Random Japan

No grown-ups allowed! Chef with a very sweet motive opens a kids-only sweets shop
Krista Rogers
Children in Sanda City, Hyogo Prefecture currently have good reason to celebrate, as a huge new sweets shop officially opened in their town on December 7. But the news gets even sweeter: only kids in sixth grade or younger are allowed inside! Sounds like any child’s wildest fantasy come true, right? Parents must wait outside (and no doubt prepare themselves for the inevitable sugar-high antics to come) while their children explore the hidden wonders within.

Join us after the jump for a rare glimpse inside the shop and read what inspired the owner to open it in the first place.


The new shop, named the Future Sweets Factory, is located on the premises of the wildly popular Patisserie es Koyama, which carries a large line of pastries and baked goods, and is particularly famous in the region for its special roll cake.

STATS
35
Percent of Americans who say Japan is the US’s “most important partner” in Asia, according to a foreign ministry survey

39
Percent of Americans who believe China is their closest ally in the region

23,750
Number of people who visited the imperial palace last month to celebrate Emperor Akihito’s 80th birthday, according to the Imperial Household Agency

STRANGE DAYS
A Tokyo police officer who went AWOL during the middle of his shift was found three days later in Tochigi “wearing a ski mask and [carrying] three knives.”

Policymakers at the Bank of Japan say they are “very interested” in the virtual currency Bitcoin.

One day before he resigned as governor of Tokyo last month, Naoki Inose published a book called The Power to Win Through.

It was reported that researchers at Japanese universities are trying to develop personal authentication technologies based on “unconscious behaviors that are hard to imitate.”

Something To Pointlessly

Whine About

Forged Tickets

For Bad Music

Suntory Goes For

The Beam

Japanese WWII soldier who hid in Philippine jungle until 1974 dies
NATIONAL JAN. 18, 2014
By Hiroshi Hiyama
A Japanese soldier who hid in the Philippine jungle for three decades, refusing to believe World War II was over until his former commander returned and ordered him to surrender, has died in Tokyo aged 91.

Hiroo Onoda waged a guerrilla campaign in Lubang Island near Luzon until he was finally persuaded in 1974 that peace had broken out, ignoring leaflet drops and successive attempts to convince him the Imperial Army had been defeated.

He died in a Tokyo hospital on Thursday of heart failure.