The mecha version of the Nissan DUALIS SUV designed by anime creator/mecha designer Shoji Kawamori (Macross) has been spotted in Tokyo. The 3.5 meter tall machine will be on display at the Nissan Gallery (Ginza) from May 23 to June 13 and at the Sony Building (Ginza) from June 25 to July 1. Here are a few videos of the DUALIS Powered Suit in action around town.
At a parking garage:
At a service station:
[Via: IT Media]
The Ice Aquarium in the port city of Kessennuma in Miyagi prefecture looks like an interesting place to chill out. The frosty cold aquarium houses an arrangement of 40 large ice blocks containing 450 specimens (80 varieties) of local marine life -- including squid, crab, bonito and saury -- which are frozen in perpetual mid-swim.
The ambient lighting and sound inside the aquarium are designed to give visitors the sense that they are on the ocean floor, while the room temperature is kept at -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit). Heavy coats are available at the aquarium entrance.
The Ice Aquarium, which also features a display of Antarctic ice retrieved by a Japanese research vessel in 2002, is part of Umi No Ichi, a facility at Kessennuma Harbor that includes a giant fresh seafood market, a shark restaurant and a shark museum.
[Photos: Miwako No Kan]
KEIZOmachine! and Juicy -- together known as Hifana -- began as belly dance percussionists in the late '90s, but now they rely on electronics for their sample-heavy, scratchy hip-hop/breakbeat sound. They have some wild animated videos created by "hybrid" music label W+K Tokyo Lab.
Wamono -- From their "Channel H" CD+DVD, 2005
Fatbros -- From their "Fresh Push Breakin'" CD, 2003
This vintage live action/animated vampire video is the opening sequence for the pilot version of Vampire (Banpaiya), an old TV series created by Osamu Tezuka. Originally broadcast in Japan in the late '60s, the 26-part series centers around a vampire (looks like a werewolf) who comes from a vampire village to Tokyo and lands a job as an animator with Osamu Tezuka (who plays himself). Doubtless the freaky live action/animated style blew a few minds.
Shibuya Center Town
Ameyoko
Kabukicho
Ginza Chuo Dori
Ginza 4-chome Intersection
Hisaharu Motoda's "Neo-Ruins" series of lithographs depict the cityscape of a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, where familiar streets lie deserted, the buildings are crumbling and weeds grow from the broken pavement. The antique look of the lithographic medium effectively amps up the eeriness of the futuristic setting. "In Neo-Ruins I wanted to capture both a sense of the world's past and of the world's future," says Motoda on his website.
[Link: Hisaharu Motoda]
In the hope of inspiring more voters to head to the polls, lingerie maker Triumph International Japan has unveiled a new concept bra called the "Voter Turnout Lift-UP! Bra."
The silver, bustier-type bra is modeled after an aluminum ballot box, complete with lots of rivets and a pocket for holding ballots that have been cast. The kanji characters for "ballot box" are printed beneath the cups, which are heavily padded so that the wearer can also increase her bust size while doing her part to increase voter turnout.
The bottom consists of a wrap-around mini-skirt fashioned from paper ballots, which are made of a special type of plastic-coated paper resistant to the elements. A small pencil case also attaches to the waist.
According to Triumph's press release, voter turnout in Japan, which averaged 70% to 90% about 30 years ago, has fallen to between 10% and 30% in recent years. With voter apathy and a general aversion to politics worsening each year, the government has taken a variety of measures to encourage participation in the election process. Taking matters into their own hands, Triumph decided to focus attention on the problem by unveiling the Voter Turnout Lift-UP! Bra along with their fall/winter collection on May 9.
The bra comes too late for the elections held in Japan last month, but there is still plenty of time for the lingerie to work its magic on the Upper House elections coming in July. While Triumph does not plan to make the Voter Turnout Lift-UP! Bra commercially available, maybe they can work out some sort of deal with the election commission to provide the bras to their armies of nubile young poll workers. That'll surely boost turnout -- it works every time.
[Source: Nikkei Net]
Hakuhodo DY Group i-Business Center and IT DeSign have developed "movie QR code," a type of QR code that incorporates moving video into the design.
QR code is a type of two-dimensional barcode that has grown popular in Japan in recent years, because it provides a simple, automated way for users to enter data into their mobile phones. By using mobile phones to scan QR code that appears in an outdoor advertisement, for example, users may be directed to a website containing more detailed product information.
To personalize the appearance of printed QR code, which looks like a chaotic arrangement of tiny black and white squares, IT DeSign recently developed "Design QR," which incorporates static images of logos, characters or photos into the code. Movie QR code takes this concept a step further by incorporating moving images into the design, thus optimizing it for use on video screens, where it promises to be more effective in attracting the attention of potential scanners. Seriously, how will anyone be able to resist scanning a bit of on-screen QR code if, for example, it contains a cute, bug-eyed critter that literally begs you to scan it?
Movie QR code works just like standard QR code -- any user armed with a reader-equipped cellphone can scan it.
On May 21, the companies plan to launch a new type of advertising service built around the use of movie QR code. Details of the service will be announced soon.
Interestingly, a commercial video containing QR movie code has been circulating the web for a while. The video, called "Kung Fu High School Girls" (Kanfuu Joshi-kousei), begins with two high school girls talking about Black Jack (the famous manga character), who they both think is cool. Things quickly turn ugly when the girls disagree about whether Black Jack is a foreigner or Japanese, and a full-on kung fu battle ensues. After a while, a boy wearing a giant QR code headpiece arrives on his bicycle and urges the girls to stop. By scanning his face, he explains, they can find the answer to their question and settle their dispute. (This is a cue for the viewer to scan the computer screen with a cellphone QR code reader.)
Scanning the movie QR code takes you to http://aniful.jp/pr/ (which appears to be accessible only by keitai), where there is a link to another video that contains the answer. For some reason, the Pink Tentacle keitai is having problems downloading that video, so we may never know the truth. Is Black Jack Japanese? Or a foreigner?
[Sources: IT Media, "Kung Fu High School Girl" video (non-YouTube version)]
What happens when you combine chinsukou (a traditional Okinawan cookie made from flour and lots of lard) with chinko (slang for male genitalia)? You get chinkosukou, a phallus-shaped fertility cookie, of course.
The chinkosukou website, which promotes the cookies as a solution to Japan's shrinking population woes, is selling boxes of 15 cookies for 500 yen ($4) each. Shipping appears to be limited to Japan, though, so you may have to ask your buddies in Japan to buy them for you.
The commercial video features words of praise from satisfied customers Roman Chimpolanski (film director), TINKO (talento) and Taro Kodakusan (NEET), as well as from The Fertility Times, which hails chinkosukou as the front-runner for this year's Golden Ball Award.
[Link: Chinkosukou]
Robots can get away with things that humans cannot. In the Minami area of Osaka, for example, a humanoid robot dressed in a "sailor suit" high school uniform now works the street as a tout for an adult information center that navigates potential customers to local sex clubs. Humans in Osaka are prohibited by law from engaging in such nefarious activity.
Since 2005, Osaka law has banned sex club touts from soliciting business on the street. The law also applies to the staff of adult information centers, which guide customers to local establishments such as love hotels, fashion-health massage parlors, cabaret clubs and image clubs. There are 175 of these adult information centers in Osaka prefecture -- more than in any other prefecture in Japan.
But despite the law change, touts have remained on the streets, albeit with slight changes in behavior. Instead of relying on their voice to solicit customers, the touts began to work the streets in silence, using gestures and holding up bright yellow "Ask me!" (Ore ni kike!) signs. Some businesses also made "Ask me!" jackets for their staff. In this way, solicitors have been able to skirt the law by letting potential customers do the approaching.
However, at the end of last month, Osaka law enforcement ordered all sex industry touts to stop carrying signs.
The response this time? Hire a robot to carry the sign. At least, that's what one adult information center has done. The human-sized robo-tout, who used to direct traffic around construction sites, underwent a 500,000 yen ($4,000) upgrade for its new job, which is to attract the attention of passersby by periodically raising and lowering a banner that reads "Ask me!"
The droid's employer foresees no run-ins with the law. "It's a robot, so no problem," says a spokesperson for the information center.
