Niigata is a city located on Japan's western coast, and is known for its delicious seafood, sake, and snow festivals.

In Japan, there is a tradition of eating soba noodles on New Year's Eve to bring good luck.

Mobile Suit Gundam, created by Yoshiyuki Tomino in 1979, is a popular anime series that helped to popularize the mecha genre of anime, which features giant robots.