A milk custard bun made to resemble one of the popular Japanese “Kobitos” characters is squeezed during a display for the photographer at Dim Sum Icon restaurant in Hong Kong, China July 25, 2016. A dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong encourages diners to play with their food, and the result will either disgust or delight you. At Dim Sum Icon customers can squeeze a strange creature to poo or vomit on their plate before eating it. Hungry punters poke a hole into the mouth – or the rear – of the dim sum with a chopstick, squeeze it and watch the brown or white cream ooze out. The unique dim sums are made with a face to resemble Japanese Kobitos characters. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

Devotees of the small farming village of Bibiclat celebrate the Feast of Saint John the Baptist while covered in banana leaves and mud on June 24, 2025 in Aliaga, Philippines. Known as the “Taong Putik” (mud people), the ritual happens yearly in this small farming village as their own version of expressing their faith and celebrating the feast of Saint John the Baptist whom the survivors of the Japanese occupation in 1944 in their area prayed to for rain to save their fellow villagers. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

“Memoirs of a Geisha” – For its May 2013 cover story, Elle Vietnam gets inspired by the Japanese-influence of spring collections and Geisha beauty. Model Tian Yi evokes the theme perfectly in a series of images which juxtapose an urban backdrop with the ornate prints and sleek silhouettes of Prada, Dries van Noten, Dior, Thakoon and more selected by stylist Anna Katsanis. Photographer Oliver Stalmans captures the Chinese beauty in this elegant shoot. (Photo by Oliver Stalmans)

Disappointed Cat aka Foo-Chan is a three-year-old Chinchilla Golden has a heavy-set brow, causing him to appear depressed; his gloomy disposition has gone viral on a Japanese forum, where he's been praised as "cute, but troubled" or "worried all the time".

“Japanese artist and designer Makoto Tojiki innovatively uses light as his primary medium of expression. In his latest exhibition, No Shadow, Tojiki manipulates thousands of small hanging lights to create 3D images of a man and animals. I’m pretty amazed by how the artist is able to “see” the image while meticulously placing the lights. Makoto’s creativity doesn’t stop at light production; he is also involved in jewelry making and furniture design”. (Photos by Ryo Ishihara/Josh Rothman)

Gohei Hayashi of Kyoto University is seen in side his movable eco and healing house, “Kujira (Whale) House” July 21, 2007 in Tokyo, Japan. The house is made from Japanese paper, bamboo and tatami mat. Hayashi has travelled 500 km from Japan's ancient city, Kyoto to Tokyo with his eco house to promote his house which can be placed both out inside and outside to provide a private space. The Kujira house is available at the price of 800,000 yen (roughly US$6600). (Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)

A woman holds a hedgehog at the Harry hedgehog cafe in Tokyo, Japan, April 5, 2016. In a new animal-themed cafe, 20 to 30 hedgehogs of different breeds scrabble and snooze in glass tanks in Tokyo's Roppongi entertainment district. Customers have been queuing to play with the prickly mammals, which have long been sold in Japan as pets. The cafe's name Harry alludes to the Japanese word for hedgehog, harinezumi. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A woman looks at goldfish through the warped wall of a fish tank at the Art Aquarium exhibition in Tokyo July 10, 2015. Several thousand goldfish are displayed in dozens of uniquely shaped tanks, using LED lights, projection mapping and music in a show that was produced by Japanese designer Hidetomo Kimura. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)