A large sand sculpture is seen at the site of Yokohama Sand Art Exhibition – Culture City of East Asia 2014 on July 16, 2014 in Yokohama, Japan. Producer and sand sculptor Katsuhiko Chaen invited artists from around the world including South Korea and China, to recreate the World Heritage and historical buildings in China, Japan and South Korea. The exhibition will be open from July 19 to November 3, 2014. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

A woman holds broken umbrella as a powerful typhoon hits Osaka, western Japan, Tuesday, September 4, 2018. A powerful typhoon blew through western Japan on Tuesday, causing heavy rain to flood the region's main offshore international airport and high winds to blow a tanker into a connecting bridge, disrupting land and air travel. (Photo by Nobuki Ito/Kyodo News via AP Photo)

As pancake day has creped up on us once again, a Japanese chef has combined our favourite things; cute animals and sugar. Keisuke Inagaki has been a chef at his restaurant La Ricetta in Zama City, Japan, for the last 18 years. He rose to Instagram fame from his Pokemon and anime pancake art, and the time around heis created a lifelike animal series. The 46-year-old chef began making pancakes in 2011 to raise spirits after the devastating nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. Here: A pancake that looks like a cat, in Zama City, Japan. (Photo by Keisuke Inagaki/Barcroft Images)

England's full-back Freddie Steward dives across the line to score a try chased by Japan's wing Lomano Lemeki (L) during the France 2023 Rugby World Cup Pool D match between England and Japan at Stade de Nice in Nice, southern France on September 17, 2023. (Photo by Nicolas Tucat/AFP Photo)

For her series “Japanese Whispers”, Belgian photographer Zaza Bertrand headed inside the intimate world of rabuhos – Japanese love hotels. Love hotels became popular in Japan from the 1960s onwards, due to a lack of privacy in many family homes. There are now around 37,000 of these hotels in Japan, allowing short daytime “rests” or overnight stays. (Photo by Zaza Bertrand/The Guardian)

A macro view of an ant taking a sip from a water droplet on the edge of a flower in Obihiro, Japan. Animal-Lover Miki Asai has gone a step beyond feeding bread to the ducks – by syringe-feeding water to tiny ants. The office worker from Obihiro City, Japan, squirts droplets near the tiny insects and then uses a macro lens to capture quenching their thirst. The amateur photographer started capturing these images near her house in July 2013 after spotting an ant struggling in the rain. (Photo by Miki Asai/Barcroft Media)

Japan's delegation gather to sign the formal surrender document on the U.S. Navy battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay in a September 2, 1945 file photo. (Photo by Reuters/US Navy)

Japanese macaques are relaxed in an outdoor hot spring bath at Hakodate Tropical Botanical Garden on December 1, 2016 in Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan. The garden offers the hot spring treatment to macaques until May next year. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)