier this year, marijuana, or “ip tambae” (“leaf tobacco”) is supposedly grown openly on the roadsides and smoked on the streets of Pyongyang. In North Korea, marijuana, it…

Uniqlo Folds T-Shirts Better Than You Do

Leave it to some employees at Japanese retail chain Uniqlo to show off the best way to fold t-shirts. Instead of simply folding the shirts, each one is creased in a slightly different place. When stacked, you can see the entire design on the side of the shirt bundle. Very clever! Not all Uniqlo stores…

Grand Theft Auto Comes to Life in Hong Kong Car Chase

Whenever there’s a car chase, GTA comparisons inevitably arise. But this particular car chase totally looks like Grand Theft Auto. Really! The chase happened earlier this summer, and the footage is taken from an undercover Hong Kong cop car and was recently uploaded by Next Media For twenty minutes, police chased the 33 year-old driver,…

Cosplay Doesn’t Get More Heartwarming Than This

Cosplay is the act of dressing up as your favorite character. Charity is helping others. Japanese businessman Akihiro Tomikawa does both. According to Sankei, the 44 year-old Tomikawa dresses as Japanese superhero Kamen Rider and rides into the Bangkok slums to hand out toys to underprivileged kids. Once every two months, Tomikawa apparently makes the…

Perhaps President Obama Can Fix the GTA Online Issues

Grand Theft Auto Online is facing post-launch glitches and headaches. Government shutdown shmutdown, the GTA Online issues are bad enough that the President of the United States had to call an honest to goodness meeting to address the issue. Don’t think this is fake or some cleverly re-edited clip. It is incredibly real. So instead,…

I Want To Catch These Pokémon Hanafuda Cards

Nintendo started in the 19th century as a hanafuda maker. To this day, Nintendo still makes hanafuda cards in Japan. But is it making these Pokémon hanafuda cards? As pointed out by Gigazine, a mysterious Pokémon hanafuda site just went up in Japan. The site states that more details will be made available on October…

Let China Show You What Crowded Really Means

If you plan on going sightseeing right now in China, you might want to reconsider. That is, unless you like huge crowds and being pressed up against strangers. If so, go now. And quick! It’s “National Day Golden Week” in China, which is a seven-day holiday that kicks off every year on October 1, the…

How Battlefield 4 Battles Nazi Flags and Dick Drawings

It’s a rule of thumb: Let people create things, and you’re definitely going to see dick drawings. You might even see Nazi doodles, too. But Battlefield 4 is fighting that. Like Call of Dutybefore it, Battlefield 4 gives players an emblem creation tool. And like Call of Duty before it, BF4 also has a feature…

Adorable D.I.Y. Japanese Candy Will Delight You

Waffles. Curry rice. Hamburgers. All and more in miniature candy form. But the best part? You get to make them yourself. And then eat them all up. In Japan, this type of candy is referred to as “intellectual development candy” (知育お菓子 or “chiiku okashi”). The term is actually a registered trademark held by Japanese confectionery…

Well, That’s One Way to Censor Animated Nipples

Ideas of what’s socially acceptable differ from country to country. What some might think is okay, others might not. Take blue pierced animated nipples, for example. That might be cool where you live. Maybe not. Note: This story contains content some readers might find objectionable. When Japanese anime Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic was broadcast…

Colorful Penguins Have Something To Do with the PS Vita Slim

I’m not sure what, but who cares? Colorful penguins might not be slim and light, but they sure are cute! PS Vita２０００　TVCM 「登場」篇 [PlayStationJp@YouTube] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points…

South Korea Is Finally Getting a Robot Theme Park

Disneyland? Meh. Universal Studios? Been there, done that. Robot Land? Now, we’re talking. For years now, there has been talk in South Korea about a robot theme park. Construction was supposed to start in 2009, but it never happened. (Heck, several years ago, I spent some time in South Korea talking to researchers about it…

Breathe or Play the Nintendo DS? A Mother’s Chilling, Final Question

According to Japan’s largest media outlets, a question about video games has ended in an unsettling murder. Note: This post contains content that some readers might find objectionable. In Tokyo, 42 year-old mother Shizu Shigeta is on trial for killing her 5 year-old son in September of last year. Asahi.com reports that her five-year old…

Why Is Ash from Pokémon Such a Loser?

The Pokémon Origins anime special offered a reminder of one thing: Ash is a pretty lousy Pokémon trainer. If only he could reach his true potential! Eh, he can’t. Note: This post contains spoilers. If you’ve followed the Pokémon anime, you’ll know that Ash (or “Satoshi” as he’s called in Japan) isn’t exactly the best…

The New Pokémon Anime Was So Brutal

Oh. My. Goodness. You thought Pokémon was safe and all? Ha! Just look how Charmander gets jacked up and starts screaming like bloody hell. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! This appeared in Pokémon Origins, a Pocket Monster special based on Pokémon Red and Blue. It was not effing around. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA [AppleHack@YouTube] To contact the author of this post, write…

“Godzilla Rat” Found in China

According to reports out of China, there have been rumors of abnormally large rats in Shaoyang county. And then, a villager caught one. Note: This story contains content some readers might find objectionable. Sanxiang Metropolis Daily (via WantChinaTimes) reports that the freakishly big rodents were apparently preying on fish in a local pond. Farmers finally…

Rockstar posted a list of known GTA Online bugs, which you can view here. Keep in mind, Rockstar is working on these known issues.