Kotaku East

Hong Kong Starbucks Used “Toilet Water” To Make Coffee

In Hong Kong, Starbucks patrons are upset and for good reason: the coffee chain’s Central Hong Kong branch has used “toilet water” to brew coffee since it opened two years ago. According to Apple Daily, a staffer would push a cart into a men’s restroom in a nearby parking garage, fill it will water, and…

Quick update to the League of Legends mess in South Korea. Riot Games, as tipster Sang points out, is offering a ‘Silent Night Sona’ skin to those with log-ins between May 23 and May 31. Apparently, the ‘Silent Night Sona’ skin was previously seen as a badge of honor among diehard Korean players because it…

Phony Iron Man Fighting Urinary Tract Infections in China

Iron Man? More like Medicine Man. Or in this Chinese TV spot, Kang Zhi Ba Man. In China, Kang Zhi Ba is a brand of pharmaceuticals, and this commercial is for Norfloxacin capsules, which are used to treat urinary tract infections as well as typhoid fever, intestinal infections and gonorrhea. As recently noted by MIC…

Outrageous Japanese Fashion Wants To Go Global

Big hair. No, like, really big hair. Tanned skin. And incredibly long nails. Meet the young women of Black Diamond. They’re keen to go worldwide. In Japanese, this style of fashion is dubbed “gal” (ギャル or gyaru). The look flies in the face of traditional Japanese notions of feminine beauty: pale skin and black hair.…

This Music Game Cheat Sure Is Unusual

When you think of Japanese music games, you probably think of people doing elaborate dance routines. If you want to rack up a high score, you need to move. Or do you? Above, you can see YouTube user Aicecream777 dancing her heart out while playing Dance Evolution Arcade, the Japanese arcade version of the Kinect…

Yakuza on the Wii U Is an “Experiment” and Not Happening for the 3DS

Yakuza 1 & 2 HD is coming to the Wii U. But what about future Yakuza games? Are they headed to the Wii U? And how about the 3DS? So many questions! In a recent interview, Yakuza producer Toshihiro Nagoshi described the Wii U release as “an experiment” to see how many Wii U owners…

Project Diva F Looks Good On The Vita, Even Better on the PS3

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f, released last August, is one of the Vita’s best-selling games despite never being released outside of Japan. Then back in March the PS3 version of the game, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F (notice the capital “F”) was released as well. And while there are several differences in features between the…

Shoot Resident Evil Zombies This Summer at Universal Studios Japan

For a limited time this summer, Resident Evil is coming to life at Universal Studios Japan. And apparently, you get to shoot zombies with the same practice guns the police and the military use. According to Famitsu, “Resident Evil The Real” is a five-to-ten minute long attraction that will be held at the park’s “Palace…

What if Evangelion had a 1970s-Style Opening Theme Song?

Ever wonder what popular anime theme songs of the 60s, 80s, 90s, and 00s would sound like if they were all made in the style of 70s robot anime like Gundam or Mazinger Z? Luckily this album has the answer: They would sound awesome. Released late last year, Japanese singer Ichiro Kageyama takes the themes…

Which Ones Are Not Real Pokémon Trainers?

Popular smartphone game Puzzle & Dragons is coming to the Nintendo 3DS. The handheld version has two protagonists for 3DS owners to pick from: one male and one female. Can you spot them? And as commenters on 2ch, Japan’s largest online forum, are pointing out, the characters (below) really look like Pokémon trainers. Puzzle and…

Final Fantasy Tactics S Looks Nifty, But Looks Can Be Deceiving

The design. The music. The turn-based RPG action. This trailer tells us that Tactics S has got everything its big (ie. non-mobile) brothers do, and social features. Then again, we know how All the Bravest turned out. Best be careful. Tactics S is out now for iOS/Android in Japan, with no word of a western…

Meet China’s Photoshop Trolls

Photoshop is a great and powerful tool. It can take ordinary pictures and make them spectacular… or make them horrible. In China, there are many people with awesome Photoshop skills, and those who don’t have any ability usually ask people for help online. Sometimes these requests go wrong. Horribly wrong. Basically, this is what’s going…

League of Legends Is Still Pissing Off Gamers in South Korea [Update]

This past April, gamers in South Korea were upset about seemingly endless League of Legends server maintenance. It’s now late May. Things, apparently, have not gotten better. Last month on April 11, Riot Games made an official apology for all the server headaches South Korean gamers are experiencing. Since then, as tipster Sang points out,…

The “Masturbation Diet” Is Not Recommended

The Subway diet. The cabbage soup diet. The junk food diet. From Atkins to the Zone, there is an array of diets to help people slim down. Have you heard of the masturbation diet? You know, the one in which you drop pounds by playing with yourself furiously According to Nikkan Spa, a 28 year-old…

Two Melons Just Sold for $15,730 in Japan

Guess the Japanese economy is picking up? On Friday, two Yubari melons, weighing over 8 pounds, sold for 1.6 million yen (US$15,730). That’s a couple grand more than last year’s priciest melons. Things are looking up! What’s more, this is the third highest price ever paid for Yubari melons, AP reports. Typical melons are certainly…

Via Nova Crystallis comes word that Square Enix filed a trademark on April 24, 2013 in Japan for “FINAL FANTASY AGITO”. You might remember that PSP game Final Fantasy Type-0 was originally titled Final Fantasy Agito XIII. You might not! To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter…

New Japanese Photo Meme Is from Studying Too Damn Much

Online in Japan, teens often tweet things like, “I studied so much, my head hurts”, “I studied so much, my nose is gonna bleed”, or “I studied so much, I’m going crazy.” But what about when you study so much, you can defy gravity? For the past week or so, Japanese teens have been uploading…

Man’s Video Gaming Prompts Wife To Petition For Divorce

A young Chinese man in Sichuan province is in a little hot water with his wife and the courts because of his affinity for video games. The man, Zhang Ping, is being taken to court by his wife for neglecting his household chores in order to play online games, reports News Guangdong.com. 25 year-old Zhang…

Here, Have Some Games of Thrones in Japanese

There’s no Game of Thrones this week. How to cope? With a preview of its upcoming Japanese language disc release. While many of the books have gotten Japanese language editions, the series hasn’t yet reached the public in Japan in the way Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter have. The show is already being…

Stormtrooper Surrounded by Japanese Police After Murderous Tweet

Twitter account @vmlvlltl recently uploaded a message: “At noon on May 26, 2013, I will kill people at Sapporo Station.” This was @vmlvlltl’s sole message, and the user’s name was “Phantom Slasher Notice” (Toorima Yokoku or 通り魔予告). The account is now suspended, but Twitter users in Sapporo began re-tweeting the threat and warning each other.…