Here are a couple of fun station IDs for Space Shower TV, Japan's largest cable/satellite music channel.
+ We love music, we love peace: Epic food label battle in the kitchen. Directed by Kouki Tange (Yellow Brain).
+ Guitar: Snapshot of family time in a curious household. Directed by Koichiro Tsujikawa.
While electronic books and texts may be the wave of the future, Japanese researchers have developed a literate, child-sized robot capable of reading old-fashioned paper-printed books.
Ninomiya-kun, a 1-meter-tall, 25-kilogram aluminum-framed robot developed at Waseda University's Information, Production and Systems Research Center (IPSRC), was unveiled on June 11 at a robot trade fair in Kitakyushu, where it entertained onlookers by reading fairy tales from a book.
+ Video
The robot, which was developed jointly with the Kitakyushu National College of Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, reads by training its camera eyes on printed materials placed on a special book stand. Character recognition software installed on a computer in the robot's backpack translates the text into spoken words, which are produced by a voice synthesizer.
Although Ninomiya-kun still sounds like a machine, the developers are working to give its voice more feeling. After that, they believe the robot will be ready to read books to children and the elderly for a living.
With the ability to recognize over 2,000 kanji, hiragana and katakana, Ninomiya-kun can currently read elementary texts. The developers say they plan to upgrade the machine's camera eyes to enable it to read more complex characters in the future.
Ninomiya-kun takes its name from Kinjiro Ninomiya, a popular 19th-century agricultural leader and philosopher who was born poor but became a great landowner through hard work and perseverance. Statues of Ninomiya typically show him reading a book while carrying a load of firewood on his back. The android shares Ninomiya's love of books, but it packs a computer on its back instead of wood.
"Unko-san," a new anime series about a brown turd-shaped fairy with lots of luck, is fast becoming the rage among high school girls in western Japan. Short episodes of the anime are now showing in the Osaka area on Kansai TV's "Otoemon" music program. The stories revolve around Unko-san -- whose name is a play on the Japanese words for "luck" (un) and "crap" (unko) -- and his quest for happiness on Lucky Island, which is populated by a host of other poo fairies.
[Link: Unko-san]
Casual clothing brand Uniqlo has created the most captivating web calendar ever, featuring a random assortment of time-lapse tilt-shift imagery from locations across Japan and charming background music by Fantastic Plastic Machine. Highly addictive.
[Link: Uniqlo Calendar]
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* Read -- UPDATE: Tadpole rain in Japan
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As rainy season approaches, Japan's Ishikawa prefecture has been receiving some unusual precipitation -- it's been raining tadpoles.
According to prefecture officials, tadpoles have reportedly fallen from the sky in two separate towns this month. Although it is not unheard of for waterspouts and strong wind to to pull small fish and animals from water and drop them on land, no foul weather has been observed in the area, leaving residents baffled.
The first reported case of anomalous tadpole rain occurred at about 4:30 PM on June 4 in the town of Nanao. After hearing a strange sound outside the Nakajima Civic Center, witnesses discovered approximately 100 dead tadpoles in a 300 square meter area in and around the parking lot. The tadpoles measured 2 to 3 centimeters long.
Tadpoles on car windshield outside Nakajima Civic Center
Dozens more tadpoles reportedly fell on the nearby town of Hakusan in the early morning hours of June 6, according to local officials. One 75-year-old resident described finding a handful of tadpoles on the hood of her car at around 7:00 AM. Others were found scattered in nearby yards and parking lots. A strange sound was reportedly heard in the middle of the night, even though no wind or rain was observed.
According to Kanazawa Meteorological Observatory officials, the two towns -- which are dotted with rice fields -- experienced stable weather during the period in question and the conditions were not favorable for the development of waterspouts.
"I've never seen anything like this before," said one meteorologist. "We have no idea what caused it."
[Source: Sankei]
UPDATE: Asahi is reporting that more freak animal rain may have fallen in Ishikawa prefecture, only this time it is fish.
Crucian carp believed to have fallen from the sky in Ishikawa prefecture
On the evening of June 9 in the town of Nakanoto located about 15 kilometers from Nanao (where it rained tadpoles on June 4), a number of small fish were found scattered over a residential area. About 10 fish recovered from roadsides and the tops of cars appear to be Crucian carp measuring 3 to 5 centimeters long.
The Chiba Lotte Marines might suck, but their game posters rule. Sighted at JR Kaihin-Makuhari station, these retro movie-style posters depict the home team heroes defending the city from attack by villainous monster opponents.
Marines vs. Giants
Marines vs. Swallows
Marines vs. Bay Stars
Marines vs. Dragons
Marines vs. Carp
Marines vs. Tigers
[Link]
Astronaut Koichi Wakata, who has been living aboard the International Space Station since mid-March, has carried out a series of offbeat space experiments proposed by the Japanese public.
+ Video
The experiments, which the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has dubbed "Try Zero-G," consist mainly of physical exercises and gymnastics (including calisthenics, push-ups, flips, twirls, cartwheels, overhead soccer kicks, and swimming). In addition, Wakata folds clothes, rides a ?magic carpet,? squirts water from a syringe, puts eyedrops in his eye, and attempts to propel himself through the room by flapping a fan. He also enlists the help of a fellow astronaut for some arm wrestling, hand-shaking, slap sumo, and tug of war.
[Soundtrack: "Seashell" by Skylab (from the "Skylab#1" CD)]
WAHHA GO GO, the latest nonsense machine by Tokyo-based multimedia art "company" Maywa Denki, is a manually operated device designed just for giggles. To activate the machine -- which looks like a skeletal humanoid with accordion-like lungs and a big toothy grin that takes up half its head -- simply spin the heavy metal disk mounted on its torso. WAHHA GO GO rears back its head, takes a deep breath, and exhales through artificial vocal cords to emit an uncanny laugh that invites you to laugh along with it (or at it).
+ Video
