Video-sharing service Nico Nico Douga has a mesmerizing collection of 700 animated GIFs for use on their site. [Via Xorsyst]

These photographs of Japanese custom scooters come from bike shop galleries, auction sites, and Flickr. Follow the links for more images.

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Bikeshop Rodeo has killer photos of their mean machines.

Suzuki Skywave

Honda Forza

Suzuki Skywave

Honda Fusion

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Gull Craft transformed Honda Forzas into these retro-futuristic KYBELE cyber scooters, and their photo report shows how to make your own. (Via AutoblogGreen)

KYBELE Cyber Scooter

KYBELE Cyber Scooter

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Flickr user tokyo scooter stuff has thrown together an awesome collection of found photos of custom rides.

Suzuki Skywave

Suzuki Skywave

Yamaha Maxam 3000 Concept @ Tokyo Motor Show

Yamaha Maxam @ Tokyo Motor Show

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This Yamaha Maxam is for sale on Yahoo! Auctions. With only a few hours left as of this writing, the highest bid is 400,000 yen (under $4,000).

Yamaha Maxam

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From Alfa Auto:

Honda Forza

Yamaha Grand Majesty

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From Lotaus:

Suzuki Skywave

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From M-Style:

Suzuki Skywave

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The Japanese Scooters Flickr pool has lots of great photos, too. Not sure what these guys are riding, but it looks like fun.

Beat (Photo by gori-jp)

More outrageous modes of transportation:

- Dekotora photo galleries
- Extreme Japanese custom vans
- Dekochari art bikes

Omodaka, a creative project adopting a self-described “trial and error process of mutational fusion of music and motion graphics,” has a new video for chiptune disco track “Kyoteizinc,” which features the captivating computer-tweaked dance of Masako Yasumoto. (Watch it.)

The video is directed by Hiroshi Kizu. Omodaka is on Tokyo-based independent label Far East Recording.

Kintaro (a.k.a. “Golden Boy”), a popular child folk hero embodying strength and bravery, appears in statues, storybooks, anime, manga, noh, kabuki and candy. He was also the subject of numerous Edo-period woodblock prints.

Various legends say that Kintaro was raised by a Yamamba ogress in the mountains, where he learned to communicate with animals. In this Kuniyoshi print, Kintaro wears a dragon haramaki and referees a sumo match between a rabbit and a monkey, while an eerie blue demon and tengu look on.

Kintaro Referees Sumo Bout Between Rabbit & Monkey (Kuniyoshi, ca. 1830)

As a youngster, Kintaro developed superhuman strength that enabled him to crush boulders, fight monsters and demons, uproot trees, and defeat bears at sumo. In this Yoshitsuya print, Kintaro demonstrates his unparalleled fighting skills by overpowering a giant python. His trademark axe is pictured at the bottom.

Model Warrior of Japan: Kintaro (Yoshitsuya, 1856)

The next series of prints, also by Yoshitsuya, show Kintaro with monsters and animals at various times of the year.

Kintaro at New Year’s, Throwing Beans to Dispel Demons (Yoshitsuya, ca. 1840)

Kintaro in the Third Month, Refereeing Sumo between Rooster & Crow Tengu (Yoshitsuya, ca. 1840)

Kintaro in the Fifth Month, Riding a Carp (Yoshitsuya, ca. 1840)

Kintaro in the Ninth Month, Riding a Bull (Yoshitsuya, ca. 1840)

Kintaro appears to be based on a real person named Sakata no Kintoki, a powerful Heian-period (794 to 1185 AD) warrior whose legendary status has grown with time. This Kuniyoshi print shows the young warrior wrestling a giant carp under a waterfall.

Kintaro Struggles with Giant Carp (Kuniyoshi, ca. 1835)

Kintaro is closely associated with Children’s Day (May 5), when parents of young boys typically display Kintaro dolls — usually riding a large carp — in the hope that their kids grow up to be brave and strong.

[More: Kintaro (Wikipedia)]

JAXA has finally gotten around to releasing video of astronaut Takao Doi’s successful space boomerang toss conducted inside the International Space Station’s Harmony Module in March. (Watch it.)

[Source: JAXA via IT Media]

The Kaibo Zonshinzu anatomy scrolls, painted in 1819 by Kyoto-area physician Yasukazu Minagaki (1784-1825), consist of beautifully realistic, if not gruesome, depictions of scientific human dissection.

Unlike European anatomical drawings of the time, which tended to depict the corpse as a living thing devoid of pain (and often in some sort of Greek pose), these realistic illustrations show blood and other fluids leaking from subjects with ghastly facial expressions.

The fact that the bodies used in scientific autopsies in Edo-period Japan generally belonged to heinous criminals executed by decapitation adds to the grisly nature of the illustrations.

According to the Keio University Library (where these documents are currently stored), the two scrolls contain 83 illustrations based on Minagaki’s observations of over 40 bodies. They are regarded as the best collection of early 19th-century anatomical drawings by a Japanese hand.

The first scroll includes a handwritten compliment by Philip von Siebold, the German physician credited with being the first European to teach Western medicine in Japan, who was reportedly impressed by the quality of the drawings when he observed them in 1826.

Siebold’s note, in Dutch, reads: “This anatomical research has been carried out with great diligence and should therefore achieve great recognition.”

In 2003, Japan’s Ministry of Culture designated Kaibo Zonshinzu an important cultural property, saying that the scrolls, which were produced as a result of actual observation and based on Dutch scholarship, demonstrate the level of knowledge that medical science reached in the Edo period.

[Link: Kaibo Zonshinzu via Ectoplasmosis >> Morbid Anatomy >> Bibliodyssey]

New life has been breathed into Asia’s oldest “modern” robot, an 80-year-old golden-skinned humanoid from Osaka. Gakutensoku, a 3.2 meter (10 ft 6 in) tall automaton powered by compressed air, can tilt its head, move its eyes, smile, and puff up its cheeks and chest as instructed — just as it did 80 years ago — thanks to a 20-million-yen ($200,000) computer-controlled pneumatic servo system that replaces its original system of inflatable rubber tubes. (Watch video.)

Built in 1928 by biologist Makoto Nishimura, Gakutensoku was first exhibited in Kyoto as part of the formal celebration of the Showa Emperor’s ascension to the throne. The robot traveled to a number of expos and wowed onlookers with its mad calligraphy skills before going missing in Germany. After a long disappearance, Gakutensoku was located and later repatriated to Osaka.

The reanimated Gakutensoku will star as the main attraction at the newly renovated Osaka Science Museum beginning July 18.

[Source: Asahi]

NTT has begun selling a device that transmits data across the surface of the human body and lets users communicate with electronic devices simply by touching them, the company announced on April 23.

The new product, called “Firmo,” consists of a card-sized transmitter carried in the user’s pocket. The card converts stored data into a weak AC electric field that extends across the body, and when the user touches a device or object embedded with a compatible receiver, the electric field is converted back into a data signal that can be read by the device. For now, Firmo transfers data at 230kbps, but NTT is reportedly working on a low-cost 10Mbps version that can handle audio/video data transfers.

Firmo is based on NTT’s RedTacton human area network (HAN) technology, which is designed to allow convenient human-machine data exchange through natural physical contact — even through clothing, gloves and shoes.

NTT initially hopes this human area network technology will appeal to organizations looking to boost convenience and security in the office. Obvious applications include secure entrances and keyless cabinets that recognize employees when they touch the door handle (thus bypassing the need for card-swipers and keys), or secure printers that operate only when you touch them.

For now, a set of 5 card transmitters and 1 receiver goes for around 800,000 yen ($8,000), but NTT expects the price to come down when mass production begins.

[Source: RBB Today]

WABOT-2, an intelligent humanoid keyboard player developed by Waseda University in the 1980s, was considered the most advanced robot of its time. In addition to camera eyes that could read musical notation and deft hands that could tap out tunes of average difficulty, WABOT-2 could listen to accompanying singers and adjust its tempo, as well as carry on basic conversation. The android demonstrated its musical skills at Expo ‘85 in Tsukuba, Japan with a performance of Kitaro’s new age classic “Silk Road.” (Watch a clip.)

Built in order to develop the basic technology, strength and skills for robots of the 21st century, WABOT-2 was equipped with a hierarchical system of 80 microprocessors modeled after the human nervous system, and its arms and legs had 50 degrees of freedom — more than any other robot in existence at the time. Waseda University regards WABOT-2 as a landmark achievement in the evolution of personal robots.

[Video: The Computer Chronicles (1985 broadcast) - Parts 1, 2, 3]

Kage-e (”shadow pictures”) — a popular form of Edo-period woodblock print — were appreciated by children and adults and commonly used as party gags. These pictures consist of two parts: a “shadow” image and a “real” image. The shadow image, which typically bears the shape of a common, easily identifiable object, is viewed first. The real image, viewed second, reveals the surprising true identity of the shadow.

Here’s a nice example by ukiyoe master Kuniyoshi (ca. 1852). It shows what appear to be the silhouettes of goldfish…

But look again…

It’s a flying tanuki crushing a hunter under the weight of its mammoth testicles.

Here are a few more kage-e by Hiroshige (ca. 1842). The shadows cast on shoji doors belong to men in interesting poses.

Pine tree

Uguisu (Japanese bush warbler) on a plum branch

Salt-dried fish

Kettle

Hawk

Stone lantern

Goose on a rock

[Related: Joge-e: Two-way pictures]