ROPPONGI HILLS ICE! ICE! ICE! 2025
The product lineup has been expanded from last year, with 21 unique menu items of chilled sweets available, including 13 exclusive to Roppongi Hills. Matsuya's 'White Peach Yogurt Shaved Ice' is luxuriously filled with white peach compote and yoghurt cream, while L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon offers 'Glace Pire Mango,' a shaved ice that is a world first for Joel Robuchon. A selection of cool, refreshing desserts featuring ice cream is also available, such as Hills Dal Matto's 'Fluffy Gelatozzo.' A handmade brioche topped with plenty of Italian gelato and cream.
Delicious, health-conscious plant-based ice cream options are also on the menu. Such as Oscar Wilde's 'Donut Ice Cream,' made entirely from plant-based ingredients. Gelateria Raffinato's 'Three Kinds of Gelato Cone' uses seasonal fruits, creating a colorful summery experience.
If you wish to enjoy Roppongi Hill's refreshing sweets elsewhere, don't hesitate to drop by. A wide selection of items is available for take-out, and you can enjoy them outdoors in the Mori Garden at Roppongi Hills.
Spoil yourself in the hottest months of summer, and enjoy a wonderful summer moment with unique ice cream flavors, provided by popular stores in Roppongi Hills.
Please note that the website opens on June 17.
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Japan Today
4 days ago
- Japan Today
Italian Brainrot: The AI memes only kids know
School-age Italian Brainrot fans can be found from Kenya to Spain and South Korea By Katie Forster, Dessy Sagita and Marchio Gorbiano In a Japanese shop selling pocket-money trinkets, there is a rack of toys, stickers and keyrings based on a global crew of AI-generated characters that almost every child knows about -- and very few adults. A walking shark in oversized sneakers, an orange with muscular arms and a twirling "Ballerina Cappuccina" with a mug for a head are among the strange stars of the online phenomenon called Italian Brainrot. "At first it's not funny at all, but it kind of grows on you," 16-year-old Yoshi Yamanaka-Nebesney from New York told AFP. "You might use it to annoy someone and find that funny." The name nods to the stupefying effect of scrolling through mindless social media posts, especially over-the-top images created with artificial intelligence tools. Shouty, crude and often nonsensical Italian voiceovers feature in many of the clips made by people in various countries that began to spread this year on platforms such as TikTok, embraced by young Gen Z and Gen Alpha members. The dozen-plus cartoonish AI creatures have fast become memes, inspiring a stream of new content such as "Brainrot Rap", viewed 116 million times on YouTube. A YouTube Short titled "Learn to Draw 5 Crazy Italian Brainrot Animals" -- including a cactus-elephant crossover named "Lirili Larila" -- has also been watched 320 million times. "There's a whole bunch of phrases that all these characters have," said Yamanaka-Nebesney, in Tokyo with his mother Chinami, who had no idea what he was talking about. School-age Italian Brainrot fans can be found from Kenya to Spain and South Korea, while some of the most popular videos reference Indonesia's language and culture instead. "I went on trips with my boys to Mexico" and people would "crack jokes about it" there too, Yamanaka-Nebesney said. 'Melodic language' Internet trends move fast, and Italian Brainrot "hit its peak maybe two months ago or a month ago", said Idil Galip, a University of Amsterdam lecturer in new media and digital culture. Italian -- a "melodic language that has opportunities for jokes" -- has appeared in other memes before. And "there are just so many people in Indonesia" sharing posts which have potential for global reach, Galip said. A "multi-level marketing economy" has even emerged, with AI video-makers targeting Italian Brainrot's huge audience through online ads or merchandise sales, she added. Nurina, a 41-year-old Indonesian NGO worker, said her seven-year-old loves the mashed-up brainrot world. "Sometimes when I pick him up from school, or when I'm working from home, he shouts, 'Mommy! Bombardino Crocodilo!'" -- a bomber plane character with a crocodile head. "I know it's fun to watch," said Nurina, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. "I just need to make him understand that this is not real." Some videos have been criticised for containing offensive messages that go over young viewers' heads, such as rambling references in Italian to "Bombardino Crocodilo" bombing children in Gaza. "The problem is that these characters are put into adult content" and "many parents are not tech-savvy" enough to spot the dangers, warned Oriza Sativa, a Jakarta-based clinical psychologist. Tung Tung Tung Sahur The best-known Indonesian brainrot character "Tung Tung Tung Sahur" resembles a long drum called a kentongan, which is used to wake people up for a pre-dawn meal, or sahur, during Ramadan. Indonesia has a young, digitally active population of around 280 million, and "Tung Tung Tung Sahur" is not its only viral export. This summer, video footage -- not AI-generated -- of a sunglass-wearing boy dancing on a rowboat during a race at a western Indonesian festival also became an internet sensation. Noxa, the TikToker behind the original "Tung Tung Tung Sahur" clip, is now represented by a Paris-based collective of artists, lawyers and researchers called Mementum Lab. "Noxa is a content creator based in Indonesia. He's under 20," they told AFP. "He makes fast, overstimulated, AI-assisted videos." "He doesn't call himself a 'contemporary artist', but we think he's already acting like one," said Mementum Lab, which is focused on complex emerging issues around AI intellectual property, and says it is helping Noxa negotiate deals for his work. Noxa, in comments provided by the collective, said the character was "inspired by the sound of the sahur drum I used to hear". "I didn't want my character to be just another passing joke -- I wanted him to have meaning," he said. Cultural nuances can be lost at a mass scale, however, with one 12-year-old tourist in Tokyo saying he thought "Tung Tung Tung Sahur" was a baseball bat. And the generation gap looks set to persist. "What's that?!" laughed a woman as she puzzled at the row of Italian Brainrot dolls. "It's not cute at all!" © 2025 AFP
Tokyo Weekender
28-07-2025
- Tokyo Weekender
Nintendo Confirms That Mario and Princess Peach Are Just Friends
Just imagine: You're a heavily stereotyped Italian plumber born in Japan who, rather than fixing toilets, has spent 40 years of his life repeatedly rescuing the same damsel in distress. One morning, you wake to find that she's set her Facebook relationship status to single, and the world loses their mind, mourning a relationship that, beyond a kiss on the cheek, never existed. Your inbox is blowing up, blame flying in every direction. You've got nine missed calls from your brother and a Snapchat from a fire-breathing tortoise that you can't bring yourself to open. You then pull on the only pair of overalls the world has ever seen you in and go out to save her once again, because that's all you were programmed to do. This is exactly what Nintendo have done to their golden boy, Mario, blindsiding him via text. But while this revelation may have come as something of a shock to the world's most famous tradesman, it also raises the question: How much of this is our fault? The Breakup Text Our story begins on the Nintendo Today app, a pocket calendar of sorts that allows users to customize their phone with Nintendo-related themes while also delivering updates on their consoles, games and trivia pertaining to their most beloved characters. In a message — since removed from the app due to the daily nature of its updates, but immortalized on X via screenshots — Nintendo officially stated: 'Princess Peach and Mario are good friends and help each other out whenever they can.' It's unclear what prompted Nintendo to distribute this information, and in the days since, it appears that both Peach and Mario have declined to comment on the situation. What has been apparent, though, is how heavily invested people were in a relationship that was never confirmed to exist — a revelation that suggests that we, collectively, decided on one of two things: Either Mario was only putting in the effort because he and Peach were lovers, or that the act of him saving someone who had been kidnapped was deserving of more than just thanks. Were We Led On? Thankfully, I don't have any idea what it's like to be kidnapped by a menacing tortoise and locked in a castle surrounded by lava and ruin. At the same time, I have no trouble imagining someone, regardless of orientation, giving their rescuer a kiss on the cheek upon realizing that they were being saved from a life of torturous tortoise marriage. That was all Peach ever did upon meeting her savior. As we all grew up watching Mario's eyes turn to hearts in response at the end of each game, we decided that they were an item — as if it would have been more normal for her to shake his hand and ask if they could stop at McDonald's on the way home. Of course, I'm playing contrarian here. Of everyone I've spoken to about this, not one person was of the belief that Mario and Peach were just friends — myself included. The story of a woman in danger being rescued by her embattled lover is a tale as old as storytelling itself. Batman, Indiana Jones, The Bodyguard , Drive . They and countless others all did it and continue to do it, and critics and audiences alike will always pay to see it. It's a time-worn formula that, when done well, works. So much so that we probably can't help but go looking for it. Nintendo just let us fill in the blanks with Mario and Peach. The issue now is that those blanks no longer exist. What Was Really Lost Ultimately, I think the real reason this became an international topic of interest is because Mario and Peach have been a part of all our lives in one way or another; when something so enduring is unexpectedly and unnecessarily altered, we can't help but have a reaction to it. Nintendo's announcement doesn't change anything. The games will still play out the same way (unless this is foreshadowing a title in which Mario goes on some kind of bachelor's trip to Vegas, mushrooms included (Nintendo, if you need a writer, I'm available)). But what it does do is alter people's perception of something that they more than likely associate with the better times in their life and memories that they created for themselves. Whether it's in books, films or video games, we need stories. But perhaps just as much, we need gaps in these stories — parts we can fill in for ourselves, which allow us to put our own perceptions and experiences into a work, making it our own in a roundabout way. Nintendo's declaration of Mario and Peach's platonic relationship may have given us a chance to examine how we fill in those gaps. But maybe it's better not to know everything. Perhaps we'd all prefer to guess and speculate about these fictional characters and their relationship to one another. Now, for better or worse, we need not wonder any longer. Related Posts What Super Smash Bros Character Are You Based on Your Zodiac Sign? How To Find Tokyo's Secret Nintendo Bar Inside the Nintendo Museum: Everything Revealed So Far
Asahi Shimbun
24-07-2025
- Asahi Shimbun
Yamada ‘played it by ear' as he conducted Berlin Philharmonic
Japanese conductor Kazuki Yamada's improvisational skills guided him through one of the most high-profile guest performances of his conducting career. 'I played it by ear, just as I always do,' he said. 'I was excited by the way the orchestra transfigured.' In June, Yamada appeared on stage with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time and drew applause from the audience. Yamada, 46, shared his impressions of the fulfilling time he spent with one of the leading classical music orchestras in the world. CONDUCTING IS ABOUT 'CARRYING' 'The orchestra organizes 100 top-notch soloists, who are performing in the way they each prefer,' Yamada said. 'A swell arises, however, when they unite. They become mutually linked, both in music and in appearance. The better that things work out, the more wildly, and incredibly, the swell begins to grow.' He added: 'I was thinking about how I could add air into the harmony. Nobody there, apparently, had ever experienced an approach like that. They were, like, 'Oh, this guy is going to try something novel with us. OK, why don't we take him on?' They likely decided to deal with me in that way.' The Berlin Philharmonic was founded in 1882 by young musicians as a self-governing body. It went on to be a time-honored, prestigious orchestra, where famed composers Johannes Brahms and Antonin Dvorak conducted their own pieces and Herbert von Karajan built a golden age. Yamada is the 15th Japanese to have wielded the baton on the illustrious stage, where every aspiring conductor fancies taking a turn. Yamada took the rostrum during the Berlin Philharmonic's regular concert held from June 12 through 14. He told about the experience in a casual manner, as opposed to the way that Yutaka Sado talked passionately, and excitedly, about how he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in 2011. Yamada chose to perform, instead of pieces of the German school, works by an Italian composer (Ottorino Respighi's 'Fontane di Roma'), a Japanese (Toru Takemitsu's 'I Hear the Water Dreaming') and a French artist (Camille Saint-Saens' Symphony No. 3, 'Organ Symphony'). In selecting these pieces, Yamada sought advice from Daishin Kashimoto, a close friend, who has served as first concertmaster with the Berlin Philharmonic since 2010. 'He encouraged me by saying, 'Why don't you try a French piece?'' Yamada said. 'I found that reassuring. After all, he is the only person that fully knows both me and the orchestra.' For reasons of scheduling, Kashimoto was unable to appear on stage with Yamada, who, however, said he didn't mind. 'I think it worked out all right in the end,' Yamada said. 'I am afraid I would have been reliant on him if he had been there. And that could also have been counterproductive if that were to make the others believe that he and I, fellow Japanese, were helping each other. Well, to tell the truth, however, I would have wanted him to be in the audience.' Yamada said that while he was performing on stage, he recalled an episode he had been told about by the late Hiroyuki Iwaki (1932-2006), who also previously served as music director of the Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo and conducted the Berlin Philharmonic himself. In Yamada's words, Iwaki quoted Karajan as often saying, when the native of Austria was artistic director with the Berlin Philharmonic, that conducting is not about 'driving,' but is about 'carrying.' Yamada said he understood for the first time what that description meant. 'I realized that I am not there to control,' he said. 'Perhaps, in a sense, an orchestra is not so much like a car as it is like a horse. The horse has a strong willpower itself. I have to respect that when I am astride it. I am there to show where we should be going, but I am not there to force it.' Yamada continued: 'We are on totally equal terms, so I am always face to face with all the 100. I realized that this sense, which says this orchestra would be all right even without the conductor's cues, represents, more than anything else, the tradition that Karajan nurtured.'
