Awesome Japan

A short documentary about two of the many workers in Japan who live in Internet cafes, because they can’t afford to rent an actual apartment. Part of Shiho Fukada’s three-part documentary Japan’s Disposable Workers.

This commercial for Seiha English Academy, an English conversation school in Japan, claims that the school makes children so good at English you’ll need to call an exorcist. English speaking level: Japanese.

After frying shrimp at lightning speed, NTT DoCoMo once again resorts to a food-based analogy to promote its 4G network. This time they made ground beef dumpling in under three seconds. The music is the secret ingredient here.

Perhaps the most ridiculous invention to hit the running scene ever, the Tomatan is a robot that athletes can strap to themselves so they can eat tomatoes while distance running. A silly promo gimmick for Japanese food company Kagome.

So it’s time to dig out from the latest snownami. You could shovel by hand, or you could send off to Japan for Yuki-Taro, a robot that not only can plow snow, but that turns the white stuff into compact bricks of ice to keep things tidy.

An army of sexy and flexible Japanese maids cooking breakfast for a rich old man isn’t exactly the most progressive of ideas, but that doesn’t make this commercial for non-stick cookware any less awesome.

Motorhead Magazine assembled cars and drivers from various motorsports on the Mazda Turnpike in Hakone, Japan, where drifters and enthusiasts hone their craft. Masato Kawabata and his Nissan GT-R paid homage pretty damn well.

“Strategy only works when it is accompanied by the technology it requires.” Nifty Corporation’s documentary on Hebocon, a hilarious robot wrestling tournament where contestants know nothing about building robots.

Designed by architect Keiichi Kiriyama of Airhouse, this incredible home in Jiyugaoka, Japan is almost entirely constructed from concrete – from the walls to the floors to the countertops and ceilings.

Shrimp doesn’t really take that long to cook, but this commercial for Japanese mobile carrier Docomo shows how you can fry shrimp in less than three seconds – with the right equipment – and the appropriate death metal track.

Citizens rode Japan’s upcoming magnetic levitation trains in a public test run. The train went up to 311mph (500kph), over 100mph faster than the famous Shinkansen or bullet train line. Original video here.

(NSFW: Language) YouTuber maxmoefoetwo found the arcade equivalent of Xíng háishì bùxíng. This Japanese medal game has so many crazy mechanics and parts, and it doles out prizes so epic you’d wonder if the machine was broken.

Red Bull Music talks to some of the best Japanese composers, game designers and the musicians they influenced in the amazing miniseries Diggin’ in the Carts. A must watch for video game and music fans. English captions available.

A demonstration of how ultra-realistic food samples are made for display in Japanese restaurants. These fake pieces are handmade using plastic and wax, and look good enough to eat. But don’t. That cabbage sample is insane.

Japanese prank shows can be exceptionally sadistic. In this clip, we get to see how they’ve amped up the old pie-in-the-face prank using a high-powered hydraulic cream cannon concealed beneath a tabletop.

MAD is a Danish not-for-profit organization for restaurateurs. For its 2014 symposium MAD chose the theme, “What is Cooking?” This was the opening talk from Sobatei Rakuichi owners Tatsuru Rai and his wife Midori .