With the recent economic crisis hitting the world 2nd largest economy hard, the Japanese have taken to finding comfort in the mechanical - yet cuddly - arms of pet robots.

From The Telegraph:

“Robots designed to replicate the appearance and behaviour of domestic cats and dogs have become particularly popular, with sales surging sharply since the global financial crisis hit the Japanese economy last year.

Sales of the Dream Pet range of robotic domestic animals, made by Sega Toys Co, rose by 30 per cent between October and December last year, compared to the same months the previous year.

Meanwhile, the Japanese toy manufacturer Tomy Co experienced an 80 per cent increase in sales in the same period for its robot puppy, which is convincingly lifelike to the extent that its owners can even take it for a walk in the park.

The nation’s desire to relieve stress even extends to plants. More than 50,000 robotic potted plants, called Pekoppa, have been sold in Japan since it was launched in late September, according to its manufacturers Sega Toys Co.

Pekoppa, which means nodding leaf, flutters its leaves and waves its stem in response to the sound of the owner’s voice or nearby noises.

Describing the appeal of the amenable potted plant, Minako Sakanoue, a company spokeswoman, said: “If you have no subordinates who would listen to your grumbling in the office or no children who would talk with you, Pekoppa will be by your side, gently nodding.”"

Presented without comment. (Since the title sums it all up so nicely.)

Via I Watch Stuff:

This (Japanese only) website has 100-some odd members (smell-fetishists, to translate from the site) who pinpoint smells around the world on a map.

From AP:

“Launched in December, the “Nioi-bu,” or Smell Club, has registered more than 160 scents around the world, ranging from “steam coming out of a rice cooker” to “used socks in the summer,” and pinpointed their locations on a Google map

Users can either click on a balloon on the world map on the Web site, or use an index to find each scent if they’re not yet on the map.

Some of what they report: “A toasty odor of cow dung” in Fujisawa City, just southwest of Tokyo. In Kamakura, eastern Japan, “cats with halitosis” were suspected to be roaming about.

“All that is missing on the web is a smelling function,” Matsubara said. “That’s our next challenge.”"

Cats with halitosis. I love how er, politely they translated the smells.

If they come to NYC there will be many smells, only a few of which can be put so delicately. “Eau du crazy homeless man”, “Beer, tequila and stomach acid, mixed and ejected” “Rat-atouille”, etc…

www.nioibu.com (Japanese)

Schwarzenegger would have a field day with these men.

From the right-wing Daily Yomiuri (of all places):

“In November, Web site WishRoom became a top story on Internet news sites and in weekly magazines when the online lingerie company sold 700 bras designed specifically for men–the first product of its kind in the nation–just in the first month after the launch of the lingerie.

WishRoom said it was not certain whether the bra would sell well when it put it out in response to customer requests. But orders for the bra, purposely designed in a very plain style, surpassed its production capacity.

Freelance writer Mari Aoyama, who published a book titled Buraja o Suru Otoko-tachi to Shinai Onna (Men who wear bras and women who do not, Shinsuisha Co.) in 2005, said men started wearing bras as a secret source of enjoyment in the 1960s, when the widespread use of bras among women took hold in the nation. But those who have bought the WishRoom product are believed to be different from the existing core of male bra users. The new product seems to have stimulated demand among men who wanted to wear bras but had not been able to buy them.

E-mail feedback from WishRoom bra users has included comments that wearing the bra puts them at ease, helps them understand the feelings of women, or makes them more gentle to the people around them. Bras may be an annoying item for women, bringing a sense of confinement, but it must be a rather fetishistic item for the men as it ignites a girl’s mind inside them.”

Hey, anything that helps keep oyaji’s roaming hands off of girls’ assets in crowded trains.

The Tocho Swing Beats big band is a 21-piece band comprised of government workers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices, or Tocho. They recently came to New York to perform at the legendary Birdland Jazz Club.

From the NY Times City Room blog:

“The band, now in its 60th year, was formed in 1948 was originally formed to cheer Japanese citizens after World War II and held rehearsals on the roof of the former Tokyo metropolitan government building in Yurakucho. Band members, who volunteer their time in the band, said they spend many evenings and weekend rehearsing and that they raised the money to travel to New York.

“The city of Tokyo is very proud of this band,” said Katsuya Abe, an entertainment producer who helped organize the trip. “It is almost like rooting for your own Olympic team.”

At Birdland, wives of band members sat at the bar near the bandstand and took photographs of the band, which was anchored by the booming trombone of Yasanori Tanaka, who works for the Tokyo Fire Department, and the piano of Hideo Murakami, a computer systems technician for Tokyo’s Office of General Affairs. Then there was the flashy trumpet work of Hiroshi Narumiya, who works for Tokyo’s Health Department.”

I’m sure playing in a band does wonders for stress. I’d love it if there was a City Hall jazz band in New York… or even cabbies could get together and play music instead of swearing at people and mowing down tourists.

Due to a dearth of domestic bluefin tuna, two sushi bar owners paid $100,000 for a 282-pound bluefin tuna on Monday.

From AP:

“[T]he extravagant purchase — about $370 per pound ($817 per kilogram) — went to a Hong Kong sushi bar owner and his Japanese competitor who reached a peaceful settlement to share the big fish. The Hong Kong buyer also paid the highest price at last year’s new year event at Tokyo’s Tsukiji market, the world’s largest fish seller, which holds near-daily auctions.

Typical tuna prices at Tokyo fish markets are less than $25 per pound ($55 per kilogram). But bluefin tuna is considered by gourmets to be the best, and when sliced up into small pieces and served on rice it goes for very high prices in restaurants.

Premium fish — sometimes sliced up while the customers watch — also have advertising value, underscoring a restaurant’s quality, like a rare wine.

Thousands of tuna were auctioned at Monday’s festive new year sale, which often brings unusually high prices.

“It was the best tuna of the day, but the price shot up because of the shortage of domestic bluefin,” Yoshida said, citing rough weather at the end of December. Buyers vied for only three Oma bluefin tuna Monday, compared to 41 last year.”

282 pounds. Damn, that’s a lot of sushi.

Remember this dude? He finally up and left the Mexico City airport after living there for 117 days.

From Bloomberg.com:

“Hiroshi Nohara, 41, arrived in Mexico on a United Airlines flight Sept. 2 and has slept in the crowded food court on the international departures level since then. He became a celebrity in the city of 20 million, with people flocking to the airport to take his picture, buy him food and donate clothes.

“Another Japanese person came for him yesterday, and they left in a taxi after spending 117 days in the airport,” said Victor Manuel Mejia, head of the airport’s press office. “We can’t remember any similar cases in the past, it was totally atypical.””

I wonder how they finally convinced him to leave. Hopefully they’ll have details soon.

Now this is quite an interesting approach to science. A (female!) chemistry teacher at Musashi Institute of Technology apparently had such a hard time getting through to hormonally-charged (male?) students that she invented an anime-babe-enhanced Periodic Table of Elements.

From InventorSpot:

“Chemistry can be a tough subject for students more interested in games and girls, which makes “The Periodic Table: Learning Basic Chemistry through Moe” a bright idea indeed. Which element do you love the most?

Lest you think one of The Three Stooges is somehow involved, “Moe” is a Japanese term that describes the feminization of inanimate objects. Most commonly used in video games, anime and manga, applying so-called “moe anthropomorphism” makes most anything cute, girlish, sexy or all of the above. Even a topic as dry and factual as the Periodic Table of the Elements, nyuck nyuck!

Though the images are occasionally salacious, there is plenty of descriptive text to go along with them - sort of a “carrot & stick” approach.”

I should think this would make studying, ahem, harder.

(The link has a somewhat NSFW pic, if your company considers illustrated women salacious.)

ASIMO, Honda’s robot designed to eventually assist an aging Japanese population, will be super-sized for the New Year’s Day Rose Parade.

From Motor Trend:
“Honda’s 2009 entry, called “Hats Off In Celebration,” celebrates the automaker’s 50th anniversary of being in America. Elements such as lettuce seed, rice carnations and strawflower comprise the exterior of the extra-large ASIMO. If you haven’t heard of him, the real 12-times-smaller ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) was built in the late 1980s by Honda engineers looking to assist the growing population of elderly Japanese people in their daily lives. His development has continued over the years and amazingly, has advanced to the point where he is even capable of conducting a human orchestra, among other duties.”

Just makes me think of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” from Young Frankenstein.

Ever been so pissed off you just want to throw something breakable against the wall? Would you pay a couple bucks to do it where you wouldn’t have to clean up the broken china afterwards? If so, there’s a new service for you: “The Venting Place.”

From Reuters:
“In a corner of Tokyo’s bustling electronic gadget shopping district, a group of chiropractors, led by Katsuya Hara, dish out plate-smashing therapy from a truck named “The Venting Place.”

And the cost depends on how much you need to destroy — small cups can be smashed for 200 yen ($2) each, while bigger dishes go for 1,000 yen ($11).

“To break something, as all of us know from experience, is something extremely exhilarating and it helps bring down pent-up anger,” Hara said, adding that the majority of his customers are professionals stressed out due to work and the financial crisis.

But for those who are worried that they are creating waste by smashing crockery, Hara says don’t stress. All the shards of the broken tableware are recycled to make more cups and plates, which are destined to be used for more anti-stress therapy.”

I love how the cat is just chillin’.

Magibon is a youtube insta-celebrity. But only in Japan. She’s American. But she speaks Japanese. But, not really. Aw heck, just read this:

From the Japan Times:

“For a vertical trajectory from zero to YouTube hero, though, it’s hard to beat Magibon, a 22-year-old former pharmacy-checkout clerk from a small Pennsylvania town with a four-figure population. Since she began uploading videos to her YouTube channel in July 2006 — the total has now passed 60 — Magibon has attracted 4.15 million channel views, while ascending to No. 1 on the Japanese YouTube view rankings.

Why Japan? Despite living in small-town America, Magibon became, via the Internet, a fan of Japanese pop music while still in high school — Morning Musume was an early favorite (the nickname of one MM member, Aibon, inspired her Internet handle) — and, later on, subtitled Japanese TV dramas. When she began making her videos, usually of herself in her home, usually saying little or nothing (and that little in beginner’s Japanese), she was already a committed Japanophile and her on-screen persona was reminiscent of a Japanese teenage idoru (manufactured entertainer).”

One word: orthodontist.

Yeeeah, this makes me feel safe.

From Japan Today:
“According to police, the 27-year-old vice-captain entered the woman’s apartment around 4 a.m. on Sunday. She was asleep with a male friend at the time, but he awoke to the noise and was able to catch the fireman and hold him until police arrived. They arrested him with two pairs of the woman’s underwear in his possession.

The fireman told police he entered her apartment by mistake, confusing it with his friend’s apartment. The front door was unlocked, according to police. The fireman also said that he was intoxicated.”

Those must have been some hot, hot undies.

This thing is adorable. It even looks a little sad and lost after it delivers the meal, like a lost puppy.

What. I’m not projecting, am I?

Gah. I couldn’t resist. This may be a sign of the coming Apocalypse (along with this freakish warm weather in NYC) but here it is, the Japanese killing us with cuteness:

*.*

This pup gives Aranzi Aronzo a run for their money. (image via CuteOverload)

As any anime otaku knows by now, Hollywood is releasng a live-action Dragonball film next year. J-Pop superstar Ayumi Hamasaki (who recently admitted publicly that she has gone completely deaf in one ear) will make a stab at international stardom with her song “Rule” which was written for the film.

From Anime News Network:

“The Sports Nippon newspaper reports that popular musical artist
Ayumi Hamasaki will sing the “Rule” theme song for James Wong and Twentieth Century Fox’s live-action Dragonball: Evolution film adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball manga. Fox plans to use the song as the movie’s
theme in over 60 countries around the world. The up-tempo rock number will be released in 2009. The film itself will open on March 13 in Japan and then on April 8 in the United States.

The newspaper adds that Wong is a big Hamasaki fan who had heard all of her songs, and so he asked Fox to have her sing the theme song. Hamasaki commented, “Dragonball is one of the anime that I’ve liked for a long time. I look forward to having the Dragonball world embraced by every country.” Hamasaki also sang theme songs for Inuyasha and SHINOBI.”

Ayu kicks arse, so it seems fitting for her song to be featured in the film. I only hope the film isn’t as dreadful as most live-action adaptations are. (sigh)

This is the coolest.

AnnaTheRed’s blog showcases her mad bento-making skills, shaping foodstuff into familiar characters from Kirby to Studio Ghibli creations.

They’re so cool I’d feel bad about eating them.

Update: check out her Wall-E bento.

Two Greenpeace activists in Japan tried to expose a whale meat scandal subsidized by the government, and were arrested for their efforts.

From The Japan Times:

“According to Greenpeace, whalers aboard the ship have long had the right to choice cuts from the government- subsidized whaling catch, which they sell on the black market, bypassing virtually all controls. “According to our informants, some men were taking up to 20 or 30 boxes of the high-value ‘uneso’ whale meat, with each box worth up to $3,000,” says the group’s international spokesman, Dave Walsh. “That means they were skimming huge sums of money from a taxpayer-funded program. It’s a scandal that needs to be investigated.”

Sato and Suzuki took these allegations to journalists at a press conference that won worldwide attention, before handing the meat over to the police in May and demanding an investigation. The authorities responded by ignoring the claims against the Nisshin Maru and its operator Kyodo Senpaku, and launching a ferocious campaign against Greenpeace.

A total of 38 policemen were reportedly assigned from Aomori to investigate the “theft” case, plus a large squad of cops and special detectives from Tokyo, who rejected Sato and Suzuki’s argument that the meat was borrowed to prove a point, not stolen.”

The Japanese government holds a contest to find robots that are the most valuable to humans. On the flipside is the Bacarobo (literally, stupid robo) contest, which showcases completely useless (and occasionally hilarious) robots.

From crunchgear:

“This year’s winner, announced last Saturday, is called YKRN.

YKRN is a robot that features face recognition technology and can choose faces it likes or dislikes. The inventors, a group of researchers from the University of Tokyo, received $5,000 of prize money.

The video (subtitled in English) shows a number of this year’s entries, some of which are just hilarious.”

An American turns his noodle obsession into a career.

From Reuters:

“‘Ramen is the uber-comfort food. It’s meatloaf and mashed potatoes in a bowl. It’s a Jewish chicken noodle soup. It’s all those kinds of things that I think make you feel warm and safe.’

Ivan Ramen may be one of an estimated 80,000 ramen shops across the country, but one Tokyo food magazine ranked it among the top ten best noodle shops in the city this year.

Kaoru Nakamura, a regular at Ivan Ramen, says its Orkin’s skill that makes his shop stand out from the rest.

‘Ivan’s skill as a former French chef really shines since his ramen is presented in a beautiful way,’ he said.”

Awesome. Now I want a big bowl of (vegetable) ramen…

Arrright, here’s one for all you suckers at work right before Thanksgiving who are looking for a way to blow off work AND do something for charity! The good/bad karma balances out there somehow.

This website has a vocabulary and word game. For each answer you get right, Free Rice donates 20 grains of rice to help end world hunger.

“WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance”

Go forth and conquer/be charitable.

Hi everyone,

As you may have noticed, we’ve run into a few snags with the blog. But don’t worry, we’re pushing pens like crazy to make everything right again.

Thanks for your patience!

After dealing with the TSA, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to stay longer than necessary in any airport.

From China Daily:

“For reasons he can’t explain, the Japanese man has been in Terminal 1 of the Benito Juarez International Airport since Sept. 2, surviving off donations from fast-food restaurants and passengers and sleeping in a chair. At first, he frightened passengers, and airport authorities asked the Japanese Embassy to investigate why the foul-smelling man refused to leave. Now, he’s somewhat of a celebrity, capturing Mexico’s collective imagination with nearly daily television news reports on his life at the food court.

Tourists stop to pose with him for photographs or get an autograph.”

I don’t get it. I almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

I was expecting this collaboration to be super girly and way too sweet, but this actually looks promising.

From The Beauty Counter:

“MAC Cosmetics has teamed up with Sanrio Global Consumer Products to create a Hello Kitty collection. Now, this is a collection to meow about! This fabulous line will claw it’s way on MAC’s web-site on February 10th, in North American stores on February 12th, and into stores that are overseas sometime in March.”

Hopefully it won’t cause any cat-fights. Har har!

Continuing the perennial trend of escapism in Japan, the latest trend is to dress up like Ancien Régime aristocracy. Or Paris Hilton.

From The Wall Street Journal (no, really):
“TOKYO — When Mayumi Yamamoto goes out for coffee or window shopping, she likes to look as though she’s going to a formal garden party. One day recently, she was decked out in a frilly, rose-patterned dress, matching pink heels with a ribbon and a huge pink bow atop her long hair, dyed brown and in pre-Raphaelite curls.

Ms. Yamamoto is a hime gyaru, or princess girl, a growing new tribe of Japanese women who aim to look like sugarcoated, 21st-century versions of old-style European royalty. They idolize Marie Antoinette and Paris Hilton, for her baby-doll looks and princess lifestyle. They speak in soft, chirpy voices and flock to specialized boutiques with names like Jesus Diamante, which looks like a bedroom in a European chateau. There, some hime girls spend more than $1,000 for an outfit including a satin dress, parasol and rhinestone-studded handbag.”

I think I’d need insulin shots after visiting Jesus Diamante.