Twitter added emoji for Japanese New Year

Twitter started the offer of the New Year version of Twitter emoji. It expresses Japanese New Year. They are available until January 3.

When Twitter users input hashtags "#あけおめ"(Akeome: Slang of the abbreviated form of greetings of a New Year), "#あけましておめでとう"(Akemashite Omedetou: Greetings of the New Year) and "#謹賀新年"(Kinga Shinnen: Literary style of "I wish you a happy New Year"), emoji of Mount Fuji and the first sunrise of a new year are displayed. This is a classic image of New Year to be used for a New Year's card well.

When Twitter users input hashtags "#初詣(Hatsumoude: First Shinto shrine visit of the Japanese New Year)", emoji of Torii(鳥居: Gate of Shinto shrine) are displayed.

Furthermore, Mount Fuji is displayed in hashtags "#富士(Fuji)", a hawk is displayed in hashtags "#鷹(Taka: Hawk)", and eggplant is displayed in hashtags "#茄子(Nasu: Eggplant)". Mount Fuji, a hawk and a eggplant are good omens to appear in the first dream had in the new year.

Twitter produced these emoji for the Japanese who respected New Year more in comparison with other countries. I do not know whether you can use this in an overseas region. However, they are displayed on the timeline of Japanese Twitter users as emoji if you input them exactly.

In addition, fireworks are displayed in hashtags "#HappyNewYear". This is available throughout the world.

Crossing the Red Sea of Moses became the mobile game in Japan

Christians are minority in Japan, and they are around 1% of the total population. Therefore the Christ newspaper company(キリスト新聞社), the publisher of Christianity newspaper "The Christ Weekly" practices interesting propagation methods only in Japan. They are games. They released the mobile puzzle game of Exodus of Moses on Christmas Eve. The downloading is free and English support available (iOS/Android).

This is an action puzzle, players move puzzle panels, make ways and guide Hebrews to the opposite bank. However, players must move puzzle panels in real time quickly because many Egyptian soldiers interfere with them. This is the puzzle that instantaneous power and judgement are necessary.

Each level have missions, and players can clear levels by accomplishing them. In the critical situations, prophets with various skills help players. For example, Daniel from Book of Daniel summons lions and sends away Egyptian soldiers.

This is the first game of their mobile game label "Bible collection Ω". Players can know the contents of the Bible with playing. This is important in Japan. Because there is not opportunities to read the Bible in both the everyday life and the school in Japan.

This is not the first their interesting propagation. They released card game "Bible hunter" and baseball game "Bible league" about the Bible...

And they publish comics Pyuuritan(Puritan) which personified Christian religious sects serially in The Christ Weekly.

(Kotaku places a detailed article about this)

http://kotaku.com/christian-schoolgirl-manga-debuts-in-japan-1696445391

Of course they are not kidding. They are  serious. Clergymen supervise these, and contents do not have the mistakes. But these are very Japanese.

Japanese Ingress agents cooperates with blood donation

From 2 to 24 on January in 2016, Japanese Ingress agents hold event "Red Faction" cooperating with blood donation.

During the period of the event, blood donation rooms of districts of Kanto(関東), Koshinnetsu(甲信越), and Kinki(近畿) become the portal of Ingress, and special battles of the point system and missions are performed. When the agents participate in these and donate blood, they can get Ingress original card. Japanese Red Cross and Niantic cooperates with this event totally.

Blood donors decrease every year in winter because it is cold. Therefore the significance to hold this event daringly in January is big.

via https://plus.google.com/102892242902424181780
     https://plus.google.com/107527136630715624310

Dwango released VR apps of their popular video sharing site Nico Nico Douga for Gear VR

Japan's Dwango released VR video apps "niconicoVR" of their popular video sharing site Nico Nico Douga for Samsung's Gear VR.

niconicoVR is the free VR apps that users can watch videos posted to Nico Nico Douga in VR space. A characteristic of Nico Nico Douga is that the comment that users wrote on the video are displayed, and of course these are displayed in VR space, too. Furthermore, this has the function that users can see their hands while attaching Gear VR. This is very convenient. Because we can see video while eating snacks and drinks.

3D printing startup Kabuku makes 3D figures of games' avatars

Japanese 3D printing startup Kabuku started service to make figures from the 3D data of avatars of games. For the first, they accept the orders of avatar character figures from mobile game "Hoshi no Dragon Quest(星のドラゴンクエスト: Dragon Quest of the star)"of Square Enix's Dragon Quest(Dragon Warrior) from February, 2016.

They made avatar character figures as a present campaign of Christmas at the end of last month. It was limited to 100 by lot, but there were a lot of applications from players. Therefore they contribute this as permanent service from February. Players can place orders direct for the figure of own avatar character from game apps.