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

The opening of the new police station A debate has been going on for some time. What should Austria do with the apartment where Hitler was born? Hitler was born in a small Austrian town on the border close to Germany. The apartment where he was born was visited by many neo-Nazis. Neo-Nazis want the return of Nazism... After much debate, the building was renovated and opened as a police station. I hope that will stop the neo-Nazis... Read more here: https://www.theguardian.

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

Julián Quiñones scoring the opening goal Mexico have beaten South Africa 2-0 in the first game of the World Cup. South Africa had two players sent off. Mexico also had a player red carded...　That's not great for both teams... Mexico weren't great but played much better than South Africa. I hope the World Cup improves later as this game wasn't the best. Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/11/mexico-south-africa-world-cup-2026-group-a-match-report to

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

The sign explaining the Pokémon test Scalpers are the worst. Scalpers buy popular things just to resell them for more money. They are the worst... Bic Camera had a great idea to prevent scalpers from buying boxes of Pokémon cards. Make the customer take a test! Customers have to take a 15-question test on Pokémon. If they fail, they are not allowed to buy the cards! I love this idea! Scalpers make things more expensive... to test ～ : テストする ～ customer(s): 顧客 the worst: 最悪の

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

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

The calf being lifted above the water. Scientists have filmed a sperm whale being born for the first time. Other whales surrounded the mother and helped the baby called a calf, rise to the surface to breathe. It is the first time whales helping during birth has been seen. Newborn whales become strong swimmers soon after birth. But when they are first born, they sink. Sperm whales have long pregnancies (16 months). Newborn calves are 4m long. Read more here: https://www.the

Project Helix - the codename for the next Xbox Microsoft announced their codename for the next Xbox. Xbox is the videogame console made by Microsoft. It is a competitor to PlayStation. The next Xbox is expected to arrive next year or in 2028. It is expected to be a Windows-based machine that will play all (or at least most) current and previous Xbox games. The last Xbox didn't go so well. They only sold around 28 million consoles. Not as many as PlayStation's 92 million (a

Nintendo's Pokopia Nintendo's share price jumped 15% because of Pokopia. Pokopia sold out in many countries around the world. It is also the highest rated Pokemon game on Metacritic (March 2026). Nintendo's share price over the last 5 days (12th March, 2026) Pokopia is a Pokemon game with different gameplay elements. The game lets players grow vegetables, build homes AND catch Pokemon. Reviewers and players love it and it has been a surprise success for Nintendo. share pric

The Iranian soccer players 5 Iranian female soccer players have been given visas to stay in Australia. They refused to sing the Iranian national anthem before their match against South Korea. After this they were called "traitors" by some people in Iran. They are in Australia to play in the Women's Asian Cup. There were fears that they wouldn't be safe if they returned to Iran. The other players are worried about their families, so will return to Iran. The Australian home

Ghost of Tsushima I finally finished Ghost of Tsushima. What a great game, but with some parts that took me out of the action. The story is cool. I personally wish it were a little more interesting. The story was good, but the game was too long to keep me interested. Also, the story had the main character as a super badass samurai but... I am not a good enough player to maintain that badassness. All the characters I spoke to told me I was a superhero fighting the bad guy