Nintendo finally showed the Ocarina of Time Remake running. It looks amazing! I think it will be very popular. The original game is generally considered to be the best game ever. It is the top rated game on Metacritic with a rating of 99 (out of 100). I remember excitedly buying this game. But unfortunately for me, I didn't stick with it. I played about half of the game, then didn't play for a week or so, then forgot what I was doing. I played a little more but the momentum

The rice paddies in Gyoda, Saitama Some rice paddies in Gyoda, Saitama have been decorated with Minecraft art! Bees, pigs, dogs, baby chicks and the iconic creeper are represented in the art. The pattern is created using varieties of rice that grow in 4 different colours. I can't imagine how difficult that was to coordinate... There is a 50m tall tower you can view the art from. 1000 volunteers helped plant the rice in June. What an effort! The art can be viewed until Oct

A chef in South Korea served a dessert with ant powder. Ants are not an approved insect, so it is illegal to serve in South Korea. The chef could go to prison. The restaurant is in Gangnam in Seoul. The restaurant is a two-star Michelin restaurant. Michelin stars are the most prestigious awards given to restaurants. Michelin restaurants have 1, 2 or 3 stars. Three stars are the best. The ants were used to add flavour to a sorbet dessert. Sorbets are a kind

An unwritten to-do list My to-do list for this weekend: I have to take the kids swimming. My son is learning to swim. I have to buy a mouse mat for work. I have to do the washing. With two kids, there is so much washing... I have to move my body (jogging?). I ran 5km three times in the last week. Keep it up Chris! I have to buy a fan for my son. It is getting hot at night, so my son needs a fan. I have to study kanji. Sooooo many kanji... I don't have to play video games,...

PlayStation 1, 2, 3 and 4 games Sony have announced that they will stop selling physical games. Physical games will still be released until January 2028. But after that, you will only be able to buy games on the online PlayStation store. The reaction around the world has been extremely negative. Physical games allow people to share or sell them. They help preservation as many games are unavailable to buy online now. Also, digital games can be lost when the hardware fails an

Nuigurumi Shrine (plush/cuddly toy shrine) In Shintoism, everything has a god. The sea, the sky, the mountains,... there are gods for everything. Today I learned there are gods for cuddly toys! Cuddly toys (or plush toys) are soft toys loved by kids and adults. Most children have a few cuddly toys, but many adults keep and treasure them too. Now there is a shrine for those toys. Nuigurumi Shrine is in Nantan city, Kyoto prefecture. People can have ceremonies for their cudd

One of the pumps working A company in the Artic is trying to strengthen the sea ice. They pump water up onto the ice on cold days to that the water will freeze then thicken and strengthen the ice at the beginning of summer. This is a test to see if they can do it on a larger scale. The test area was a small patch of sea in the sea near Canada. The test area stayed frozen while the water around melted. It is possible that there will be no sea ice in the summer in the next f

Just before the ball bounces off Jo Adell's head. One of the strangest homeruns in baseball happened last week. Jo Adell of the Los Angeles Angels tried to catch a hit, but he missed it and it bounced off his head for a homerun! The single homerun took Colorado to 8-0. They won the game 8-2 in the end. Adell said "[...]it was kind of the icing on the cake because I was (bad) [...] the whole day today.” More comedy homeruns please! I love it! Check the video and read more

A message written about Quagsire (ヌオー) Every Pokémon is loved. And now there is a website to prove it! The website Favorite Pokémon lets people choose their favorite Pokémon and write a short message about them. All the Pokémon have been chosen as a favourite! That means every Pokémon is loved by someone! Which is your favorite Pokémon? Check out the website: https://favoritepokemon.vercel.app/#/ every Pokémon: すべてのポケモン to prove it: それを証明するために the website lets people choos

Scottsbluff, Nebraska A dog has shot a woman in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The accident happened at a petrol station. The dog was in the back of a truck and walked over a shotgun in the back seat. The gun went off and hit a woman outside. The woman hit was in car on the road. She had her arm out of the window and a pellet hit her. Her injury was not serious. It is illegal to carry loaded weapons in cars in Nebraska. Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/

Freedom Gundam ZGMF-X10A Justice Gundam ZGMF-X09A Shirakawa Daruma Sohonpo in Fukushima have just announced Gundam Daruma! Daruma are small carved wooden doll heads. Traditionally when you buy one, you paint a pupil on one of the eyes and make a wish. When your wish comes true, you paint in the other pupil. There are two types: Justice and Freedom. They also come in two sizes, a small at 15cm and a larger one at 18cm. The large ones are 4,950yen and the smaller ones are 3,3

Greg the frog A farmer in Australia found a live frog in a salad bag. The frog was completely sealed into the bag. Seemingly it was fine! The flatmates in Australia didn't believe him when he said "Oh Bro, there’s a frog in the lettuce." They named the frog Greg and later released him into a nearby pond. The supermarket said sorry and gave him a new bag of salad! Watch the video and read more here: https://apnews.com/article/australia-frog-lettuce-salad-esperance-4134acf75

2026 Champion Sébastien Bérard (right) Lightsaber dueling is getting more popular in Europe. Lightsabers are the swords used in the Star Wars universe. They are laser swords that can kill instantly. In France it is an official sport. Some people want it to become an olympic sport. There are many tournaments across Europe. What do you think? Do you want to try lightsaber dueling?? Darth Vader with his lightsaber A video from a championship in France 3 years ago:...

Switch 2 will is getting expensive! Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 are going to have a price rise. Nintendo announced the price rise last week. In Japan, both the Switch and Switch 2 will be ￥10,000 more expensive from 25th May. In the USA, Switch 2 will rise by $50; In Europe, €30 and Canada $50. It is getting more expensive... I want to buy a Switch 2 but now I will wait and maybe buy a secondhand one later... What do you think of the price change? price rise: 価格上昇 to ann

The machine in action A robot made by Sony is getting better at table tennis. Now it is able to beat elite players. But still lost to two professional players... They used competition rules and the robot was able to do and anticipate spin shots. Also, it reacted quickly to shots that hit the net. It is a wonderful achievement,... but do we need robots that can play table tennis? I am not sure. What do you think? Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/apr/

"Do you want to go on a date?" "No, thank you!" Some people use ChatGPT. And some people won't date those people! Chat GPT, Gemini and Grok are being used more and more. People use them to plan things, write things, translate things.... all sorts of things! But some people hate that. Some people think that using AI makes you lazy. They believe if you use AI, you can't think for yourself or plan simple things. So, they decided not to date people who use AI! We know that the

A student smells the corpse flower in Talcott Greenhouse The corpse flower has bloomed at Talcott Greenhouse in Massachusetts, USA. The corpse flower is called that because it smells like a corpse. It doesn't flower often, it can be dormant for years. The last time it flowered was in 2023! Some people travelled from far away to smell the flower. People said that it smells like a trash can, bad eggs, a baby's diaper or a dead body. Do you want to smell a flower that smells

The King and the cliffs of Dover The King (UK) has officially opened a walking path around the entire coast of England. The path is 2,689 miles (4,328km) long. Although many parts of the path were already there, the project took 18 years to complete. 1,000 miles (1,609km) of new paths were created. The whole path. I would love to walk it all but it would probably take several months! Do you want to walk it? coast: 海岸 coastal: 沿岸の officially: 公式には a walking path: 遊歩道 around

Pragmata's main characters The reviews for Pragmata are in. Pragmata is Capcom's latest video game. It is a rare treat: a new big-budget IP! Capcom are known for Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan), Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry as well as older titles such as Megaman (Rockman in Japan), Final Fight and Ghosts'n Goblins. But this game is totally new. The story is Hugh (a space traveller) and Diane (a small robot girl) must escape a research station. Video G

Trump in an octopus hat Donald Trump has received a "great" honor. He has got an irasutoya picture! It is a picture of him wearing an octopus hat. That is a reference to Trump Always Chickens Out. Also, tako also can be used to mean "idiot". T.A.C.O. As some online commentators have already said, it is a very cute drawing of a very evil man... What do you think? Does he suit it? I’m not sure… Check the pictures here: https://www.irasutoya.com/2026/04/taco.html to rece