HYPER JAPAN is celebrating its tenth year and it’s all because of YOU!! To show our appreciation, everybody who purchases a 3 Day Ticket can get one more 3 Day Ticket for FREE as a special HAPPINESS ticket. *Please add “Happiness ticket” as an add-on with 3 day ticket.
Limited Number! Only 500 available
It’s a free 3 Day ticket to HYPER JAPAN so nominate a friend to come join our celebration!
Give your HAPPINESS ticket to your friend and book those dates in the diary.
Happiness is best shared with friends
If you’ve already purchased a 3 Day ticket, we’ll be sending a special link where you can claim your HAPPINESS ticket!
It’s Easter weekend and the sun has come out putting us all in a bit of a summery mood!
It’s got us thinking about summer festivals and the bon-odori dance so we’ve decided to have a summer-themed HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019 ticket giveaway!!!
Introducing the 丸 (ハ) – Maru-Ha – Selfie Challenge!
Can you see the pose all of the people dancing in these pictures are doing? That’s the Maru-Ha pose, where you make the Japanese character “Ha” (ハ) with your arms!
All you need to do is post a selfie tagging Hyper Japan on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram with yourself, your friends, your dog, cat, doll, stuffed toy, or whatever you like, but you must be doing the Maru-Ha pose from the Bon-Odori dance.
We will be accepting your selfies from Saturday morning until Monday evening on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and our judges will select the best photo after entries have closed on Monday evening.
The winning selfie will be the one with the best Maru-Ha pose, the most interesting background situation and the highest fun-level!!!
The winner will receive a pair or Three-Day pass tickets to HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019!
We’re looking forward to receiving your selfies so get dancing and good luck!
To celebrate 10 years of HYPER JAPAN, we’re putting YOU front and centre! In the spotlight. That’s right, the Cosplay fan space is coming to Festival 2019!
Want to organize a networking session, promote something, run a workshop, carry out a performance, or just have a good ol’ fashioned fan meetup? Then sign up and the space is yours! Best of all, it’s FREE!!!!
To claim your spot, sign up via the link below! Celebrate 10 years of HYPER JAPAN from the inside!
To celebrate 10 years of HYPER JAPAN, we’re giving the Olympia Grand a makeover, Japanese style!
This summer’s HYPER JAPAN Festival is going to be very heavily influenced by the grand old traditions of Japanese summer matsuri (祭り) festivals. You can expect lots of glowing lanterns everywhere, red and white bunting covering the rooms, and even a Matsuri Tower.
Yes, that’s right! We are planning to build a Matsuri Tower in the middle of the Olympia Grand with strings of lanterns floating overhead! This is the first time we’ve done this and while we’re REALLY excited to try, there are definitely going to be challenges and hurdles to getting it done. We’ll do our best and try to create a fantastic summer matsuri atmosphere for everyone to enjoy.
By the time HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019 opens, the Olympia Grand will have been transformed into a gorgeous matsuri festival. If you’ve a kimono or a yukata, a jinbei or a happi at home, we’d love for you to wear it to our summer matsuri.
Keep checking the website and social media for more details and progress reports on the matsuri tower! See you at the matsuri!
HYPER JAPAN is delighted to welcome Japanese Shamisen Rock Band KUNI-KEN to perform their first ever UK show at HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019.
Brothers Kuniaki and Kenji from Yokkaichi in Mie prefecture have been performing their unique blend of rock music and Japanese shamisen for over 15 years, making a name for themselves both in Japan and across the world with shows at huge events in Singapore, Myanmar, Madrid and Paris. They have also performed sell-out shows and Japan and their music has been used for a Toyota commercial.
Check out KUNI-KEN and their modern take on tradition Japanese music on the HYPER Live! Stage at HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019!
This is a public service announcement from HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019.
The HYPER J-Style Collection Fashion Show will take place on the Saturday 1 session at 14:00 and on the Sunday session at 11:00. All those interested in appearing on stage as a fashion model, please register via the link below!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This just in! Miura Ayme noticed our announcement of his upcoming performance at HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019 and sent over a video message. Check it out below!
Visual-kei is that beautiful fusion of good music and good looks and that’s exactly what we’ve got this summer on the HYPER Live! Stage with Miura Ayme!!! We’re talking about one seriously non-stop heart-pounding, high-energy performance.
It’s not just about the music; it’s also about looking good while belting out the music. Well since Miura Ayme’s a bona fide cosplayer, we think he’s got the visual aspects down perfectly. Just look at this Youtube video!
BIOGRAPHY: Although Miura Ayme’s debut as a solo artist was in 2018, he’s the former vocalist for Visual-kei “Ecthelion” and earned his stripes at over 200 live performances, 4 single tracks, two albums and a DVD! Not only an artist, Miura Ayme is also a professional actor and cosplayer, and his activities have taken him in recent years to international events such as JAPANICON, JAPAN EXPO, and Taiwan’s Crazy Friday!
The call has officially gone out so gather your squad and prepare for battle, AR HADO style! The HYPER HADO Tournament, a team-based winner-take-all championship, is coming to HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019!!!
About HADO
HADO is a thrilling augmented reality sports gaming system. Incredibly popular in Japan it has recently launched in the UK and you’ll be able to participate in demos, tutorials and matches at HYPER JAPAN Festival this summer. Check out the video below to see what it looks like in action!
The HYPER HADO Tournament
The HYPER HADO Tournament will be a series of battles held once a session over the three days of Festival 2019. Teams of 3 (and up to 2 substitutes) battle it out in a bid for supremacy! The winner of each session will be invited to the UK Qualifying tournaments as well as receive some branded goodies!
Not the tournament type? Don’t worry, you can still check out HADO’s equipment, the best team tactics and styles of play as well as introductions to the top Japanese teams and the HADO Connect App at their HYPER JAPAN tutorials, then watch a demonstration game or have a go yourself at one of their free play sessions!
About HADO HADO UK based at Grange Live Gaming in Birmingham is the first, of hopefully many, HADO arenas in the UK. HADO is an Augmented Reality Techno Sport, created in Tokyo, and now spreading world wide.
The BIGGEST Bon-Odori dance event in London is back and this time there’s no excuse! Most of you now know the moves and you the song; all that’s left is for you to join in the fun and Bon-Odori!
Don’t know how to dance Bon-Odori? Don’t worry, it’ll be explained on stage by our friendly Bon-Odori navigator Akari Mochizuki!! If you’ve a yukata or kimono lying around, throw it on and join in on the fun! We’re planning on having a dance session once a day at the HYPER Live! Stage. Check out the video below for a how-to of Bon-Odori.
HYPER JAPAN Festival is returning to the Olympia Grand for Festival 2019!! Although it feels like not too long ago, it’s actually been 3 years since Olympia Grand was the home of Festival 2016.
This July, Festival 2019 will be taking over both the Ground and Gallery level of the Olympia Grand! We’ll also be taking over both levels of the the Olympia West, but the Ground level will be used for queuing purposes. We’ve laid out the rough outlines of what to expect.
Olympia Grand: Ground Level
The main floor of HYPER JAPAN! This is where you’ll find the big stands with the latest gadgets, games, toys and more! You’ll also find the HYPER Live! Stage, the J-Culture Showcase, the Cosplay desk, the Meet & Greet, the Maid Cafe, and a few dozen or so other fun exhibition booths. We’ll also have the Kids Activity Zone here, but that’s for another day ? The Ground Level will be divided into four distinct zones: The “Asakusa” Culture Zone, the “Akihabara” Game & Anime Zone, the “Harajuku” Fashion & Kawaii Zone, and HYPER Live! Stage. Did we mention we’re going to be having a Japanese Garden and a Bonsai display here too? Well, yes we are.
Olympia Grand: Gallery Level
The Gallery is where the heart of the HYPER Community will be! You’ll find the table merchandisers and the Artist Fringe Market up here, as well as the HYPER Street Live mini-stage! We’re also planning on having fan panels in the Gallery, but well away from the HYPER Live! stage? The balustrade makes for a perfect perch from which to people watch and observe the world go by. There’ll also be seating areas for those who want to rest their weary feet, or have a bite to eat.
Olympia West: Upper Level
Accessible via the Grand Gallery, the Olympia West is where you find all things food and drink! In fact, we’re smack dab in the middle of rebranding th…… we’ll keep this a secret until we’re ready to announce it properly. For now, if you’re feeling hungry or thirsty, or want to learn about Japanese food and drink, this is the place to be.
Olympia West: Ground Level
The Ground Level of the Olympia West is where you’ll be entering HYPER JAPAN through, so think queues and tickets, bag checks and wristbands. A must-visit for those who love queuing or airport security checks. Our friendly sniffer dogs will patrolling the area so say hi when you see these adorable puppies. Just remember, they’re professionals with a job to do!
Enter via Olympia West
Entry to HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019 will be via Olympia West. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the entrance to the West, it’s on the West side of the venue, naturally ? From the Kensington (Olympia) Overground station, you’ll have to swing around the building. From the main Hammersmith Road, you’ll head up the side road across the street from the TESCO. The entrance is accessible and has lifts to the upper floor.
This year we are celebrating ten years of HYPER JAPAN and to thank our fans for their amazing support over the past ten years we are introducing a few new ideas for HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019!
We’ve seen HYPER JAPAN fans go from being teens to adults to even parents over the years.
Now, we want to celebrate and encourage the next generation of fans!
This year we are introducing Young Adult Discounts to the ticketing for HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019! If you’re 12-18, you can use Code “YA” to get 25% off the DUAL and 3 DAY tickets
UPDATE: NECRONOMIDOL have released a video message for you! Check it out below
The HYPER Live! Stage wouldn’t live up to its name without an idol group (or two, or three ?) so we’re happy to announce NECRONOMIDOL will be coming to HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019!
Don’t make the mistake of thinking they’re just like the other idol groups! NECRONOMIDOL is all about Japan’s rich and complex subcultures. Think underground illustrators, interpretive dance, a hitherto unseen world of avant-garde culture.
Fans of Japanese music and culture who are searching for something a few degrees outside the mainstream – whether that is experimental manga, J-horror or non-traditional Japanese music and pop – will find that NECRONOMIDOL offers an experience you won’t forget. Check out the video for “Strange Aeons” below!
BIOGRAPHY: Formed in 2014, NECRONOMIDOL is an ultradark Japanese idol unit based out of Tokyo, Japan. NECRONOMIDOL has performed in 8 countries and counting, playing such diverse events as the HP Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Animecon in the Hague, The New York Asian Music Festival in Queens and at the musée du quai Branly’s Claude Lévi-Strauss Theater in Paris. Hyper Japan will mark NECRONOMIDOL’s third time playing in the United Kingdom and their first appearance at a British festival.
The movie Back to the Future will always be a must-see movie for the history books, and its pretty safe to say it’s fired the imagination of many a child, and not a few adults as well. One such company, Connected Robotics, went so far as to make a robot that could make breakfast in time for when you wake up! In a nod to the movie franchise, they even named it “Lorraine” after Marty McFly’s mother.
Lorraine was developed by a team of Tokyo University interns working at Connected Robotics and after a successful debut at Caterex Japan in February, the robot will be making its way on over to SXSW on 10-13 March!
While making breakfast is often a rewarding and fun activity, there’s no doubting the appeal of waking up to a freshly-made breakfast!
We recently covered the new Doraemon “wagashi” but now we’ve got Rilakkuma “wagashi” thanks to the creative minds at Bandai.
Filled with a custard filling, this ridiculously cute snack will leave you conflicted between wanting to take photos and bite in to it! The “Mochi Mochi Rilakkuma Yaki” (もちもちリラックマ焼き) will be available at Lawson stores across Japan at the very reasonable price of 146JPY!
Japan is known for it’s incredible selection of sweets. Not only do they have great diversity in product, they also have great variation within the same product line! KitKat is so good in this respect, good luck finding the standard ones.
Enter the newest flavour, “KitKat Mainichi no Nuts & Cranberry Ruby” 「キットカット 毎日のナッツ&クランベリー ルビー」which loosely translates into “Your 5-A-Day nut and cranberry KitKat”.
It features not only nuts and dried cranberries, but also ruby chocolate that was launched to critical acclaim this January!
A plain chocolate version will also be available for those who want a more toned-down flavour.
Don’t forget the KitKat bites which will also be available in ruby and plain chocolate flavours! These go on sale across Japan and online from 25 March so if you want to be first, save the date! Who knows, maybe you’ll see them at HYPER JAPAN Festival 2019!
It’s hard to find a Japanese child who doesn’t like the lovable cat-robot Doraemon. In fact, chances are every Japanese child will have something Doraemon, be it a shirt or a sticker or any number of the millions of Doraemon themed products out there. Now, to make you smile, we present:
Yes, Doraemon wagashi and it’s called “Tabemasu” (食べマス) which is a portmanteau of “eat” (食べる) and “mascot” (マスコット)! Wagashi are traditional Japanese sweets, often filled with red bean paste, and usually look like this:
But now thanks to Bandai, we have not one but two versions of Doraemon wagashi! One has a golden bell
And the other version has Doraemon making heart-eyes!
Olympics fever has definitely hit businesses in Japan. With hundreds of thousands of tourists expected to descend on Tokyo during the summer months of the Olympics and Paralympics, the resulting hotel construction frenzy has resulted in a shortage of trained hotel staff. While training and recruitment are taking place, one hotel has taken a very Ready Player One approach to the problem. Enter PLEN Cube, the digital assistant.
PLEN Cube uses the latest in facial recognition technology to make the hotel industry less reliant on human resources and consequently, more efficient. A small cube measuring 7.5cm, PLEN Cube contains a camera, microphone, and speaker to meet the needs of hotel guests and will be rolled out at the an/other TOKYO hotel in Kyobashi this May!
It’s easy to see how a digital assistant able to handle multiple languages and a variety of services around the clock will be of use to tourists during the Olympics. It’s also nice to see a Kickstarter project become a proper product on an industrial scale.
When you think of penguins in Japan, you may not immediately think of the cashless ticketing system in the Kanto region known as Suica. The Suica electronic ticket gate system is why almost 3.5 million people can use Shinjuku station in one day, and simply put, it’s amazing!
The Suica system can process 60 people per minute; that’s one person every second passing through the barriers. To provide this incredible throughput, each ticket barrier is a self-contained system. It’s the cost of these self-contained systems that’s really slowing down further expansion of the system.
Enter JR East’s plan to introduce a cloud-based system sometime in 2019 where the barriers are linked to a central system. Though the system will be slower to process tickets, the fact that the system becomes cheaper to implement is a massive plus. Overseas sales of the Suica system can also become feasible.
If you know Japan, then it won’t surprise you that nekomimi cat-ears and poetry go hand in hand. That’s right, the 14th annual “Otaku-Senryu Award” and “Nekomimi Character” contests are here!
For those of you unaware of what this is, the “Otaku-Senryu Award” is a poetry contest that combines traditional poetry with (you guessed it!) Otaku memes and themes. The “Nekomimi Character” is a popularity contest to see which 2D and 3D “nekomimi” (猫耳) cat ear characters the otaku community votes for.
The contests are being sponsored by Interlink, the company behind the domain “.moe” and the voting period begins today! Head over to the contest webpage and vote for your favourite 2D and 3D character today! You can access the contest page here.
The 2D characters shortlist was selected from a pool of over 500 entries!
We all have mobiles and most of us have cases to protect them. Some are functional, some are needlessly confusing and others make you want to go and get one! PCB ART moeco has announced a new design in their FLASH series of iphone cases which depicts Hokusai’s Great Wave print.
As the name suggests, the case is made out of a real PCB (printed circuit board) and the art is created using PCB elements! NOw, while other cases certainly have Hokusai designs on them, how many have a red blinking light on them! Yes, this LED light works off the residual energy released by your mobile, so no battery! Geeks of the world, rejoice!
THe FLASH lineup of PCB cases includes a whole host of city maps and other neat designs which you can see on their homepage or purchase via Rakuten! Verdict: Not cheap but definitely unique.
Picture this: You’re in Japan and you’ve rented a beautiful kimono and it’s a blast walking around Kyoto, but … your feet hurt…
You could wear trainers with your kimono but it detracts from the overall look.
Enter the design collective “goyemon (ごゑもん)” who’ve come up with the rather innovative idea of combining Japanese footwear with modern trainers. These nifty shoes allow you to look effortlessly stylish in a traditional manner without hurting your feet! Oh, and did we mention they raised almost 2,000,000 JPY in crowdfunding? Check out their demo reel below!
The Japan Private Railway Association receives a lot of data from its constituent companies. Most of the data isn’t really useful for the casual observer but other data can give an interesting insight into the lives of the average commuter in Japan.
According to the JPRA survey results, the thing Japanese commuters all over the country find enraging? Backpacks.
Topping the survey results, backpacks and shoulder bags are universally hated with 35.5% of male respondents and 42.5% of female respondents giving it the evil eye. Delving into the details, the results show “backpacks” were the #2 irritant for men, with the top spot going to “noisy conversations”. Amazingly, female respondents think backpacks are worse than “manspreading”! Now that’s bad…
Once in a while something comes across your awareness that so fits the concept of “This is Japan” that you have to admire the thought and consideration that went into the product. Model manufacturer PLEX made waves when it announced a new lineup of “Gotopla (ゴトプラ)” plastic model kits featuring the popular tourist destinations of Osaka Castle and the Tokyo Tower!
If you read Japanese, you’ll be able to see that the pieces of the model kit arranged in the package actually form the kanji for Tokyo (東京)! Needless to say, this was a real “this is SO Japan” moment ?!
PLEX recently announced a Mt. Fuji model would be released, with (you guessed it) the kanji for Mt. Fuji (富士山) appearing in the kit!
Though the Japanese characters disappear once you put the parts together, it’s still a neat bit of design you’ll appreciate.
The name “Gotopla” comes from a portmanteau of “Gotochi (ご当地)” and “Pla (プラ)” which translates into “local area plastic (model kits)”
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