Thanks to a Hokkaido company, farmers may soon be making use of mechanical wolves to keep their crops safe from pesky hungry wildlife. Called the “Monster Wolf,” this interesting alternative to the classic scarecrow was created by the Hokkaido machine parts manufacturing company Ohta Seiki, in an effort to help farmers dealing with animals, such as bears and deer, that …

Deep Fried Cockroaches. Yum! Located about a 5-minute walk from JR Sakuragicho Station in the Kanagawa city of Yokohama, Chinjūya (珍獣屋, Rare Animal Shop) is an izakaya (Japanese tavern) that specializes in serving dishes made using insects and exotic meats. Earlier this month, Ricchan and Yocchi, two Japanese YouTubers from the popular YouTube channel BonBonTV went to this interesting izakaya …

Not for the faint of heart. The popular Japanese YouTuber MEGWIN released a video this week (Mar. 6) in which he tries to eat a type of marine worm (urechisu unicinctus), that is often referred to as a “fat innkeeper worm” or “penis fish.” If you are at all squeamish, you definitely won’t want to watch this video. Called yumushi …

A rel life ape escape. On Tuesday, a Japanese zoo conducted an interesting earthquake drill, which involved police and firefighters chasing after a man in a chimpanzee costume. This unique training exercise was held at the Tama Zoological Park in the city of Hino in Tokyo and was meant to simulate a situation in which a chimpanzee had escaped from …

Capybara + yuzu baths = A cute modern tradition in Japan You know it’s winter in Japan when you start seeing capybaras taking yuzu (a type of citrus fruit) baths. Every year right around the 21st of December there is a flood of news reports about cute capybaras all over Japan taking baths filled with the aromatic East Asian citrus …