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

Tatsuya Nakadai in the movie Harakiri Tatsuya Nakadai has died at the age of 92. He was a Japanese actor who was also well-known in the West. He died of pneumonia in Tokyo on the 8th of November 2025. He became famous particularly for samurai-era movies such as Ran, Yojimbo and Sanjuro. But perhaps his most famous role was in the movie Harakiri. I remember him most for his roles as the main bad guy in Sanjuro and Yojimbo. has died: 亡くなりました at the age of ～: ～歳に actor: 俳優 al

Naeba ski area I like small long, low-stakes betting. I like to bet about tiny things. I never bet for money. Betting for real money is stupid... So, every year I message the other ALTs around Tsubame, Kamo and Sanjo. We bet on the first snow of the year. The person who is closest wins. They get one drink from a vending machine and we pay for it. There are 8 of us so we all pay about ￥20. I picked the 12th of December. When do you think the first snow will be?? bet: 賭ける lo

Some friends are making a video game: Ken and Ben are the programmers. Ken creates the game engine and tries to make it run smooth. Ben makes the editor that makes the levels. When the editor is finished they both make the levels. Marie is the art designer. She designs the characters and the monsters. Kay is the producer. She helps everyone and gets them what they need. Stu is the game tester. He checks the game works and looks for bugs. Dave is the sound designer. He makes a

I don't know much about J-pop. I know a few singers who are a little bit famous overseas. Kyari Pamyu Pamyu and Baby Metal are the most famous artists I know. Since I came to Japan, I heard some more, like Aimyon, Whiteberry (the 夏祭り song) and Creepy Nuts. But I still don't know many J-pop groups or singers. Are there J-pop singers who you like? Please recommend some good singers/groups to check out! not much: あまりない a little bit: 少し recommend: お勧めする check out: きいてみる

A survey by the Kyodo news agency found that there are just 13 CEOs who are women in the top 1600 companies in Japan (0.8%). Another survey in 2022 found that 15.5% of executive positions (managers who run part or a section of a company) were women. For comparison, it is 40.9% in the UK and 45.2% in France. Only China and Korea have less women who are in executive positions than Japan. Shinzo Abe told the UN in 2014 he wanted to "create a society [for] all women [to] shine".