Category: Japan

AKB48 Puccho Candy Kisses

Puccho (ぷっちょ Putcho) is a chewy Japanese snack made and sold by UHA Mikakutō Co. Ltd. (味覚糖株式会社 UHA Mikakutō Kabushiki Gaisha, UHA – Unique Human Adventure). The gummi puccho squares are a unique consistency similar to a combination of gummy bears and taffy. They often contain gummy “balls” of flavor that are more chewy then the rest of the square. In addition to these balls, there are also “fizz” balls that mimic the carbonation of their soda derivatives.

AKB48 is a Japanese female idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto. AKB48 is named after Akihabara (Akiba for short), the area in Tokyo where the group’s own theater is located. AKB48 holds the Guinness World Record for being the world’s “largest pop group”. Currently, it consists of four subgroups: Team A, Team K, Team B, and Team 4 with 16 members each, summing up to a total of 64 girls.

The “lesbian kiss episode” is a sub-genre of the media portrayal of lesbianism in television media, created in the 1990s.

Sean Lennon says “This is Saiko Chodo Ii Honda.”

Sean Taro Ono Lennon (Japanese name Tarō Ono (小野 太郎 Ono Tarō); born October 9, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, guitarist and actor of English, Japanese and Irish Descent.

A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a type of hybrid vehicle and electric vehicle which combines a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) propulsion system with an electric propulsion system.

In an interview in early February 2011, a Honda executive disclosed that Honda produces around 200,000 hybrids a year in Japan.

[Kyoto is] the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.

Maiko (まいこ, マイコ) is a Japanese word for dancing girl and is an apprentice geisha.

A pulled rickshaw (or ricksha) is a mode of human-powered transport by which a runner draws a two-wheeled cart which seats one or two persons.

Snow Monkeys Enjoying Jigokudani Hot Springs

An onsen (温泉) is a term for hot springs in the Japanese language, though the term is often used to describe the bathing facilities and inns around the hot springs. Onsen come in many types and shapes, including outdoor (露天風呂 or 野天風呂 roten-buro or noten-buro) and indoor baths.

Jigokudani Monkey Park (地獄谷野猿公苑 Jigokudani Yaen Kōen) is in Yamanouchi, Shimotakai District, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The name Jigokudani, meaning “Hell’s Valley”, is due to the steam and boiling water that bubbles out of small crevices in the frozen ground, surrounded by steep cliffs and formidably cold and hostile forests. It is famous for its large population of wild Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata), more commonly referred to as Snow Monkeys, that go to the valley during the winter, foraging elsewhere in the national park during the warmer months.

The Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), historically known as saru (“monkey”), but now known as Nihonzaru (Nihon “Japan” + saru) to distinguish it from other primates, is a terrestrial Old World monkey species native to Japan. It is also sometimes known as the snow monkey from the fact that it lives in areas where snow covers the ground for months each year—no primate, with the exception of humans, is more northern-living, nor lives in a colder climate.