Despite a rather weak track-record for its hamburgers with patties of noodles, fast-food chain Lotteria is back at it with the Moko Tanmen Burger. This time around they’ve also come up with the Moko Don Burger which uses a wad of rice as the patty. Good thing Dr. Atkins isn’t around to see this.

They say the definition of “insanity” is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results. We’re not sure what to call RocketNews24 reporter Mr. Sato then, because he is returning to Lotteria for a fourth time to try these noodley sandwiches in hopes of some redemption.

The Moko Tanmen Burger and Moko Don Burger were created in collaboration with Moko Tanmen Nakamoto, a chain of ramen restaurants in the Tokyo area. Perhaps for this reason Tokyo is getting a few days’ head-start on these burgers before they go nationwide on 19 May.

First, Mr. Sato stared down the tangled patty of the Moko Tanmen Burger. Each time Lotteria had partnered with a ramen shop for these things it always turned out the same. Our reporter was pretty well convinced noodles and buns simply don’t go together. But he had to try.

Sure enough the noodles and buns were a complete clash of textures. The sponginess of the noodles only served to accentuate the dryness of the buns. The result was a flaky and stringy ball of dry confusion.

Like before, Lotteria provided some soup for dipping. However, the dipping only made the whole burger soggy and unpleasant. If you’ve had these ramen burgers before then you’d know what to expect. Unfortunately, Mr. Sato was expecting some sort of improvement after two years, so he swallowed his last bite in sheer disappointment.

Next up was the Moko Don Burger and its patty made of rice. The appearance was enough to lower Mr. Sato’s expectations even further. The molded shape of the rice patty made him wonder if it might have had the gummy consistency of mochi.

Luckily it didn’t taste like he imagined, but if you were to ask Mr. Sato to describe the taste of the Moko Don Burger in one word, it would be “discomfort” as that was the feeling the spread throughout his entire mouth while eating.

So if you’re in the mood for a little “discomfort” and “disappointment” then why not head down to Lotteria for a Moko Tanmen Burger or Moko Don Burger? Meanwhile, Mr. Sato would like to yet again urge the burger chain to stop this madness once and for all. It just doesn’t work.

▼ The Moko Tanmen Burger

▼ The Moko Don Burger

Original article by Mr. Sato
Photos: ©RocketNews24

Origin: Lotteria continues to try making burgers out of noodles, this time they brought rice to the party
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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• Third time’s the charm – Lotteria’s noodle burger series strikes again
• We try french fries and chocolate sauce at Lotteria Japan
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• What Kind of Hamburger Is Worth 23 Bucks?
• Lotteria Serving Up Ramen Noodle Burgers For the First Time

If you’ve been reading RocketNews24 for a while, you’ve probably come across the name Mr. Sato. If not, let us explain. Mr. Sato is a hilarious reporter for our Japanese sister site. But he’s so much more than just a writer; Mr. Sato is a teacher, a foodie and is also very patient.

One thing Mr. Sato is not, however, is married.

At roughly 40 years old, Mr. Sato wants to be impressing the ladies, so he’s tried time and again to transform himself to look like different famous people. But so far, nothing has worked. He has a new model in mind, though, that he thinks is fail-safe…

Over the past few years, Mr. Sato has tried to become a variety of characters and famous people in attempt to woo the ladies, yet he remains single and alone. Poor Mr. Sato! Before jumping into his latest endeavor, let’s review his past attempts and their shortcomings.

Mr. Sato as a young David Bowie:

“Although he was cool looking, Japanese women aren’t really into foreign guys.” (Really? We beg to differ.) Plus, he was too old for the part.

Mr. Sato as Daisuke Tsuda:

Daisuke Tsuda is an IT and music journalist, who is not really known for being an ikemen (handsome, cool guy). So, while he may have pulled the transformation off, there’s no reason women would be any more attracted to him.

Mr. Sato as Funasshi: 

Funasshi is the loveably crazy, pear-shaped mascot character who took Japan by storm after winning the top mascot prize in the national mascot Grand Prix. Unfortunately, humanoid-Funasshi looked pretty creepy and probably would have been arrested if spotted by authorities.

Mr. Sato as Kyosuke Himuro:

Finally, a good-looking Japanese man to model himself after: singer-songwriter Kyosuke Himuro. The biggest downfall here, though, is that Himuro is more popular with men than with women, so again, Mr. Sato did not do himself any favors here. And again, he’s is just a bit too old to pull it off.

Now that you’ve seen his past of unfortunate decisions, we bring you his best idea yet: rock band L’Arc~en~Ciel’s frontman, Hyde. To (almost) justify his decision, Hyde was ranked the 9th most handsome man (in the opinion of Japanese men). They are also similar height and Mr. Sato is a touch younger than Hyde. With this in mind, Mr. Sato seems to think that:

“If I turn into Hyde, my attractiveness will go up so high that I’ll have to ask Prime Minister Abe to introduce polygamy into Japanese law.”

Mr. Sato is a big fan of L’Arc~en~Ciel, so he chose an image of Hyde from the “Winter Fall” music video (after singing it at karaoke) and bought some clothes to match. That was the easy part, the real transformation began at the hair and make-up salon.

▼ At the salon Mr. Sato requested to be made into Hyde. The staff was a bit taken aback, but did their best to satisfy.

▼ It’s not all about the hair, the face has to be just as pasty looking as Hyde’s.

Halfway through we got a sneak peek into his transformation and he does not look anything like Hyde. You can definitely tell that the makeup was professionally done, but the difference in attractiveness between Hyde and Mr. Sato is just overwhelmingly evident.

▼ He does look a lot different though…

Upon completion, however, Mr. Sato was quite pleased:

“Don’t I look just like Hyde?! If I walked in Shinjuku like this, people would swarm around me and I would have to take a taxi home.”

▼ Don’t worry, there is a plethora of more photos below.

What do you think? Is the 5th time a charm and Mr. Sato will find a darling now that he looks “exactly like Hyde”? When judging the photos, remember that our dear Mr. Sato is a sad, lonely man, so don’t judge too harshly.

▼ The complete look.

▼”Come and get me, ladies!”

▼ Kind of creepy.

▼ Where’s the swarm, Mr. Sato?

▼ No comment.

▼ He almost looks like an escaped mental hospital patient.

▼”Bye. ladies. You know where to find me.”

Photos © RocketNews24

Origin: Mr. Sato tries to get ladies by transforming into a creepy version of L’Arc-en-Ciel’s Hyde
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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• Mr. Sato channels his inner Elsa, books a night at a Hokkaido ice hotel 【Photos】
• Funasshi’s unofficial mascot Satosshi grabs a pear burger and risks getting beaten up

Our resident oddball writer Mr. Sato loves his coffee, so much so that he finds it impossible to pass by a Starbucks without stopping in for a quick coffee break. The only problem is that he tends to favour “girly” drinks like frappuccinos, and lives in fear of being spotted by friends and acquaintances enjoying one.

The solution? Sneak into Starbucks underneath a cardboard box, Solid Snake-style, and see if the baristas will serve coffee to a cardboard box. Check out our video to see how he did!

While Solid Sato undoubtedly drew more than a couple of stares as he shuffled towards the store wearing his box disguise, he was nonetheless comforted by the fact that nobody he knew would be able to identify him.

Check out Solid Sato in action here!

Unfortunately, he hadn’t really thought through the logistics of the whole operation, and trying to order coffee while fumbling about with change and wearing a cardboard box at the same time proved impossible even for a hardened subterfuge expert like Solid Sato. In the end, he quickly wriggled out of his box in order to order and collect his coffee, before once more covering himself in cardboard and shuffling off to the safety of the nearby garbage disposal area to slurp his Starbucks in peace.

Well, we’re not sure he’d last ten seconds trying to infiltrate any top-secret nuclear arms bases, but at least he got his sweet, sweet caffeine fix. Let’s just call it Mission Accomplished for Solid Sato.

Images © RocketNews24

Origin: “Solid Sato” sneaks into Starbucks under cover of cardboard box, Metal Gear-style 【VIDEO】
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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• Can you spot the Self-Defense Force personnel shown here? Oh, and their amazing jeep too ［Video］
• Starbucks Espresso Journey in Harajuku Provides a Unique Coffee Experience at the World’s First Starbucks Pop-up Store

Ramen is pretty well-known around the world as a hearty soup of plentiful ingredients. Sure there are variations from country to country, but at the end of the day, it’s all just noodles and broth with the necessary toppings to add character.

At least that’s how it used to be, before one ramen restaurant felt bold enough to reinvent the wheel and take the “men” (as noodles are called in Japanese) out of ramen. But what did they put in place of the lovely noodles that traditionally define ramen?

■　Ratofu
This particular restaurant goes by the name of Tachikawa Mashi Mashi and is considered to be of the Ramen-Jiro-influenced line of new ramen joints. These restaurants are known for their heavily piled-on toppings and bold seasonings. And occasionally, as with Tachikawa Mashi Mashi, they try something completely unique.

ババーン！ http://t.co/9JXHT5wXBY

—
立川マシマシ (@TachikawaMashi2) May 19, 2015

On 19 May, Tachikawa Mashi Mashi announced that they would be offering a new service to customers by replacing the noodles in the ramen with tofu for no extra charge. This triggered a string of puzzled comments from followers along with the occasional accusation of blasphemy.

This combination of controversy and food was like a patio lamp to the food-reporting moth who is our own Mr. Sato. So he headed down to Tachikawa Mashi Mashi to see how tofu ramen would fare against its well-established predecessor.

■　Parting the mountain of vegetables
Without knowing beforehand Mr. Sato might have been confused by the button labeled “tofu” with no price listed. However, as the neighboring note showed, this button would grant the pusher a ticket that would allow them to swap the noodles of their ramen for tofu at no extra charge.

And so he ordered a small bowl of ramen…no wait, ratofu. However, when it arrived he wasn’t quite sure what was inside. The were heaps of meat and vegetables in keeping the Ramen-Jiro-influenced shops such as this.

It took a good five minutes of eating before Mr.Sato reached the broth line of the soup.  Still unsure that he actually got tofu, he began poking inside the bowl with his chopsticks and felt something squishy yet firm lining the bottom. After a little more eating, the tofu finally revealed itself in all its soy glory.

■　Was it worth it?
Mr. Sato felt the tofu ramen had its flaws and merits. On the bad side, when one goes for ramen they expect certain experiences such as slurping the noodles up through puckered lips. Without the noodles, it was hard not to feel a little bit robbed of that.

That being said, the tofu had its own tactile pleasure. This particular soup contained a rather large block of Kyoto’s KyoTofu Fujino which had a firmer texture than other tofu. Also in keeping with the Jiro spirit, the tofu was heavily seasoned and flavorful.

It’s difficult to say which was better. Comparing ramen and ratofu is sort of like apples and oranges. In the end, regular ramen probably wins simply because it’s a much more familiar and relatable dining joy.

On the other hand, there is one area where ratofu is far superior to ramen. After polishing off a bowl of ramen it’s generally expected that one feels really full. However, thanks to the lightness of tofu you don’t get that bloated feeling that you might after a big carb-packed wad of noodles.

Usually in a Ramen-Jiro-influenced restaurant, a light eater would be easily overwhelmed by even a small order with all the toppings that are piled on. With ratofu however, it’s possible for anyone to enjoy the taste without busting a gut.

And Mr. Sato says this is why it’s a good idea to check out Tachikawa Mashi Mashi and also a reason that we may see more ratofu in the future.

Restaurant information
Tachikawa Machi Machi / 立川マシマシ
Address: Tokyo-to, Tachikawa-shi, Nishikicho 1-2-16, Urban Hotel 1st floor
東京都立川市錦町1-2-16 立川アーバンホテル1F
Open Monday-Friday 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 6 p.m.-1:30 a.m.
Saturday 11 a.m.-1 :30 a.m.
Sunday/Holidays 11 a.m.-midnight

Source: Twitter
Original article by Mr. Sato
Photos: RocketNews24

▼ Tachikawa Mashi Mashi is located in the Ramen Tamakan area of the Urban Hotel surrounded by  three other ramen shops. Make sure you get the right one!

▼ Like many restaurants in Japan, you place orders by purchasing tickets from a machine which you then hand to your server.

▼ “New Service: Change your noodles into tofu!!”

Origin: There’s something hiding beneath this mountain of ramen toppings, but it’s not ramen
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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Swedish furniture store Ikea has made a name for itself worldwide, not only for the size of its stores and decently priced, assemble-it-yourself furnishings, but also for the extremely cheap fare found in their food courts.

Now, they’re really putting the icing on the cake: For a limited time, Ikeas across Japan are having an hour-long all-you-can-eat “Oriental Buffet” for the insane price of only 500 yen (US$4)! But what will only 500 yen get you, you ask? Actually quite the spread, it seems!

Hearing the news of this unbelievable deal, RocketNews24’s very own Mr. Sato decided to head over to the Tokyo-Tachikawa Ikea to indulge in this once in a lifetime luxury.

If you plan to head to an Ikea yourself for some ultra-cheap face-stuffage, Mr. Sato strongly suggests checking the time of service for your nearest location, as the times differ from store to store. He arrived shortly before 4pm, thinking that was when the buffet opened, only to find that the buffet had already been open for two hours!

As is to be expected, a deal like this brings with it tons of people, so don’t expect to be able to just waltz on in. You actually need to purchase a “ticket” beforehand for a specified time, and each hour-long time slot only allows for a maximum of 120 guests.

Our man paid his 500 yen, and got a ticket telling him what time he could enter the buffet. He was allowed in the 4:40-4:59pm entry slot, just a little under a one-hour wait from the time he purchased his ticket. Then finally, once his long wait was over, he got his entry sticker and was set loose in curry heaven.

In line with its name, the buffet featured many Near and Middle Eastern-inspired dishes, including five different types of curry, tandoori chicken, naan, couscous, and more. With so many people competing for so much food in a limited time, it’s no surprise that the food was disappearing quickly. But the kitchen staff was apparently on their toes, as each dish was replaced as quickly as it was devoured.

  ▼Couscous salad

▼ Hummus

▼ All the naan!

▼ Kebab-spiced meatballs

▼ Curries

Mr. Sato went to work filling his plates, and finally got seated to sample his feast. The taste? Much as you would expect 500 yen buffet food to taste. Nothing slap-your-face spectacular, but still satisfying enough to enjoy. And Mr. Sato’s favorite? The plump, juicy sausage.

While the cuisine may not be anything to write home about, if you’re looking for a way to bust your gut on a budget, this is definitely the way to go! Check it out if there’s an Ikea near you!

Photos © RocketNews24

Origin: All-you-can-eat buffet for 500 yen?! Mr. Sato investigates
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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Last fall, we looked at an issue very close to our hearts (and arteries): the continuing butter shortage in Japan. In times of crisis, it goes without saying that the Japanese people look to RocketNews24 for leadership and guidance, and we came up with a solution.

While it’s getting harder to find butter in Japan, milk and cream are still easy to come by, and if you shake cream hard enough for an extended time you end up with butter. But while our athletically toned staff would ordinarily be up to such a task, we have to keep our arms’ musculature in prime, rested condition for the hours of typing that go into our articles. That’s why we turned to something just as powerful as a team of Internet writers, as automaker Nissan supplied us with a high-powered sports car.

Lacking hands, though, it’s not like a car can grip the handle of a butter churner. So instead, we grabbed a bottle of cream, hopped in the car, and tore off for several laps around one of Japan’s most famous racing circuits, with the goal of subjecting the cream to enough g-forces to turn it into butter. Did our plan work? Read on and find out!

Since we’re based in Tokyo, home to one of the world’s finest public transportation networks, the RocketNews24 garage isn’t exactly filled with high performance rides. But we needed an engine with enough oomph and a drivetrain that could pull enough Gs to transform a liquid into a solid, so our three-cylinder, front-wheel drive company car wasn’t going to cut it.

We decided to reach out to Nissan for help, but we weren’t sure what kind of response we’d get by calling up the corporate office and asking, “Hey, could you lend us an awesome car to make butter with?” Given the absurdity of the request, we decided to give the task of making the call to Mr. Sato, head of RocketNews24’s Crazy Division.

To our surprise, Nissan was immediately onboard. When they said they’d hook us up with a 370Z (known as the Fairlady Z in Japan) sports coupe, we were happy. When they said they’d rent out Tsukuba Circuit, one of the country’s most storied racing venues, for the experiment, we were ecstatic. And when they said that our driver would be Ronnie Quintarelli, 2014 Super GT 500 series champion? We could practically taste the butter already.

We showed up at the track, and after getting Mr. Sato in his racing suit, the next step was to fill a plastic bottle with cream. After our man strapped on his helmet, we strapped the container to his headgear.

With Ronnie behind the wheel, Mr. Sato riding shotgun, and the track clear of other cars, it was time to commence hooning!

▼ And hoon we did.

Even in stock form, the Z’s torquey engine and rear-wheel drive layout made it easy to toss about, especially with a pro like Ronnie behind the wheel. As he stoically flung the Z around the hairpins and sweepers of Tsukuba, Mr. Sato diligently recorded video, grimaced, and made silly noises.

After 20 minutes, it was time to come into the pits and over to the table.

▼ Thankfully, the bottle’s cap stayed on throughout Mr. Sato’s wild ride.

We sliced off the top of the container, grabbed a spoon, and…

▼ Success!!!

Not only had we produced butter while burning rubber, it was smooth and tasty to boot.

▼ Could this be the start of Indy 500-like tradition where winning drivers at Tsukuba chow down on a victory slice of toast with 370Z butter?

Thanks, Ronnie, and thanks, Nissan! If you guys ever decide to actually build and sell that Ultimate Smart BBQ car, we know just what we’re putting on our roasted corn on the cob.

Images: YouTube/Nissan Newsroom

Origin: Can you make butter using a bottle of cream and a sports car? Mr. Sato’s Wild Ride 【Video】
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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When starting a restaurant, creating a good appearance is important. In a way, the look of an eatery reflects the quality of food that it serves. Looks can be deceptive, however, as just like people, the beauty of a restaurant might be limited to the surface.

The opposite also holds true, though, as our own Mr. Sato learned during an excursion to the Dogenzaka area of Tokyo. Inside this unassuming cigarette stand that you wouldn’t even realize was a restaurant, he found one of the best meals he ever had.

The name of this restaurant is Flaneur, but you wouldn’t know it by looking because even Mr. Sato could barely see it on the store front next to a huge Marlboro sign while standing out front. It’s about a five minute walk from JR Shibuya Station nestled in a seedy area of Dogenzaka filled with love hotels and bars.

According to the flag outside, the restaurant sell bento boxes during the lunch rush, and like many bento shops in Japan there is a very limited area for eating in. Also, if you happen to be situated nearby you might be able to get them to deliver your food to you.

Pretty much everything else about Flaneur seemed to deter customers from entering, but that didn’t stop our Mr. Sato who happened to need a pack of smokes anyway. He took a seat at the counter and ordered the steak curry for 1,350 yen (US$11).

Regular readers might recall that Mr. Sato likes his meat like he does his pokémon: as rare as they come. So he was amazed to see just how exquisitely this one was cooked.

The outside was a glistening even brown color without any burn marks. On the inside was the delicious pink glow of rare beef. Also, as he broke apart the pieces a faint smell of red wine arose from it. “Amazing” he thought to himself.

In every way the taste lived up to the appearance. The meat was soft and seemed to melt in Mr. Sato’s mouth. The seasoning of the steak was an excellent match to the slightly spicy curry used in the dish as well. As an added bonus, both the juices from the steak and curry mingled and was absorbed in the rice for even more flavor.

The taste was enough to make him forget that he was eating in the back of a tobacco shop. It completely exceeded his expectations and there was no way he would have anticipated such a finely prepared meal in a place like that.

So remember, you can’t judge a great restaurant by its cover. Next time you pass by a car wash or off-track betting parlor near you, why not stop in and try to get something to eat? It might just be the experience of a lifetime.

Restaurant Information
Flaneur / フラヌール
2-17-5 Dogenzaka Shibuya
渋谷区道玄坂2-17-5
11:30am – 9:00pm
Closed Sundays

Original article by Mr. Sato
Photos: RocketNews24

Origin: Looking for a great meal in Tokyo? Try this cigarette stand
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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The steakhouse chain Ikinari! Steak! is all the rage in Japan right now thanks to its unique method of cooking your steak immediately after you tell them how you want it. Combined with standing tables, it provides regular steakhouse quality meat at speeds that rival fast food joints.

It got our staff to thinking about how the speedy service of Ikinari! Steak! is so popular. If we, too, could get steak into the mouths of customers within just a few seconds of them ordering, then maybe we could get into the restaurant game and be even more successful.

And so, research into such a steak service was underway, but as often is the case with our research, things somehow devolved into a cheesy porno starring one of our male writers in a bikini.

To assist us in this experiment, we enlisted the help of Sanko, an up-and-coming idol with her sights set on representing Japan during the 2020 Olympics opening ceremony. We had told her what was in store nor did we specify a dress code, so she showed up in a bikini. Not the best choice for speed eating a steak, but there was no stopping this freight train of science.

First, we had Sanko enjoy some conversation and fruity appetizers while Mr. Sato hides under the table and secretly cooks her steak. As her table is cleared, Sanko thinks she’ll have a moment to rest before the main course. But just then Mr. Sato springs out from under the table and is ready to feed her some piping hot meat in 8.6 seconds flat. That target time was chosen due to its similarity to the popular comedy act 8.6 second bazooka.

For safety reasons, patrons of our steakhouse must recline their body and raise their legs while dining. We may have to install stirrups for this but those details are far from being worked out yet. Sanko would just have to tough this one out.

At first Sanko was frightened by the sheer speed of service shouting “Eh?! Eh?! Scary!” However, as the savory flavor of the lightly seasoned steak took hold, Sanko’s tension melted away. She had given herself over to the meat as it came fast and furious straight to her mouth.

After the whirlwind of a lunch was finished, Sanko’s face glistened from the splattering of steak juices that couldn’t land in her mouth and remained pooled in her face stubble. It was messy business but in a way, that was part of the fun.

Server Mr. Sato sat patiently with a satisfied air of having done a good job and lit up a cigarette. Meanwhile Sanko shared her feelings about the whole experience.

“Eating steak immediately after ordering was a thrilling experience. I never had anything like it before, so it was really great. I loved getting steak shoved in my face. It was delicious!”

We think we hit onto something, but more sexy research will be required. While guys might prefer the efficient standing experience of Ikinari! Steak! women might go more for having a handsome devil like Mr. Sato hand feed them personally.

Anyway, success in the restaurant business will have to wait for another day. In the meantime we’ll be supplementing our income by releasing this experiment as a food fetish video. Look for it in a desperate adult video store near you!

Original article by Nakano
Model: Sanko (GOGO Girls No.1)
Photos and video © RocketNews24

Origin: We try serving a steak in 8.6 seconds, turned out to be surprisingly erotic
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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As you probably know, our ace reporter Mr. Sato has his own special way of doing things. Rather than just going to check out a popular speedy steak-cooking restaurant, he instead cooks the steak himself and shoves it in people’s faces. Rather than just buying some butter, he straps a bottle of cream to a helmet and goes around a track in a racecar, getting the g-forces to churn it for him.

So when he heard about the ganguro dress-up and makeup cafe Black Diamond in Shibuya, he couldn’t just write a quick review of the place and be done with it; he had to become one with the cafe and its staff. This is the story of how Mr. Sato became a fashionable gyaru for a day, and we have the glorious pictures to prove it.

For those unfamiliar with the terms, ganguro or gyaru fashion usually involves girls darkening their faces with bronze-colored makeup, wearing extravagant clothes, colorful wigs, and other accessories. It can be a little off-putting the first time you see it, but it certainly adds a little color and spice to anyone bored by normal fashion.

The Ganguro Cafe was only a short distance away from RocketNews24 headquarters, so Mr. Sato and his faithful companion Sanjun headed out to see what it was like. Little did they know what the rest of the day had in store for them.

▼ The innocent sign outside provides no clues as how it will transform you forever, inside and out.

As soon as they stepped inside the cafe, they were greeted with this sight:

▼ “Welcome to our land of rainbow and fingernail extension wonder!”

It was a bit overwhelming at first, but the girls were all extremely nice and helpful. Here they are one by one:

▼ The very, very pink Erimokkori.

▼ Fingernails-for-days Ayuyun.

▼ Poofy-hair Pomitan.

▼ Purple curls Konomin.

▼ And Baabii, who came from Texas just to be a part of Black Diamond.

▼ Here’s a closeup of those nails. I hope she doesn’t have to wear contacts….

▼ And here are the shoes they wear. I can now finally say I’m impressed simply by someone’s ability to stand up.

▼ The inside of the cafe, which turns into a normal bar at night, hence the lack of rainbow color and cute things everywhere.

Once our reporters were finally feeling settled in, the menus came out. You can order one of five sweets that comes with an autographed postcard of one of the girls. You can get a doughnut, banana shortcake, chocolate cake, coffee jellies, or egg pudding.

▼ But the thing that caught our reporter’s eye was the item at the bottom: an ice cream eating contest with the girl of your choice.

▼ As if there were any other option after seeing that on the menu.

▼ And Sanjun actually won! Apparently he was the first to ever defeat a staff member in icy battle, so yeah, he’s got that going for him!

▼ They also ordered one of the cafe’s specialties: Ganguro Balls, which are takoyaki (fried octopus balls in batter) made with black squid ink. Depending on your tastes that may sound disgusting, but we can assure you they are delicious.

▼ There they are, black takoyaki. Anywhere else you’d think they were burnt, but here, the takoyaki are just being fashionable!

▼ And what better way than to wash them down with some colorful cocktails. The alcohol also helped them loosen up for the next part of the visit….

▼ There it was, staring at them from the bottom of the menu: a Get-Your-Own Gyaru Experience, complete with makeup and purikura photo session. They’d come this far, it was time to dive into the deep end.

▼ Sanjun: “Wait, you mean I have to dress up like a gyaru?”
Mr. Sato: “No, it’s too expensive for both of us. I’ll just do it.”

▼ Sanjun was in much higher spirits after that conversation.

Now Mr. Sato has had some experience with getting all dolled-up in the past, but this was on a whole new level. Still, he didn’t let fear get in the way, and he just sat down and let the girls get started working their magic.

▼ Mr. Sato, saying a final goodbye to his old self.

▼ These girls are pros, applying makeup like champs without even having to remove their nails.

▼ Ah yes, there it is! The orange gyaru glow is starting to shine through!

▼ Mr. Sato gets a very nice line of white to show off his well-defined nose bones.

▼ He kind of looks like a guy who remembered to put sunscreen only on his nose.

▼ And out come the big guns. Mr. Sato is looking quite dapper with his eye shadow and eyelash extensions.

▼ A bit wobbly-eyed, but we’re getting there!

▼ Geez, you could take out an eye with those things! I mean, besides your own!

▼ Wow! Mr. Sato, you are so kawaii!

▼ Uh, that’s a lot less kawaii and a lot more confusing.

▼ And a set of lower eyelashes complete the facial makeup. Now it’s onto hair!

▼ Mr. Sato, if you’re going to wear that wig then you need to…

▼ …smile! There we go! Kawaii!

▼ Kaaawaaaiii~!

▼ Mr. Sato is almost one of the gyaru, there’s just one more thing he needs….

▼ Oh yes. The clothes truly do make the man.

▼ Fun fact: the universe peaked at the exact second this picture was taken, and everything has just been downhill since.

▼ I can’t even tell which one is Mr. Sato anymore.

▼ Is he the upper left one? No, the bottom right one?

▼ Everyone looking away from the camera in proper gyaru fashion.

▼ And now it’s time for purikura! Just a short, horrifically embarrassing walk down the street away.

▼ Mr. Sato doing his best to smile.

▼ Ah yes, giggling while writing on the photos – a time-honored purikura tradition.

▼ What a cute souvenir for Mr. Sato to remember his new friends by.

▼ And that brings us to the end of Mr. Sato’s gyaru adventure. If you go check out the place yourself, don’t be surprised to see him working behind the counter, trying to get customers to order his cigarette smoke-infused cow tongue off the menu.

Cafe Information
Name: Ganguro Cafe
Address: Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Udagawa-cho 34-6 M&I Bldg. 5A
Hours: 11:00-7:00 Tue, Fri, Sat, Sun

Photos © Rocketnews24

Origin: Mr. Sato went to Ganguro Cafe and discovered his beautiful inner gyaru 【Pics】
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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• Mr. Sato channels his inner Elsa, books a night at a Hokkaido ice hotel 【Photos】
• We try Häagen-Dazs pancakes and love ’em!
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• Bright Blue Curry and “Intense Disgusting Juice” on the Menu at Niconico Cafe (Not For the Faint of Stomach!)
• We try to get the first PS4 sold in Japan, and so does this guy dressed like a Move controller

You may have noticed by now that RocketNews24’s resident wacky mascot reporter Mr. Sato just loves stuffing his face with food – and occasionally other people’s faces, too. In fact, he loves food so much that he’s always looking for new ways to spice up each eating experience. That’s what we love about Mr. Sato, he really knows how to enjoy himself by pushing the boundaries of taste and style!

This time, he had the excellent idea of eating Japanese curry with his hands whilst crouched on a park bench at night…

Since Mr. Sato favours reasonably priced and very yummy curry rice chain CoCo Ichibanya, he decided to head straight on over there when a serious curry craving hit during a late night at the RocketNews24 office.

Mr. Sato visits the shrine of Coco Ichi regularly to pay his respects to the delicious eatery that has blessed his stomach throughout the years. While we were expecting Mr. Sato to make a pig of himself at the restaurant cleaning staff’s expense, we were surprised to find that he instead opted for a takeout katsu curry bento. Perhaps he didn’t want to risk being asked not to return to his favourite curry house after his little “experiment”…

So, where to next, Mr. Sato? Well, obviously, a nearby park, so that he can perch on a bench like a squirrel and devour his deliciously sloppy dinner.

▼ “Dining al fresco just adds to the curry experience!” claims Mr. Sato.

Mr. Sato considered the plastic spoon helpfully provided by the restaurant staff with an air of disdain before flinging it back into the bag. “Spoons are for losers!” he announced to the empty park, “And I also heard that in India, they eat curry with their hands. I’m going to try the authentic Indian curry experience!”

While we tried to explain to Mr. Sato that Japanese curry actually owes a lot more to the British who brought it to Japan than to its original spicy Indian ancestors, our words fell on deaf ears as the curry frenzy had descended upon Mr. Sato and he began scoffing with wild abandon.

▼ “It’s delicious!” bellowed Mr. Sato. “So authentic! It’s as if this curry was made with water from the River Ganges itself!”

▼ If Mr. Sato lived on Sesame Street, he’d be called Curry Monster. And would possibly deep-fry Big Bird for use in one of his curries.

We wouldn’t really recommend eating curry with your bare hands due to the risk of burns, yellow fingers, and nauseated onlookers, but Mr. Sato totally enjoyed scooping up the rice and sauce with his bare paws and thinks everyone should try it at least once.

If you decide to partake in what we have officially dubbed “Finger Curry Served al Sato”, be sure to let us know how it went!

All photos © RocketNews24

Origin: Mr. Sato eats curry with his hands on a park bench because spoons are for losers
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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Take a stroll down the streets of Ginza and you’ll have no trouble realizing it’s Tokyo’s epicenter of everything posh and luxurious. The neighborhood is packed with shop after shop boasting high-end fashion, jewelry, and dining, so it’s only natural to think that any sushi restaurants in the area cater to an upscale clientele.

That being said, three reporters from our Japanese-language sister site began to wonder what would happen if they went to a Ginza sushi restaurant dressed to varying degrees of formality and ordered a special o-makase (“leave it to the chef”) course.

Would they each be offered different menu items depending on how they were dressed? Would their bills come out to be significantly different? With these burning questions in mind (and the prospect of eating sushi in the guise of journalism), they decided to conduct a little experiment to find out for themselves!

■ Going to a sushi restaurant while dressed three different ways

To recap, our reporters wanted to know how much the way they dressed would affect the bill and whether the food they were served was either cheaper or more expensive. To find out the answers to these questions, three of our illustrious Japanese reporters separately visited the same sushi restaurant in Ginza. Each was dressed in a different manner: Nakano went dressed from head-to-toe in casual Uniqlo gear (even going so far as to slip on a pair of their casual shorts); the intrepid Mr. Sato went decked out in some of his best “luxury gear;” and a dashingly dressed male reporter, whom we’ll refer to as “Elite Salaryman,” went dressed in a formal office get-up.

▼ Mr. Sato makes his grand entrance

Before we reveal the specific results of their dining experiment, we should tell you that although all three of them ordered the o-makase course, in which the choice of sushi is made by the restaurant staff, and all three of them received different totals on their bills.

■ Accounting for the different bills

Here’s a rundown of what each of reporter had to pay at the end of their meal:

1. Nakano’s 20 pieces of sushi and one drink came out to be 7,100 yen (US$58.02).

2. Mr. Sato’s two drinks, an appetizer, and 23 pieces of sushi came out to be a little less than 13,000 yen ($106.23).

3. Elite Salaryman’s three plates of food/sashimi and nine pieces of sushi came out to be a little less than 12,000 yen ($98.05).

▼ One of Elite Salaryman’s scrumptious servings of sushi

Comparing the actual meals themselves, the three concluded that the kinds of sushi served to both Nakano and Mr. Sato were very similar. Elite Salaryman, on the other hand, was mainly served food that would pair well with his drink of choice, but he noted that the quality of the sushi didn’t seem to differ regardless.

All in all, our reporters unanimously agreed that the difference in pricing was in no way due to their outer appearances; the restaurant did not purposely charge Nakano less due to his casual Uniqlo outfit, nor did they overcharge the other two based on their fancier clothing. The following are some of the factors that they determined could have influenced the different bill outcomes:

• All three of them had different servers, who asked them differing questions when placing their orders. The way they answered questions such as “Would you like sushi from the start?” and “Would you prefer sushi or other dishes?”, took each of their orders in a different direction.
• The longer they talked with their respective servers, the more likely they were to unintentionally order more food. In fact, this is exactly what happened to our chatterbox Mr. Sato–he ended up ordering a lot of food because he couldn’t stop talking.
• The servers were somehow able to invariably sense when each one of them was getting full, so they ended the meal at different times for each person (it took Mr. Sato a longer time to get full than it did for Nakano).

In conclusion, it seems like the servers tried to pinpoint how each individual would like his food to be served, and therefore tailored the course of the meal accordingly.

▼ Are we making your mouth water yet?

■ They really hit the mark with this place!

Although all three of our writers ended up with slightly different food and monetary totals, they were all extremely satisfied with their meals. They left the place gushing about their experiences, saying things like “It’s just as I expected–Ginza sushi really is on a different level!” and “That was the best!”

By the way, the particular restaurant that they visited for this little experiment is called Hakodate Sushi Headquarters. Although its main location is in Hakodate, Hokkaido, the Tokyo Ginza branch appears to be doing quite well. For a sushi restaurants in Ginza, it’s about what you’d expect in price at around 8,000-10,000 yen ($65.27-$81.60) per person.

Although our reporters entered the restaurant with a veiled purpose, they actually hit upon a very decent place to dine. They would definitely recommend it to anyone who’s looking for some quality sushi in Ginza!

Restaurant information
Hakodate Sushi Headquarters–Tokyo Ginza Branch / はこだて鮨金総本店 東京銀座店
Address: Tokyo-to, Chuo-ku, Ginza 8-7-9 Ryuma Building 1st floor
東京都中央区銀座8-7-9 龍真ビル1F
Open Weekdays 5 p.m.- 2 a.m., Saturdays/holidays 4 p.m.- 10 p.m.
Closed Sundays
Website

Lastly, get ready for an appetizing photo dump!

▼ Here’s the food that Mr. Sato ate for 13,000 yen ($106.23).

▼ Here’s the food that Elite Salaryman ate for 12,000 yen ($98.05).

▼ Here’s the food that Nakano ate for 7,100 yen ($58.02).

All images © RocketNews24

Origin: Does how you dress affect what a sushi restaurant serves you? We experiment in Ginza
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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Remember when Tottori Prefecture finally got a Starbucks after all these years of being one of the few places in the world without one? Oh man, that was crazy.

Tottori is just one of those places. The kind of area that’s so quiet and uneventful that not even Starbucks, the corporate giant that’s more than happy to smother historic cultural heritage sites with their over-roasted beans and pricey lattes for a quick buck, spent decades more or less pretending it didn’t even exist. The Prefecture’s population of just over half a million is shockingly small by densely-populated Japan’s standards, and it’s just generally ignored by the rest of Japan as a place that, well… doesn’t have much to see, to put it kindly.

But wait a second! What’s this?! Tottori has been sitting on an amazing tourist draw in the form of a sand sculpture museum that features mind-boggling, award-winning and massive sand sculptures and they basically haven’t even really told anybody about it.

We sent one of our Japanese writers to check the museum out – because none of the English writers could be trusted around a bunch of fragile works of art – and he came back almost giddy with praise.

Our writer, Mr. Sato (yes, that one! Contrary to this, this and this, he’s surprisingly cultured and appreciate of the arts), said the museum’s exhibit at the time of his visit was entitled, “Germany: Travel Around the World in Sand,” and featured, well, a bunch of stuff from Germany. Although it seemed like more or less a hodgepodge of random bits from Germany’s history, the exhibit included such impressive and varied works as a sand sculpture of the Brothers Grimm, recreations of the construction and eventual destruction of the Berlin Wall, depictions of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, and… probably some other stuff we didn’t pay attention to in history class.

Strolling through the massive, warehouse-like facility that housed the mammoth sculptures, Mr. Sato was reminded of that other sculptures-made-of-powdery-stuff attraction of Japan, Sapporo’s Snow Festival, and concluded that the sculptures of the Sand Museum were so awe-inspiring that Tottori could easily host a Sand Festival and draw hundreds of thousands of tourists just like Sapporo!

Sure, but Sapporo hosting a snow festival makes a ton of sense, since there’s snow everywhere in the Hokkaido capital, but what does Tottori have to do with sand? Well, as long-time readers of RocketNews24 will known, Tottori is home to the Tottori Sand Dunes, Japan’s one and only sand dune range, and the Tottori Sand Museum is located right next to it, meaning sculptors employed by the museum can literally just walk outside with a wheelbarrow when they need more building material.

In conclusion, Mr. Sato – admittedly maybe a little biased as a native of that other comically small prefecture, Shimane – gave the Sand Museum his seal of approval, proclaiming: “Who needs a Starbucks when you’ve got such an awesome claim to fame right here?!”

Although Tottori is unsurprisingly off the beaten path, especially for those here in Japan on vacation, take Mr. Sato’s word for it and put the Tottori Sand Museum on your list if you can work a trip in to your itinerary. You can find the official website (in English) here, and here’s a map, too!

All photos © RocketNews24

Origin: This amazing sand sculpture museum is tiny Tottori Prefecture’s hidden tourist gem
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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Here at RocketNews24, every now and again we come across a restaurant or snack maker offering something that doesn’t sound at all appetizing, but is just too unique to pass up. In the past, my coworkers Steve and Amy have sampled wasp-filled rice crackers and bee larvae, and my own stomach and psyche are only now recovering from a dessert of not one, but two types of cakes made with chunks of tuna.

Now, it’s out intrepid Japanese-language reporter Mr. Sato’s turn to pull up a chair to the crazy dining table, and camel hump is on the menu.

On his recent wanderings through west Japan, Mr. Sato spent some time in Tottori. One of Japan’s least-populous and least-visited prefectures, among people who can differentiate it from neighboring Shimane, Tottori is perhaps best known for its sand dunes, which are a geographic rarity in Japan. The sand dunes are one of the few major tourist attractions that Tottori boasts, and not only can travelers admire the beauty of the unique terrain, they can also snap pictures atop camels which are available to ride.

But while plenty of visitors to Shimane can say they’ve ridden the desert animal, not nearly as many can say they’ve eaten one. Still, that option is on the table too, thanks to Oshidori Ishokuya, a restaurant in Shimane City.

▼ The entrance to Oshidori Ishokuya

Like a lot of restaurants in Japan, Oshidori Ishokuya has a number of handwritten signs posted outside its entrance touting the delicacies it has on offer. Many of these are extremely unusual by Japanese standards, and the most startling of all may be the camel hump.

Never one to shy away from a new culinary experience, Mr. Sato strode bravely through the front door. Inside, he found seating for just 10 diners, with six chairs along a counter and a single four-person table on the tatami reed floor mats. No sooner did our reporter step across the threshold than he was greeted by a warm “Welcome!” from the owner, calling out in a voice that was clear and friendly, if perhaps louder than it needed to be given the cozy confines of the restaurant’s interior.

Right away, Mr. Sato ordered the camel hump, and then sat pondering just what the dish would look like while he waited. But although he had braced himself for a perfect half-sphere of meat to be placed before him, when his order actually came, it looked far more delicate than he’d expected.

The camel’s hump, it turns out, is primarily fat, which accounts for its tofu-like white color. This composition also means it’s ordinarily unpleasantly gooey, but when seasoned with a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar, the hump becomes far easier to chew. The flavor is actually pretty mild and refreshing, and Mr. Sato says it would probably go especially well with some spicy miso paste to give it an extra kick.

The serving size, though, made the camel hump more of an appetizer than an entree. Looking over Oshidori Ishokuya’s menu once more, Mr. Sato decided to pass on such tempting options as crocodile and frog (after all, he just had a frog burger the other day) and decided to play it safe with some good old sautéed kangaroo.

Seasoned with ginger, much like pork often is in Japan, the flavor was pretty tasty, and Mr. Sato had the feeling kangaroo meat is probably packed with protein. Still, as a relatively muscular animal (compared to cows, pigs, and chickens), kangaroo is a little tough, with a consistency our reporter compared to horsemeat. Not bad, but if you’re after something more refined, stick with the camel hump.

Restaurant information
Oshidori Ishokuya /おしどり居食屋
Address: Shimane-ken, Shimane-shi, Suehiro Onsen-cho, 752-2
鳥取県鳥取市末広温泉町752-2
Open Monday-Saturday 5 p.m.-11 p.m.
Closed Sunday
Website (Guru Navi)

Photos ©RocketNews24

Origin: No dinner plans for Wednesday night? Why not eat a camel hump in Tottori, like we just did?
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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When one of our Japanese writers grew frustrated with Mr. Sato spending so much money on his lunch while at the office, they decided to show him that it’s possible to get great food at a fraction of the cost. And not just any food, but takoyaki!

Cheap takoyaki? This place must be in Osaka, right? Wrong! Mr. Sato soon found himself on an altogether different flight from Haneda airport, bound for octopus balls and adventure.

Okay, maybe not adventure, just Miho-Yonago airport in Tottori prefecture. Clearly this takoyaki was now becoming far more expensive than anything Mr. Sato usually buys for lunch, but we think our writer forgot to factor in that little thing known as transportation costs.

The next phase of the journey was to rent a car and drive to a branch of DIO supermarket in Sakaiminato City.

On the outskirts of the store they encountered a food court with a sign outside advertising Fast Food Paku Paku. Pakupaku is one of those great Japanese onomatopoeic words, this one representing ‘eating heartily’ or ‘chowing down’. 

It seems like Fast Food Paku Paku is a chain that’s attached to a lot of DIO and LAMU supermarkets in the Kansai area, so you shouldn’t have to fly all the way to Tottori to sample their wares. (Why our writer decided they had to go to this specific store is a mystery to me!) You can check for local branches of DIO and LAMU here [Japanese].

And sure enough, there were the words declaring takoyaki for sale at 100 yen, as well as other goodies at the same low price such as kakigōri (shaved ice dessert flavoured with syrup) with ice cream on top. Despite the recent increase in consumption tax last year from 5% to 8%, which has left many prices with annoying uneven figures that fill your purse with an excess of one-yen coins, everything here is 100 yen inclusive of tax, so you really can pay with just one coin. (Incidentally, the goods sold in 100 yen stores don’t actually cost 100 yen. They would have cost you 105 yen before the tax rise, and will now set you back 108 yen a pop.)

The place uses a shokken system whereby you buy your meal ticket at a machine then hand it over to the shop staff. The orders were brought out swiftly, so the place does live up to its name of being fast food.

▼ Mr. Sato looking suitably unimpressed.

First up was the kakigōri with ice cream on top. Apparently it wasn’t bad at all! The ice cream was the same as any other ice cream sold in food courts across Japan, the kind which goes into a machine from a tub and is pumped out onto your cone, and the kakigōri itself was drizzled with plenty of syrup. So far so good.

▼Mr. Sato looking suitably confused.

Now for the main event. Takoyaki will usually set you back somewhere in the realm of 400-500 yen, so just how good could it be if it’s being sold at 100 yen a box? Because of the super low price you might have thought that you’d be getting balls the size of marbles, or just one lonely dough ball, but there were six of them, all the same standard size as at any other takoyaki vendor. However, the pieces of octopus inside were pretty tiny, but at this price you can’t really complain.

▼ Takoyaki both looks and sounds kind of disgusting, but it’s actually super delicious, which I suspect has more to do with the sauce than the tako (octopus) inside.

According to Mr. Sato they skimped on the dashi (flavoursome fish flakes) a bit, but it’s a perfectly satisfactory snack. Unfortunately you have to pay extra for mayonnaise, but it tastes great even without it.

▼ Don’t let that grimace fool you – it’s actually pretty delicious!

The existence of this super-cheap takoyaki is relatively known to anyone who doesn’t have a local DIO or LAMU they frequent and, while it’s probably not worth catching a flight across the country for, if there’s one in your area then it’s definitely worth checking out for a cheap lunch or on-the-go snack. After all, it’s Mr. Sato-approved!

Photos © RocketNews24

Origin: Mr. Sato travels the distance to try 100-yen takoyaki
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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In Yoyogi, Tokyo, there stands an unnamed sushi shop which sells impressively crafted sushi at rock-bottom prices. It’s a fairly new restaurant, known to locals as “The Sushi Shop With No Name” or “That Sushi Shop That Still Doesn’t Have A Name.”

To us, it became known as “The Place That Serves Yellowtail Sushi For Only 10 Yen (US$0.08) A Piece!” Granted, that’s not the catchiest of names, especially with the conversion to US dollars, but it’s definitely enticing.

And so, our resident sushi expert Mr. Sato set out to find this shop with no name and see if their quality also makes this a place worth visiting.

The shop can be found outside from the west exit of JR Yoyogi Station. You’ll be able to find it by the lack of any name written on the storefront. There’s just a curtain on the door that reads “Sushi.”

You might also spot it by the several sheets of colored A4 paper with the menu written on them in marker.

Among those papers was one that read “Yellowtail 10 yen” which was more surprising to Mr. Sato than the lack of any name. “10 yen?! How can they do business like this?” he thought. But then noticed the catch: All patrons are required to buy a drink as well.

▼ Today’s Super Special: Yellowtail -10 yen per piece

That actually wasn’t really much of a catch, as Mr. Sato would have happily bought a drink anyway. He went in and immediately ordered 10 pieces of yellowtail for a total of 100 yen ($0.81) along with his mandatory drink.

Then out came the fish! The place might be dirt-cheap, but the portions were well-sized, and it tasted great; easily on par with the kind of sushi that you can buy at conveyor belt sushi chains for 100 yen a piece.

But then Mr. Sato began to feel a pang of guilt. This was too cheap of a price for what he was getting, he thought, so he ordered some more sushi at regular prices. That would restore the balance of his bill to something more reasonable.

▼ Inari sushi 30 yen ($0.24); egg 70 yen ($0.57) per piece

▼ Salmon roe 230 yen ($1.86); shrimp 180 yen ($1.46); squid 80 yen ($0.64); mackerel 120 yen ($0.97) per piece

If having no name and sushi for 10 yen weren’t unique enough, this shop is also has another business operating inside it; when you order the drink, it actually comes from another shop that has some kind of symbiotic relationship with this place. How’s that for teamwork?

The shop with no name has only been open for two or three months and the owners hope to expand their business hours since at the moment they are only open from 5:30pm. They will also probably settle on a moniker at some point, but for now, we’ll just call it a great place to get cheap sushi.

Shop Information

Name: ???
Address: 1-35-1 Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo
Hours: 5:30pm until people stop buying food from them

▼ “Today’s Super Speical requires a drink order”

▼ They also have surprisingly good fried corn!

Original article by Mr. Sato
Photos © RocketNews24

Origin: Sushi shop in Tokyo has no name, passes savings on to you with 10-yen sushi!
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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• What your favorite sushi says about your income
• We try Sexual Harassment Sushi, Soapland Sushi, and Ice Cream Sushi
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• Japanese sushi chef samples the best cheap sushi the U.S. has to offer【Video】

Hardcore readers of RocketNews24 may have caught the very few instances where Mr. Sato has pulled out a guitar and started playing. It’s easy to miss, though, as Mr. Sato is what’s known as a bochi gitarisuto (lonely guitarist) who plays alone at home solely for his own satisfaction.

But now our reporter is all too eager to show of his guitar stylings after discovering the Trio Band Creator by DigiTech. It looks just like a normal effects pedal but actually adds an automatic bass and drum accompaniment based on your own playing.

The Trio is quite simple to operate. Just use the footswitch to alternate between “Learn” and “Play” modes. While it’s set to Learn you just play in the chord progression along with the rhythm you want. Then when you switch to Play, a bass and drums instantly start playing based on what it previously heard.

In addition you can choose between seven different genres from country to jazz, each having 12 different playing styles with either 4/4 or 3/4 time. You can also fiddle with the tempo and volume of the accompanying instruments for just the right sound.

▼  It even has a USB jack for potential firmware upgrades.

Alright, enough shop talk. Let’s let Mr. Sato provide a demonstration, shall we?

However, be warned that this is a long video, but it’s also interesting to hear how the Band Creator makes a difference in Mr. Sato’s sound. Still, if you want just a small taste, I recommend skipping ahead to the eight minute mark. That’s when he does some of his best jamming.

There are many other reviews of this device but personally, I prefer Mr. Sato’s showcase. Nothing against the others, but usually the people demonstrating are too good. As a bochi gitarisuto myself, I relate more to Mr. Sato competent but limited style, and I think we are the type of people who would benefit the most from virtual bandmates.

The guitar-teaching game Rocksmith on consoles has a similar feature, but with the easy set-up and control of the Trio Band Creator, it’s a valuable tool in its own right.

So, if you’re in Japan and are looking to pick one up, you better hurry. These pedals were released in this country only a couple of weeks ago, but are already very hard to come by. Mr. Sato had to call around to several stores before finding a place that had only one left in stock. It’s a challenge to get one, but worth it to never be a lonely guitarist again!

Original article by Mr. Sato
Photos © RocketNews24

Origin: Mr. Sato discovers the band of his dreams: this small box
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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Here at RocketNews24, we like to think our Japanese-language reporter Mr. Sato doesn’t just belong to us, but that he belongs to the world. After all, the value of panning for nuggets of wisdom in his stream of craziness transcends any mere national boundaries.

And now it seems Mr. Sato belongs to history as well, as we recently found out he was featured on American TV as part of the History Channel’s family of programing. It’s a great honor…except for the part where they mistakenly introduce him as a college student who’ll eat anything for five bucks!

It’s taken a bit of time for the program All You Can Eat to make its way to Japan. Originally airing on the History Channel’s H2 sister network in 2013, the series made its Japanese debut earlier this month on the History Channel in Japan.

The episodes are reruns of their American versions, albeit shown in a different order than they were in the U.S. For its Japanese premiere, All You Can Eat focused on bacon (viewable here on the History.com website). That would have grabbed our attention anyway, but when we popped in a DVD with the episode on it that one of our readers had sent us, we spotted a familiar face onscreen.

Appearing in the insert next to host John Pinette is our very own Mr. Sato, giving the customary Japanese announcement of “Itadakimasu!” just before starting his meal…which in this case is a pile of bacon with a hamburger mixed in somewhere. Loyal readers will remember this as the basis for an article we ran in 2012 in which we pushed Burger King’s “Have it your way” slogan to an extreme level by ordering a Whopper with 1,050 slices of bacon.

It was once of our proudest moments, and in the description of our YouTube video, there’s even a helpful link to the English article that explains what’s going on. Apparently All You Can Eat didn’t notice, though, because while playing clips from the video of Mr. Sato’s bacon challenge, they described him as a college student who will eat anything, as long as you give him five dollars to do it.

▼ They even use him as the thumbnail image for the video on their English website, to this very day.

▼ Not pictured: a college student

Without revealing his exact age, we can say that Mr. Sato is now old enough that the only things he’d be doing on a college campus are teaching a class or being politely asked to leave because he’s distracting the co-eds with all of his worldly knowledge and rich life experience.

However, when we asked Mr. Sato himself to comment on All You Can Eat’s uninformed distribution of information, he told us he has a bigger bone to pick:

“Five dollars? That’s just insulting! Look, there’s something I want to make clear right here: My price is 10 bucks.”

Don’t worry, though, despite his declaration of mercenary motivation, Mr. Sato’s not really like that. As a matter of fact, we don’t even give him a paycheck. Instead, we secretly record all of you through the speakers on your PCs and smartphones, and whenever you chuckle at one of our articles, we pipe the sound into Mr. Sato’s headphones so that he can draw sustenance from your laughter. In other words, our greasy gladiator’s bacon battle was all so that you could be entertained.

But hey, if any of you do happen to have 10 extra dollars in your wallet, you give us a call, OK?

History Channel, All You Can Eat
Screen captures from All You Can Eat, all other images ©RocketNews24

Origin: History Channel shows our Mr. Sato to the U.S.…as a student who’ll eat anything for five bucks?!?
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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• Mr. Sato discovers the band of his dreams: this small box
• Mr. Sato channels his inner Elsa, books a night at a Hokkaido ice hotel 【Photos】

A few days ago, we talked about fast food chain Mos Burger’s plan to unleash something called the Wet Burger, or Nure Burger in Japanese. Unlike normal sandwiches which are content to have their sauce on the inside, the Wet Burger is submerged in tomato sauce before serving.

But is this new challenger a legitimate rival to the standard Mos Burger, already considered one of the stars of the Japanese fast food scene? Or is it simply too bold and saucy for its own good?

The Wet Burger went on sale August 3 at Mos Burger locations in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture. We figured such a crazy sandwich deserved an equally crazy taste tester, so we sent our Japanese-language correspondent Mr. Sato to try it out.

▼ Poster advertising the burger in all its soppy glory

But while this is a new frontier for Mos Burger, it’s actually somewhat familiar ground for Mr. Sato. See, the Nure Burger is Mos’ take on the Turkish islak burger, which also means “wet burger.” Since first appearing in Istanbul a decade ago, the islak burger has become a street food staple in Turkey, and Mr. Sato dined on one in Taksim Square when he was in the Turkish metropolis on one of his globe-trotting adventures a few years ago. He liked it well enough, so he was looking forward to the rendezvous between his taste buds and the Nure Burger.

One thing’s for sure: no one can accuse Mos of false advertising, as the Wet Burger is indeed dripping wet.

▼ Thankfully it comes wrapped in paper, so that you don’t have to lick your palms clean afterwards.

Mos Burger is by no means opposed to enhancing its sandwiches with vegetables, but the 280-yen (US$2.20) Wet Burger doesn’t have any wedges of tomato or leaves of lettuce. Inside, there’s a patty and a slice of cheese, and that’s it.

But hey, the whole reason we were trying this burger is because of the sauce that’s outside the buns…as well as between them. Really, the Napolitan sauce (a ketchup-based tomato sauce seasoned with onions and garlic that’s been popular in Japan since the 1950s) is everywhere, and on its own doesn’t taste half bad.

But there’s just so much of it.

The sauce penetrates every nook and cranny of the bun and ground beef patty, giving it an unpleasantly soft mouthfeel that lacks the meaty texture burger fans expect and enjoy. There’s also a bit of a problem with the bread itself.

See, the islak burger Mr. Sato had in Istanbul used wheat bread for its bun, which meant it had a strong enough flavor to stand up to the sauce used in the Turkish version and give you more than one taste to enjoy in each bite. Mos’ Nure Burger, though, uses plain white bread, and the flavor of the bun gets entirely overrun by that of the sauce.

As a matter of fact, you can’t even taste the meat. The Wet Burger’s flavor profile is all Napolitan sauce, all the time.

▼ Close your eyes, and you might not even be able to tell you’re eating a sandwich.

So would the solution be to use less sauce? Well, that’d certainly be one option, but then it’d just be a normal hamburger with nothing unique going for it. Personally, we’d be happy if Mos replaced its boring buns with bread with a little more character, but that’s not likely to happen in the limited time the Wet Burger is available. We’d still recommend trying one just for the experience, but it’s probably best to hold off on ordering two at a time, no matter how hungry you are.

Photos © RocketNews24

Now read:

New Mos Burger replaces buns with a giant tomato

Origin: Mos Burger’s sauce-soaked Wet Burger sure is wet, but is it worth your burger bucks? 【Taste test】
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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With RocketNews24’s fast-paced global news cycle of Polish otaku nylon parties and Taiwanese McDonald’s employees, we can’t always keep up on all the escapades of our star reporter Mr. Sato. So, every once in a while we would like to take a look back to some of his past antics that we might have missed in a segment called “Retro Sato.”

This installment we’re going way back to the year 20 hundred and 14. It was a simpler time when Pharrell’s “Happy” was topping the charts and an Ebola outbreak was threatening to destroy us all. However, on one unusually chilly March morning Mr. Sato was taking a walk to ease his troubled heart. A sales tax hike was set to take place in a few weeks and that meant his monthly cigarette budget would have to go up as well. It was then that some dead leaves gently floated down in front of his eyes.

“That’s it! I’m a freaking genius!” thought Mr. Sato as he gathered a bunch of the fallen foliage in a plastic bag and ran back to the RocketNews24 offices.

The logic was so amazing that Mr. Sato had to go over it again and again as he ran back, taking breaks every fifty meters to catch his breath. “What are cigarettes anyway, but a bunch of dried up leaves rolled in paper?” he said to himself, “Why can’t I…huff, huff…just take any old leaf and smoke it just the same?”

He also thought that with all the bad press he had heard about tobacco, these leaves must be at least a little more healthy. Heck, they might even taste better since they had naturally dried and were freshly fallen rather than processed by some big company.

Arriving at RocketNews24 HQ, Mr. Sato grabbed a cigarette roller and some papers then hurried over to a quiet, well-ventilated place to experiment.

He began breaking up the fallen leaves and inserting them evenly into the rolling paper, and then added a filter.

When he was finished, Mr. Sato held up the dead-leaf cigarette triumphantly and sat quietly. He smiled thinking about all the money he was going to save, and what he would buy with it all.

Then he lit it up and took a drag. It actually burned pretty normally compared to tobacco, but it tasted like a bonfire. It wasn’t delicious by a long shot, and yet it wasn’t the worst taste in the world either. Although it performed well as a regular cigarette, it would never match tobacco in terms of taste.

Considering the money he would save, that wasn’t entirely a deal breaker, but Mr. Sato thought about it some more. Sure, he would get a momentary relief of his money, but at what expense?

He would smell funny all the time, like he just got back from camping or something. On top of that, those leaves couldn’t be good for his health. Who knows what kind of weird chemicals they had soaked up in their urban lives.

Nope, the experiment was a failure. Smoking fallen leaves tasted weird, stunk up his surroundings, and were most likely poisonous. “Best to stick to cigarettes,” he thought, “at least they…um.”

Original article by Nakano
Leaf Critic: Mr. Sato
Photos ©RocketNews24

Origin: Mr. Sato smokes some dead leaves he found on the street 【Retro Sato】
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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On September 2, Kurand Sake Market opened a new shop in the Asakusa district of Tokyo. This location is a sister branch to the original Kurand Sake Market which opened earlier this year in Ikebukuro, where sake lovers can sample 100 varieties of sake for 3,000 yen (US$24.64) per person with no time limit.

The Asakusa branch invited curious members of the media in for a sneak peek before its grand opening to the public, so we promptly sent our sake-loving reporters Mr. Sato, a veteran of the Ikebukuro shop, and Sailor Venus-cosplaying reporter extraordinaire Yoshio to check things out. But rather than write their opinions for each of the 30 individual brands they sampled, which would undoubtedly become tedious after a while, they decided to create a handy visual guide so that you can gauge their reactions to each cup with a picture, thus eliminating any language barriers in the process. Let the sake festivities begin!

■ A shop geared towards foreign visitors

Like its predecessor, this new branch in Asakusa offers unlimited, all-you-can-drink sake with no time limit for an entry fee of just 3,000 yen ($24.64). Not bad, especially since there are 100 varieties to choose from, and bringing in your own food is not just okay but actively encouraged.

In addition, its location right next to the Asakusa Engei Hall makes it a prime stop for the droves of foreign tourists who visit historical Asakusa. In fact, a big reason the shop was established in this area in the first place is because its owner wanted to provide a place for foreigners to sample some of Japan’s finest sake (which, by the way, is more accurately called nihonshu in Japanese).

▼ A look at the interior of the Asakusa shop. There’s room for about 70 people to stand/sit on stools, making it more spacious than the Ikebukuro branch.

▼ Some food being offered at the special media reception. It all came from famous shops in the Asakusa area.

▼ You even get to choose your favorite o-choko [sake cup] at the counter!

▼ Be sure to follow the rules, such as “Beware of over-drinking” and “No smoking.”

■ Limited sake brands for a short time

The Asakusa branch is offering slightly different varieties of sake than the Ikebukuro branch for a short time after its opening (the brands between the two shops will become normalized at a later time). In other words, now’s your chance to try some kinds of sake that may not be there in the near future!

▼ The Asakusa shop’s 100 carefully selected bottles of sake.

■ Our two reporters tried 30 varieties

Mr. Sato and Yoshio were able to sample 30 kinds of sake at the exclusive media reception event. Previously, Mr. Sato had sampled 16 varieties along with Japanese RocketNews24 editor-in-chief Go Hattori in Ikebukuro, so this was an impressive feat indeed! He and Yoshio agreed that it’s pretty much impossible to conquer all 100 in one visit, but they wanted to share their top four favorites out of all of the ones they tried with our readers.

■ Their top four recommendations (in no particular order)

1. Junmai Ginjo Koshi no Hana, Koshi no Hana Brewery (Niigata) [note: not pictured in the body of this article]
2. Yasakatsuru Iwai Kurabu, Takeno Brewery (Kyoto)
3. Tokubetsu Junmaishu Tenryo no Taki, Kunbai Brewery (Shizuoka)
4. Tokubetsu Junmai Miyamagiku, Funasaka Brewery (Gifu)

▼ The four pictured in order below

Mr. Sato and Yoshio both like drinks with a dry finish, so their opinions regarding the subtle flavors of each brand are unabashedly biased based on personal preferences. However, they would like to stress that the four varieties listed above should prove to be an enjoyable experience no matter what your tastes are, even for non-sake enthusiasts.

■ Kyoto Prefecture for the overall win

They were especially impressed by the Yasakatsuru Iwai Kurabu from Kyoto. It had a smooth taste and fairly ordinary expression of flavor, but it went down as easily as water. A faint hint of sweetness and the lingering aftertaste proved to be incredibly pleasant, and they had to hold themselves back from gulping the whole bottle down at once. They highly recommend this variety if you ever visit the establishment.

▼ Yoshio holding the Yasakatsuru Iwai Kurabu, Takeno Brewery (Kyoto)

■ Find your own favorite variety of sake!

The beauty of Kurand Sake Market is that you can keep sampling until you discover the ultimate sake flavor for your taste buds. If you have no idea where to begin, the staff members will be more than happy to help you in your quest, and since there’s no time limit, you can take your time sampling the different varieties until you’re fully satisfied.

All right folks, now it’s time to kick off Mr. Sato and Yoshio’s sake sampling silliness! Watch the short video below first or scroll down for our pictures capturing their candid reactions for 26 out of the 30 sake varieties they tried (yeah, we don’t know what happened to the remaining four either). Enjoy!

Note: Wikipedia has a handy guide to the eight special-designation varieties of sake.

On with the pics! (Try to spot the point where their faces go from “I am having a cheeky tipple” to “Aaaand now I’m drunk.”)

1. Noto Junmaishu, Kazuma Brewery (Ishikawa Prefecture) 

2. Tama no Yorokobi Junmai Daiginjoshu, Ishikawa Brewery (Tokyo)

3.  Homei Junmaishu, Ishii Brewery (Saitama)

4. Inatahime Junmai Ginjoshu, Inata Honten (Tottori)

5. Choki Jukusei Ginjoshu Shichifukujin, Kiku no Tsukasa Brewery (Iwate)

6. Koro Tokubetsu Junmaishu, Kumamoto Brewery Research Institute (Kumamoto)

7. Funamuku Junmai Ginjoshu, Chiyo no Kame Brewery (Ehime)

8. Ginban Tokusen Junmai Daiginjoshu, Ginban Brewery (Toyama)

9. Junmai Ginjoshu Koshi no Yuki Shizuku, Ofuku Brewery (Niigata)

10. Yasakatsuru Iwai Kurabu, Takeno Brewery (Kyoto)

11. Nishi no Seki Josen Tezukuri Junmaishu, Kayashima Brewery (Oita)

12. Mimurosugi Junmaishu Muroka Nama Genshu Mizusake Tsukuri, Imanishi Brewery (Nara)

13. Hojun Karakuchi Junmaishu Gassan, Yoshida Brewery (Shimane)

14. Tokubetsu Junmai Yamahai Dewa Kirari Hi, Shuho Brewery (Yamagata)

15. Shirakawago Nigori Sake, Miwa Brewery (Gifu)

16. Junmai Daiginjo Meguro Goro Usuke, Tamagawa Brewery (Niigata)

17. Nanbu no Shizuku Junmai Daiginjo, Sakuragao Brewery (Iwate)

18. Muroka Nama Genshu, Kanbai Brewery Honjozo (Saitama)

19. Tokubetsu Junmaishu Tenryo no Taki, Kunbai Brewery (Shizuoka)

20. Ginjo Kizake Abe, Abe Brewery (Niigata)

21. Kiku Izumi Junmaishu, Takizawa Brewery (Saitama)

22. Homare Kokko Junmai Ginjo, Tsuchida Brewery (Gunma)

23. Hachitsuru Junmaishu, Hachinohe Brewery (Aomori)

24. Ura Kasumi Junmaishu, Saura Co., Ltd. (Miyagi)

25. Tokubetsu Junmai Miyamagiku, Funasaka Brewery (Gifu)

26. Yasakatsuru Yamahai Junmai 70, Takeno Brewery (Kyoto)

Kanpai, everyone!

Bar Information
Kurand Sake Market Asakusa Branch
Address: Tokyo-to, Taito-ku, Asakusa 1-43-10, Rekusu Asakusa B, 1st floor
東京都台東区浅草1-43-10レクス浅草B1階
Hours: 12:00-16:00, 17:00-23:00
Website

All photos © RocketNews24

Origin: Kurand Sake Market opens Asakusa branch, Mr. Sato and Yoshio imbibe to their hearts’ content!
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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