2011  setsubun in Japan is approaching and there could be no doubt about it! In every shop, in every combini, on every street you can see the signs. The concept is simple – chase away the evil by throwing at it roasted soy beans (or fuku mame (福豆) in Japanese). Here are some of this [...]

Have you ever seen road barriers? Of course you have. But here is Japan and everything is different – including the road barriers! Why should you have the boring red and white strips pattern if you could have “pinku usgai” (pink bunnies in Japanese) instead: Just in case pink is not your favorite color there [...]

Hanko (判子) are small personal stamps which everybody in Japan has. Even we the gijins have one with their names written on it in katakana. They are used whenever your signature is needed for official documents. As a matter of fact – they are your signature! The question rises though – why you should use [...]

Chottomatte team is proud to present you – the Tio Glutton donuts – the best donuts in Japan but most probably also the best in the world. The things are so unbelievably delicious that even theoretically it is not possible to have a better one! Here is one of the shops selling Tio Glutton donuts [...]

Cheburashka first appeared in the year 1966 in the book of soviet writer Eduard Uspensky. It is a small brown, furry creature with big ears and eyes and a small fluffy tail. It was living somewhere in Afrika but by accident ended up in Soviet Russia. Its best friend there became the crocodile Gena who [...]

After seeing the original Kobe Hanabi (fireworks) Chottomatte’s team was very happy to re-discover it under the form of iPhone  app.  As a matter of fact it was in the top 25 free apps for Japan! Here are two movies showing the fireworks events. You can decide on your own which one is nicer. First [...]

Even though it is still August and the temperature reaches mid thirties Celsius one could clearly say that the Autumn is coming to Japan. Which are exactly these signs of approaching season? Here they are. 1. The autumn can beer from KIRIN is appearing in shops: 2. The  ramen noodles change their appearence too: 3. [...]

What is the best way for a shopping mall to attract visitors during the hot summer days? A snow storm of course! The action took place in Nishinomiya Gardens (西宮ガーデンズ) – one of the biggest (and newest) shopping malls in Japan. It is situated between the cities of Kobe and Osaka and if you decide [...]

Everybody knows that Japan is a safe country. Using chopsticks accompanied with a toothpick posts a real challenge over the safety design of the package. Lets see how the unknown designer solved the problem: First – put at least two warning signs (A) on the chopstick package (with English translation of course). Also add a [...]

I am absolutely sure that every person who has ever been in Japan should know about ramen (ラーメン) and udon (うどん) noodles or okonomiyaki (お好み焼き) for example. As a matter of fact these are my favorite dishes. That is why I was really happy to see some of them at the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train) [...]